Participation

"I, a girl, am going down to Tahrir Square and I will stand alone." With these words, Asmaa Mahfouz put out a call on YouTube that went viral, helping to ignite Egypt's revolution. A 26-year-old business management graduate, Mahfouz helped rally Egyptians for the initial Jan. 25 protest, to "say no to corruption, no to this regime." But Mahfouz's activism had its roots in another protest led by another woman.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
The Institute for Inclusive Security's Training of Trainers
May 20-28, 2011
Amman, Jordan

THOUSANDS of men blocked the road, surrounding the S.U.V. of the chief justice of Pakistan, a national hero for standing up to military rule. As a correspondent for The Chicago Tribune, I knew I couldn't just watch from behind a car window. I had to get out there.

For a few brief days during the Egyptian uprising, women felt relatively safe on the streets of Egypt where sexual street harassment has, for many years, been a problem of epidemic proportions.

In 2011, Ban Ki-moon begins the fifth year of his five-year term as United Nations secretary-general, and a discussion will begin about a possible extension of his term or a possible successor for him.

U.N. member states should appoint a woman to be the next secretary-general starting in January 2012.

I am in Zamboanga City for the 2nd National Conference of Muslim Women Peace Advocates with the theme "Noorus Salam: From Vision to Action, From Conflict to Peace" (February 7-10, Garden Orchid Hotel).

"The agenda for women's rights and empowerment in each country must be supported by the political leadership," says Norah Matovu-Winyi, Executive Director, African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET).

Sri Lanka has very commendable human development indicators for women, which include high literacy rates and exceptional educational achievements. However, despite almost 70 years of female franchise and the election of the world's first woman Prime Minister, the country lags far behind most of the developing world with regard to women's representation in political institutions at local, provincial and national level.

Dear Madam Michelle Bachelet,
Congratulations Madam Michelle, you are now our UN Under –Secretary-General

That the barriers which prevent the activation of women's participation are many and complex and vary from one country to another and according to the circumstances social, cultural, political and economic.

This is a homage to all those women out there fighting on the streets of Egypt, to those whose voices and faces were hidden from the public eye during the first days of the revolution! The album by now has traveled the world back and forth via online social networks, blogs and websites.

First and foremost the credit for this album goes to the courageous people of Egypt who are teaching us that freedom is taken and not given.