Tag Archives: women

Unreported cases of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) are on the rise in Uganda, a trend that Minister for General Duties in the Office of the Prime Minister Mary Karooro-Okurut says the country needs to halt. Making reference to statistics from The 2011 Uganda Police Force Report she said, …

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | AFP |  An outspoken billionaire Saudi prince wants an “urgent” end to his country’s ban on women driving, saying overturning the law was a matter of women’s rights and economic necessity. “Stop the debate: Time for women to drive,” Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said on his …

Rabat, Morocco | AFP |  A public television station in Morocco has apologised after uproar on social media followed its broadcast of an item on makeup to hide the facial bruises of battered women. The sequence — marking last week’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women — …

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | Raped, abused and subjected to genital mutilation, many women suffer terribly in Somalia, an unrepentantly patriarchal country shown by successive surveys as one of the worst places to be female. A quota reserving 30 percent of parliamentary seats for women in current elections is supposed …

Ask Aline Kabanda the key to Rwanda’s future success, and she will tell you: educating and empowering women, writes Jennifer Mattson. “I like to quote Nelson Mandela, who said, ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,'” says Kabanda, the country director for the …

Wajir, Kenya | AFP | Swaddled in colourful hijabs the women exchange puzzled looks and suppress embarrassed giggles. “You’re sure it’s halal?” asks one, peering at a collection of birth control pills, condoms and IUDs. Such everyday forms of contraception are little known and rarely seen in Kenya’s arid and …

Lisbon, Portugal | AFP |   They are under-represented in the industry and sometimes made to feel unwelcome in geek-infested workspaces, but women are making their voices heard at Europe’s largest technology marketplace. Organisers of this week’s Web Summit in Lisbon said nearly half its 53,000 attendees were women, helped …

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | AFP |  Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council, which advises the cabinet, has turned down a proposal to study the issue of women’s driving, a Shura member told AFP on Wednesday. The kingdom has some of the world’s tightest restrictions on women, and is the only country where …

Paris, France | AFP |  Cancer will kill 5.5 million women — about the population of Denmark — per year by 2030, a near 60-percent increase in less than two decades, a report said Tuesday. As the global population grows and ages, the highest toll will be among women in …

Paris, France | AFP |  Young women in Western countries have caught up with their male counterparts in drinking habits, according to research published this week. Women aged 18-27 years old have almost reached parity with men of their age group in three categories of drinking — the likelihood of …