In a February 17 article, The New York Times reports that 12 women in Iraq have formed a political party of their own, “with a platform built on women’s rights and a jobs program for Iraq’s more than 700,000 widows.” After interviews with local women, the NYT writes that “some women say a new female political class is starting to emerge.”

Read the full article: Iraqi Women Are Seeking Greater Political Influence- The New York Times

On February 8, Laura Chinchilla was declared winner in the presidential election in Costa Rica, becoming the first female president of the nation and the fifth in Latin America. Winning 47 percent of the votes counted, Chinchilla avoids a potential run-off. In her acceptance speech, Chinchilla said to the gathered crowd:

“Thank you, Costa Rica. It’s certainly a moment of happiness, but above all of humility.”

Chinchilla, a former vice president, follows in the footsteps of female presidents in Chile, Argentina, Panama and Nicaragua. Her victory comes after various efforts in recent years to promote change and increase women’s political representation in the region.

Laura Chinchilla voted first female president of Costa Rica -TimesOnline

Laura Chinchilla to be Costa Rica’s first female leader -BBC

President Evo Morales begun his second term by swearing in Bolivia’s first cabinet to be comprised of an equal number of men and women. Bolivia now joins Chile as the second country in Latin America to have a cabinet with gender parity, reports IPS News. Monica Novillo, head of advocacy and lobbying for the Coordinadora de la Mujer, a Bolivian coalition of more than 200 women’s organizations, told IPS that the swearing in represents the fulfillment of a promise made by Morales following the adoption of a new constitution in February of 2009. The 10 women in the 20-member cabinet include “singers, lawyers, activists and social leaders, economists, doctors and workers.” In his remarks, Morales also noted that Bolivia now has its first female Minister of Labor.

This development is a testament to the effort and “long-time demand[s]” of the women’s movement in Bolivia, says Novillo. The proportion of women representatives in parliament is also far improved, doubling in percentage share from 14 to 28 percent (46 out of 166) of all seats from the previous Congress. When he announced his new cabinet, Morales said “that Bolivian women’s social conscience, patriotism and dedication to defending national interests, as well as the respect he feels for his mother, sister and daughter, were factors in his decision to break with a long history of discrimination against women.”

Bolivia: Unprecedented Gender Parity in Cabinet -IPS News

The following is a post written by Mikhail Bell, a Human Rights Program Intern with Vital Voices. Mikhail Bell is a 2008 graduate of Hamilton College (Clinton, NY). He is interested in studying sex trafficking and plans to pursue an advanced degree in International Affairs.

On January 21, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed an attentive Newseum audience. The gathering, sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, outlined the Obama Administration’s plans to increase internet access and freedom of expression within the international community. Her comments, delivered nine days after the Haiti earthquake, positioned “21st century statecraft” as an important tool in America’s foreign policy arsenal.

Even now, state-sponsored technology is helping survivors of Haiti earthquake. The State Department’s text campaign lets mobile users text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10 dollars towards American Red Cross relief efforts. The effort, which has raised over $25 million since it began, is one of the few resources that provides emergency alerts and locates victims. Two survivors, a woman and a 16-month old infant, were found beneath the rubble because people texted for help.

Secretary Clinton asserted that technology is forming a new nervous system, which is keeping more governments accountable and increasing transparency in certain places, such as Iran. She also noted that information networks are a double-edged sword. While demonstrations were organized online, the Iranian government also used websites like Youtube to crush protests and locate dissenters.

Encouraging Americans to promote internet freedom, Secretary Clinton declared:

“We cannot be silent about these issues simply because we cannot hear the cries.”

Continue Reading »

With critical elections scheduled in April, women in South Sudan are rallying for an increased role in the rebuilding of government infrastructure and civil institutions, reports IPS News. A nation severely weakened by conflict and violence, Sudan and its citizens are in desperate need of reform and development –a process that has many women campaigning for full and fair participation in political life. Hannah Dario, a social worker in Lakeside State, says that it is time for change in Sudan:

“We believe this change will come through an engendered decision-making process, as well as in implementation of these decisions…No one should gamble with the peace for which we have paid such a high price to enjoy.”

Members of grassroots women’s organizations say that the future of their nation should be shaped by an equal partnership between men and women. Sudanese women are gathering to discuss and debate important issues surrounding political, social, and economic life, preparing to offer a unified and representative platform as election season gains way. According to IPS, “the meetings also serve to collect and articulate women’s grievances and issues to be passed on to those women who occupy elected and appointed seats in government.”

Deborah Tito, a housewife and member of the Women’s Union organization, which branches across all states in northern and southern Sudan, says that women must be regarded as equal stakeholders in the political future of the state. Tito goes on to say that women’s leadership must be engaged and recognized in its many forms:

“It’s very unfortunate that the debate about women and leadership has degenerated into the number of seats we can or should have.”

Tito insists that the women’s movement in Sudan be focused on the quality, as opposed to quantity, of leadership as it affects women. The path to equality, she argues, will take more than a high percentage of female representation in government. As Sudan rebuilds, and many women are uniting to join in the effort, still others are struggling to secure basic needs of survival. One government representative says:

“For most women, even with the end of the war, survival precedes all else. As long as they can put something together to feed the family, then all else is luxury, including a more balanced gender make-up in government.”

As elections near, women’s organizations continue to mobilize citizens in an effort to communicate their needs and ideas as a community.

SOUTH SUDAN: Women’s Eyes on the Political Prize -IPS News

A Woman among Warlords: the Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice is Malalai Joya’s powerful eyewitness account of life in Afghanistan. Joya made international headlines when, at twenty-five years old, she stood up at a meeting of her country’s newly elected constitutional assembly and passionately denounced the war criminals among them. Two years later, she was elected Afghanistan’s youngest Parliamentarian, and her struggle became the subject of the acclaimed documentary Enemies of Happiness. Despite being one of the most popular MPs in the country, she faced constant harassment and was suspended in 2007. Her supporters believe Joya was suspended for her persistent criticism of warlords, drug barons, and their cronies in government.

Prior to her political career, Joya was raised in the refugee camps of Iran and Pakistan. She organized underground classes during the Taliban regime, hiding books under the burqa she was forced to wear, and also helped establish a free medical clinic and orphanage in her impoverished home province of Farah. In her book, Joya recounts daily acts of resistance by the long-suffering Afghan people, including families that lend their basements as classrooms for female students; men who step forward to prevent women from being punished by authorities for walking alone; and courageous women who take to the streets in protest. She emphasizes ordinary Afghans’ desire for powerful war criminals to finally be brought to justice.

Her message is clear:  only after Afghans are freed from decades of civil war and occupation, and corrupt fundamentalists are no longer allowed to tyrannize them with impunity, will Afghanistan have a genuine democracy.

According to Joya, women continue to suffer as they did under the Taliban, only now with higher rates of suicide and abduction and total impunity for rape. She notes that even though nearly a third of the lower house of Parliament is composed of women due to a quota, few have publicly supported women’s rights. Joya has said that many of these MPs are supported by warlords who intend to intimidate independent women in order to dissuade them from running for office.

Joya has survived four assassination attempts to date, is always accompanied by armed guards, and can only sleep in safe houses, yet she continues to be an outspoken advocate for her people.

“How can a country improve when 50% of its population is silenced? It is like a bird with only one wing.”

– Malalai Joya

Site: Malalai joya

Elizabeth Kumba Torto is challenging tradition in the eastern part of Sierra Leone, looking to leave a male-dominated political custom behind in her bid for the position of paramount chief in the local chieftaincy election. In Kono, where many believe the nation’s civil war over “blood diamonds” began, Torto is contesting a decision that has found her candidacy invalid because of a recently-passed Chieftaincy Act, which states “a person is qualified to stand as a candidate in a paramount chieftaincy election where tradition so specifies,” as IPS News reports. It is this “tradition,” which excludes women from holding high-level political positions like the paramount chief, the “highest traditional head who rules over 11 districts in the country.”

Torto and her supporters are taking her case, which has evolved into an issue of women’s civil rights, to the Sierra Leone High Court. Veronica Dauda, president of Kono Women’s Group, said of the situation:

“Madame Torto’s fight is a woman’s fight. If we are able to (allow) her to contest the election then we would have broken a strong barrier to [women’s] equal participation in politics.”

Sierra Leone: Woman Breaking Traditional Walls in Chieftaincy Elections -IPS News

Carmen Deere, women’s studies expert and director of the Center for Latin American Studies and the University of Florida, recently spoke with IPS News about the status of women’s rights in Bolivia. Despite the advances for gender equality included in a new constitution, adopted in February, Bolivian women are still faced with a “long journey to secure an influential participation in government,” says Deere. The expert gave an example of women’s restricted role in describing the influence of the Bartolina Sisa National Confederation of Bolivian Peasant Women and the group’s leader, Leonilda Zurita. Even though Zurita and her group played a substantial role in the election and re-election of President Evo Morales, the Bolivian leader has said she now “feels marginalized by the government she helped build.”

Deere says that “women are still not given their place,” adding that barriers persist in preventing women from having full access to decision-making power. Citing one reason for this lack of power, Deere explains her theory on the importance of land rights:

“My theory is that land ownership is an element that facilitates women’s participation, because of the relationship that exists between ownership and power.”

The issue of land rights has long affected Zurita and members of her group, known as the Bartolinas, says Deere. Initially fearful of breaking with tradition and honored customs, the women struggled to assert their equal rights to land. Following participation in the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, Bolivian women initiated a grassroots movement to secure their rights to property.

Deere says that a cultural movement is needed to ensure that women are respected as equals among men in all spheres of public and private life. Only when concerns for human development and equality “permeate everything” will men and women be able “to develop equally as human beings,” says Deere.

Read the full article: Q&A Bolivian Women a Force Behind Power, But Still Powerless - IPS News

Bulgarian Education Minister Yordanka Fandukova was elected the first female mayor of the capital city of Sofia in what was described as a “landslide victory” by the Southeast Europe Times. Winning 66 percent of the vote, Fandukova handily defeated her fellow candidates in the mid-November contest.

Sofia elects first woman mayor-SETimes.com

by Edwin Xol, Coordinator for FAES Network of Central American Grant Recipients

Translated by Daniela Martínez and Libby Mota, Vital Voices Guatemala

Guatemala, October 2009. On October 17, 23 young adults from the departments of Guatemala, Petén, Zacapa, Quiché, San Marcos, Alta Verapaz, and Retalhuleu received their diplomas for the completion of a course in Local Political Leadership. Seven of these participants were emerging women leaders that were empowered and trained to become the next generation of political actors in Guatemala.

This course, which was carried out between June and October 2009 at the Francisco Marroquín University (UFM) campus in Guatemala City, was organized by the Network of Central American Grant Recipients of the Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies (FAES), by Vital Voices Guatemala, and by UFM’s the Institute for Political Studies and International Relations (EPRI).

Continue Reading »