As the world's attention focuses on northern Nigeria with the abduction of schoolgirls from Chibok, Fatimah Kelleher explores the importance of understanding the voices and agency of northern Nigerian women's own activism for change.
"I would like you to come with me to explore the past through the eyes of victims and survivors. It is difficult a very difficult place to get to and an even more difficult place to leave". Kathryn Stone, Victims' Commissioner for Northern Ireland.
In dialogue with feminist, queer and transgender groups, the Challenging Male Supremacy Project works with male activists to raise consciousness and strengthen practices of accountability in order to counter the harms of male violence and privilege, and build broader struggles for transformative j
Meriam Ibrahim Yahya is incarcerated and shackled in Sudan's Omdurman Women’s Prison. Her twenty month old child and her new born baby are with her. Charged with apostasy earlier this month, she faces flogging and then death by hanging.
In countries where there are no apostasy laws, blasphemy laws are frequently used to persecute and punish apostates. Rahila Gupta reports on how the dangers of apostasy in Muslim majority countries is making British courts more open to granting asylum.
Defenders of Pakistan's blasphemy laws say the rule of law prevents rule by mob. The May 7 murder of human rights lawyer Rashid Rehman - to prevent him from defending a young professor accused of blasphemy - shows the hypocrisy of such a defence, says Meredith Tax.
Wole Soyinka believed that one of the best ways to comprehend the kind of horror that is happening in Nigeria is to remember the experience of other nations in the region confronted with jihadist groups much like Boko Haram. Mahfoud Bennoune confronted the same questions in Algeria in the 1990s.
The attempt by British police to get Muslim women to inform on their friends and relatives as part of a counter-terrorism programme, repeats the police errors of the past and endangers any woman involved, says Yasmin Rehman
Racist abuse directed at the politician Anna Lo is indicative of the disrespect shown to women in Northern Ireland who are speaking up for peace at a time of rising tensions. Anne McVicker told Niki Seth-Smith it is time to go "back to basics".
At the launch of 50.50's series on women peacebuilders in Northern Ireland, we explore the connection between the failure to include women at all levels of political life in building a shared future and the ongoing search for peace in Northern Ireland.
Egypt’s current political scene is marked by ’Sisi-mania’, as the new leader’s supporters scramble to snap up the latest items of Sisi-branded consumer kitsch. A gendered reading of this ‘patriotic consumerism’ reveals its role in negotiating citizenship within Egypt’s refashioned political order.
