Participation

A one day women leadership retreat has taken place in Paynesville, with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf challenging Liberian women to assume leadership roles at all levels. The President said she would support the principle of women competing with men and taking up various elected positions at various levels including leadership roles in political parties in the country.

A ship bearing aid for Gaza is preparing to leave Tripoli in Lebanon this weekend in the latest attempt to defy the Israeli blockade – with only women on board.

Sandra Burmeister, CEO of the Landelahni Recruitment Group, spoke to Margaret Harris about women on the boards of SA companies

How well are women doing in terms of representation on boards?

Her father died when she was two, one of her brothers was killed by a landmine, and her home was burnt down by soldiers, forcing her family to make a dangerous border crossing through the jungle. Yet the first thing you notice about 19-year-old Day Wah Htoo is her smile.

"We are out on the streets with a message -- kill us before you kill our young boys and girls," says Rehana Ashraf, a female teacher in Indian Kashmir.

It is a stance which makes the security forces deeply anxious as they battle to suppress a surge of violent protests against India's rule of the Muslim-majority region.

In military-ruled Burma's Karen state, tradition and a male-dominated social order have long guaranteed men the role of village chiefs. But this order is crumbling in the country's eastern region, giving rise to the new phenomenon of women village chiefs.

2010 to 2020 has been adopted by the African Union as the African Women's Decade. On Saturday, women from around the world met in London to celebrate African Women's Day.

About 100 women from Britain and Africa came together to pay tribute to the progress made for women's rights in Africa during recent years.

Each year, on 7 April, Mozambicans celebrate the national Woman's Day and honour the gallant fighter Josina Machel, who died on 7 April 1970 in armed combat fighting Portuguese oppression. It is a day to celebrate women's achievements in Mozambique and reflect on their fight for equal rights - but this year, there is little to celebrate.

Time magazine's moving portrayal of the plight of Afghanistan's women is a tribute to their heroism and silent suffering. However, the poignant images and story fail to reflect the determined achievements of a women's movement that has battled cultural and Islamist misogyny. They deserve more from the West.

You will find Beauty Kasonda on her campaign trail at funerals, weddings, church functions or just about any local gathering in her community. Kasonda does not have the sort of funding her male counterparts have for campaigning in the country's November 2010 elections but she is not letting that stop her.