"We want to be included. We are still invisible in the process of consultation. We are the key stakeholders. Inequality is part of discrimination. We want inequality to be included in the goals"- Jhocas Castillo, community organiser in Manila. Valeria Costa-Kostritsky reports from the UN CSW
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
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
Back from Paris where she has been interviewing prostitutes, politicians, police, and feminists who argue both for and against legalising prostitution, Valeria Costa-Kostritsky asks whether legalising it would benefit both those who want to leave prostitution, and those who feel it is their only w
Day-to-day, Chadian women are beaten, humiliated and crushed beneath the weight of traditions. However, women were not predestined to be their husbands’ punch-bags, says Kagbe Rachel. Chadian women must be treated with dignity and respect.
Quotidiennement les femmes tchadiennes sont battues, humiliées et écrasées sous le poids de traditions. Pourtant la femme n’était pas prédestinée à être le sac de frappe de son mari. Il faut que la femme tchadienne soit traitée avec dignité et respect, dit Kagbe Rachel.
The problem with the use of 'zero tolerance' in public discourse is that it makes for good populist politics and rhetoric which generally translates into regressive and ill-informed public policy, especially in the area of criminal justice, says Vijay Nagaraj.
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
