• Refugee Women Victims of Violence. [Reuters AlertNet, UK] Mervat* is a single math teacher from Algeria. She faced constant harassment by men who resented the fact she worked, sometimes insisting she wear the veil or "hijab". She almost lost an eye one day when a man threw a rock at her face as she was leaving work. The situation deteriorated to such a degree she was forced to take leave of absence from work, and barely left her house during an entire year. "The police acted indifferently as it was itself sometimes a target of the Islamic opposition groups," said Mervat. Eventually, she felt that to live in peace she had to leave Algeria. After delays in getting a visa for France, she finally fled to Argentina on the opposite side of the world.

• Female Unionists Complain About Poor Representation. [magharebia.com] A meeting of women trade unionists in Algiers denounced the poor female representation in Maghreb trade unions, attributing it to patriarchal Maghreb societies. The meeting, organized by the Arab Maghreb Workers' Union (USTMA) in conjunction with the Norwegian trade unions congress, focused on women's involvement in trade unions, and aimed to work out an action plan to empower women unionists. Samia Ourtilane, a member of the general union of Algerian workers (UGTA), said that although Maghrebian unions "have been founded on the principles of democracy and equality", they have still not managed to "free themselves from a cultural heritage which enshrines the inferiority of women in patriarchal societies".

• First Lady Wants Political Quotas for Women. [Dominican Today, Dominican Republic] Burkina Faso's first lady, Chantal Compaore, called for a quota system in politics to ensure women get greater representation in the running of public affairs. "The representative status of women in decision-making spheres is encouraging, but could be improved by bringing in a quota system for women," President Blaise Compaore's wife said on public radio. Speaking during a New Year's ceremony for ministers, diplomats and the heads of women's organizations, Chantal Compaore added that women would have to merit their jobs and thus "the education of girls and training for women are prior conditions." In neighboring Niger, which like Burkina Faso is one of the poorest nations in the west African sub-Sahara, women get 25% of government portfolios and a quarter of parliamentary seats under a quota law passed in 2000, which took effect in 2004. Women's movements in Burkina Faso held a march in October 2005 demanding 20% of government posts and 30% of seats in a future national assembly.

Cameroon

• Prisoners Rape Female Inmates, Police Kills Four. [SomaliNet] Cameroon’s police killed four prisoners, after they went wild and invaded cells belonging to female prisoners, raping some of them. This took place as the prison wardens were on strike. All this happened at Kondengui maximum security prison in Cameroon’s capital. The four dead were shot dead as they tried to escape. "The prisoners were trying to take advantage of an ongoing strike by warders to jump jail. They had planned their action very well ... They cut off the electricity supply line to the barbed wire above the prison wall so as to ease their escape.

• NGO Launches Activities to Increase Women Participation. [AllAfrica.com] Rusi Wedu, a local non-governmental organization operating in Afar State said it has launched various activities aimed at preventing violence against women and increasing their participation in development activities. Speaking at a consultative meeting in Semera town, manager of the NGO, Asmelash Wolde-Mariam said the organization has been carrying out various activities in collaboration with the State's Women Affairs Bureau by allocating one million birr. The organization has been implementing activities in the area of gender equality, increasing the participation of women in politics and education, among others, he said.

• Amie Sillah Speaks On Women Rights. [AllAfrica.com] Women had been developing power throughout the ages. They have been in local and international development and women had helped to transfer power from National to International development. The 1970s were heady days for the incipient global women's movement. The energy and turmoil fueling the reassertion of women in the US provide greater visibility to the growing demands for equality by women around the world. The women in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe had some forms of legal equality but they were still fighting the vestiges of patriarchy. Women at the UN struggled to be heard in patriarchy institutions. Women in newly independent countries challenged male predominance, and women scholars challenged the assumptions that international development benefited everyone. Instead of reversing the inroads that colonialism had made on women's traditional rights, the new economic development programs were in fact reinforcing women's subordination. Resistance to these polices grew as women put their ideas into action. Individual women wielded great influence through their ideas. But the upheaval of gender relationships globally has been the result of women becoming organized at every level. The paradigm shift in development aid was precipitated by efforts of women's groups in Washington to ensure that the flow of funding to developing countries and their rural poor also reached women. UN women organized to demand greater equity in pay and assignment for themselves while working for women's equality abroad. Around the world, organized women protested against laws that enshrined prevailing roles assigned to women. Brought together through the series of UN World Conferences on women and the parallel NGOs Forums, these women have coalesced into the global women's movement, which has changed the lives of women and men throughout the world. Global networking and organizing were greatly enhanced by the four UN World Conferences, which were held in Mexico City in 1975, Copenhagen in 1980, and Nairobi in 1985, and Beijing in 1995. The most famous international convention is the CEDAW otherwise known as the women's Bill of Rights. It stipulates women's Rights in every facet of human life.

• Women Who Made the News in 2006. [Jamaica Observer, Jamaica] Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected to the office of president in Liberia allowing Africa its first woman president. Despite the fact that polls leading up to the elections had Johnson-Sirleaf neck and neck with her main rival, former football star George Weah, she captured most of the votes on Election Day. She is only the second black woman head of state in the world following Eugenia Charles of Dominica. She is often referred to as the "Iron Lady".

• Market Women Test President's Promise. [Women's eNews] Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa, has called Liberia's 70% illiteracy rate a stumbling block to development, vowed to provide universal education, and has emphasized the importance of educating girls in particular. Currently only about half of the nation's children regularly attend school. But in a country with no electricity or running water systems, Johnson-Sirleaf faces a challenge of enormous proportions. There simply isn't enough money in the $80 million annual budget to rehabilitate a state that collapsed from 14 years of civil war as well as provide an education for all. The U.S. planned to give $270 million during the 2006 fiscal year, and the budget is supplemented by other international aid.

• Government, Women's Groups Decry Post-War Sexual Violence. [AllAfrica.com] Rising levels of rape and sexual exploitation of women and teenage girls in Liberia have sparked concern by both the government and women's rights groups. Despite a peace agreement in 2003 that ended the particularly brutal 14-year civil war, during which fighters sexually assaulted girls and women and sometimes used them as "sex slaves", these types of violent abuse were still common, according to Lois Bruthus, head of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia (AFELL), a leading advocacy group. "The raping of girls and women is a major problem ... we have been trying to curtail [these attacks], but it still continues," Bruthus told IRIN/PlusNews. Strong anti-rape legislation is in place, but women's groups have charged that a weak court system was hampering rape convictions.

• Police Officers Gang Rape Female Detainee. [TheLiberianTimes.com] Two Officers if the Liberia National Police have been arrested for allegedly raping a female detainee withheld in police custody in Monrovia. According to a statement from the Liberia National Police, Officers James Mulbah and Henry Sieh are reported to have carried out a gang rape on a female who was detained in their custody at the zone Five Depot in Soul Clinic community. The victim was detained for theft of property. According to the victim, the officers took advantage of her vulnerability in the silence of the evening hours and forced her body parts thereby making her unable to resist the police officers. “They change my location at mid-night and took me to a dark room for reasons best known to them. When I asked what could be the reason for my relocation, they asked me to keep quiet and obey. Having no option, I was carried in the dark room by the two officers and later forced me to adhere to their wicked plan. The incident occurs four different times during the same night with each officer coming one after the other,” the victim asserted.

Malawi

• Pastor Found Guilty of Undressing Female Worshippers. [SomaliNet] Malawi’s authorities have found a pastor guilty of forcing his female followers to put off their clothes while he prayed for them. Pastor Listen Kamfeu, of Faith Restoration Church in Malawi’s Salima district performed special prayers for 15 nude women between 2003 and 2006, a court in Malawi learnt. Kamfeu’s act was unveiled after one of the women reported the case to a Malawi police station. He was incidentally not sent to prison for his immoral act, with the court citing repentance on his side. All he got was a six month suspension from preaching to any congregation in Malawi.

• Former Fistula Patient Preaches Prevention to Village Women in Niger. [UNFPA] Kouboura Moutari greets visitors to her home in the village of Madara with her fist raised in a power salute. Unlike most village girls, she is boldly confident when she speaks, with her head held high, her posture erect, and plenty of eye contact. To see her today, one would never realize the suffering Kouboura has endured. She was married when she was just fifteen years old and soon after delivered her first stillborn child. When her second child was due, she labored for two days before her family brought her by horse and cart to the hospital for a Caesarean, but it was too late and she lost that baby, too. “It took too long,” remembers Kouboura, sitting in front of the thatch hut she shares with her family. “When it was done, I realized that I couldn’t control it. Urine was just flowing out of me.” Kouboura had suffered a fistula, a hole in the birth canal that can lead to chronic incontinence. A simple surgical procedure can repair the injury, with success rates as high as 90%. Unfortunately, the price tag of about $300 is out of range for most fistula patients. Kouboura was one of the lucky ones. She was operated on and the uncontrollable flow of urine stopped.

• The Female Factor. [Daily Sun, Nigeria] Is there an emerging female factor in Nigeria’s politics and governance? This question is being posed quietly in some circles of thought. In the annals of Nigerian antiquity, women have played prominent leadership roles. Students of history readily recognize names such as those of Moremi and Queen Amina, Zaria’s greatest monarch. Others such as Margaret Ekpo and Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti stand out in the nationalistic politics that forged Nigerian nationhood. The epiphany of the nineties was the emergence of the Nigerian woman in many boardrooms across the landscape of corporate governance. The glass barrier that had kept them languishing in the lower cadres was broken. The phenomenon even inspired the publication of a monthly magazine, Corporate Woman, which was tailored for the business savvy upwardly mobile woman of the nineties. Although the publication folded up soon afterwards, the point had been made. The rise of corporate chieftains like Ndi Okereke-Onyuike and Cecilia Ibru indicated that women had come to stay in the gilded corridors of corporate Nigeria. Today, one of the most under-reported trends of our present democracy is the apparent female factor in the polity. President Obasanjo’s administration is undoubtedly the most gender-sensitive ever to have graced the national stage. Most instructively, women have not been offered the usual sop or token appointment contrived to demonstrate an official sensitivity to the need for gender equality or “women empowerment.” Instead, women are occupying strategic roles in the administration and are driving some of its important policy measures.

• Women Don't Have to Give Up Their Jobs for the Home. [AllAfrica.com] Chief (Mrs.) Modupe Otukoya a legal practitioner and notary public, says women should stand firm and hold on to whatever position they occupy. They should not give up their jobs because of marriage. Hear her: I spent my childhood first in Lagos and later at Ibadan before I traveled abroad, and got married. I lived with my uncle in Lagos and later worked in Ibadan as a teacher in Abadina School. This was long before I got married; I had children and simultaneously tried to improve my education. My growing up was amusing because I was loved by my parents, and everyone around me. I was a cherished and pampered child because my parents had delayed parenthood so when I came, I was loved and appreciated. I went to a training college, and then I proceeded to the University of Ibadan. I wanted to become an economist or a dietician. I became a lawyer by accident. My A' level was very good but I did not have mathematics so my Head of Department suggested I read law. There was a teacher who I loved and respected so much till date. She is now Mrs. Adekoya, she was my school teacher. When I became a lawyer, what interested me was family palaver. I was touched by the meekness of women who were maltreated by their husbands or in-laws had my heart. I tried to help, wanting to know what I could do to assist them.

• Leaving a Feast for Women of Owu. [AllAfrica.com] This writer was on his way a second time around to see Odia Ofeimun's South African history encased in poetry now enlivened into dance drama by director Felix Okolo, hoping to see if the director with a most confounding sense of symbolism would be capable of progressing his own interpretations of the poetry in visual metaphors and movements. The venue was Cinema Hall One. But the major entry to cinema halls, favors Cinema Hall II where Ofili stumbled into Women of Owu, a historical play by Prof. Femi Osofisan. Having seen Odia's A Feast Of Return in its embryonic stage, I abandoned A Feast and foraged into Women of Owu, a decision I took recognizing I was in the middle of crossfire between these ever-warring intellectual poet and playwright: Odia and Osofisan. Amusingly and ironically, their stories were both about war and its consequences. These two warring artists also had to fight for the theatre audiences that came to see these neighboring productions.

• SLO Woos Women to Develop Sierra Leone. [AllAfrica.com] A new organization aimed at empowering women, has been launched at the British Council in Freetown. Silver Ladies Organization aims to promote self-reliance among women. Chairperson of the occasion, Kadijah Saccoh lauded the organizers for founding the organization, saying, "Women empowerment is not only to give quality education to women, but women should also be given the necessary support to carry out their trading activities." She said SLO is made up of 30 young women "who want to development the country [and] can play their own role as petty traders". She said it was through their businesses that these women were educating their children. Kadijah was however quick to warn women to respect their husbands because "they will help you achieve your goals". She assured that the organization would soon open branches in Canada, American and Britain". The keynote speaker, Haja Dalinda Quee emphasized the role of women in nation building. She said even though they are in the majority in the country, not much has been achieved due to "the lack proper coordination among women."

• UNHCR Helps Female Returnees Regain Financial Autonomy. [ReliefWeb, Switzerland] The future looked grim for Elmi Kadhra and her nine children when they left a refugee camp in Ethiopia eight years ago and crossed the border into the self-declared Somaliland. When they finally reached her home village, Garbodadar, in the Awdal region bordering Ethiopia and Djibouti, Kadhra says she found only "wild animals running around. This place was a battlefield, no one could stay here. I had lost everything to the war." That included her husband, who was killed by crossfire before they even reached sanctuary in Ethiopia some 15 years ago. Most of the other 670,000 people who have repatriated to Somaliland over the past decade – mainly from Ethiopia and Djibouti – also found ruins. But with the help of UNHCR, Kadhra and other like-minded former refugees have rebuilt their lives and are thriving back in their homeland. To support the sustainable reintegration of returnees, UNHCR has since the 1990s been rebuilding infrastructure and helping returnees – mostly women – find sources of income. The UN refugee agency helped build a school, police station and water well as more and more people started returning here.

• Women Say Gang Took Turns Raping Them. [Independent Online, South Africa] A six-year-old girl, a 15-year-old girl and a woman in her 60s were among five victims of a gang rape at their home in Orange Grove in East London, Eastern Cape police said. Superintendent Mtati Tana said one woman heard a noise outside her shack at the Orange Grove informal settlement at about 4am. She went out and noticed a man lurking nearby. When she approached the man, he claimed he was lost but she saw about five other men with him and quickly went back inside the shack and locked the door. Her sister, her grandmother, and the two girls were asleep inside the house. Shortly afterward, the men kicked down the door and stormed into the shack. "They could have been raped by all of them... the women said they took turns keeping watch and raping them," said Tana. They then robbed the women of two cell phones and some household items. Three men were later arrested in connection with the incident. Police were informed that one man who had been injured during the attack had fled to a local tavern where he called an ambulance.

• Police Arrest Man Who 'Targeted Lone Women'. [Independent Online, South Africa] A man who has allegedly been preying on lone women motorists, robbing them before forcing them to give him oral sex, was arrested this week after intensive police investigations. The man, who has been linked to at least 10 incidents over the past three months, allegedly followed the women home, before robbing them at gunpoint and making them perform the sexual acts.

• Student Activists Say No More Violence Against Women. [Voice of America] The following story is the second in a five part feature series on Africa News Tonight on the continuing humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Activists and protest groups around the world are trying to influence policy on Darfur – the western province of Sudan where indigenous groups have been fighting for greater autonomy. The central government is backing Arab militias, and the US has labeled their attacks against civilians genocide. Our first story dealt with Darfur refugees who spoke at a recent demonstration at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington – one of many concerning Darfur held around the world the same day. The theme of the protest was violence against women and girls in the region. Refugees told their stories and made a plea to the international community for help. This story is on the student anti-genocide coalition called “STAND.”

• All Work/All Play: Crafting a Way Out of a War Zone. [International Herald Tribune] Amber Chand was frustrated. Even before the palm grass baskets sold on her Web site arrived from Darfur to her warehouse in Massachusetts, they had sold out. And given the risks presented by a supply chain originating in the violence-shattered region of the Sudan, there was no guarantee that she would be able to fulfill her back- order list before Christmas. A month later, she faced a 25-basket back-order after a Christmas season that saw her client base grow and her revenues top $50,000. Though delighted by the success of the baskets and committed to buying goods from Darfur, she was nervous about basing 2007 projections on sales of goods whose sourcing was so precarious. Under an agreement forged by Chand and the humanitarian relief organization CHF International, 100 women living in camps for internally displaced persons across Darfur have produced 150 baskets for Chand's online store, The Amber Chand Collection. In return, CHF pays the weavers $12 a basket, a 30% premium over local market price. Chand purchases the baskets from CHF for sale online to her customers throughout the United States. The baskets retail for $65, a standard mail order markup that leaves Chand about $40 to plow back into her business once the goods and their transport are covered. They are sold on her Web site, www.amberchandcollection.com.

• First Female Foreign Minister is Deputy UN Secretary-General. [AllAfrica.com] Tanzanian Foreign Minister, Dr Asha-Rose Migiro, has been appointed the new Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Organization. Dr Migiro was appointed on Jan.5 in accordance with the new Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's pledge to name a woman to the No 2 UN post, the UN said. She replaces Mark Malloch Brown. She becomes the second high-ranking Tanzanian woman at the UN after Dr Anna Tibaijuka, head of the Nairobi-based UN human settlement agency, Habitat. The Tanzanian Foreign Minister is amongst six women ministers in President Jakaya Kikwete's government and the first female foreign minister after serving in the Community Development, Gender and Children dockets in the previous government.

• Togo Legalizes Rape, Incest Abortions as Abortion Expands in Africa. [LifeNews.com] The African nation of Togo has become one just a handful of countries on the continent to legalize some forms of abortion. The western African nation now allows abortions in cases of rape or incest and the change is seen as a possible harbinger of things to come as pro-abortion groups seek to topple pro-life laws in Africa. According to a Reuters report, the small country recently published a new abortion law. The law says abortions can only be done by a doctor in rape or incest cases. Abortions are allowed, "if there is a strong risk that the unborn child will by affected by a particularly serious medical condition." Otherwise, anyone involved in an illegal abortion would be sent to prison for up to five years. Women in Togo rarely use contraception and United Nations figures show the fertility rate at around six children per woman, much higher than the 1.5 children per woman in most industrialized nations. The cultural and religious beliefs of many African nations lead them to oppose abortions.

• Struggle for Equal Status - Women Enter 2007 With Hope. [AllAfrica.com] Women are among the most marginalized in our society. Since they also tend to be the poorest, getting justice is always a nightmare for them. But a bill passed in December 2006 is set to change this. The law to set up the Equal Opportunity Commission is now in place. The Commission is expected to address women's human rights and those of other marginalized groups in the country. This was probably the greatest 2006 achievement for women. The accomplishment has been likened to the 1994 appointment .of Dr Specioza Kazibwe by President Yoweri Museveni, as the first woman vice-president of Uganda. Ethics and integrity minister James Nsamba Buturo says the passing of the Equal Opportunity Commission Bill is good news to everybody, irrespective of sex or age. Buturo says the commission will change dynamics in the family. "It is going to bring about gender equality at the household level and beyond."

• A Double Blessing for Women. [AllAfrica.com] This year's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is a double blessing to women. Come June 11-14, Commonwealth women affairs ministers will convene in Munyonyo for the ninth Commonwealth Women's Affairs Ministers Meeting (WAMM). Organized by the Commonwealth Women's Network, WAMM keeps the Commonwealth civil society informed about different activities within the Commonwealth. It involves civil society organizations and links them with women and issues affecting them. The theme will be "financing gender equality for development and democracy." In preparation for WAMM, a conference involving women from different parts of Uganda was organized in October 2006. The aim was to sensitize and encourage them to participate in WAMM, which brings together about 250-300 women ministers, parliamentarians, judges, lawyers, entrepreneurs, gender and youth civil society organizations. It also attracts international and bilateral partner agencies worldwide. The Eastern African Sub-regional Support Initiative in Ntinda, Kampala, is serving as the hosting secretariat and is working closely with the gender ministry to ensure the success of the meeting.

• Women Are Their Own Detractors. [AllAfrica.com] While it is undeniable that women bear the brunt of gender inequality because of sexism, it is also true that women are, at times, their own worst enemies. One analyst once wrote that women would never be liberated until they liberate themselves first. Tiggums (pen name) a feminist, says: "Feminism really misses the mark in my opinion. I think women ought to have a more serious look inside themselves before they go around accusing men of holding them back." Many people, including other women have questioned whether women should, for instance, continue to survive on the quota system in politics when they constitute more than half of the country's population. And statistics have shown that more women, than men, vote. Paradoxically, the greater the number of female voters, the greater the number of male representatives in politics. Veronica Morfaw, founder and president of Ntangka Women's Common Initiative Group in Cameroon notes: "From personal experience, women don't co-operate to help each other rise in politics." She also observes that in public service, women hardly propose or vote for other women as staff representatives. But ironically, they allow themselves to be used by men. In many strong political parties, women form the formidable backbone. But they do not propel each other to the frontline.