Participation

“I'm going to get my votes!” cried Mu Sochua as she stepped into a slender rowboat, holding one side for balance. “One by one.”

She was crossing a small river here in southern Cambodia on a recent stop in her never-ending campaign for re-election to Parliament, introducing herself to rural constituents who may never have seen her face.

The number of women in the Angolan National Assembly repre sents 39 per cent of the total number of parliamentarians in the country and the figure meets the world's established quota, according to a report from the Angolan News Agency (ANGOP).

Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Iyom Josephine Anenih has urged Nigerian women to see politics as a life and death affair.

The minister who was speaking at the national summit for participation in politics which began yesterday in Abuja noted that the forum was of special importance for all Nigerian women.

Bank Melli, one of Iran's biggest retail banks, opened the country's first women-only bank branch on Monday in Mashhad, allowing women to manage their finances without dealing with unrelated men — something likely to appeal to religious families who oppose mingling between the sexes. Under the Islamic legal system imposed after Iran's 1979 revolution, unrelated men and women are forbidden to have intimate contact.

Four female officers from the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force have returned to the country after participating in the 7th Annual Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police Women's Advisory Network (PICP WAN) conference recently held in Samoa.

“Mechanisms of implementation of gender policy: reality and perspectives” conference will open today in Dushanbe. The event is organized by the “From legal to actual equality” coalition.

Amnesty International has welcomed a decision by the Philippine government to implement a United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution, which aims to ensure the protection of women's rights during armed conflict and post-conflict situations. The Philippine government launched the National Action Plan (NAP) on Women Peace and Security in Quezon City, on Friday, 26 March.

The role played by Angolan women towards national independence in 1975 and achievement of peace in 2002 was highlighted Wednesday in Luanda by Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) General Staff Military History officer, captain Maria Quarta.

Speaking to Angop, the officer said that during the national liberation struggle, both on the frontline and rearguard, women always showed nationalism.

A cross section of women groups have presented a three-page petition to the government calling for the lifting of the UN travel ban imposed on female associates of former president Charles Taylor during the civil war.

Men are many things, but there is at least one thing they are not. They are not women.

For Nonhlanhla (“Call me Noni”) Dlamini, that is a problem. “At the end of the day, men do not fetch water,” the high-spirited and dauntingly articulate African politician declared “Men do not do the cooking.”