Women’s groups such as Women in Black have long led the way in challenging the mindsets and structures of patriarchal power and militarism, but men must recognise that they have the primary responsibility to make the changes, says Rebecca Johnson
Thirty years into the AIDS pandemic, an AIDS-free generation is in our grasp at last. Alice Welbourn asks whether we are really going to let it vanish, thanks to the aggressive traits of financiers and governments ?
Plans by the government to criminalise forced marriage in the UK will put women and girls at even greater risk of violence. Forced marriages can only be tackled from within and by the community, with sufficient resources to support this work, says Sajda Mughal
"Violence can be prevented. This is not an article of faith, but a statement based on evidence" (WHO 2002). Scilla Elworthy calls for a strategy based on the clear evidence of what is working in scattered pockets around the world, with the creation of 'Infrastructures for Peace' at its core.
A naval base being built on Jeju Island threatens to destroy the livelihoods of the iconic women shellfish divers and raise levels of rape and prostitution in the surrounding villages. On her return from Jeju, Rebecca Johnson says international action is needed to stop the military construction
The UK government says it wants to end abuse against women and girls but at the same time it is cutting vital funding to organisations in the front line. In London last weekend, the FEM 11 conference called for a new political strategy and for better funding of women’s services. Ray Filar was ther
The majority of voters in the South Kordofan election in May 2011 were women. In the violence that ensued, women activists who had mobilised the women to vote were targeted, their offices destroyed and all record of their work erased from history. Zeinab Blandia told Amel Gorani their story
What do I do differently as a result of knowing this great woman? I utterly believe in the power of one local person to transform a violent situation. I know that humiliation is the driver of most incidents of violence, and that respect is the best antidote to humiliation, and I try to apply that.
" I refuse to be a victim: I am a resource for peace": Dekha Ibrahim Abdi 1964-2011
Time and time again I hear from refugee women that they want to work and contribute to British society. A dignified asylum system would be a positive asset; we cannot create an inclusive and cohesive society while we create this subset of excluded, marginalised and desperate individuals, says Nata
Islamic militancy in Pakistan appears to be mobilising women suicide bombers as part of its religious trope. This trend unsettles the conservative divide between the public and private roles of women in traditional societies, and also attracts an anthropological defense of Islamist women's agency.
It is time to challenge the conventional explanations of gender based violence. Patricia Daley argues that it can only be understood in association with contemporary geo-economic forces and the Central African experience of modernity
