Make Every Woman Count - Promoting the Empowerment of Women and Girls in Africa
"To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it"
Mother Theresa
MEWC at the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women
This year, Make Every Woman Count attended the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), an annual conference of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) that takes place at the UN headquarters in New York. Bringing together member states, international organizations, NGOs and CSOs, the CSW and its parallel and side events included a wide range of detailed discussions and evaluations of the world's progress on gender equality.
Rio +20 - Were the Expectations Met?
On June 20 world leaders, NGOs, and other groups gathered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to discuss how sustainable development can be achieved by joint efforts. One of the questions before the summit was whether the leaders would include women's issues in the outcome document. The expectations before hand were both high and doubtful. Many worried that the result would be a weak document that lacked powerful formulations. So what was the outcome, in particular in relation to women's rights and situation?
"When a Gift (Fertility) is Given to You, No Man Has the Right to Take it Away From You"
Among many issues that women face in the world one that caught attention, in the month of April, was the shocking fact that a number of non-consensual sterilisations take place. This article is focusing on the particular case for Namibia.
Women4Africa 2012 Awards: Rai Sow - MEWC Founder Awarded the “Most Inspirational Women of the Year 2012”
The first edition of the Women4Africa Awards took place on the 19th of May at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall, London on the 19th of May 2012. The ceremony was opened by the Deputy Mayor of Kensington, Mrs Elizabeth Rutherford and hosted by International Designer Adebayo Jones and co-founder of Women4Africa Awards Tola Onigbanjo[1].
Don’t let Egypt become the next Iran: How Secular and Non-Secular Egyptian Women are Demanding for their Rights
Part II: Feminism and Islam: A Patriarchal Bargain or ‘Alternative Modernities’
As political pundits, women’s rights advocates, foreign policy watchdogs and so on argue to heed the danger of a growing radical Islamic stronghold in Egyptian’s weak transitioning period, one thing is often forgotten: the role of Islamic, non-secular women in Egypt’s future. As defenders of women’s rights, we are quick to discredit the existence of feminism in the realm of religion.
Men are Key to Improve Women’s Rights in Africa – And Worldwide
As a worker in the field of “women’s rights”, I sometimes get branded as “an angry feminist”, a person who dislikes men and blames them for all the world’s scourges. As this is quite untrue and unfortunate, I try to explain that the key thing when working on gender and on women’s rights is the importance of involving men and of working in a partnership together.Don’t Let Egypt Become the Next Iran: How Cecular and Non-Secular Egyptian Women are Demanding for Their Rights:
Part I : Secular Feminist Voices in Iran and Egypt
Images of Tahrir square this year brought déjà vu to the minds of Iranian women. After the Iranian revolution in 1979 and protests in 2009, Iranian women saw an absolute reversal of women’s rights under Islamic real and the Ahmadinejad regime. When Iranian women look at the revolutions in Lybia, Tunisian and especially Egypt, they see references to their own pasts; and all they can do is send a message to revolutionary women of the Arab Spring: Don’t let history repeat itself.
International Human Rights Day: Women's Rights are Human Rights Too
Source: Make Every Woman Count (MEWC)
By Vibeke B. Thomsen
As the world celebrates International Human Rights Day on 10 December, French-speaking countries celebrate it as “la Journée Internationale des Droits de l’Homme”. Although this might look like a solely semantic problem, it nevertheless raises the paradoxical question of: what about the less famous “Droits de la Femme”, as unfortunately, in countless regions of the world, human rights remain, in fact, the rights of men only.