The death of Savita Halappanavar lifted the lid on the church, the state, and women's reproductive rights in the Republic of Ireland, and has been the catalyst for the new legislation on the rights of pregnant women proposed last week.

The way in which gender figures in the picture of anti-immigrant sentiment is rarely discussed, yet anti-immigrant sentiment, wherever it is found, represents a rejection of ‘feminized’ populations and a concern with a national illusion that is distinctly masculine, says Nikandre Kopcke.

The Prevent strategy in the UK has not worked. Prevent 2.0 needs a fundamental rethink if the mistakes of the past are to be avoided. The old faith-based  policy foundations must be broadened to include secular and frontline experts, and “moderate” religious leaders must be scrutinized more closely, says Yasmin Rehman

Breaking the mould of uncritical US media reporting on Israel-Palestine, a recent broadcast by This American Life draws attention to the routinised disruption of Palestinian lives as central to domination under occupation, but fails to pick up on a gender perspective which sheds critical light on power, says Katherine Natanel  

Patriarchy, militarism and neoliberalism have created a matrix in which women and women’s rights can never flourish because none of them place human values and human dignity at their core. Heather McRobie reflects on the conversations at the Nobel Women's Initiative conference in Belfast.

As men we have to recognize that our gender is more prone to violence and most sorts of crime. But does this mean we are unchangeably so? Personal experience, critical thinking and collective action can present a more optimistic picture, says Richard Johnson. 

Where the female body - through its societal projections in media, art, politics and religion - has always formed the first port of women's oppression, it is necessary to consider whether attempts to reclaim it through topless protests in the public arena are more likely to defy or to reify existing, repressive paradigms, says Zoe Holman

Unaccompanied minors best illustrate the need and mechanisms for true comprehensive immigration reform yet the proposed bill does little for this highly vulnerable, fastest growing subset of migrants to the US, says Elizabeth Kennedy.

The lack of institutional concern for epidemic levels of sexual harassment and assault in Egypt is part of the larger neglect of the issue of gender equality by the post-revolutionary powers.  Journalist and activist Hania Moheeb spoke out at the Nobel Women’s Initiative conference in Belfast