None of the main political party manifestos tackle the encroachment of religion on our society. As more and more public spaces are devoured by religious interests creating particular problems for women, Rahila Gupta argues that it is time to end state funding of religion and faith based organisati
While the 54th CSW last month was designed to review the work of government and civil society actors to advance the global agenda for women’s rights, it also offered a glimpse into the strategies of religious fundamentalist movements to influence policies at the international level
Our new editorial project Religion Gender Politics provides a forum for dialogue and debate about the impact on women's human rights of the global resurgence of religion in public life. Here are just some of the articles we have published previously on openDemocracy on these issues.
Ahead of the first global review meeting of the Rome Statue and International Criminal Court, women from around the world are meeting in Mexico next week to develop a clear global agenda for advancing gender justice through advocacy and engagement with the International Criminal Court.
As feminism begins a much needed comeback divisions over the sale of sex damage the larger cause but shouldn't, a survey from the blogger Penny Red.
As the UN Commission on the Status of Women meets to review the implementation of the radical Beijing Platform for Action ’95, Kavita Ramdas reflects on the excitement felt by women then – and the sobering reality of the struggle today for women’s human rights.
As Shelley Anderson suggests, war and gender are intimately related. Gender lies at war’s heart and the conduct and impact of war are equally gendered. Although conflict transformation is based on values traditionally regarded as ‘feminine,’ it struggles to implement them in a world shaped by masc
The last decade has seen much more detailed attention to the many, sometimes contradictory, roles women play in conflict situations. But women remain a vital peace constituency
In the wake of the contested Iranian election, Ahmadinejad's regime is seeking to silence political dissent through coercion and arbitrary imprisonment - where men as well as women are vulnerable to rape and torture. Women's organizations have actively campaigned against such violence, but analysi
Zainab Magdy describes her journey as a young feminist writer in a storytelling workshop in Cairo. “Many people ask me about these storytelling evenings and I tell them very seriously about "patriarchal society" which is killing the person inside each and every man and woman slowly. They don’t usu
The number of love marriages might have increased in India's cities but the reality remains different in many of its villages
In the UK the number of women living with HIV has been steadily growing since the beginning of the epidemic. Newly diagnosed women were only twenty percent of the new infections in 1996, but over forty percent in 2007. There are now more than 25,000 HIV positive women in the UK, but while governme
