Participation

Political parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo are struggling to recruit women into their ranks to run for parliament, despite a legal requirement to do so and a belief that greater numbers of female parliamentarians are critical to advancing women's rights.

Women are particularly good at building peace and creating social change. On August 9, 1956, 20 000 women marched on the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against proposed amendments to the Urban Areas Act of 1950 – the infamous apartheid-era “pass laws” that sought to restrict where people could live and work on the basis of race.

At this week's conference on Libya in Paris, the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) and the international community talk about "inclusiveness" in the new country's future. It seems strange, then, that half of the population - women - seem to be excluded from the discussions on the future of their country.

Pacific leaders have made a commitment to increasing the numbers of woman parliamentarians, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said yesterday. Many Pacific countries do not have any female MPs, let alone women in positions of leadership. Many of the countries are with Middle East countries at the bottom of tables compiled by the Inter Parliamentary Union.

More policies and programmes must address the needs of female-headed households in Sri Lanka's former conflict zone, experts say. "Most programmes don't take into account the unique role of women here," Saroja Sivachandran, director of the Center for Women and Development (CWD), an advocacy body based in northern Jaffna, told IRIN.

At the start of the summer, Israel's social protest movement looked like it would represent a real turning point for women in the public sphere. The face of the movement was indisputably female. The story began when a young filmmaker, 25-year-old Daphne Leef, pitched a tent in downtown Tel Aviv to protest the lack of affordable housing.

Insherah Jernazi adheres to such a strict interpretation of Islamic modesty that she never leaves home without covering herself in a long black robe. Her veil leaves only a narrow opening for her eyes. She wears black gloves to avoid even accidental contact with a man who is not a relative.“He wanted me to leave the city,” she said. “I refused. I wanted to help the revolution.”

“Necessity is the mother of Invention” is a well proven fact; similar has been the case with the women of Kashmir. The armed conflict has imposed on them new, alien roles, which they have readily accepted and are fulfilling the responsibilities of the same.

Aisha Gdour, a school psychologist, smuggled bullets in her brown leather handbag. Fatima Bredan, a hairdresser, tended wounded rebels. Hweida Shibadi, a family lawyer, helped NATO find airstrike targets.

No matter how progressive laws to promote equality between men and women may be, without budgets with a gender perspective that allocate resources differentially, inequality will persist in Latin America.