As Tahrir Square fills up again and the Arab uprisings continue, the power of words and the battle over who owns them is captured by six middle eastern playwrights whose work Arab Nights is being performed in London
The involvement of women in anti-war actions and in support of peace activism worldwide is a critical part of modern history, yet the vulnerability of women in conflict situations to violence of all forms is perhaps the most brutal manifestation of patriarchy in modern times. We must probe the are
Decades of feminist activism against rape has produced a world that now, formally, officially, and legally, at least talks the talk on sexual violence in conflict. Feminists have not yet been able to transform what Susan Brownmiller called the ‘ideology of rape’, but they’re working on it.
When we’re looking for the links between war violence and male violence against women in peace time, we need to look for causality and influence, flowing in both directions, says Cynthia Cockburn.
Resistance to viewing women as a homogenous block can all too often provide politicians with an excuse to ignore women altogether. Women hold half the electorate’s voting power: which party will be brave enough to reach out for their vote at the next General Election?
Religion is back in public space, and the thesis that modernization means the privatization of religion has been seriously questioned. Some religious and feminist dogmas need re-examination. What do ‘secular’ or ‘religious’ or ‘feminist’ mean in today’s contexts?
The Australian Prime Minister's recent speech about “repulsive double standards on misogyny and sexism” in the House of Representatives has recast the debate about gender prejudice in politics. Even if most its arch-custodians didn't notice, says Zoe Holman.
The Tunisian experience with state feminism is a model to draw lessons from, especially for the Arab-Muslim countries whether governed by liberal autocratic regimes or Islamist regimes: whenever the regime talks in favour of women, read between the lines.
Alarm about the declining ratio of girls to boys in the Indian population, evidence of a particularly lethal form of gender discrimination, has overshadowed the more positive trend that is emerging in neighbouring Bangladesh where the ‘aversion to daughters’ seems to be weakening
Meredith Tax raises significant questions about feminist activism, political alliances and fundamentalism, but her attack on Code Pink's campaign trip against the use of remotely-controlled drones in Pakistan is misplaced, says Rebecca Johnson.
A lenient gang-rape verdict has prompted outcry and a debate on France's inadequate response to rape. The French media's ambivalence towards rape victims also needs to be examined, says Valeria Costa-Kostritsky
