leadership

Somali women have been facing formidable challenges and complain about marginalization in politics but they in turn played a pivotal role in securing peace deals between warring forces on the ground. Among the stumbling blocks are cultural and strict religious beliefs, lack of distant goal, psychological backwardness, rape and domestic violence.  

Following Somali state collapse in 1991, women braced up for arduous tasks by putting their lives on the frontline to make urgently pressing priorities possible and shape their own destinies.

Photo-Andrew Stocks/The Guardian

Do you ever hear men described as ‘hysterical’? Do people say they ‘whine’ or ‘nag’? Thought not. Here are eight sexist words we’d like to never hear from again

Photo-I ama Huam Society

Reinforcing the political participation of women with disabilities is the goal of a new initiative launched by the "I am a Human Society", which advocates for the rights of people with disabilities.

The "I am a Woman... Half of Society" initiative began at the end of July in collaboration with the Stars of Hope foundation (Nujoom al-Amal) in Jordan and partners including ministries, organisations, women's unions and the Higher Council for Affairs of Persons with Disabilities.

The recent upheaval in Selangor over the post of Menteri Besar (MB) has suddenly led the country to a situation where we might soon be witnessing a major breakthrough for women in politics.

Over the years we have seen women slowly occupy positions in the political arena. Data from the Ministry for Women, Family and Community Development shows that in 2013 women made up only 13.1% of local councillors, 28.8% of senators, 11.3% state legislative assembly members, 10.4% members of parliament and 12.3% of cabinet ministers and deputy ministers.

Photo-stephaniechang.com

When Stephanie Chang began knocking on doors in and around Detroit in pursuit of a statehouse seat in the Michigan legislature, the most common question she received didn’t have anything to do with her policy positions or her decade of experience as a community organizer.

“How old are you, anyways?” voters asked. Chang is 30, but admits to looking a more youthful 20.

Photo-AFP

Some accused it of being predictable and even boring - a presidential election in which the incumbent was all but guaranteed of being re-elected without, perhaps, even the need for a second round of voting.

But then tragedy intervened and changed everything.

We simply do not know what kind of president Eduardo Campos, the presidential candidate for Brazil's Socialist Party who was killed in a plane crash last week, would have been.

AP Photo/Andre Penner, Felipe Dana

Photo-Santiago Navarro F.

The emigration of men to the United States threatens indigenous systems of governance in Mexico. When men leave, the weight of activities in small towns falls on women, but despite this women are still fighting for space in the political arena.

Rebecca Naden/PA Wire

When we talk about “gender quotas”, what we really mean is quotas for women. We see the under-representation of women as the problem that needs fixing. So we try to explain why there aren’t more women in politics, then look at measures to boost women’s representation.