Violence Against Women in Politics

Gul Bano* and Karima* are activists who ran provincial branches of the ministry of women’s affairs in two different parts of Afghanistan. Their former offices have been taken over by the Taliban’s feared enforcers, the ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice.

They are now in hiding, afraid of the men they helped put in prison for domestic violence and other abuses, many of them in the Taliban or with family links to the militants.

Cheri Beasley is well aware of the challenges facing Black women who run for statewide office. “I know what it's like to hear the doubters and those who are skeptical that people of color can't win, because it's not what we're used to or who we envision in positions of power,” she said in an interview with NBC News.

The former judge has made two successful runs for statewide judicial positions, and this year she is running for North Carolina’s open Senate seat, joining a cohort of Black women looking to make history.

A politician has called for an end to the insults that women receive on social media when they enter the political spotlight.

Kahina Bouhassane received a deluge of abuse on social media when she stood as the Green Party’s candidate for Sussex police and crime commissioner. The 23-year-old deputy chair of Brighton and Hove Green Party decided to speak out about the comments as she wants to more women to take part in political life.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of only five countries in the world that have no female members of Parliament (alongside Yemen, Qatar, Micronesia, Vanuatu) and is below the global average of 23% female representation in Parliament.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, PNG, for the first time in 25 years (since the 1992 election), no females will make up the 111 - member Parliament - despite more female candidates being nominated for elections in 2017 than ever before; 167 of 3,332 were female candidates.

Zimbabwe is scheduled to hold elections in 18 months’ time, but women are reluctant to have their faces appear on ballot papers.

Women here know only too well that in politics, sticks and stones literally break bones, and name-calling is part of the gladiatorial politics in a country where each election cycle is greeted with violence. From party primaries to national elections, the violent nature of the contests is the history of Zimbabwe, with little being done to provide safe spaces for women candidates.

A gender-based group, Njikoka Women Association, NWA, in Ezimo, Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State, yesterday, identified media sexism as bane of women participation in politics.

The Association which bemoaned the derogatory stereotyping of women in political participation in Nigeria, called for a review of media messages on women in politics in order to correct the stigma against female politicians in the country.