insert_link Africa Victory for women’s rights in Ghana as affirmative action law is passed – what must happen next By Josephine Jarpa Dawuni, Howard University The passage of the Affirmative Action (Gender Equality) Bill by the country’s parliament on 9 August 2024 marked a victory for women’s rights in Ghana. The bill, which has been years in the making, is the result of several actors, allies and activists lobbying and protesting for over a decade. The bill in it its current form makes it compulsory […] todaySeptember 4, 2024 13
insert_link Africa Africa’s ageing leaders: succession race in Cameroon, Congo and Equatorial Guinea could destabilise the region By Serge Loungou, Université Omar Bongo (UOB) Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea is 82 and has been in power for 45 years. Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo, 79, has held on to power for 40 years. Cameroon’s Paul Biya is 91 and has been president for 42 years. Their extended tenures are largely due to a lack of constitutional limits on presidential age and terms […] todayAugust 23, 2024 10
insert_link Africa Sex sells in these Zimbabwe take-out chicken ads – showing how fragile masculinity is Mambo’s Chicken ads are the focus of a new study. Rustic/Getty Images By Gibson Ncube, Stellenbosch University Around the world, fast food advertising has been called out for sexualising and objectifying women’s bodies. In South Africa in 2019, for example, one fast food chain was castigated by advertising authorities for “the gratuitous use of sexualised women and sexual puns, with no product relevance”. At the same time, UK authorities […] todayAugust 23, 2024 20
insert_link Africa Gender apartheid: oppression of women should be made a crime against humanity – feminist academic explains why By Penelope Andrews, New York Law School Crimes against humanity are occurring with impunity around the globe; from Myanmar to Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere. And yet, unlike international treaties for the crimes of genocide, torture, apartheid and forced disappearances, there isn’t a treaty specific to crimes against humanity. That lack is now being remedied. The International Law Commission, a UN expert body, has submitted […] todayJuly 16, 2024 10
insert_link Africa Gambia MPs uphold ban on female genital mutilation Gambian lawmakers voted this afternoon to uphold a 2015 ban on female genital mutilation, rejecting a controversial bill seeking to overturn the law after months of heated debate and international pressure. Legislators killed the bill by voting against all the proposed amendments to the 2015 text that would have decriminalised the practice. Rights groups and the United Nations had urged MPs to reject the bill, saying it […] todayJuly 15, 2024 10
insert_link Local Solidarity and Support. Don’t Punish, with a focus on women and gender diverse people who use drugs – 26 June 2024 Y-Fem is a registered feminist human rights organization which is focused on feminism, women’s rights and movement building to ensure women’s can assert and demand their rights in all spheres of life. Y-Fem is focused on improving intersectional and inclusive coordination amongst organizations working in the women’s rights and feminist space in Namibia as well as movement building with a focus on rural grassroots level mobilizing. “Support. […] todayJune 26, 2024 27
insert_link World Sheinbaum victory: a win for Mexican women? By Laura BONILLA Nearly two decades after its then-president described women as "two-legged washing machines," Mexico has elected a woman to lead a country with a long history of gender-based bigotry and violence. The new leader, Claudia Sheinbaum, has talked about the desire of women to "live without fear" and rails against the stereotype that a woman is "prettier when she keeps her mouth shut." But […] todayJune 3, 2024 6
insert_link Entertainment Taylor Swift has got the 1830s all wrong By Emily Ireland, University of Liverpool Taylor Swift has become incredibly popular as a documenter of her dating history. But in her new album, The Tortured Poet’s Department, she tries her hand at writing about actual history. In the second verse of “I Hate it Here” (track 23 on the mammoth 31-track anthology version of the album), Swift sings about playing a game that involves […] todayMay 15, 2024 58
insert_link Africa Tanzania’s political parties have few women in leadership and candidate lists: some solutions By Victoria Melkisedeck Lihiru, The Open University of Tanzania Tanzania, in keeping with global political trends, reserves 30% of seats in parliament for women. These so-called special seats were introduced with multiparty politics in 1992, in response to the low numbers of women elected to positions of power. There were only eight elected female parliamentarians after the first multiparty elections in 1995. Ten years later, 17 […] todayMay 14, 2024 12
