Archive for category: Women and Female Empowerment

information and Stories about woman and female empowerment.

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Radio Used to Gain Support for Women’s Education in Malawi


The need for developing education in Malawi is continual. For example, in 2010, around 10 percent of primary aged children were not in school, and the primary school repetition rate reported in at 24 percent for boys and 29 percent for girls.

Girls in Malawi are exceptionally more vulnerable to a lack of education than boys. In fact, 32 percent of girls aged 14 to 17 are not in school compared to 23 percent of boys this age. Additionally, while 72 percent of boys 15 and older are literate, only 51 percent of women in this age group can read and write.

Part of this gap is caused by the high child marriage rate in Malawi, which is 11th highest in the world. UNICEF reports that approximately 50 percent of Malawian girls marry before they turn 18. Fortunately, this year the Malawian government moved to make marriage legal only after a woman is 18 years old.

Marshall Dyson, founder of the Girl Child Education Movement, is one of many Malawians who recognizes the need for resolution of the educational gender disparity. Dyson’s idea incorporated broadcasting an open discussion of child marriage and girls’ education over the radio. Both men and women of a variety of ages and backgrounds participated in the talk.

The discussion about girls’ education in Malawi broadcasted over Radio Islam, the only Islamic radio station in Malawi. Dyson strategically chose this platform since Muslims rested at risk of discrimination.

Dyson got his start in radio via an internship with Kumakomo Community Radio Station in Zimbabwe. There he served as the content manager of 12 volunteers.

The impact of this position is especially significant, considering that radio acts as the main source of news for most Malawians. According to USAID, the two-hour broadcast “was a collaboration across the YALI and Mandela Washington Fellows networks, and with Regional Leadership Center participants — young leaders between 18 and 35 enrolled in USAID-supported leadership training programs in sub-Saharan Africa.” Around three million people tuned in.

USAID states that “the Muslim Association of Malawi, who attended the event, agreed to open new offices in rural areas where communities can access up-to-date information about education and scholarship opportunities for girls.”

Education in Malawi still has much room for improvement, and humanitarians like Marshall Dyson act as major catalysts in that process. Through work such as his, Malawi is destined to achieve higher standards of education than ever before.

– Emma Tennyson

Photo: Flickr

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10 Facts About Sima Samar and Her Impact


Sima Samar is one of the most influential people in the world, advocating for other women and minority groups. Her humanitarian pursuits have not come without serious risk to her life, and yet Sima Samar has never deterred her efforts. As quoted in the Afghanistan Foreign Policy and Government Guide, she once stated, “I’ve always been in danger, but I don’t mind. I believe that we will die one day so I said let’s take the risk and help somebody else.” Here are 10 facts about Sima Samar and her lifelong activism.

10 Facts About Sima Samar and Her Impact

  1. Samar grew up as a member of Afghanistan’s Hazara minority with 10 siblings and a polygamist father. Attending school in Lashkargah, Samar began speaking out for women’s rights as early as the seventh grade.
  2. Samar’s father would not let her attend university unless she agreed to an arranged marriage. She accepted a marriage to Abdul Chafoor Sultani on the terms that he let her study medicine. Samar received a medical degree from Kabul University in 1982. She was the first Hazara woman in Afghanistan to do so.
  3. One night in 1978, 10 men broke into Samar’s home and kidnapped her husband and his three brothers. They were among the 500 educated people kidnapped during the Russian invasion never to be seen or heard from again.
  4. In 1984, oppressive Russian forces forced Samar to flee to Pakistan with her young son. She stayed there for the next 17 years, dedicating herself to aiding other Afghan refugees.
  5. By 1987, Samar helped open the first hospital for women, staffed by women in Pakistan. She also set up education programs for girls in the country. She did this despite opposition from conservative leaders in Pakistan and limited funding.
  6. In 1989, Samar established the Shuhada Organization, a nonprofit that strives for a prosperous, democratic and socially just Afghanistan with an emphasis on empowering women and children. Founding the Shuhada Organization was dangerous for Samar because it directly opposed the uncompromising Taliban regime that seized control of Afghanistan in 1994. Samar did not let death threats or public condemnation dishearten or scare her. The organization now runs 55 schools in Afghanistan and three in Pakistan for Afghan refugees.
  7. After the collapse of the Taliban in 2001, Sima Samar was chosen as the first Deputy Chair and Minister of Women’s Affairs during the Interim Administration in Afghanistan. As the first ever Afghan Minister of Women’s Affairs, she oversaw the re-entry of girls into school and women into the workforce.
  8. Samar has since stepped down as the Minister of Women’s Affairs and now heads Afghanistan’s Human Rights Commission.
  9. From 2005 to 2009, Samar worked as the U.N. special reporter on the human rights situation in Sudan.
  10. Samar has been recognized and rewarded by numerous human rights and women’s rights organizations internationally and was named Forbes’ 28th most powerful woman in 2006.

While Samar paid a high price for her achievements, these 10 facts reveal her success as a humanitarian and activist. Sima Samar demonstrates the influence, change and progress one person can achieve; she is truly a woman to be celebrated.

– Catherine Fredette

Photo: Flickr

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The Facts on Breast Ironing

The Practice of Breast Ironing
The practice of breast ironing occurs when the breasts of young girls are pounded with heated objects such as spatulas, hammers and rocks. The aim of the tradition is to halt breast growth in order to slow puberty, and sometimes the practice is done in order to postpone girls’ first sexual relationships. The ritual is mainly carried out by female relatives of the victim. Approximately 3.8 million teenagers are affected by breast ironing worldwide, according to the U.N.

Breast ironing is very popular in the nation of Cameroon. Carole, a victim of the practice there, explains how her mother told her that it was necessary. She claimed it was to keep away men because “‘men mean pregnancy.'” The routine would consist of her mother pressing a hot rock onto each of her breasts several times. It has left Carole with the permanent disfigurement of her breasts, which she describes as “flabby.”

Physical defects are common consequences of this practice. Many maturing girls also face the possibility of breast cancer or difficulty breastfeeding. Mental trauma occurs as well, such as low-self esteem and feelings of betrayal or resentment.

Breast ironing affects about one in four girls in Cameroon, but it is by no means limited to this country in particular. The practice also occurs in the nations of Nigeria, Benin and Chad, according to Newsweek.

Recently, reports revealed that the practice was taking place in some African communities within the U.K. as well. The CAME Women and Girls Development Organisation, a charity campaigning on behalf of breast ironing victims, has claimed that over 1,000 girls in Britain have dealt with the practice.

Fortunately, a number of global charities have increased volunteer work within Cameroon. Sex education is now being stressed as a better means to ending the pregnancies of young girls. By spreading awareness and offering educational services, the practice of breast ironing is already on its way to being stopped.

– Gigi DeLorenzo

Photo: Flickr

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Segregated Education in Libya, Post-Gaddafi

Segregated Education in Libya, Post Gadhafi
The entire culture of Libya has changed since the very public takedown of Moammar Gaddafi during a long battle in 2011. Since then, Libyans have lived through free elections, the collapse of their government and an ongoing civil war. The women of Libya, in particular, have been affected most harshly. Islamization imposed on a formerly modernized religious culture through news laws puts women’s access to education at risk, along with their general freedom in society. This is what you need to know about the current state of segregated education in Libya.

Education for Women Once Was Better
When Gaddafi led the Libyan government as a dictator, there was no segregated education in Libya. Instead, there was unlimited access for women to attend school at all levels. As a result, the number of well-educated women in Libya is higher than elsewhere in the region. An almost equal number of women (32 percent) as men (33 percent) hold university degrees, and almost 77 percent of female high school graduates intend to pursue higher degrees.

As a result of the country’s increased Islamization, women are encouraged to stay at home. Because of increasing violence against women, this is slowly becoming a reality.

Even Elementary Education Is Affected
Education until the ninth grade is compulsory for children in Libya. Before the civil war, roughly one million students attended school, but this year, with the civil war ongoing, around 297,000 children have been unable to attend school.

Schools are also shutting down at alarming rates, transforming into shelters for persons displaced during the war. The city most affected by this is Benghazi. Those schools that remain open lack electricity for long periods of time and their access to sanitation is also lacking.

New Laws Affect Women in Universities
Segregated education in Libya was made possible in 2013 when a school in Derma built a wall in the middle of a university campus to keep men and women apart.

In that same year, new laws made it harder for women achieve a normal schooling experience. A 2013 fatwa announced that women could now attend a university only if they attended schools that were segregated by gender.

Segregated education in Libya also requires that women dress in accordance with Islamic tradition. All women are forced to wear some form of headwear that covers their hair. In April 2014, Libya made headlines when a woman who attended a university did not wear her headscarf and was harassed and abused by a security guard on campus.

Ultimately, only the Libyan government can make it easier for women to attend its universities. But with newly segregated education in Libya, we can only hope that things take a turn for the better in the near future.

– Maria Rodriguez

Photo: Flickr

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New Feminism in Latin America

New Feminism in Latin America
In the past few years, social justice movements have evolved all over the globe, and a rise in feminism in Latin America is no exception. Women from several countries across Central and South America have formed alliances and staged protests over issues including street harassment, the wage gap, rape and femicide.

Veronica Gago, professor of social sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, notes networks of feminist allies being forged across international borders in Latin America. In addition to organizing marches against gendered injustice in their countries, Latin American feminists work to create spaces where activists can discuss these issues.

Femicide is perhaps the central issue, with a number of countries organizing protests to increase awareness of the thousands of women who are killed by romantic partners each year.

Mujeres de la Matria Latinoamericana (MuMaLa), an influential feminist collective in Latin America, estimated that in 2013, 13 women were killed per day in Brazil. According to data from the Ministry of Health, rates at which women are killed by partners is not only high, but on the rise, and activists are paying attention to this trend.

Feminists in Argentina, where women are killed by partners at one of the highest rates in the world, have been particularly active in the past few years. In 2016, MuMaLa and another major contributor to feminism in Latin America called Ni Una Menos organized a protest following the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl, citing hypermasculine culture as the cause of such violent acts. Women gathered and held an hour-long strike with signs reading, “If you touch one of us, we all react.”

Just last month, feminists in Argentina organized a nude flash mob in which participants marched on government buildings to protest gendered violence. The protest itself was a work of art, featuring a string quartet and percussionist who provided background music for the demonstration. One hundred and twenty women crowded beneath a banner reading “Femicide is Genocide,” cast off their clothing and fell into a pile, later returning to their feet and punctuating the protest with shrieks of rage.

Many Latin American feminists turn to art in order to express their goals, using music, poetry and graffiti to gain the attention of both the government and the public.

Feminism in Latin America manifests in a number of forms. With the continued efforts of collectives like MuMaLa and Ni Una Menos as well as individuals, rates of femicide could decline.

– Madeline Forwerck

Photo: Flickr

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10 Facts About Female Genital Mutilation


No one knows for sure when female genital mutilation (FGM) began. Egyptians practiced the procedure as a way of differentiating the aristocracy as far back as 2000 years ago. People practice FGM for cultural and social reasons, but there is no evidence that it is based in religion. Neither the Bible nor the Quran mention FGM. There are also no reasons to perform FGM for medical reasons. Here are 10 facts about FGM.

10 Facts About Female Genital Mutilation

  1. Female genital mutilation occurs when part or all of the female genital organs are cut or removed. In some cases, the vaginal opening is sewn together using folds of the surrounding skin. A small opening is left where urine and menstrual blood trickle out.
  2. The practice of FGM is found mainly within 30 countries of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Today, over 200 million girls are alive who have had the procedure.
  3. The procedure is most often practiced on girls between infancy and the age of 15. Belief in the benefits of the procedure varies from culture to culture. Some believe it suppresses sexual impulses, guarantees virginity until marriage or reduces the potential for extra-marital affairs.
  4. The four countries where the highest percentage of women and girls have been cut are in Africa. Those countries are Somalia, Guinea, Djibouti and Sierra Leone.
  5. The United Nations campaigns against the practice of FGM and believes it is a violation of human rights.
  6. In 2008, the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Children’s Fund created the largest joint program to increase the abandonment of the practice and also to provide care for the consequences. Together these groups published the piece  “Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: Accelerating Change.” The program’s major accomplishments, as summarized in a report published in 2014, were enacting better policy and legal environments to eliminate FGM, providing greater healthcare and social services and increasing acceptance amongst the population against the practice.
  7. The United Nations passed a resolution in December 2012 that officially banned the practice of FGM.
  8. The U.N. General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/67/146 in 2012 to observe February 6 as the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation to enhance awareness and begin taking steps against FGM.
  9. In 1996, the U.S. passed a law making female genital mutilation illegal. It is also illegal to leave the U.S. for the procedure. However, only 24 U.S. states have enacted laws to make FGM a crime.
  10. In April 2017, two doctors and the doctors’ wives were arrested in Detroit on the grounds of performing FGM. This is the first case in the U.S. of an arrest since the passage of the law.

There is good news to report on FGM. As awareness of the issue has increased, the percentage of girls aged 15-19 that have been cut has declined in the countries where FGM is most prevalent. Unfortunately, just the opposite is happening in the U.S. The number of cases of female genital mutilation has tripled since 1990 as the number of people from countries who practice FGM immigrate to the U.S. Efforts must continue to decrease or entirely end this practice.

– Jene Cates

Photo: Flickr

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10 Powerful Women Fighting for Girls’ Access to Education

Women around the world are working to end economic gender discrimination and poverty by advocating for girls’ access to education. These 10 women are among the many who are advocating for women’s rights through education.

10 Powerful Women Fighting for Girls’ Access to Education

  1. K. Zehra Arshad: K. Zehra Arshad is the national coordinator for the Pakistan Coalition for Education and serves on the Board of Directors for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). She has advocated for women’s rights for years through policy-making and fights gender disparity in schools to improve girls’ access to education.
  2. Michelle Bachelet: Michelle Bachelet is the president of Chile. At the beginning of her second term in 2014, she implemented a program for public education, influenced by her earlier role as executive director of U.N. Women. While serving at the U.N., she championed the Fund for Gender Equality, which offers grants to programs that provide women equal access to quality education. Bachelet believes that the key to girls’ economic opportunities is education.
  3. Rasheda Choudhury: Rasheda Choudhury is the Vice President of the Global Campaign for Education (GCE). GCE is an organization working to end the global education crisis through free, public education for all. She is also the Executive Director of the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), a group of more than a thousand educator networks and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Bangladesh. CAMPE has mobilized millions of people to join the fight for girls’ access to education. Choudhury is a journalist and an advocate for gender justice in education.
  4. Camilla Croso: Camilla Croso is the president of GCE and the coordinator of the Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (CLADE). CLADE is a network of 15 national forums, eight regional Latin American groups and five international NGOs who work primarily in Latin America. Furthermore, Croso represents civil society as a member of countless U.N. organizations. Her primary focus is advocating for women’s rights to education in Latin America.
  5. Monique Fouilhoux: Monique Fouilhoux serves as the chairperson of GCE. An educator from France, Fouilhoux advocates for higher education and the impact of governments and NGOs on education for women.
  6. Julia Gillard: Julia Gillard served as Prime Minister of Australia before joining GPE as Chair of the Board. Gillard wants to strengthen global education systems for girls and bring equality into the classroom. She believes equal education will contribute to the end of poverty. Most recently, she announced GPE’s new Replenishment 2020 campaign, which will reach 870 million children in need of education.
  7. Graça Machel: Graça Machel is a philanthropist and activist for girls’ access to education and basic human rights. She founded the Graça Machel Trust to protect girls from childhood marriage and female genital mutilation. Machel believes that adolescent girls need to have the same educational opportunities as their male counterparts in order to contribute to the development of their communities.
  8. Michelle Obama: Michelle Obama served as the First Lady of the United States. In 2015 she launched the “Let Girls Learn” initiative. “Let Girls Learn” uses the aid of 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers to support community projects in developing countries that help girls go to school and stay in school.
  9. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is finishing her 10-year term as president of Liberia. During her presidency, she prioritized girls’ education and advocated for women’s rights. Additionally, Sirleaf’s work as president earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.
  10. Malala Yousafzai: As a young teen, Malala Yousafzai defied Pakistani extremists and went to school, risking her life. Because of her bravery, she became an activist icon for girls’ education. Yousafzai received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. She also founded the Malala Fund, an organization that advocates for changing international, national and local policies and systems to give girls access to quality education.

Overall, the fight for girls’ access to education is key to ending poverty. These 10 women are pursuing groundbreaking strategies to implement equality into developing communities around the world.

– Rachel Cooper

Photo: Flickr

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Global Feminism Emerges to Combat Gender Inequality


Over the past few months, countless feminists have taken to the streets to protest gender inequality. On Jan. 21, women’s marches took place everywhere from Canada to Kenya to bring awareness to such issues as women’s healthcare, female representation in government and ignorance of sexual assault. Advocates of gender equality have begun to recognize similarities in gender disparity from nation to nation, and a new brand of global feminism has entered its nascent stages.

Elif Shafak, a Turkish novelist, notes the ways in which outcry from women in the U.S. echoes that of women in the Middle East. She attributes it to Western surges in populism, a type of appeal that often caters more closely to men than it does to women. This development may explain why women’s healthcare has been trivialized under the current U.S. administration while resources for men have remained untouched.

Shafak encourages women to continue the conversation about these issues and warns them against complacency, insisting that “the future is not necessarily more developed than the present, and sometimes countries can go backward.”

Shafak makes a good point. Indeed, feminist efforts have garnered the attention of leaders around the world. At the 54th Africa Day anniversary event last week, Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama called for keener gender equality efforts, highlighting the issue of girls’ education. New French President Emmanuel Macron made headlines earlier this month when he appointed 11 women to his 22-seat cabinet.

Though many advocates of gender equality are eager to band together and create opportunities for women, others have reservations about the movement and about the word “feminist” itself. When German Chancellor Angela Merkel was asked if she is a feminist at a panel last month, she answered that she would opt for a different label altogether, as there are certain aspects of the movement that she rejects.

In addition, Shafak prefers the term “sisterhood” to feminism, as she believes it to be more accessible to Middle Eastern women.

Whether the movement is called global feminism, sisterhood or something else, its supporters are undoubtedly making progress in drawing attention to issues of gender equality. Regardless of varying preferences among leaders and advocates around the world, persistent conversations about widespread injustice can only serve to forge a more equitable world.

– Madeline Forwerck

Photo: Flickr

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Three Organizations Working for Global Women’s Rights


The pursuit of global women’s rights and equality still has a long way to go. Millions of women across the world have their own unique problems and needs. Here are three organizations working for global women’s rights across the world.

Three Organizations Working for Global Women’s Rights

  1. Global Fund For Women: The Global Fund for Women is an organization that is fighting for women to have basic human rights, including the right to live free from violence, slavery and discrimination, the right to be educated, the right to own property, the right to vote and to earn a fair and equal wage. Not only focused on human rights, the Global Fund for Women also directs their attention towards rights for women’s equality. Through grant making and advocacy, the organization supports local groups that focus on women’s rights.
     
  2. WEDO – Women’s Environment and Development Organization: WEDO is a global advocacy organization based out of New York City that partners with women’s groups across the map. Looking specifically at the intersection of women and the environment, WEDO seeks to bring systemic changes and create sustainability for the future. The organization’s programs are constantly evolving with the importance of different issues. Their current programs include Mobilizing Women for Climate Change and Gender-Responsive Climate Policy and Women’s Leadership: The Women Delegates Fund. Each program includes advocates from local communities.
  3. International Alliance of Women: IAW is a nonprofit which brings together 41 different member organizations to fight for women’s rights and empowerment globally. IAW’s work looks at the connections between women and climate change, economics, human rights and reproductive health. IAW has been around since 1902 and has been recognized and accredited by the U.N.

Through a variety of goals and tactics, these three organizations working for global women’s rights are bringing change to the communities they serve around the world.

– Shannon Elder

Photo: Flickr

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Two Examples of Leading Global Feminists


There are many different women in the world facing many different issues. Even within the same country, women will face different struggles among one another. Feminism must represent and hold space for every woman.

Postcolonial feminism acknowledges the role of colonization and globalization. The Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes the theory as insisting “that it is impossible to understand local practices in developing countries without acknowledging the ways in which these practices have been shaped by their economic and historical contexts, particularly their connection to Western colonialism and imperialism.”

With that in mind, here are two leading global feminists you should know about.

Malala Yousafzai
Yousafzai, the winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize at 17 years old, is an activist advocating for the rights of young women to receive an education. Growing up in Pakistan in the midst of the war with the Taliban, Yousafzai stood up to them as they took away her right to education. She was displaced within the country, and when she had the opportunity to return, she campaigned once again for her education rights. On her way home from school one day, the Taliban stopped her bus and shot her. She was later airlifted to England. Upon recovery, Yousafzai spoke at the U.N., published a book, and has won multiple awards. She founded the Malala Fund, an organization empowering girls through education.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Originally from Nigeria, Adichie is extremely well known for her writing. She moved to the U.S. to attend college and has since published many pieces. Adichie has also won a variety of awards placing her on the The New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year for her novel Americanah. Her writing explores the intersections of race and identity — the need for a fairer world. She also gave a TED talk titled, “We Should All Be Feminists”, which can be found in a print version.

These two leading global feminists are making huge strides in the international women’s movement for equality.

– Shannon Elder

Photo: Flickr