Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
In many countries women are excluded from religious rituals and banished from their homes while they are on their periods
Violent protests and strikes have rocked southern India after three women defied a centuries-old ban on entering a Hindu temple.
The hilltop temple is one of a handful in India that bar women of menstruating age - a practice that stems from the belief that women and girls are impure during their periods.
Menstruation taboos can be found all over the world - here are 10 of the most common.
DON'T PRAY
Women face being excluded from religious rituals and places during their periods in many parts of Asia, including mainly Hindu India and Buddhist communities in China and Japan.
Muslim women across the world are restricted from entering mosques or taking part in prayers during their periods.
Last January, Ghanaian schoolgirls were banned from crossing a river while on the periods, sparking criticism from activists. The ban was purportedly issued by a local river god.
BANISHED FROM HOME
In parts of Indonesia, India, Nepal and in some Nigerian tribes, girls and women are banished from the family home during their periods and often have to sleep in animal sheds.
Several have died in rural Nepal in recent years, usually of smoke inhalation after lighting fires to try to keep warm.
DON'T COOK
Superstitions about the effect of menstruating girls and women on food persist in many parts of the world.
In India there is a belief that pickles touched by menstruating women will rot, while other cultures believe they can curdle butter, cream and mayonnaise.
Some believe bread dough handled by a woman during her period will not rise.
DON'T BATHE
From India and Israel to several European and South American countries, women are told not to bathe or wash their hair during their periods in the belief that it could make them infertile or sick.
Even a dip in the pool or beach is to be avoided.
DON'T GROOM
Women are often advised not to cut, dye or perm their hair while menstruating. Some are advised against waxing for fear that their hair will grow faster, while others are told not to cut or paint their nails.
In Venezuela, it is reportedly believed that if menstruating women groom their bikini lines, their skin gets darker.
STAY AWAY FROM PLANTS
Some cultures ban menstruating women from touching plants, flowers or walking through crop fields in the belief they may cause them to wilt and die.
In India, women are sometimes told not to touch or water plants that are considered holy, like basil, during their periods.
STAY AWAY FROM ANIMALS
Some cultures believe contact with menstruating women will make animals such as dogs and horses agitated.
In parts of India and Nepal, girls on their periods cannot touch cows because they are considered holy in Hinduism.
In some tribes in Uganda, women are banned from drinking cow's milk owing to the belief that they could contaminate the whole herd.
STAY AWAY FROM MEN
Menstruating women are restricted from going out and having any contact with boys and men in many conservative pockets of the world.
Orthodox Judaism forbids women from having contact with men during their periods at the end of which they have to take a ritual bath called a "mikvah".
In parts of Poland and Rwanda, it is believed that having sex with a woman during their period can kill you.
DON'T EXERCISE
Exercising or playing sports can have damaging effects on a woman's period and her body, according to some beliefs.
In 2016, China's swimming star Fu Yuanhui revealed she was on her period when she competed at the Rio Olympics, breaking a major taboo and sparking nationwide discussion.
DON'T USE TAMPONS
Girls are often warned against using a tampon or menstrual cup over fears they could break their hymen - a source of shame in some socially conservative countries.
Source: Deutsche Welle
The sexual attacks and beatings in South Sudan over the last 12 days have targeted women walking to collect food to take home to their families. Groups of men numbering up to 20 have been accused of the assaults.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Saturday that it had given emergency medical and psychological help to 157 women and girls who have been raped, beaten and brutalized in South Sudan's Rubkona county since mid-November.
Read more ...
Source: AllAfrica
Discrimination of gays, young mothers and journalists is on the rise in Tanzania. Suspending the flow of money from abroad is one reaction but will this persuade President Magufuli to change his course?
Tanzania has been pushing through a highly restrictive policy on several fronts, repressing rights of homosexuals, clamping down on freedom of the press and recently reaffirming the country's policy of expelling pregnant girls from state primary and secondary schools. In September the country also made it a crime to question official statistics. This has been strongly criticized by the World Bank, saying the law will undermine the production of useful, high-quality data.
Tanzania's second-biggest donor Denmark has now said it will withhold $10 million (€8.8 million) worth of aid, citing concerns over human rights abuses and "unacceptable homophobic comments" made by a government official.
Read more ...
Source: The Guardian
“Though I still struggle with tramadol sometimes, I don’t take codeine and alcohol again said 17-year-old Halima who started abusing drugs when she was in JSS 2.
Halima’s voice reverberates with a renewed hope and courage to look to the future. She credits this continuing mental makeover to the mental health care and rehabilitation she got at a private health facility in Lagos.
Halima is one of the many fortunate teenagers that have turned the bend on drug abuse. Many more are still trapped in the web with little hope of getting the sort of help that can release from the grip of drugs.
The inappropriate use of substances including alcohol, medication, illegal drugs for fun, to perform more effectively, or to alter one’s perception of reality is not just a malaise that traverses the socio-cultural and economic layers of our society, it is undeniably a greater menace than we imagined especially amongst young persons, and we are probably waking up a little too late to it.
In Nigeria today, there are myriads of anecdotes on Nigerian adolescents and youths, addicted to substance abuse. Recent reports on ubiquitousness of this problem are alarming, revealing the prevalent abuse of tramadol and codeine in the country. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) illicit drug use, alcohol, and tobacco are major global risk factors for disability and premature loss of life.
Earlier this year, Senate President Bukola Saraki expressed concern about the rising nuisance of drug abuse in the nation, while speaking at a public hearing on “The need to check the rising menace of pharmaceutical drug abuse among youths in Nigeria”.
“Drug abuse is an ill wind that blows nobody any good as many families are discovered to be affected including children and women. This has led to incidences of armed robbery, kidnapping, militancy and other vices, which have become a challenge to internal security, said Saraki.
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“Unfortunately, some of our youths who could become the leaders of tomorrow are caught in the quagmire of substance-abuse. This is a threat to their health and wellbeing and a threat to their families so we must stem this tide. We are now working on a legislation to tighten the loose ends on this issue and to ensure control and that victims are rehabilitated.”
Some of the substances largely abused include tramadol, codeine, Tom Tom candy soaked in Lacasera, a fizzy drink, dry pawpaw or plantain leaves, rephnol, methylated spirit in codeine or coke, gum, Cannabis (Marijuana) soaked in gin and more. Majority of these substances can be cheaply purchased, for as low as N100.
Not only has spiking rate of drug abuse in Nigeria, especially in urban centres such as Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt has contributed to increasing rate of mental illnesses, it is also contributing to the rate of crimes, said Dr Hope Abraham, the president of Vanguard Against Drug Abuse (VGADA).
While gender stereotypes and the belief that males are more likely to dabble into risky behaviours will have us believe that adolescent boys can be addicted faster, research has proven that, substance use can lead to abuse and addiction faster for adolescent girls than boys, even when the same amount or less of a specific substance is consumed.
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Report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse shows that women only need to use smaller amounts of some drugs over a shorter period of time before they become addicted.
It also explains that women are more likely to suffer relapse after being treated for drug addiction and more likely to die from an overdose or other effects of some substances.
The reason for this incidence is the menstrual cycle of the woman. “The monthly cycle of a woman plays a major role with respect to drug abuse and their response to drug use,” Abraham said.
“Studies have shown that women who take cocaine during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, when the estrogen is higher tend to abuse the cocaine more frequently because they get more “high” during this phase. Their estrogen tends to accentuates their reception to substance use during the cycle.”
The incidence of drug abuse among young girls in Nigeria is frightening especially codeine cough syrups and over-the-counter drugs such as tramadol, rohypnol, and others.
While the issue of drug abuse among young girls and women in Nigeria is steadily gaining more attention, it is still underreported largely due to cultural constraints and societal discrimination against women and the dearth of national drug use surveys and other factual documentation regarding this issue in the country.
The propensity for adolescent and young females to be exposed to and be affected by drugs demands the formulation of gender-sensitive drug policies and programmes aimed at preventing and treating drug abuse among young girls and women.
Source: AllAfrica
The opposition party, the Popular Democratic Movement Women's League (PDMWL) this week said that the sentences that are being given to convicted rapists in the country, are too lenient
The League's Secretary General, Loide Iipinge said the sentences in the country are too compassionate considering the grievous damage rape does to victims and society at large.
"We feel that there is need for the country's legal system to start looking at rape especially, as a serious crime that deserves the harshest of sentences among other crimes," she said
Read more ...
Source: AllAfrica
First Lady Madam Getrude Mutharika has said that child marriage is one of the violence against children which every Malawian should fight to stop as the country commemorates United Nation Security Council Resolution 1325.
She made the sentiments in Salima on Tuesday during the UNSCR 11325 commemoration, which was celebrated under the theme 'Peace and Security for the dignity of Women.'
"As we commemorate this day, we as Malawians should consider yourself as a lucky and blessed people as we have not known a war but our friends in war areas know the pains of war which mostly affects women and children,
But despite this not everybody is at peace in this country. We have children that are married off at a young age they are disturbed and affected heavily by their condition and they don't enjoy a peace of mind. It is therefore important that parents, guardian and all responsible Malawians to work hard to stop practices that leave others with no peace of mind like child marriages," Madam Mutharika said.
Read more ...
Source: Taarifa
Rwanda has broken it’s current world record of 64% women representation in parliament.
The new world record for women representation in parliament has now shot up to 67.5%.
Read more ...
Source: THOMPSON REUTERS FOUNDATION
Sex outside wedlock is by far the most common cause of incarceration for women in Mauritania, accounting for more than 40 percent of female prisoners.
Khady knew the man who waited outside her house one evening, followed her down a dark street and put his hand over her mouth. She had refused his offer of marriage several months before.
The assault that followed is a blur. The 26-year-old fell pregnant, and five months later she was jailed for breaking Mauritania's law banning sex outside of marriage.
"They said I was guilty. I don't know why," she said at a centre for victims of rape in the capital, Nouakchott.
"I thought if I told the police what happened, they would put him in prison," Khady, whose name has been changed for her protection, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Sex outside wedlock is by far the most common cause of incarceration for women in Mauritania, accounting for more than 40 percent of female prisoners, according to a survey by the Mauritanian Association for the Health of the Mother and Child.
About 50 women were locked up for "zina" or sex outside marriage in the main women's prison in Nouakchott between July 2016 and June 2018, the rights group said.
Yet most are victims of rape, according to activists who hope the nation's new parliament will breathe life into an abandoned bill that could improve justice for Mauritanian women.
Mauritania, a vast desert country in northwest Africa, is an Islamic Republic with a penal code partly based on sharia law.
Adultery, sex between single people and rape are all crimes, yet the law does not define the latter or the notion of consent.
This means rape convictions for men are rare while prosecuting female victims of sexual violence for zina is common, according to campaigners who say rape victims must generally prove the use of force in order to be found innocent.
"Once a woman becomes an adult, in most cases, they say she consented," said Aminetou Mint Ely of the Association of Women Heads of Family, which runs support centres for rape victims.
"The laws are open, and they facilitate the interpretation of rape as zina," added Ely, the president of the rights group.
Mauritania's justice ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
A law on gender-based violence that would be tougher on rape and provide more support to victims was almost adopted two years ago, but it lost support in parliament as misinformation spread.
Now women's rights groups are campaigning all over again, as new deputies elected in September are set to review the bill.
JAIL TIME
Khady was taken to hospital in February where she gave birth before being returned to jail with a premature baby girl. She was released on special grounds a month later after persistent efforts by lawyers working for Ely's organisation.
"Night and day were the same," she said shakily, recalling how she kept to herself in prison and avoided the other inmates.
Zina is officially punishable by flogging or stoning, but Mauritania does not carry out corporal punishments in practice.
Yet without a good lawyer, women convicted of zina can idle in jail indefinitely, said Zeinabou Taleb Moussa, head of the Mauritanian Association for the Health of the Mother and Child.
The risk of incarceration is so high for adult rape victims that Moussa sometimes discourages them from going to the police.
"If we know that a woman is going to be imprisoned, we tell her, 'Unfortunately, the law does not protect you.'," she said.
"If you report it, he (the rapist) will be imprisoned, but you'll be imprisoned too."
Men are also charged with sex outside of marriage - not rape - in many of these cases, but they often serve shorter jail terms than women, according to several local rights groups.
SLOW PROGRESS
A 2005 child protection law made it less likely for girls to be prosecuted for zina, and there has been some progress in the treatment of rape victims in recent years, Moussa said.
"Before, every woman who went before a judge and said she was raped was accused," she said. "Now there are investigations, there are testimonies, there is attention given to the woman."
Yet the law remains stacked against adult victims, and even minors are still occasionally imprisoned, activists say.
On a recent visit to Ely's office, a 16-year-old in a pink headscarf tried to soothe her baby. Having been raped by her boss, she was convicted of zina but placed under probation - a victory for the association's lawyers because she escaped jail.
Sitting nearby, head bowed, a 15-year-old girl was less fortunate. Having flirted with the man who then raped her, she was judged to have consented, and jailed for a month.
Saleck Jeireb, an official in the ministry of social affairs, children and family, said the government had a plan to tackle gender-based violence, which includes training health workers and providing psychosocial support for victims.
"The response is not at the scale that we want, but we've started," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
NEW LAW
Ely and Moussa helped to draft a law on gender-based violence in 2012 which clearly defined rape and increased support services for victims, among other measures.
The executive branch and senate approved the bill in 2016, but debate broke out when it was sent to parliament.
The bill was pulled after rumours spread that it was against Islam, backed by Westerners, and condoned homosexuality.
"There was a debate, unfortunately founded on errors," said Jeireb of the ministry of social affairs.
With the instalment of a new parliament, the draft law will be resubmitted, he said.
Moussa sounded cautiously optimistic there would be allies in the new government, but she did not expect them to move fast.
"They promised they would study it, but we don't know when," said Ely.
For countless young rape victims in Mauritania, the legal system remains a source of bewilderment. Some could barely articulate their confusion at having been raped then punished.
Source: Quartz Africa
Mobile phones have become widespread all over the world, including in rural and low-income communities. As research shows, these devices have the potential to bring about significant societal change – a fact acknowledged in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
But while the promising role that mobile phones and other Information and Communication Technologies could play in empowering women – particularly in Africa – has long been discussed, relatively little is known about how, when, and why this happens.
We conducted a study with women from the Nigerian city of Kano to see how they were using the mobile messaging service WhatsApp. We wanted to know whether the app had opened up opportunities and freedoms that contributed to empowering them.
Many women said that WhatsApp had allowed them to communicate better, particularly with local politicians. They felt empowered to talk about their concerns openly in WhatsApp discussion groups. And they had more access to information. Others joined religious study groups on WhatsApp, sharing questions and knowledge with other women. Some women converted their access into opportunity. For instance, they advertised small businesses or services on WhatsApp groups, and earned money as a result.
The women in our study were able to use WhatsApp groups to push the barriers of societal norms that typecast them in gendered roles of mothers and housewives. Using this technology, they were able to become agents of their own change as well as make and exercise choices.
Women in Kano
Kano is a predominantly Muslim community. It is in Kano state, which has one of Nigeria’s highest smartphone densities—about 7.81 million of the country’s 60 million smartphone users live there.
First, we identified two women leaders in community groups to help us find participants for the study. These were selected based on how actively they were engaged in community groups. They also needed to own a smart mobile phone. We did interviews and focus groups with a diverse group of women, asking how they used WhatApp and what benefits they felt this had.
Some had become more politically empowered. Murja’atu*, a 34-year-old housewife, said:
Initially I always wondered on how to communicate with elected officers especially those of them located in Abuja. We only saw them during the election period but now this online group allows me to interact with them more frequently using the women leader as the intermediary.
Her experience was echoed by 28-year-old Safiya, a shop owner:
Our senator made some certain promises during his election campaign after some time we still had not heard from him. I posted it on the group and other members picked up on it, we kept at it till the woman leader passed on our message. Some of the issues have been addressed now.
The inexpensive and simple form of sharing information on the groups enhanced women’s ability to learn and get clarification about concepts that were unclear to them. In other cases they were able to get help with their children’s homework. This was mentioned repeatedly in the focus group session as one of the things women valued the most about being part of a WhatsApp group.
WhatsApp also proved to be a valuable source of information about health and safety. For example, 41-year-old Asabe, one of the community group leaders, shared this story:
A husband of one of our group members is a health worker, so she regularly posts information regarding health practices, during the last cholera outbreak, I learnt of it from the post she made. It includes preventive measures such as washing vegetables thoroughly, adding salt while washing and boiling water before drinking.
The focus groups participants repeatedly mentioned that WhatsApp groups made them feel like part of a community. There was a strong commitment to working together and solving problems.
Economic opportunities
The WhatsApp group forums have also enabled the women to conduct business sales by marketing their products and services. These entrepreneurs usually send photos of the products and services to prospective clients to have a precise image of what they are planning to buy. A customer is allowed to choose the method of payment and also the method of delivery.
These business women have also used WhatsApp to reach out to their customers on changes in prices. With the current economic situation in country, market prices fluctuate on a daily basis. The women use the forum as a platform where they can post and discuss changes in market prices.
The women now have greater access to customers all over Nigeria. One said:
I met a lady that lives in Yola (910 kms away from Kano) through WhatsApp and now she has become one of my most trusted and loyal customers, I send her products worth thousands of Naira and I have never met her physically before.
Postings about jobs and vacancies also formed part of the discussion in these WhatsApp groups. These jobs included household jobs, events and catering. Those who were interested usually contact the employers and interviews were arranged using WhatsApp voice and video calls.
Positive impacts
The findings of this study show that income generation, saving opportunities, expansion of businesses were all economic capabilities that were expanded and afforded to the women by the use of mobile phones.
The use of mobile phones also led to other capabilities that covered other aspects of human development and that have different impacts on the lives of these women and their communities.
Source: ThisisAfrica
What is Trokosi?
Trokosi is a traditional system where virgin girls, some as young as six years old, are sent into Troxovi shrines (shrines for gods) as slaves to make amends for wrongs committed by a member of the virgin girl’s family. Until the Trokosi system came to the attention of the general public in the 1990s, girls sent to the shrines stayed for life. After the 90’s some of the priests and elders were willing to let the girls go back home after a few years, for a few months, but had to return whenever they were sent for. When they die, the family must replace her with another virgin girl. This means that the family will pay reparation, of one girl, forever.
Read more ...
Source: AllAfrica
El Geneina — The lack of representation of women in the new government of West Darfur has led to large-scale protests by women leaders in the state.
On Tuesday, the Governor of West Darfur, Hussein Yasin, announced his new cabinet, consisting of five ministries, all headed by men.
Yasin said that the Sudanese state governors recently pledged to President Omar Al Bashir that the state governments will serve the people, not the rulers.
The priorities of the new West Darfur government will focus on promoting peace, fighting poverty, and developing the economy in the state "to reflect positively on the life of the people".
Ministry for Women
Women leaders in West Darfur reacted to the men-only government by threatening to suspend the political, social, and cultural work women are doing in the state, until they are well represented in decision-making positions.
On Thursday, they called for the establishment of a Ministry for Women, in addition to the appointment of women as commissioners and general managers.
The women demanded the West Darfur government "to urgently respond" to their demands.
The #MeToo movement has been lauded for helping women to report their abusers. Sadly, this isn't much help to women in Africa.
The #MeToo campaign has given mostly Western women confidence to speak up about violence at the hands of men, but in Africa, women say stigma and victim-blaming still keep many silent.
Fiercely patriarchal societies and religious and traditional views on the role of women means even complaining about domestic violence is an uphill battle, let alone bringing down abusive men in power, activists say.
In Kenya, a confident and bubbly 40-year-old psychologist – who, tellingly, asked to remain anonymous – told AFP she was stunned when a former boyfriend slapped her in the face in front of his family.
Their reaction was that he had a “hot temper”. Later, much to her surprise, five of her close friends revealed they too had been abused in relationships.
“If even that is ‘normal’ and we don’t talk about it, how does the #MeToo movement… how do we interact with that?” she asked.
Like others interviewed by AFP, she said the #MeToo movement had prompted more discussions about women’s rights and sharing stories of sexual assault, but mostly in private WhatsApp groups or Facebook chats rather than publicly. The psychologist said:
“The issues definitely affect (us) but the blame is always shifted back onto the woman, that it is her fault, her dressing, her speech or she needs to be taught a lesson because she is too strong. It’s not only men but women who are thinking that way.”
Archaic attitudes towards abuse
Nevertheless, in the year since #MeToo went viral, there have been cases in which women have spoken up or refused to be silenced.
In March in Uganda, angry women took to Twitter to call for the resignation of MP Onesmus Twinamasiko who gave a television interview encouraging men to beat their wives to “discipline” them.
“Yeah, you need to do a little beating, it shows the love even,” he said.
He later apologised but did not face any consequences. His view is not uncommon in Uganda. A government report published in 2016 showed that one in five female Ugandans between the age of 14 and 49 had reported physical or sexual violence within a 12-month period.
When female lawmaker Sylvia Rwabwogo pressed charges against a man who stalked and harassed her for eight months leading to his jailing in June for two years, she faced a backlash of criticism and mockery from Ugandans sympathising with the “lovestruck” student.
“The fact we can attack an MP who has been a victim of sexual harassment… instead of asking ourselves what is wrong here, we are not yet there,” said activist Rosebell Kagumire.
Sex for marks
As discussions about male abuse of power trickle through, an increasing number of reports have emerged of university lecturers in Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria coercing female students into having sex with them for higher marks.
In Uganda, this led to several suspensions this year, while in Sierra Leone 71 people – including teachers and pupils – were arrested last month for “exam malpractice”.
“One of my science teachers demanded sex for a favourable grade after our final exams a year ago,” a second-year student at the Freetown Teachers College told AFP on condition of anonymity.
A secondary school pupil, named Elizabeth, said she had faced several sexual advances but “never complained about it for fear of reprisals from teachers”.
A report on the safety of girls and young women released this week by Plan International listed Johannesburg, Kampala, Lima, Nairobi and Bamako as the top five most risky cities in the world for sexual assault and rape.
Kampala was the most dangerous for kidnap and murder, and Kampala and Nairobi were fifth and sixth respectively in terms of the risk of sexual harassment.
#MeToo: Is the law on their side?
Wangechi Wachira, head of the Centre for Rights Education and Awareness (CREAW) in Kenya, said that while the #MeToo movement resonated with women, many were unwilling to follow through with complaints due to an unsympathetic justice system, lack of support and burden of proof being on the victim. She said:
“The whole system that needs to be supporting you is trying to traumatise you more. Most workplaces do not even have mechanisms to deal with sexual harassment complaints.”
Monica Godiva Akullo, a Ugandan lawyer and activist, pointed out that many of the challenges faced by African women were global, despite the #MeToo movement coming from “rich, famous women”.
She referred to the case of US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, whose alleged sexual assault victim Christine Blasey Ford was mocked by President Donald Trump himself at a political rally.
“From Uganda to the US, our societies still don’t believe women,” she said.
Source: Nation
Jane Kiano, a former chairperson of the Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation (MYWO), has died at the age of 74 in Nairobi Hospital after a long battle with cancer, her family says. Kiano took over the leadership of MYWO in 1971. The organisation fights for women's economic, social and political rights.
Ms Jane Kiano, a former chairperson of Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation (MYWO), has died aged 74 at the Nairobi Hospital after a long battle with cancer, her family says.
"She battled bravely against lung cancer and we are very proud of her...May her legacy continue to inspire young women and girls from all corners of this country. We are sure that she now walks with the angels," said a statement released by the family.
The family representative, Mr Irungu Houghton, said she died at 10:25pm.
Ms Kiano was the widow of Dr Julius Gikonyo Kiano, a former Cabinet minister, nationalist and Kenya's first PhD holder.
She had over 40 years of voluntary public service and leadership in the women's movement.
Ms Kiano served as the MYWO chairperson between 1971-1984 but was recently serving as the organisation's patron alongside Mama Ngina Kenyatta.
Besides spearheading women's justice, Ms Kiano also served as a commissioner in the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, a body which was created after the deadly 2007/8 post-election violence to promote peaceful co-existence among Kenya's diverse ethnic groups.
Source: Reuters
Government and rebel forces in South Sudan abducted hundreds of women and girls this year and many have been raped and forced into sexual slavery, the U.N. mission to the country said on Tuesday.
Other young people were forced to become child soldiers, according to a report by the U.N. Mission in South Sudan, which said that many of those abducted remain in the hands of their captors.
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Ethiopia on Thursday appointed a woman to the largely ceremonial position of president for the first time, further increasing female representation in the government of Africa's second most populous nation.
In a unanimous vote, Ethiopian lawmakers picked career diplomat Sahle-Work Zewde, 68, to replace Mulatu Teshome who resigned in unclear circumstances.
Ethiopia's reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last week appointed a slimline 20-person cabinet in which half the posts are held by women.
They include defence minister Aisha Mohammed and Muferiat Kamil who leads the newly created Ministry of Peace, responsible for police and domestic intelligence agencies.
"If the current change in Ethiopia is headed equally by both men and women, it can sustain its momentum and realise a prosperous Ethiopia free of religious, ethnic and gender discrimination," Sahle-Work said Thursday.
Sahle-Work, who was born in the capital Addis Ababa and attended university in France, has been Ethiopia's ambassador to France, Djibouti, Senegal and the regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
Just prior to her appointment as president she was the UN's top official at the African Union. She is fluent in English and French as well as Amharic, Ethiopia's main language.
As president she is expected to serve two six-year terms.
Symbolism and influence
"Mulatu has shown us the way for change and hope, he has shown life continues before and after leaving power. I call on others to heed his example and be ready for change," said Sahle-Work in a speech to parliament.
Political power in Ethiopia is wielded by the prime minister with the president's role restricted to attending ceremonies and functions.
Nevertheless, Sahle-Work's position carries important symbolic weight and social influence.
"Government and opposition parties have to understand we are living in a common house and focus on things that unite us, not what divides us, to create a country and generation that will make all of us proud," she said.
"The absence of peace victimises firstly women, so during my tenure I will emphasise women's roles in ensuring peace and the dividends of peace for women."
Sahle-Work becomes Africa's only serving female head of state, albeit in a ceremonial role.
A handful of African countries have in the recent past been led by female presidents with executive powers, including Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia (2006-18) and Joyce Banda in Malawi (2012-14).
Banda was elevated to the presidency following the death in office of Bingu wa Mutharika, while Sirleaf won two elections before standing down earlier this year at the end of her constitutionally mandated terms.
Source: CNN
It happens twice a year at Arusha Secondary School. Each one of the school's 800 female students is accompanied into a toilet and told to pee in a jar. Outside the cubicle, a teacher waits to make sure the samples are not swapped.
The girls are taking compulsory pregnancy tests. And if they come back positive, the student is expelled immediately.
The tests have been happening at this school, for students from grades eight and up, for three years.
CNN visited two other schools in the Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions where similar testing took place; three more schools confirmed the tests in phone interviews.
Elifuraha, who CNN is referring to by her first name, finds it difficult to talk about the shame she felt when teachers at the Moshono Secondary School in Arusha, summoned her for a mandatory pregnancy test.
"All the students were called in a room and the female teachers started to inspect us... they were touching our stomachs," the 19-year-old mother told CNN, as a tear rolled down her cheek.
She knew she was pregnant, but was trying hard to hide her growing stomach. After admitting her pregnancy, she was immediately expelled.
Tanzania uses a morality clause in a 2002 education law to give schools the legal framework needed to expel students -- the practice originally dates back to the 1960s. The law has been more widely applied since President John Pombe Magufuli took office in 2015.
Last June, Magufuli, dubbed "The Bulldozer," went a step further, announcing that pregnant students would not be allowed to return to school after giving birth.
"In my administration as the President no pregnant girl will go back to school... she has chosen that of kind life, let her take care of the child," he said at a public rally in 2017. His speech removed any discretion schools had over how they enforced the morality rule.
There are no official statistics on how many pregnant girls have been expelled from Tanzanian schools. The US-based Center for Reproductive Rights, an international advocacy group, estimated in 2013 that over 8,000 pregnant girls were being expelled or dropped out from Tanzanian schools every year.
The Presidential decree last year goes directly against the previous government's efforts to introduce a school re-entry policy for teenage mothers.
Anna Ulimboka, a nurse who oversees the pregnancy testing in Arusha Secondary School, says the tests are a good thing. And many of her students agree.
Several girls told CNN they believe the tests are in place to protect them and they view them as a normal part of their school experience.
"Before we started testing them, so many girls used to get pregnant, while they were in school, but after seeing that they were being tested before and after going for their holidays, it makes them avoid relationships with boys," Ulimboka said.
CNN visited the school accompanied by officials from Tanzania's Ministry of Health, and the regional government office. Speaking in the presence of the officials, Ulimboka said the tests and the policy of expelling pregnant students were necessary.
"(A pregnant girl) is a bad example to other students," she said. "The others will learn that even if we mess up, we shall be allowed back to school."
However, Ulimboka said she felt bad for girls who had been expelled.
"I always advise them that even if they get pregnant that's not the end, and that they should not give up."
Shilinde Ngalula, a lawyer with Legal and Human Rights Centre in Tanzania, said forcing pregnant girls out of school violates Tanzania's constitution, which includes the right to education.
"Because of the order of the President, you expel them...you are punishing them without even considering how she got pregnant," he said.
"There are many instances of rape...a girl might find herself pregnant because of rape, because of assault or forced marriages, it is not her fault."
NGOs have been forced to abandon campaigning on the issue with the Legal and Human Rights Centre one of the last in Tanzania still speaking out against Magufuli's platform.
In July 2017, opposition MP Halima Mdee was arrested for denouncing the President for the ban on pregnant schoolgirls, which she also claims is contrary to the constitution. Her case was highlighted by the US State Department's report into human rights in Tanzania as one of the examples of a crackdown on Magufuli's critics.
"If you speak against the government order, and especially against the order of the president, you are in trouble...it is really easy for an NGO to be deregistered, it's a threat," Ngalula said.
Alongside Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone also deny pregnant girls and adolescent mothers the right to study in public schools, which advocates say goes against the human rights treaties that all three countries have signed.
"It squarely falls within the definition of a violation of not just the right to education but also other rights of girls," said Elin Martinez, children's rights expert at Human Rights Watch.
All three countries have repeatedly found themselves under international pressure to repeal the policy. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other international organizations appealed to the Tanzanian government to change the rules.
Several human rights organizations have also recently launched a court case against Sierra Leone over its policy.
CNN has reached out to the Tanzanian government for comment, but has not yet received reply. The governments of Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea have also not responded to requests for comment.
In Tanzania, while pregnancy testing remains a regular part of school life, Magufuli's administration has also launched a crackdown on family planning.
At a public rally in September, the President urged women to stop using contraception to increase Tanzania's population and called those using birth control "lazy."
A few weeks later, the government ordered the suspension of family planning advertisements on TV and radio stations in the country.
Because standalone sex education is not on the national curriculum in Tanzania, many girls don't learn that having sex can lead to becoming pregnant.
Eighteen-year-old Lilian was one of them. She got pregnant when she was 16.
Lilian holds her daughter Favor at the Faraja Center. Lilian is learning tailoring and hair braiding in the hopes of getting a job when she leaves the shelter.
"There are [some women] who get to be educated and understand that sex before marriage has consequences...yet others don't have a clue. In my case I had no knowledge and that is why I got pregnant."
Around a quarter of Tanzanian girls aged between 15 and 19 are mothers or pregnant. Child marriage is still prevalent in the country -- 37% of women aged 20 to 24 having been married before they turned 18, according to official data from 2010, the latest available. More than a quarter of girls married before the age of 19 have husbands who are 10 or more years older, according to the same survey.
The ban on pregnant students is one of the ways Magufuli wants to tackle the teenage pregnancy problem.
Magufuli says that pregnant girls and young mothers would set a bad example for other pupils.
Boys and men who impregnate school girls face prison sentences of up to 30 years. Local media and NGOs have reported arrests of pregnant girls who were not willing to disclose the identity of the men who impregnated them.
In Ghona School near Moshi in the north-east of the country, students are reminded of the harsh realities every day.
Calendars depicting a crying pregnant girl in a school uniform can be found in almost every classroom. In the scene, the girl is being turned away from school, her parents, her community and the government.
She liked studying chemistry, biology and geography and knowing she wouldn't be allowed back into school was devastating.
"I wanted to achieve my goals, but I was forced to cut them short, stay at home and wait for another opportunity," she said.
Lilian and her daughter Favor now live at the Faraja Center, a shelter for vulnerable women and young mothers, many of whom have been kicked out of school as a result of their pregnancy.
Like the rest of the shelter's residents, Lilian is learning tailoring and hair braiding. It's a far cry from studying science, but it will help her get a job after she leaves the shelter.
And she hasn't completely given up on her dreams just yet. She has kept her physics notebook, wrapped in plain brown paper. She is hoping she will, one day, be allowed to return to school and retake the class.
No public school is allowed to re-admit Lilian and tuition at the few private schools that could still accept her cost around $800 a year. Her only option is to find a sponsor, or get a place in one of the handful of NGO-funded schools in the country.
Like Lilian, Elifuraha also had big plans that she put aside when she became pregnant.
Elifuraha dreamed of joining the Tanzanian army, but didn't complete enough schooling to meet the requirements before she was expelled.
"If things were not the way they are, I would love to go back to school," she said.
Source: DAILY NATION
The World Health Organisation and the United Nations have warned doctors and communities against performing virginity tests on girls and women, saying the medically unnecessary and harmful procedure violates human rights and ethical standards.
"The practice, more so after rape, leads to re-experience, re-traumatisation and re-victimisation,” WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Family, Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health Nothemba Simelela said.
“Given that these procedures are unnecessary and potentially harmful, it is unethical for doctors or other health providers to undertake them. Such procedures must never be carried out,” she added.
In a joint statement issued during the World Congress of Gynaecology and Obstetrics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Thursday, the organisations called for a ban of practices that are unscientific and violate human rights.
During virginity testing, also known as the “two-finger” test, a doctor inserts two of his fingers into a woman/girl's vagina to feel the hymen, a thin membrane covering it, which some communities believe remains intact until a girl/woman has sex.
But some women are born without a hymen, and the membrane can also be ruptured if a girl engages in certain sports or uses a tampon.
Women and girls are often forced to undergo virginity tests for various reasons, including requests by parents or potential partners to establish their suitability for marriage, and sometimes even by potential employers — the military, for instance — to determine their eligibility.
The tests have also been performed when women are accused of immorality or have run away from home.
They are mostly performed by doctors, police officers, or community leaders (old women) to assess a girl's/woman's, honour or social value.
In their statement, the UN bodies explained that the practice has “no scientific or clinical basis”, and that “there is no examination that can prove a girl or woman has had sex”, since the “appearance of girl’s or woman’s hymen cannot prove that she has had sex or is sexually active.
“Many women suffer from adverse short- and long-term physical, psychological and social consequences of this practice. This includes anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress.
"In extreme cases, women or girls may attempt suicide or be killed in the name of “honour”, Dr Simelela said.
She noted that the examination can be “painful, humiliating and traumatic” and reinforces stereotyped notions of female sexuality and gender inequality.
“The social expectation that girls and women should remain “virgins” (that is, without having sexual intercourse) is based on stereotyped notions that female sexuality should be curtailed within marriage. This notion is harmful to women and girls globally,” she added.
In Kenya, virginity testing is classified as domestic violence under family protection laws.
Source: Pulitzer Center
More than a thousand people were killed in a deadly landslide in Regent, a mountainous town in Sierra Leone, six miles from the capital, Freetown.
Musu Jabbie, a mother of five, lost her husband during last year’s catastrophe along with her sister, who left behind three children. Now with eight children to care for, Jabbie, 35, is doing remedial work at the same site that claimed the lives of her closest relatives.
“It’s not easy, but I am grateful,” Jabbie said.
The re-building project comes months after a torrential rainstorm filled the crevices along the vulnerable soil of Sugar Loaf Mountain causing the land to swell, according to Nicholas Gardner, a civil engineer with the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS). The pressure from that swelling caused trees and boulders to break away from the mountainside, creating a tsunami of water and mud which flowed down the mountain to the valley and into the sea. The displacement of more than 3,000 residents pales only to the many who lost their lives.
More than a year later, the road to recovery is still in the making. Some initiatives on the ground are addressing the deforestation issue along with the area’s economic disparity—the two factors many believe caused the landslide.
Along this section of the mountainside, trees were removed to accommodate rapid development. According to Gardner, mass tree clearing destabilizes the ground extracting roots which help to bind the soil.
As a builder, Jabbie’s husband Musa Jabbie was on site acting as caretaker for one of the properties.
Now, Jabbie, is one of 15 women laborers working mountainside to rebuild it. A UNOPS initiative—looking to equalize the gender gap in the workforce—called for hiring an equal number of men and women to help restore the shattered mountainside.
UNOPS enlisted the help of a local employment agency to hire workers in the area. Jam Holding began their search in neighborhoods most impacted by the landslide. The company’s president, Ibrahim F. Nyomeh, asked elders within the community to submit names of people interested in post-landslide remediation, a process that followed a series of one-on-one interviews.
Jabbie of Gbangagila was among 150 women to apply.
During the implementation phase of the project the women maintained roles as site laborers and site wardens. As laborers, Jabbie and her coworkers were tasked to dig holes andremove and cart materials they found buried inside the mountain. Automobile parts, lumber, and cement blocks were some of their finds. Prying the iron rods and mesh embedded in the collapsed houses—at times with hacksaws—was, for all the workers, the most daunting.
When body parts were discovered, the Ministry of Health was contacted to avoid contamination.
(From L to R) Jinnah Vormboi, Musu Jabbie, at Fatmata Sheriff listen to instructions from Trudy Morgan (not shown) at the Regent work site on Sugar Loaf Mountain. Image by Kadia Goba. Sierra Leone, 2018.
In the second phase, the ground crew will plant 10 to 15 thousand trees covering a little more than 22 thousand acres of land.
Both men and women shared the 25 sets of protective gear: plastic safety boots that came within a size or two of the women’s actual shoe sizes, safety vests, and hard hats over khimars.
“Any work they do, we do,” said Jabbie, who has since moved to Motormeh after her home at the foot of the mountain was destroyed. “When they dig, we dig. When they cut, we cut.”
All the women come from Mortomeh or the neighboring villages of Kaningo, Gbangbagila and Pentagon where they say work opportunities post-landslide have since shriveled up. The labor intensive job coupled with the sweltering heat and humidity of a coastal country doesn’t negate the other responsibilities many of the women still hold.
“We still cook for our children, we still feed them,” said Jabbie. “Just because I work all day doesn’t mean that I get to go home and relax.”
Overall, the gender disparity among Sierra Leonean workers is minimal, according to a 2015 joint report from International Labour Report, World Bank and Statistics Sierra Leone. But while the number of men and women are employed equally, many of these jobs are in agriculture or street vending. Fewer than 10 percent of Sierra Leoneans are in wage employment according to the same report. And within that small group, educational attainment is relative in obtaining those positions.
In the same report, the literacy rate among men is more than double that of women, with men accounting for 64 percent of the country’s literacy rate compared to 32 percent of women.
Graph courtesy of Sierra Leone 2014 Labor Force Report, a collaborative research project from: Statistics Sierra Leone, World Bank Group and International Labour Organization. Sierra Leone, 2018.
Trudy Morgan is among the 10 percent in wage employment. The native Sierra Leonean is the Technical Coordinator for the Sugar Loaf restoration project. Morgan graduated from the University of Sierra Leone with an engineering degree and has an MBA from Cranfield School of Management.
“For me, coming back to Sierra Leone is an opportunity to work with young women,” said Morgan who has over 30 years of experience in the industry working with a U.K. firm for the past decade.
Morgan described the women as “more confident” since joining the UNOPS initiative. On site, the women expressed a sense of pride for their work and for the examples they are setting for their children. Although, admittedly, the feedback in their respective villages was split, some labeling the women as heroes while others scoffed at the idea of doing men’s work.
As for Jabbie, she eagerly awaits the end of the rainy season so she can get back to work to tackle the planting phase of the project.
“We only survive from gestures from friends,” Jabbie said. “If nothing is available, we sleep on empty stomachs.”
In a powerful new documentary, film-makers follow the lives of Nigerian girls freed after being kidnapped by Boko Haram
In 2014, the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign transfixed people around the world concerned about the plight of 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram.
More than four years later, the spotlight shines back on their plight, and that of thousands of women like them, in the documentary Stolen Daughters: Kidnapped by Boko Haram, premiering on HBO.
The wrenching film follows two Chibok girls freed in 2017 and two women who, like thousands of others, were kidnapped but are known as “forgotten girls” because they weren’t captured in a high-profile event.
Karen Edwards, a writer and producer of the documentary, told the Guardian that the Chibok girls were a symbol for a much larger problem in north-east Nigeria.
“Most families have been touched by Boko Haram, nobody is immune from it,” said Edwards. “It’s so widespread, there is fear they’ve [people kidnapped] been radicalized but there is also an element of commonality that if it hasn’t happened to them it is only by the grace of God.”
Boko Haram has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced at least 2 million. Mines laid by Boko Haram killed 162 people in two years and wounded 277, according to a report released last month. This week, a Boko Haram faction killed an aid worker. And 112 Chibok girls are still missing.
The girls released last year are the focus of the documentary, which provides an exclusive look at the safe house where they have lived, their first time being reunited with family and the moment they meet their former classmates, who continued their studies while they were in captivity.
The Forgotten Girls, meanwhile, try to recover their lives in Maiduguri, a city targeted repeatedly by Boko Haram, scraping by on support from aid groups. They must also confront a community worried that the women, as well as men and children kidnapped by the group, have returned radicalized.
“The community in Maiduguri has been really stoic in opening up their doors to refugees and providing shelter,” said producer Sasha Joelle Achilli. “There’s a bit of both: there’s the fear and stigma attached to the people who have been living with Boko Haram and there’s also just great openness and generosity to help the other.”
The stories and scenes from Maiduguri provide a less varnished look at terrors Boko Haram is still carrying out against Nigerians, while the Chibok girls story is more focused on rehabilitation.
This is largely because of restrictions Nigeria’s government put on the production.
In an early scene, the head teacher at the safe house gathers the Chibok girls to announce the film crew has arrived. She explains to the girls that the film-makers have been told not to ask about their experience with Boko Haram. “Do not tell them about what happened in the forest,” she warns.
Despite those warnings, a sliver of their experience comes through from anonymized diaries girls shared with the film-makers.
“The fact that the Chibok girls were kept for three and a half years is an embarrassment to the Nigerian government,” Edwards explained. “They don’t want the world thinking too much about that or what might have happened to them … They want the world to see the Chibok girls are being looked after, want for nothing, they get food and dresses made for them, that they are very safe and secure, and that’s what they want the world to see.”
Edwards said the girls did say they felt safe there and were grateful for the government’s protection because they are still scared of Boko Haram. “It’s a complex situation but we made sure we were honest with the audience that this is the condition and this is how they’re being told not to talk about it,” Edwards said.
Because the Chibok girls are warned away from disclosing what happened to them at the hands of Boko Haram, it’s the Forgotten Girls who offer a glimpse of what happened in the forest.
A woman called Zahra, whose name was changed for safety reasons, explains what responsibilities Boko Haram gave women in the three months she was there: caring for the sick, helping those who were pregnant and helping to kidnap more women.
It’s the latter activity that appears to have shaken Zahra most, as she describes a violent attack that happened during a kidnapping she was enlisted to help with under the threat of death.
Zahra tells the story of what happened to a 14-year-old kidnap victim in a few sentences, each worse than the one that came before, then concludes: “I will never forget her all of my life.”
Ghanaian networker Flossy Menson champions the cause of Africa's women. The SHEROES Foundation director is hosting the non-profit's 2018 forum in Liberia. She tells DW about her efforts to make women more visible.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Joyce Banda, the ex-presidents of Liberia and Malawi respectively, current first ladies, entrepreneurs and activists from across the continent have rubbed shoulders at the non-profit's latest forum in Monrovia on October 17 to 19. Several of them, including Menson who founded SHEROES in 2012, took to the podium to share their personal stories and ideas for the advancement of women in Africa.
DW: How did the SHEROES Foundation come about?
Flossy Menson: I used to look at the (Forbes Most) Powerful 100 Women every year and I never saw an African Woman until 2006 or 2009. It was mostly American and British women. There was one African woman and I think her name was Luisa Diogo. I had never seen a Black woman (on the list) until I saw her at number 96. I was happy that she was there.
The women were there. Do you know that statistically there has been seven female presidents in Africa? Many people do not know that. So I wanted to do a little research about this powerful African woman. Incidentally, Luisa Diogo was the prime minister of Mozambique but I had never heard of her. What I realized was that we do have great women like this in Africa, but we don't talk about them.
So we started a search to find these great women and start honoring them to let our young women see these great women, because what you visualize is what you can interpret and know that you can do it.
If I am looking for great women, what better way than to have conferences where they can come and talk directly to the people. You meet them, you've heard about them or may see them in a book, but maybe far remote from you. When you come to a conference one gets to interact with them, so that's now we started.
Perhaps Africa's women presidents were not telling their stories?
Even if they told the stories, Madam Sirleaf is the only president always mentioned because she was democratically elected. Most of them came into the space like Dr Joyce Banda. When the president died, she became president. She wasn't elected.
That's the issue with women. If a man moves into that position as president, everybody hails him and if a woman gets there, everyone would say she was vice president. I think we were not telling our stories and we the women were not standing to support the women.
We need to change the narratives so people know that women are doing positive things and that women are supporting each other and stop saying that women don't support each other.
Tell us more about the SHEROES network and where it is visible.
We started out from Ghana, and we are visible in Nigeria and now we are launching a chapter here in Liberia. We are in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. We have had our forums in different places and we've even had it in Durban. We just congregate with women. We have seven chapters, with Liberia now. In Cameroon were are just trying to set up.
What do you hope to achieve across Africa?
A network of women, a sisterhood in Africa because I think if (Liberian) Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor is doing well here, we should be able to bring girls from anywhere in Africa to come here to be able to see her. I love a picture that (Barack) Obama had in his office when he was a (US) president, which shows a little black boy who came to the White House and all he wanted was to touch the president's hair to see if it was like his own because he had never seen a person whose hair was like his in the White House.
I think sometimes we have to see them and if she's in Liberia, it doesn't mean that it doesn't touch a young girl in Ghana or in Nigeria. That means she looks like you, she talks like you and she can do great things; why can't you? We are here to support any woman who wants to throw her head into the rank of leadership. It's not just political or corporate. The more women we have, the more we rejoice. It's not that we want to keep the men out, but we want equal representation because we make up 50 per cent of the world's population.
The under-representation of women is still a huge challenge. What gains has SHEROES made in this regard?
That conversation needs to be taken to the higher ups. Slavery did not end in a day. You are going to keep having the conversation until people begin to feel comfortable and want to change it. The problem of Africa is everybody just wants that the man should be at the top. Do you know how difficult it is to go into Nigeria where the man is everything? Of course we are also having to deal the churches which say that the man is the head.
How do you change that mentality? That doesn't happen in a day, so let's keep having the conversation. Let's see what we can change in small ways to make our lives better. If we show up many times for young girls and they start seeing it, it may change in our lifetime. It is changing over time - many women are jumping into politics and owning their own businesses. Maybe we can see the benefits more in five years, but we have to keep talking. Some of the women we've supported are now in politics.
They were women we saw who had potential but did not know where to get support, so we came with support. I think we can account for 10 women in politics and 27 percent of women in parliament in Ghana. Most SHEROES chapters are now just starting.
