News Library

Nearly two years after the start of uprisings across the Arab world, Arab women are confronting the reality that toppling dictators was only the beginning of their fight for freedom and equality.

Margarita Lopez begins to speak about the horrible events that marked the end of her daughter's life in a low, even tone. Some 40 women in a plush Washington, D.C. meeting room listen silently as tears roll down their cheeks. Lopez narrates how her 19-year-old daughter, Jahaira Guadalupe Vaena Lopez, was abducted in Tlacolula, Oaxaca. She describes her efforts to get the authorities to investigate the crime, how she was warned not to press the matter, how informants told her that her daughter was murdered in a turf battle between fractured drug gangs. Just days before leaving for the United States with the Caravan for Peace, she faced one of the assassins who had been apprehended and listened as he described in detail how her daughter was raped and beheaded

Women are running for congress in record numbers this year. Now that all candidates have been nominated for the November 6th elections, 18 women are running for Senate (the previous record was set in 2010 at 14), and 163 women are running for House seats (more than the 2004 record of 141)

While a lot of important news has been coming out of the United Nations General Assembly lately, there is one story that may not make the front pages, but should be at the front of our minds: the health of women and children around the world.

Last month saw two major stories involving sexual abuse in the headlines of Nicaraguan newspapers. First came the account of a mentally and physically disabled 12-year-old girl allegedly raped by four policemen and a security guard 30 meters from the presidential compound in the capital. Three policemen were arrested, but not the guard, who local media reported works for a company with political ties to a top Sandinista leader.

Kong Touch was on her way to work at a rubber plantation in Cambodia's Kampong Cham province at 4 a.m. when she heard footsteps behind her. As she turned, a fellow villager with whom she had had a dispute over rubber trees threw acid at her, burning her face, arms, head, chest and stomach.

Nearly two years after the start of Arab Spring uprisings, Arab women are facing the reality that toppling dictators was only the beginning of their fight for freedom and equality. Barbara Slavin reports from a recent conference, during which a group of young Arab women activists discussed and debated these challenges.

A BANKER in New York aims a vase at his wife. She ducks and is not hit. She calls the police. The husband is arrested and spends five years in prison after a court trial. A police officer in Karachi beats up his wife at the slightest provocation. She is badly bruised but has no way of seeking relief. This is a story heard in every third household in Pakistan.

Liberian women have re-echoed their call for robust steps to be taken by the government, especially the judiciary, to end sexual and Gender based violence (SGBV) against them. They re-echoed the call at the Women, Peace, and Security forum recently organized in Gbarnga, Bong County by the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

Women often suffer the most in times of conflict, but they are rarely represented in peace negotiations. In fact, no woman has ever been the lead negotiator in U.N.-sponsored peace talks, a situation the United Nations is now seeking to redress through a unique training programme.