Priestess of the Green Gospel
In this issue’s editorial, Dr. Edith Natukunda-Togboa offers tam-tams and ululations as Professor Wangari Maathai joins the select club of Nobel Peace Laureates.
Self-immolation in Tajikistan
A significantly large number of young women in Tajikistan, and elsewhere in Central Asia, forced into marriage attempt suicide by setting themselves alight. The author explains why.
Do Women and Girls have Human Rights?
Women’s rights groups are trying to give their cause a lift and work past its token status. Slowed by cultural asymmetry and the bureaucracy of international organizations, the fight continues. Ilkkaracan explores the ins and outs of women’s rights campaigns around the globe.
On Violence: A Reappraisal of Hannah Arendt’s General Theory of Violence
On Violence: A Reappraisal of Hannah Arendt’s General Theory of Violence Author: Sean English Originally Published at Peace and Conflict Monitor on 03/16/2007 In relation to the justifications and rationalizations that are generally and normatively used to legitimise some forms of violence and delegitimize other forms of violence, Arendt sets out to show in her […]
Putting money where are causes are: Fundraising for women’s groups facing the financial crisis
Few people remain unaffected by the recent economic crises, and small organizations dependent on foundations and fundraising efforts are in a particularly difficult position.
In this timely article, originally published by ON THE ISSUES magazine, Marion Banzhaf offers some welcome advice for women’s organizations in particular.
Security and Economic Development: Masculinized Goals for Post-Conflict Reconstruction
The end of an armed conflict is the starting moment of a new period that creates space for transforming institutions, structures and relationships within society. In such historical moments the actors of peace negotiations and peace building processes have the window of chance and responsibility to create a new society based on gender equality. However, in what Cynthia Enloe calls“the morning after”, when the guns are silent, the persistent militarization and promotion of masculinity continue in postwar societies, in both the public and private sphere. This paper will attempt to track such political processes and identify the tools and factors contributing to militarization and masculinization in post conflict societies. Moreover, this paper will highlight reasons for failing to consolidate women’s gains deriving from their war-time experience and to promote gender equality in peace building processes.
The Bright Side of Africa: Its Women
On a continent renowned for its AIDS pandemic and blood-thirsty warlords, this decade is seeing some bright spots emerge. And they’re all women.
Trafficking of Women
The international crime of trafficking in women for forced prostitution in BiH has been recognized as such since 1995. However, the first night-clubs with women “dancers” from Eastern Europe have been opened in the early 1990s. At that time, it was not clear whether women were trafficked or had arrived on their own to voluntarily work in prostitution. The trade in so called “sex slaves” was relatively unknown in the region until the mid-1990s. The sex industry was fuelled by the arrival of tens of thousands predominantly male U.N. personnel, after the Peace Agreement was signed in 1995.
BiH has become one of the main destination countries for women mainly from Moldova, Ukraine and Romania. According to information provided by non-govermental organizations (hereinafter NGOs) which specificaly deal with the problem of trafficking in BiH, there are more than 900 brothels spread throughout the country.
Olivera Simic discusses the problems of bringing this to an end.
Unconventional Women and Politics
Molly Mayfield Barbee marks the 88th anniversary of the nineteenth amendment to the US constitution with an appreciation of the central role that women are playing in this year’s presidential race in the US (Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, and now Sarah Palin), as well as the much longer list of women whose unconventional demand for greater political participation brought us to where we are today.
Some recent and positive developments for women’s representation in Europe and Africa are also discussed, and women everywhere are encouraged to build on these successes, continue to collaborate, and practice their political rights.
The Female Islamic Combatant
Despite a history of female resistance in Islamic society, contemporary culture continues to enslave women, while fixed on an antiquated mode of thought. Katerina Standish takes a historical look at the barrier to equality for women in the context of combat and Islam. Standish is also the author of Human Security and Gender: Female Suicide Bombers In Palestine and Chechnya, the current Peace and Conflict Review article.