By Judie Kaberia Political parties and the Centre for Multi-party Democracy (CMD) have recently resolved to implement the two thirds gender rule to promote representation of women in political leadership after attempts to enforce it in Parliament flopped. CMD Chairman James Magara said the institution will monitor political parties to ensure they expose those who do not abide by the commitment they made. “Some of us actually play to the gallery. We do not practice what we preach. But the commitment signed here today, I want to assure these members here (political party) mean business and they have appended their signatures in broad daylight; we can bring them to account,” he explained. Magara explained it will be tested by the results of the August General Election. Part of the agreement signed on Tuesday requires parties to nominate not less than 30 percent of women candidates to participate in the August…

Politicians on the right have welcomed a ruling by the EU’s highest court that allows companies to ban staff from wearing visible religious symbols, as a long-awaited legal judgment ricocheted into the French and Dutch election campaigns. In its first decision on the issue of women wearing Islamic headscarves at work, the European court of justice in Luxembourg ruled that garments could be banned, but only as part of a general policy barring all religious and political symbols. Nor can customers simply demand workers remove headscarves if the company has no policy barring religious symbols, the court ruled on Tuesday. The long-awaited ruling came on the eve of Dutch elections, where Muslim immigration has been a contentious issue. In France, where the race to succeed President François Hollande remains wide open, politicians on the right seized on the issue. François Fillon, the presidential candidate who has taken a hardline stance…

Saudi Arabia recently launched its first ever girls’ council meeting with no women in sight. Pictures released to mark the first Qassim Girls Council meeting showed 13 men on stage, and not a single woman. According to the BBC the women were in another room, linked by video. The launch of the initiative was led by Prince Faisal bin Mishal bin Saud, Governor of al-Qassim province, who said he was proud of the conference which was the first of its kind in the kingdom. “In the Qassim region, we look at women as sisters to men, and we feel a responsibility to open up more and more opportunities that will serve the work of women and girls,” he is reported to have said. The girls’ council is chaired by Princess Abir bint Salman, Prince Faisal’s wife. In Saudi Arabia, a state policy of gender segregation is rigorously enforced between unrelated…

Authorities in Florida are investigating the death of a 25-year-old Missouri woman who died after undergoing a cosmetic procedure known as a Brazilian butt lift at a Miami-area surgery center. Ranika Hall, a mother of a 1-year-old daughter from Kansas City, died recently after undergoing surgery at the Eres Plastic Surgery clinic in Hialeah, Florida, police said in a news release. Emergency responders were sent to the clinic about 9 p.m. after fielding a call that Hall was not breathing, according to Hialeah police. She died about an hour later at a hospital. The Miami Herald reports that Hialeah police are investigating with the Florida Department of Health and the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. Hall’s death came nearly a year after Heather Meadows, a 29-year-old West Virginia mother of two, died after a similar procedure at the clinic, which at that time was known as Encore Plastic Surgery. Meadows’ death…