• 'State of African Women'. [African News Dimension, South Africa] Each Friday from now to December, News Dimension will carry statistics on African Women. As examples: There are 600m illiterate women compared to 320m men. Each year of a mother's education corresponds to 5% to 10% lower mortality in children under the age of 5.

• Campaign Tackles Female Circumcision. [Scotsman, UK] Ali is one of an estimated 3 million women and girls who suffer female genital mutilation (FGM) each year. The practice, also known as female circumcision, involves removing part or all of a girl's clitoris or labia. It is often carried out by an older woman with no medical training, using anything from scissors to tin can lids and pieces of glass.

• Ondjiva Hosts Central Act of African Women's Day. [Africa.com] The city of Ondjiva will host the central act on the commemorations of the African Women's Day, to be marked on 31 July. Thus, the delegation led by the minister of Family and Women Promotion, Cāndida Celeste, will travel on July 29 to that city to participate in the commemorative act of the date.

• Women Can Lead. [AllAfrica.com] Women will never make it in positions of leadership until they receive support across the gender divide, delegates were told yesterday. Attorney General Dr Athalia Molokomme said men and women should make it their business to support females. She was speaking at a women in leadership workshop held at Botswana Accountancy College yesterday.

• Minister Reiterates Government Commitment to Women. [AllAfrica.com] Government has reiterated its commitment to effectively undertake a gender mainstreaming exercise to double women's participation in political and decision-making bodies.

Cameroon

• No Law Against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). [AllAfrica.com] FGM, a common practice in Cameroon and about 30 other African nations, can lead to a variety of problems, such as painful intercourse, complications in pregnancy, urinary and reproductive tract infections, death, and HIV infection. Despite this, there is no law against circumcision in Cameroon, even though the right to health is protected by the constitution and the penal code.

• Criminal Adultery is Discriminatory Against Women. [AllAfrica.com] Examination of the code will reveal that, (1) a married woman will be found guilty of adultery if she attempts to have sexual intercourse with a man other than her husband ANY WHERE, whereas under subsection (2) a married man only commits the offence of adultery if the sexual intercourse takes place in the Matrimonial home or Habitually Elsewhere.

• Saving Women From Needless Death. [AllAfrica.com] Concerns raised by some medical experts on the needless death of women through unsafe abortion need to be given prompt national attention to stem the tide of maternal death in the country.

• Women Map Out Strategies for Empowerment. [Public Agenda, Ghana] The Minister for Women and Children Affairs, Hajia Alima Mahama has urged advocates of gender/women empowerment to collaborate to provide support for women empowerment. Hajia Mahama was speaking at a workshop of the "Pathways of Women's Empowerment Project Consortium" in Accra.

• Energy and Water Advocates Must Educate Women on Efficient Use. [Accra Daily Mail] Gender advocates must educate women on energy and water related issues to help them use the resources efficiently. Many rural women spend more than five hours daily in gathering firewood for home use. Women would be capable of making changes for the better if they were given the necessary empowerment.

• Women’s Leadership Skills Still in Doubt. [Public Agenda, Ghana] An Accra High Court Judge, Her Lordship Justice Margaret Insaidoo has said the misconception that women cannot or do not make good leaders still prevails in spite of the increasing numbers of outstanding women leaders. She said others also believe that only single women could participate in the decision-making processes of society.

• African Women Teams to Train in Kenya Ahead of Volleyball Tournament. [People's Daily Online, China] Africa's women volleyball teams are scheduled to feature in a four-nation build-up tournament in Nairobi this month ahead of the World Championships in Japan.

• Sex Slavery Big Business in Garissa. [AllAfrica.com] Parents are literally selling hundreds of their underage daughters to men working abroad, especially in the US, Canada, the UK and South Africa. What is tantamount to sex trade has become booming business for the residents. Nation investigations have established that the trade is spearheaded by middlemen in Kenya and abroad.

• Firm Increases Lending To Women. [AllAfrica.com] A Micro finance institution plans to increase lending to women entrepreneurs to a maximum of Sh5 million from the current Sh3 million. The Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT) last year increased its maximum loan ceilings from Sh1 million to Sh3 million, which is payable in three years.

• Weak Laws Eroding Gains. [Standard] Weak laws are eroding Kenya’s gains in the fight against female genital mutilation. Efua Dorkenoo, an official with a UK-based organisation, Foundation for Women Health Research and Development (FOWARD), urged the Government to scale up the enforcement of laws to discourage the practice.

• Nigerian Business Women to Assist in Rebuilding Liberia. [AllAfrica.com] Business Women Association in Nigeria has expressed readiness to identify with government and people of Liberia in order to hasten rebuilding and socio-economic development of the country.

• Gender Equality and Empowerment. [This Day] The 6th Country Periodic Report on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) indicates that there is an "incremental shift towards elimination of gender inequality in Nigeria".

Nigeria

• Women, Looming Elections and Available Spaces. [AllAfrica.com] Federal Government has allocated N1billion to the Ministry of Women Affairs in Nigeria to main-stream gender issues into all sectors; and the relevant Millennium Development Goals which focuses on women and what affects them. No zone is being left out in the ongoing debate for gendered budget, gender balance, affirmative action, gender equity in employment and public positions' opportunities.

• Imsu Warns Lecturers Against Harassing Female Students. [AllAfrica.com] The authorities of Imo State University (IMSU), Owerri has warned that it would not look kindly on any lecturer found to be sexually harassing any female student or any staff that aids or abets fraud in any form.

• RVHA Swears-In Second Female Member. [The Tide, Nigeria] The Rivers State House of Assembly swore-in a second female member, Mrs Beatrice Olunwo Awala, to replace the late member of the House that represented Ahoada East constituency in the House. Speaker Rotimi ChibuikeAmaechi reminded Mrs Awala that her responsibility was particularly tedious as she would combine her legislative duties with the role of a mother and generally represent the interest of women.

• Anal Sex Speeding Up HIV Infection in Pregnant Women. [African News Dimension, South Africa] The risk of HIV infection is 28 times higher in anal sex than vaginal intercourse. Yet virginity testing rites in South Africa's KwaZulu Natal province have resulted in an increase in anal sex, leading to a 66% HIV infection rate in pregnant women.

• 70% of Those Living in Poverty in SADC Are Women and Girls. [African News Dimension, South Africa] Of the 364 listed companies and state-owned enterprises in South Africa only seven have female CEOs and 60% have no females on their boards … almost two thirds of companies in South Africa have no women in top positions – Business Women’s Association of South Africa, 2004.

• Cosatu 'Also Neglecting Women'. [Independent Online, South Africa] Labor federation Cosatu is neglecting its women members who appear to be ignorant about key policy and other issues affecting them, according to the book. The number of women in Cosatu has increased slightly from 33 percent in 1994 to 34 percent in 2004, the book says.

• Female IT Businesses in South Africa to Get Support. [techworld.nl, Netherlands] The Cape IT Initiative has launched phase two of its Women in ICT project. It is calling for all female-owned ICT businesses in the Western Cape to participate in a capacity building project, which will see one company receiving R110,000 (US$15,455) and a full year of proactive business and mentorship support.

• New Group Aims to Unite Women. [Business Day, South Africa] A new organization that aims to unite women across racial, cultural and political lines was launched. The founders said that while SA had women’s organizations that worked together on particular issues, no single movement existed behind which political, religious and civil society groups could unite to ensure continued effort and consistent progress on issues affecting socioeconomic conditions.

• AIDS Virus Infected 30% of Pregnant South African Women. [DrudgeReport.com] Just over 30% of pregnant women in South Africa are infected with the AIDS virus, according to a government report released Friday which estimated that 5.5 million South Africans are living with HIV.

Swaziland

• Old Habits Die Hard. [AllAfrica.com] A new constitution has granted Swazi women a degree of protection that is shocking tradition-bound Swazi men. "The rights of HIV-positive women, inheritance issues for unwed couples, child maintenance and domestic violence - all these new issues for Swazis are addressed in law. The traditional family structure cannot cope with these."

• SHRO-Cairo Women Activists’ Training Workshop. [Sudan Tribune, Sudan] Recently, eleven women activists completed a SHRO-Cairo training workshop. The workshop included 11 sessions dedicated to the discussion of human rights instruments with a special emphasis on the women’s rights.

• Tough Women Who Venture Into Metal Work. [AllAfrica.com] Proscovia Aciro, Irene Aceng, Stella Lamunu and Mugisha Beatrice Owor have something in common: They were abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, taken into captivity, turned into fighters and forced to marry the rebel commanders at an early age.

• USE Program Favors Girls. [AllAfrica.com] The government will use affirmative action in favor of girls, in admitting students to the Universal Secondary Education (USE) program next year. Education ministry permanent secretary Francis Lubanga said affirmative action would address the challenge of gender disparity in secondary education. 

• Can Widows Exercise Their Right to Remarry? [AllAfrica.com] There is a common saying that once one is born, the only one thing that is certain is that person will one day die. Although to many, talking about death is a taboo or morbid (which it is); this is a topic we cannot afford to ignore. 

• Girls Sold in Katakwi, Says MP. [AllAfrica.com] Trafficking in mainly girls is booming in cattle markets in Katakwi in eastern Uganda, an MP has revealed. Rhoda Acen, the Woman MP for Amuria district, said women have been selling their children to fend for their families after their husbands fled ahead of the disarmament exercise in the region.

• Kadaga Raps Bakoko Over Women. [AllAfrica.com] Deputy Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has attacked former gender minister Zoe Bakoko Bakoru for not interacting with women MPs. She said one of the problems was the absence of the minister of Gender in their midst. "Throughout the five years we never interacted with the Minister of Gender," she said adding, "In Cabinet we had no voice."

• Opposition 'Plans Naked Women Protest'. [Independent Online, South Africa] Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) plans to get older women to strip during forthcoming anti-government protests. In traditional local culture, it is highly taboo for men to catch a glimpse of elderly women naked. It is even believed that a curse will fall on individuals who see the women's bodies.