Participation

The 9th Choice Women First 5Km run organized by Great Ethiopian Run will be held on Sunday March 11, 2012. The event is committed to empowering women and has grown from 5,000 participants to 9,000 in the past eight years. The event which is sponsored by various organizations including Choice, Plan International, Irish Aid, Concern and many others has become a popular annual women's festival in Ethiopia.

Would the world be better off with more women at the helm? A recent book by Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, quoted by Prof. Joseph S. Nye in Project Syndicate, concludes that the answer is definitely yes.

The news of the day was that Democratic representatives walked out of a hearing on “religious liberty and birth control.” Republicans had blocked the testimony of a woman who wanted to speak in favor of the Obama administration's compromise on birth control. But the Republicans allowed representatives, men, from conservative religious organizations to testify.

In the 1970s and 1980s, one of the main arguments against ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution would lead to women assuming combat roles during war.

Whatever role the argument served in defeat of ERA, the military service debate has become moot, if the results of a Rasmussen Poll released Monday are accurate.

Magdalena Ehisa Tito, an elegant and extremely polite woman welcomed us into her home. The 52 year- old, the only traditional chief in the whole of South Sudan has become a role model for the women of Torit, Eastern Equatoria State. Chief Magdalena was born on November 25, 1959 in Torit and she went primary school at the age of 10 years.

As Somalia's transitional government and various stakeholders meet Wednesday to discuss the inclusion of the country's clans in the new government, women politicians have called for a greater role in the leadership of this East African nation.

In Egypt, Jeffrey Fleishman profiles Bothaina Kamel, the only female candidate for president in a country where the feminist agenda has been stalled. "I want to create culture shock," she says.

A woman in power is rare in Egypt: Less than 1% of assembly members are women.The Egyptian military abolished a quota system that had ensured more women were represented.

MARY FITZGERALD

The Irish Times

When Reporters Sans Frontières last year advised media outlets against sending women journalists to Egypt because of the risk of assault, reaction was swift – and outraged.

Women's Action Forum (WAF), the vanguard of women's rights in Pakistan, Sunday demanded the government to resolve the Balochistan issue in accordance with aspirations and rights of the people of Balochistan.

It has been one year since a wave of political change set Egypt on a challenging but promising path to reform. Yet, while women played a crucial role in bringing the transition about, many feel that they are yet to fully benefit from it.