Participation

A women contingent of the CRPF will leave for civil war stricken Liberia tonight as part of the United Nations Peace Keeping assignment. The fourth women contingent to be sent to Liberia by the largest paramilitary force in the country comprises 106 women personnel besides 19 male officers and others.

Taking an active part in politics in Bolivia can be a hazardous undertaking. Hundreds of reports of violence against women participating in politics attest to the risk. And while attacks go unpunished, a bill designed to protect the rights of women occupying public office has spent almost a decade in Congress waiting to be approved.

For tourists and other visitors, Cuzco has a special fascination as the ancient capital of the Inca empire. But social scientists know it as one of the areas in the world with the highest rates of violence against women.

Ten years ago, a group of Cuzco women decided to take an organised stand against all forms of gender-based violence, focusing on encouraging other women to report their abuse and get help.

With the possible participation of three high-profile women candidates in Brazil's 2010 presidential elections, the irruption of gender issues in the campaign in Latin America's largest democracy seems inevitable.

This unprecedented scenario will be a great opportunity for gender advocates to further key issues, including greater participation of women in politics and a platform that guarantees women's rights.

UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM IN GUATEMALA CONDEMNS THREATS AGAINST NORMA CRUZ, DIRECTOR OF ‘SURVIVORS FOUNDATION'

In honoring Zimbabwe's tenacious women protesters at the White House on Monday, President Obama gave his sharpest critique yet of President Robert Mugabe, the octogenarian who has ruled the southern African country with repressive zeal since 1980.

Born in a squatter camp in Orlando East and raised by a single mother; working in a factory while completing secondary school by correspondence; arrested and banned by the apartheid government: South Africa's ambassador to Italy is an example of the long road her country has travelled.

Gender activists foresee a drop in female parliamentarians after Namibia's general and presidential elections on November 27 and 28. It's a trend that jeopardises the region's goal of 50 percent female representation in politics by 2015.

Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe has challenged policymakers to recognise women's role in economic development and move away from the patriarchal habit of looking at them as mere housewives.

Speaking at the end of the two-day National Constitutional Conference on Women and Land in Harare yesterday, DPM Khupe said women owned only 1 percent of assets in Africa despite their economic contributions.

NATO's new strategy in Afghanistan is part military offensive, part training the Afghan security forces, part fostering civil society and part talking with at least some members of the Taliban, to entice them to join the government side. But, talking to the Taliban has some Afghan women worried.