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Happenings

Indonesia: Woman Flogged for Standing too Close to Boyfriend

An Indonesian woman has been caned in front of a jeering crowd after being accused of “standing too close to her boyfriend”. The woman, who has not been identified, was among 13 people flogged in Aceh province on the western island of Sumatra for allegedly breaking strict Islamic laws, which ban intimate behaviour such as touching, hugging, and kissing between unmarried people. Photographs of the young woman crying out in pain have been shared by local and international media, amid growing concerns over the rising number of people — particularly women — subjected to corporal punishment in the region. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, but Aceh is the only province which imposes sharia law. People in the region can be flogged for a number of “offences”, including gambling, drinking alcohol, and gay sex, in addition to any consensual sex outside of marriage. Seven men and six women…

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Zimbabwe Workplaces Unsafe for Women

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has revealed that the country’s workplaces remain unsafe for female employees who are stalked by vices such as sexual harassment, job insecurity and lack of empowerment. In a study titled: “Future of Women at Work Initiative,” the ILO established that women are victims of unpaid work, low wage jobs and the ills associated with informal economies such as lack of job security, poor social security and lack of empowerment. With dwindling formal employment and negative job creation, Zimbabwe’s female workers find themselves confronted by traditional challenges, such as sexual harassment, unpaid maternity leave and are generally soft targets during retrenchment and gender discrimination by virtue of being women. According to the study, 30 percent of the country’s employees in the labour force are women. A paltry five percent are in senior management positions with three percent of Zimbabwean boards being chaired by women. Participants drawn…

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Clinton Clinches Third Debate Victory

Hillary Clinton won CNN’s instant poll after the Wednesday’s presidential debate, giving her a clean sweep of her three matchups with Donald Trump. The results from late Wednesday night showed 52 percent of debate watchers calling Clinton the winner compared with 39 percent who thought Trump won the night. Clinton’s 13-point margin is the closest in CNN’s polls of the three debates. She won with a 23-point margin during the second debate, earlier this month, and she won the first debate in September by a 35-point margin. Clinton also bested Trump on the question of who seemed better prepared to be president: She won with 59 percent of the sample compared with 35 percent for Trump. But the two were effectively tied on who seemed more sincere and authentic, as well as whom the respondents agreed with more on important issues. The debate in Las Vegas was the final…

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Awards

The South America- Africa- Middle East- Asia Women Summit (SAMEAWS) 2016

Organisers- Centre for Economic and Leadership Development

Theme – Scaling up the rise of women leaders in emerging economies

Date: 13 December 2016

Overview

In recent times, we are experiencing the dawn of an era where women are incurably committed to taking over the leadership of territories originally renowned for their history of patriarchy, oligarchy and subordination of women.

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Gambia’s First Female Presidential Candidate Calls on Jammeh ‘to go’

Gambia’s first-ever female presidential candidate recently said it was time for President Yahya Jammeh “to go”, promising to rejoin the Commonwealth community and set the country on a path to prosperity. Isatou Touray, a development expert and campaigner against female genital mutilation, railed against the “lavish” lifestyle she said Jammeh enjoyed while ruling one of Africa’s poorest nations, and accused him of sowing division between communities. Jammeh is expected to win a fifth-term at the helm of the poor West African nation in the December election. “(Jammeh’s) style is not only flamboyant and lavish, but gross,” Touray told a press conference announcing her candidacy. “It is time for him to go.” She said she would stand as an independent candidate in the polls, and would “steer the Gambia towards a direction that will enable it to respond to the needs and aspirations of the people”, by focusing on welcoming back…

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India: Supreme Court Orders Blocking of Online Pre-natal Gender Testing Adverts

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft will block online ads for gender determination tools in India, following an order by the country’s top court. India’s health ministry told the Supreme Court that the companies had agreed to block 22 key-words relating to pre-natal gender testing. The court had earlier told the companies to adhere to India’s laws or “cease operations” in the country. India has one of the most unbalanced gender ratios in the world. In 1961, there were 976 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of seven. According to the latest census figures released in 2011, that figure had dropped to 914. The issue prompted India to ban pre-natal sex determination via ultrasound scans in 1994, but many parents still have them done illegally. India outrage over ‘gender test’ remark The petition filed by Sabu George alleged that advertisements and information on pre-natal gender tests and clinics were…

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UN-Women Launches Report Spotlighting Gender Equality in Global Universities

On the sidelines of the 71st United Nations General Assembly, UN Women have recently unveiled a report by 10 global universities that lays out their concrete commitments and charts their progress towards achieving gender parity. The first-ever “HeForShe IMPACT 10x10x10 University Parity Report” highlights three important imbalances that universities can address: the ratio of men to women represented in university faculty and senior administrative positions; the fields of study selected by young women versus young men; and the number of female students at universities compared with their equal access to academic and professional career tracks. “Each generation of university students that emerges from these formative years of education is a new chance for the world to make progress,” said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, in a press release. “Now that our IMPACT Champions are leading such well-targeted initiatives to tackle current barriers to gender equality,…

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