Four years after the popular uprising that led to the removal of the dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, Tunisia held its first free and democratic presidential election in the country's history in December 2014. AWID spoke to Khadija Cherif, one-time contender for the position of Minister of Women, Family and Children to learn about some of the challenges to women’s political participation in the country.
On Saturday, 25th April 2015, the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) was granted Observer Status at the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACPHR). AWID interviewed Fikile Vilakazi, founding Executive Director of CAL, and Fadzai Muparusta, Regional Advocacy Officer for CAL to hear more about the decision to seek observer status at the ACHPR and the movement building that led to the final success.
FRIDAY FILE – To commemorate World Radio Day on February 13 AWID spoke with Anna Mayimona Ngemba, Director of Union Congolaise des Femmes des Médias [1] (Congolese Union of Women in Media - UCOFEM) to learn more about how radio, and media in general, is used do advance or hinder women’s human rights in Democratic Republic of Congo.
FRIDAY FILE : It’s been one year since the abduction by Boko Haram of 276 female students from their boarding school in Chibok, Borno State in northeastern Nigeria. The #BringBackOurGirls campaign began following the kidnapping but the whereabouts of most of the young girls remains unknown[1]. AWID spoke to Nigerian and Cameroonian feminist activists to learn more about the situation of women and girls in Nigeria and neighboring countries as well as the national and international response, and challenges of taking appropriate and efficient action a year after the Chibok kidnappings.
FRIDAY FILE - Following the recent announcement by local NGOs that more than 700 women accused of witchcraft had been murdered in Tanzania in a year, AWID spoke with Valerie Yvette Banlog, Founding President of the NGO Femme Action et Développement En Zone CEMAC (FADEC - Women Action and Development in CEMAC Areas) to discuss violence against women accused of witchcraft and the absence of appropriate and effective responses.
FRIDAY FILE - The latest World Health Organization's (WHO) Ebola situation report estimates the death toll in the current Ebola virus epidemic at nearly 9,400 with close to 23,300 people infected[1], AWID spoke to Liberian activists to learn more about the impact of the epidemic on women and girls in the region.
The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) strongly condemns the repeated efforts, now for the third time, to introduce the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda’s Parliament. We stand in solidarity with Ugandans who are calling for their government to withdraw this bill, once and for all, and respect the human rights of everyone.
In 2003, Sylvia Tamale was named as the “Worst Woman of the Year” by a conservative bloc within Uganda. Working at the time as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at Makerere University (she later became its Dean), she was vilified for weeks within one of Kampala’s major daily newspapers, New Vision, as responsible for everything from the moral degeneration of the nation to the reason Ugandan teenagers were going to go to hell.
Jane Bennett, African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town
FRIDAY FILE: The Third African Feminist Forum was held in Dakar in towards the end of October 2010. In this Friday File article we offer some reflections on the meeting.
By Kathambi Kinoti
FRIDAY FILE: Since the end of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, there have been tremendous gains for women, particularly on the political front.
By Kathambi Kinoti
Rwandan President Paul Kagame was re-elected into office last September with an overwhelming majority vote of well over 90 percent. Kagame played a central role in putting an end to the horrific events of 1994 that saw between an eighth to a fifth Rwanda’s population massacred in a period of three months.