October 30, 2009
Kuwait's top court has decided that two women lawmakers are not required to wear an Islamic head cover, the official KUNA news agency reported on Wednesday.
by Eman Goma , Thursday, 29 October 2009
An Islamist voter had sought to force parliament members Aseel al-Awadhi and Rola Dashti to cover the heads, citing the Islamic holy book the Koran. Several male MPs had also protested.
“This is not just a victory for myself and my colleague Rola, but a victory for the constitution. Wearing the veil or not does not have an effect on our performance and dedication to serving citizens who elected us,” Awadhi told Reuters.
Women in the Gulf Arab state are not obliged by law to wear head covers although many do. The case was based on an article in election laws that say women candidates and voters should abide by Islam in general terms.
Women in Kuwait, the only Gulf Arab state with a parliament that has full legislative powers, won the right to vote and run in public elections in 2005 but women entered parliament through ballots only this year.
Earlier this month, the Islamic Affairs Ministry issued a non-binding religious opinion advising women politicians to abide by the Islamic dress code.
October 26, 2009
Efforts to fight violence against women part of many U.S. aid programs
from America.Gov, by Jane Morse
A man in Guatemala lights one of many candles commemorating International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in 2008.
Washington – In Africa, violence against women is especially serious, and nowhere is it more horrific than in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where fighting between factions has subjected women to unprecedented savagery — some 1,100 rapes are reported each month.
During an interview with Radio Okapi in Kinshasa August 10, Clinton condemned sexual violence in any context — as a tool of war or in a domestic setting. “There has to be strong prosecution and law enforcement and judiciary action to make it clear that this is unacceptable, that there is no excuse for it,” she said. Clinton also announced that the United States will provide $17 million to help survivors of sexual violence in the DRC.
ANTI-GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE PROGRAMS INTEGRATED INTO MANY U.S. AID PROGRAMS
The U.S. government, for more than three decades, increasingly has recognized violence against women as a human rights problem with far-reaching consequences. But a report released in 2008 by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) — the public policy research arm of the U.S. Congress — found that there was no U.S. governmentwide coordination of efforts to combat violence against women. The Obama administration, however, has sought to institute leadership and coordination by appointing Melanne Verveer, a longtime advocate of women’s rights and human rights, as the first U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues. (more…)
October 7, 2009
By Kevin Winge, Executive Director, Open Arms of Minnesota
October 5, 2009
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, Nicholas Kristof, won’t be talking about my friend Nonkululeko when he addresses the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis this week. Although he has never met Nonkululeko, nor her daughter or granddaughter, Mr. Kristof is very familiar with the life stories like those of these three generations of South African women. His columns in the New York Times and his new book, with co-author Sheryl WuDunn, “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” resonates with what I have seen in my work with people with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.
Nonkululeko is the granny of this one South African family that I have gotten to know so well. She rarely talks about the day in the 1960s when her family was removed from their home near Cape Town and resettled to a black township. The national policy of apartheid ensured that Nonkululeko would not receive an education, nor would she have access to any kind of a job that might propel her family out of poverty. Nonkululeko’s daughter, Thandi, would come of age later in a democratic South Africa; but patriarchal systems made it difficult for Thandi to negotiate safe sexual practices with her partner. It wasn’t long before she tested positive for HIV. Like her mother, Thandi also gave birth to a daughter – Thembisa. Thembisa, born HIV-negative, was a healthy, normal girl until, at the age of eight, she was raped by a neighbor. (more…)
