An article recently published by The New York Times calls attention to the current status of “women’s precarious rights” in Afghanistan.

Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Afghan women and girls have been able to go to work, attend schools and run for political positions. As Afghan and Western governments explore reconciliation with the Taliban, women’s advocates fear that modest gains might be lost.

Read the full story: “Afghan women fear loss of modest gains,” New York Times

The following is a post written by Vital Voices Asia Program intern, Shonali Banerjee.

The small Pacific island of Timor-Leste has been referred to by many as one of the world’s newest and poorest nations. However, recent progress has been made in women’s health and education.

According to the country’s latest Demographic and Health Survey, the current fertility rate stands at 5.7 births per woman, two children less than in 2003. The infant mortality rate has also dropped significantly in the last 7 years, from 60 to 44 deaths to 1,000 births.

Experts have attributed these leaps in public health to women’s increased access to education, a higher number of women in the work force, and the increased availability of reproductive health services. A recent survey also shows that there is a greater demand for family planning and an increase in the use of skilled birth attendants and maternal services.

One of the most drastic changes in the nation has been a shift in women’s attitudes toward childbearing. According to a survey, 72 percent of women in Timor-Leste want to have less children and space out having children. Only 35 percent of surveyed women felt the same way in 2003.

Former Health Minister Rui de Araujo says that these striking results show that the country was right to focus many of its policies on primary health care, health promotion, community involvement and education.

Read the full story: “Timor-Leste: ’spectacular’ reduction in child mortality rates,” IRIN Asia.

The following is a post written by Vital Voices Asia Program intern, Shonali Banerjee.

In an effort to reduce the domestic maternal mortality rate, the Indonesian government has announced that it will provide funding for deliveries performed by skilled birth attendants for three million women.

The Indonesian Health Minister has said that many maternal deaths can be attributed to the use of unskilled birth attendants. During the opening of a conference addressing the Millennium Development Goals, the Health Minister stated that the national government would help local governments fund skilled health professionals and health centers.

Only 5 percent of the 5 million pregnant women in Indonesia currently receive assistance for deliveries. Indonesia is currently off-track in meeting its maternal mortality rate target of 102 per 100,000 live births by 2015. The maternal mortality rate in Indonesia is six times higher than in its neighboring country Malaysia.

Read the full story: “Indonesia to provide poor with safer maternal care,” IRIN Asia.

The following is a post written by Vital Voices Asia Intern, Shonali Banerjee.

At 20-years-old, Bai Yitong is one of the youngest female village leaders in China. Though she is proud of her unprecedented victory in the Shaanxi Province election, she says that her duties as head of Gaojie village might be easier to address if she were a man.

In an interview with the New York Times, she stated: “Some male chiefs use violence, and it’s much quicker [to address the duties of a village chief]. As a woman, I can’t do that. But there are things that are hard to achieve if you don’t use force.”

Yitong’s experience reflects the struggle of women leaders to retain legitimacy within their electorates. On issues such as family planning, women are regarded with respect – on other issues, however, they are often viewed with reverence than male counterparts, often for their opposition to the use of violence.

While national statistics show that women’s participation in the economic and business sectors is rising, women still struggle to establish themselves in the political sphere.

Of the nine members of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party’s Politburo, the nation’s most powerful decision-making body, not one is a woman. Only three of 27 government ministers are women.

Since 1997, China has dropped from 16th to 53rd place in the world rankings of female representation in parliament. Experts cite progress in other nations as the main reason for China’s dramatic drop in rankings:

“It’s not that China has gotten worse. It’s that the rest of the world has gotten better.”

Read more: Women Struggle for a Foothold in Chinese Politics -NYT

The following is a post written by Vital Voices’ Asia Program Intern, Shonali Banerjee.

On June 24, a two-day international conference on the rights of widows was held in Katmandu, Nepal. Representatives from around Asia, Europe and the United States attended the conference, which organizers hoped would spur a worldwide effort to help widows fight the numerous injustices they face daily.

Widows in the Asia face discrimination and economic hardship, and are often ostracized from society, viewed as taboo or cursed individuals. In Nepal, where tens of thousands of women lost their husbands during the country’s 10-year civil conflict, widows are banished from society, forced to wear white, and even blamed for the death of their husband. Nepalese widows are also prohibited from participating in religious ceremonies or rituals due to their banishment.

The Nepalese Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare stated that the national government would gather accurate figures on the number of widows in Nepal’s next national census in 2011. He also made a pledge to abolish all national laws that discriminate against single women, saying that this action would help to raise their status within Nepalese society.

Read more: Nepal hosts international conference on widows - BBC

Sadiqa Basiri Saleem, 2009 Vital Voices Rising Voices Award honoree, has been awarded the 2010 Patricia Blunt Koldyke Fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.

The fellowship was created in 2006 by Patricia Blunt and Martin J. Koldyke to recognize emerging leaders who focus on alleviating the social perils that ail children and youth. As a fellow, Sadiqa has been awarded $12,500 as well as a week’s stay in Chicago.

While in Chicago, she will meet with local organizations, businesses and government institutions, and will be given the opportunity to learn from these programs as well as provide insight from her own projects. The fellowship enables the flow of best practices and innovative ideas. Sadiqa will be honored by The Chicago Council’s Board and other leading figures from Chicago and will deliver the annual Patricia Blunt Koldyke Lecture.

Sadiqa is Co-Founder of the Oruj Learning Center. Established in 2002 by three women refugees living in Pakistan, the Oruj Learning Center is the solitary local organization operating in the Wardak province of eastern Afghanistan, located just three hours from Kabul.

The Center seeks to provide education and combat violence against women. In her current position as Co-Founder of the Oruj Learning Center, Sadiqa hopes to establish two new schools for returning Afghan citizens and Internally Displaced Persons. She also looks to establish an Afghan Women’s Leadership Institute to train high school graduates on business management and leadership skills. Sadiqa holds an undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College, where she enrolled as a prestigious Francis Perkins Scholar. She is an active member of the Vital Voices Global Leadership Network and was a supporter of the Vital Voices 2002 program, ‘Back to Work, Back to School Afghan Uniform Project to Support Women and Girls’.

The followig is a blog post written by Vital Voices Asia Program Intern, Shonali Banerjee.

A new sex education initiative is sparking controversy throughout the Philippines. The new plan aims to cut down the rapid population growth rate that is arguably responsible for the country’s skyrocketing poverty rates. Speaking openly about sex is taboo within the nation, and the influential Roman Catholic Church has demanded that the new plan be scrapped. However, the federal government is struggling to find any other potential solutions to the 2 percent annual population growth.

According to Mona Valisno, the Education Secretary, the plan is to introduce the Adolescent Reproductive Health Program to students from fifth grade onward. The initiative will at first be launched in 80 public elementary schools and 79 high schools, but will soon be expanded nationwide. Numerous topics will be discussed within the program, including the different aspects of personal hygiene, reproductive health, pre-marital sex, teenage pregnancy, and HIV/AIDS awareness.

Secretary Valisno has said that numerous psychologists were consulted during the planning process of the program, ensuring that the material discussed would be age appropriate.

“Our role here is to educate the young people on issues that directly affect them and empower them to make informed choices and decisions.”

Continue Reading »

In the hill state of Uttarakhand, traditionally marginalized women have formed their own cooperative and are producing processed food items that rival multinational brands in local markets, reports IPS News. Limited by the remoteness of their state, social conventions, and often illiteracy, the women of the region have largely been left out of developmental processes. The cooperative has empowered its members and instilled them with self-confidence, as one woman says:

“I had no self-worth. I just looked after the domestic chores and had no say in decision-making matters in the household. Today, I operate the machines at our processing center, carry out money transactions and have become a popular face at the local bank.”

Now entrepreneurs, the 250 women who form the collective, or self-help group, “have been engaged in community-based activities for over two decades now,” according to IPS News. The women train one another, lifting up the next generation and encouraging sustainable farming and economic independence. In large cities like Delhi, where there is a demand for organically grown products, there is high demand for the women’s produce. Contributing a share of their earnings to a collective fund, the women work collaboratively and invest in educational efforts to enhance their marketing and trading skills.

INDIA: Hill Women Form Cooperative, Turn Entrepreneurs -IPS News

The Jakarta Globe reports that women in Papua are being forced out of their homes as a result of mining expeditions led by the government. In a nation where women struggle for economic independence, Papuan women largely live from their land, and are now threatened by forced evictions. Heidi Maeka, who works for a Women’s Support Group, says that the women are at an added disadvantage because of a lack of adequate education, partly due to the remoteness of Papua:

“Many of them don’t finish school…They are unable, for instance, to write up a good proposal to start up a small business.”

Maeka and her organization plan to set up an informal school “to provide women with basic education and technical skills to sustain livelihoods.”

Women in Papua Continue to Suffer- The Jakarta Globe

The Supreme Court in Burma has announced that Aung San Suu Kyi’s appeal will be reviewed on January 18, reports VOA News. Democracy activist Suu Kyi has been detained by house arrest for 14 years, and is appealing the August decision of the lower court to impose an additional 18 months of house arrest on Suu Kyi. Human rights advocates and world leaders including Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama have expressed their support for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, calling for her immediate release and concrete steps towards democratic reform in Burma.

Burma’s High Court Sets Date for Suu Kyi Trial -VOA News