There is growing recognition by the international community that women human rights defenders are best placed to respond to violence against women and a crucial force for peace; but the international protection framework needs to be made more accessible to those in need.
Resistance to viewing women as a homogenous block can all too often provide politicians with an excuse to ignore women altogether. Women hold half the electorate’s voting power: which party will be brave enough to reach out for their vote at the next General Election?
Returning to Bosnia-Herzegovina after 17 years, Cynthia Cockburn finds Bosnian women criticizing their country's nationalist political culture. Longing for civil 'normality', they hark back to the former Yugoslavia and look forward to membership of the European Union, despite the imperfections of
Religion is back in public space, and the thesis that modernization means the privatization of religion has been seriously questioned. Some religious and feminist dogmas need re-examination. What do ‘secular’ or ‘religious’ or ‘feminist’ mean in today’s contexts?
The Australian Prime Minister's recent speech about “repulsive double standards on misogyny and sexism” in the House of Representatives has recast the debate about gender prejudice in politics. Even if most its arch-custodians didn't notice, says Zoe Holman.
Democracy can only win the global struggle for ascendancy if women rise too. Marion Bowman reports on a London conference on gender and politics attended by politicians – mainly women - from around the world.
This year in Chad only 9% of students passed their high school leaving exams. Reorganising these exams is not the solution. We need to re-examine the whole education system, encouraging all those involved to wake up and take stock, says Kagbe Rachel.
In a response to openDemocracy's 'Citizenship after Orientalism' series, Rahila Gupta says there's no need to ditch values such as secularism and modernity - just point out that they’re not associated wholly with the West. This, she argues, would be the appropriate response to orientalism
The actions of Code Pink may be a natural consequence of the endorsement by many on the left and amongst feminists of multicultural values. Indeed, it may also, and more insidiously, be a consequence of some recent initiatives on the part of the UN, says Alison Assiter.
Meredith Tax responds to Rebecca Johnson and Pam Bailey: a movement must ensure that its short term tactical aims and alliances do not contradict its long term strategy.
The Tunisian experience with state feminism is a model to draw lessons from, especially for the Arab-Muslim countries whether governed by liberal autocratic regimes or Islamist regimes: whenever the regime talks in favour of women, read between the lines.
