Saudi Arabia has re-arrested women’s rights campaigner Loujain al-Hathloul, who is best known for her defiance of the kingdom’s driving ban. Ms Al-Hathloul was detained at King Fahad International Airport in Dammam on the country’s east coast near the border with Bahrain on 4 June and is expected to be taken to Riyadh for questioning by the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution. She has had no access to a lawyer and has not been allowed to contact her family, Amnesty International reported. The exact reason for her arrest has not been made public but Amnesty said they believe it is due to her human rights activism in the country. The 27-year-old is most famous for defying the kingdom’s ban on female drivers after attempting to drive into Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates. Following the stunt, she was arrested and detained by the Saudi authorities for 73 days. She…

As a humanitarian and political crisis in neighbouring Venezuela deepens, a growing number of Venezuelan women are working in bars and brothels across Colombia. “I didn’t do this in Venezuela. I never ever imagined I’d be doing this in Colombia,” said Maria, who declined to give her real name, to Reuters. She charges $17 for 15-minutes of sex, and the money earned is spent on buying medicine for her mother who has cancer. For the past year, she has travelled back and forth from Bogota to Venezuela’s capital Caracas every 90 days, before her tourist visa expires, carrying medicine, food, and soap. “I’m ashamed I have to do this. It’s a secret,” said Maria, 26, who has told her family she is a travelling salesperson. Venezuelan migrants are often lured by false promises of well-paid work in Colombia’s restaurants and bars or as domestic workers. But then they find they…

A joint report by the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and the charity Young Lives has revealed that the number of child brides in India’s urban areas – including in some urban districts of Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka – are on the rise. The study, which relies on Census 2011 data, found that even though the number has declined by 0.7% in rural areas since 2001, there has been a rise of 0.3% in India’s cities and towns, challenging the commonly held belief that the practice of child marriage is largely prevalent in the country’s rural areas. According to a Thompson Reuters Foundation report, the study is the first to break down census data on child marriage and claims that nearly one in four girls in rural areas and one in five in urban areas were married before the age of 18. Renu Singh, the country director of Young Lives, told Reuters that…

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Tuesday, hosted the leader of a Nigerian female movement group on social media called “females in Nigeria” (FIN) in Chicago. Mrs Lola Omotola founded FIN in the year 2005, with the motive of gathering 1000 women from across the country to teach them to stand for each in love and trust, while helping to pursue each other’s goal through humanitarian support irrespective of tribe, beliefs, religion, profession and status. FIN is also a platform where these women come together to discuss issues related to marriage, sex, health issues and work problem, without criticisms or judgment. Fortunately, the group recently hit one million members exceeding its original target and has attracted Mr Mark’s attention. As a result of the positive result, Mr. Mark has decided to meet with many other Facebook group admins including Mrs Lola, who have been building positive Facebook communities in a summit…

In a recent campaign event in Wolverhampton, Prime Minister Theresa May talked about “strong and stable” leadership during Brexit. Ms. May was also asked a question she might not have expected. “Prime Minister, you say you’ll be a ‘difficult woman’ when it comes to these Brexit negotiations, but isn’t it true that you’ve also had a difficult election over your social care policy? “It has worried voters and polling suggests that female voters are turning away from you. Are you a female prime minister with a women problem?” Ms. May laughed. She replied that the Conservatives will take away risk on social care, allow older people to keep their homes by implementing a cap on what how much they will have to pay for care. Ms. May was accused last week of making a U-turn on social care by implementing a cap on how much people should pay, after her…

Liberia’s Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Julia Duncan Cassell says the untapped potential of women in health has undermined the contribution they could make to effective leadership for health systems strengthening globally. Minister Cassell attributed this approach to what she observed as the low representation of women in health leadership which has significant implications for population health. Speaking at the International Council of Nurses Program at the 2017 Congress and share experience on sustainable healthcare and empowering women under the theme, “Nurses at the Forefront Transforming Care” in Barcelona Spain on Monday, May 29, Minister Cassell said leaderships in health require unique competencies to compete with their male counterparts. She asserted that having women leaders in nursing can help motivate student nurses on how to unlock their potentials by identifying the challenges, highlighting role models, and sharing successful strategies used to become effective health leaders. “I want to…

Japanese lawmakers reached an accord Tuesday on a resolution to study letting women remain in the Imperial family and establish their own branches after marriage. The draft resolution, to be added to a bill designed to pave the way for Emperor Akihito’s abdication, says that the creation of female-led family branches is “an important matter that cannot be postponed.” It calls for discussion to begin quickly after the legislation is implemented and for the results to be reported speedily to the Diet. Current law stipulates that female Imperial family members who wed commoners lose their royal status. This version of the resolution was presented Monday by Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Tsutomu Sato, chairman of the lower house’s Committee on Rules and Administration. The heads of the committee’s contingents from the ruling LDP and the opposition Democratic Party agreed on the draft Tuesday. The ruling coalition aims to have the committee…