Participation

The Indo-American Community Services organization hosted the South Asian Women's Conference at the Chicago Marriott Oak Brook, 1401 West 22nd Street, Oak Brook, IL on April 17th, 2011. The conference was extremely beneficial to all who attended as the conference was filled with great discussions, workshops, speeches, personal stories.

Women in Saudi Arabia showed a great deal of tenacity recently at municipal voting centers where they showed up to register for their right to vote. But they were largely disappointed because female names are not yet listed in the electoral system. Nevertheless, they seem to be stepping up efforts to gain adult franchise for women in all walks of Saudi society.

In office for nearly a year now, Serbia's Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Nevena Petrusic has been deluged with issues.

In an exclusive interview with SETimes correspondent Igor Jovanovic, Petrusic, former dean of the Nis Law School, says forms of discrimination are deeply rooted in the community and that changing ways of thinking won't be easy.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said the upcoming fiscal budget will have special focus on women's economic empowerment.

He said the government is actively considering giving special focus on gender budget as it has received enthusiasm in all related ministries and earned some significant successes.

In 2000, when the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1325, there was reason to hope that women would finally be at the table in countries where major decisions were being made following political crises.

Following their bilateral meeting in Washington, DC, on April 21, 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal issued the following joint statement:

Let it not be said that those wags at the United Nations don't have a sense of humour. Given the task of finding an office for its new women's rights body, the premises managers found some space in the iconic Daily News building – otherwise known as the home of Superman.

In a small room in Benghazi some young men and women are putting out a new opposition newspaper. "The role of the female in Libya," reads one headline. "She is the Muslim, the mother, the soldier, the protester, the journalist, the volunteer, the citizen", it adds.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh has met with tens of thousands of women from different governorates who expressed support for constitutional legitimacy, security, stability and preservation of the country's unity, principals, interests and future generations.

Last month, Sandra Torres announced that she was divorcing her husband, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, in order to run for the presidency herself. “I am getting a divorce from my husband, but I am getting married to the people,” she told reporters. The Guatemalan constitution bans the president's relatives from running for office.