Egypt's National Council for Women will start a training program to enhance women's political participation in the country's upcoming parliamentary elections.

The program, which starts in November, aims to prepare over 1000 female politicians and activists to run for parliament, teaching them leadership skills and educating them on parliament, campaigns and crisis and time management.

Read more at All Africa, published 24 October 2012.

Guam Congresswoman Bordallo spoke at the official opening ceremony for 20th Convention of the Federation of Asia-Pacific Women’s Association [FAWA].

Guam is hosting this year's FAWA Convention for the 5th time. It is taking place this weekend at the Hyatt. 

Over 110 off-island delegates and over 100 Guam delegates are in attendance.

INCREASING representation for women in parliament is important, but the legislative body should also mold its codes, ethics and practices to truly ensure equitable treatment of women, the Speaker of the National Assembly of Tanzania, Ms Anna Makinda, has said.

Mrs Vivian Kakie Tetteh, Progressive People’s Party (PPP) Parliamentary Candidate for Sunyani East, has observed that threats and frustrations from activists of other political parties are the challenges that prevent women from participating in politics.

Osun State Government has assured women in the state of its readiness to create a conducive atmosphere to allow them take active role in politics.

Egypt's national body for women's issues, the National Council for Women, held a conference on Monday entitled "Egyptian women reject the draft constitution."

According to the Council's head, Mervat El-Tellawy, the draft constitution has not taken into consideration various international charters and agreements which Egypt has signed. Furthermore, the Al-Azhar document of suggested principles for all parties to abide by while writing the constitution has not been incorporated into the draft.

Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia described the fatwa issued by the Scientific Council of the Ibadi Confession in Ghardaia forbidding the nomination of women in local elections in the province as an “internal fatwa that concerns a particular community.''

Brazilians will return to the polls next week less than a month after voters elected a record number of women as mayors, but gender equality is still a distant goal in a political culture long dominated by men.

Only one female candidate will participate in the 50-city mayor run-offs on 28 October, which means Brazil will continue to lag behind most other Latin American states in terms of the gender balance among elected officials.

The elections are seen as a test of stability 10 years after its civil war, with no women standing for president despite a push to register more female candidates.

"All presidential candidates nominated by nine out of the 10 officially recognised political parties are 100% male, and of the nine vice-presidential candidates, five are males," chief electoral commissioner Christiana Thorpe told journalists.

All-China Women’s Federation ( ACWF) Vice President Meng Xiaosi said Thursday that Chinese women would be more than happy to join hand with women of East Asia countries to promote gender equality and environmental sustainability.

Meng made the statement during the ongoing fourth meeting of the ASEAN plus Three Committee on Women (ACW+3) held in Lao capital Vientiane.