The engagement of women as suicide bombers in the Taliban insurgency manifests fresh directions in the approaches and ideologies of those who are behind it. Counterinsurgency measures need to pay attention to the factors that drive women and girls to join the Taliban as suicide bombers, says Masso
What happened to the largest pot of money ever made available for advancing gender equality and human rights? Srilatha Batliwala reports on the results of AWID's aggregate analysis of the impact of the MDG 3 Fund.
Among all the social movements of the past century, the struggle for women’s rights and gender equality has been the most transformative in terms of the deep tectonic shifts it has created in the social terrain, yet skepticism about the value of funding women's rights work persists
Recent controversies over women's sexuality, abortion and reproductive rights in Turkey reveal unacceptable violations of women’s sexual privacy by male politicians, says Sertaç Sehlikoglu
Internationally, the reciprocal links between HIV and gender based violence are well documented. Yet in the UK NHS guidelines about violence against women do not contain any reference to HIV. Today marks the launch of a report by the Sophia Forum calling for a national investigation
Last week saw the lifting of the ban on women in combat in the US military. How will this change the dynamics within and perceptions of the American military, and will it help reduce the current epidemic levels of sexual harassment and sexual assault within the armed forces?
A century and a half after the Declaration of Sentiments and Rights, President Obama’s nod to Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall is important to the politics of equality, a potent reminder that, contrary to a view that was gaining ground in recent years, the fight for equality in late capitalist co
Human rights instruments have enabled women’s movements to access a normative and analytic framework for fighting discrimination, and rights discourses have been deployed to legitimise women’s demands for social and economic rights, political representation and well-being. Maxine Molyneux spoke to
Putting episodes of post-Arab spring violence against women down to a routine manifestation of patriarchy and its allied misogyny in the societies concerned may unwittingly shield power-holders from more searching scrutiny. What is at stake is no longer just women and their bodies but the body pol
Fears that Egypt’s constitution will be used to inhibit freedoms and enhance the powers of the Islamists in power have already proven to be well founded. The new constitution makes the entire governance system subject to the strictures of Islamic jurisprudence, argues Mariz Tadros
The Tehreeq e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) launched an effective and violent campaign against polio vaccination during their occupation of Swat. Apologists insist that this violence be viewed in the context of the 'war on terror', but refuse to engage with the connection, merger and impunity that the TT
The appointment of two Somali women in key ministerial posts must not mask the massive day to day persecution of women in Somalia, says Hala al-Karib
