Participation

When Odette Kayirere lost her husband in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, she felt angry and hopeless. But she stepped beyond her grief to work with her fellow widows, first to make a better life for herself and her children and then to help form an organisation for 4,000 women.

The new decade begins with the election of another woman president. Dilma Rousseff, the Labor Party's candidate, won the presidential elections in Brazil with 56 percent of the votes. Similarly, Laura Chinchilla, candidate for the Partido Liberación Nacional, won the presidential race in Costa Rica with 47 percent of the vote. In Chile, meanwhile, Michelle Bachelet ended her term with an approval rating of 83 percent.

Tougher measures are needed if Southern Africa is to attain its 50-percent target for representation of women in political and decision-making positions at all levels by the 2015 deadline.

The low number of women who made it into parliament in the recent elections held in some Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries in 2008 and 2009 proved a major setback towards achieving the desired goal by 2015.

The Taliban movement is harassing, threatening and killing local women who are working as professionals for the Afghan government or as leaders of women's networks in the province of Helmand (teachers, headmasters, police, health workers and leaders of women's groups/centres). Sometimes threats and violence have been imposed on their husbands too.

Women's entrepreneurship and empowerment are keys to solving the world's most pressing challenges, Melanne Verveer, the first U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, said in appearances in Seattle this week.

November 17, 2010 (RUMBEK) – Voter registration centers in Rumbek, the capital of Lakes state, have recorded a low female turn out despite more people registering on the second day.

On Tuesday, staff at Matangai, Achol-theen, Malual-bab and Rumbek Freedom Square voter registration centers told Sudan Tribune that they had witnessed a low female turn out.

Tanzania has been trying to come to terms with its dismal election performance in respect to the quantity of women elected to decision-making positions, particularly to elected bodies like parliament, either through direct elections at the constituency level or via appointments to special seats.

Jeanne d'Arc Nyinawase, an employee of the national water and power utility, RECO-RWASCO , has been declared winner of the by-elections held last week for the woman MP's seat in the Western Province.

She won with an overwhelming majority of 883 out of 1046 votes (84.41%) to beat six other contestants. She becomes the seventh woman Member of Parliament in the region, following the resignation of Solange Tuyisenge, early this year.

No sooner had Mariness Luhanga announced her intention to contest local elections in Mzimba district in northern Malawi, than she was summoned to appear before a village court on allegations of insulting men.

Asmara — Aljazeera TV Station said that Eritrean women's participation in all aspects is exemplary. In its news report broadcast yesterday focusing on Eritrean women's participation during pre-and post-independence period, it pointed out that there exist active women participation in all domains, even in those fields traditionally designated for men.