Sri Lanka's Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission has no mention of gender in its mandate and no dedicated expertise related to women; it has just one female commissioner out of eight. For Tamil women, the LLRC simply reaffirms bad old habits.
As increasing numbers of articulate women use Islamic sources to defend varying ways of life, they are challenging western feminist models, at least in name and quite often in substance, making detailed study of the full range of female Islamic leadership crucial, say Masooda Bano and Hilary Kalmb
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 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
The deliberate attempt to discredit women's rights by associating them with the ex- first lady Suzanne Mubarak is a key challenge for women's rights activists in Egypt, so too is the battle not to surrender to the prophets of doom and gloom, Hoda Elsadda tells Deniz Kandiyoti
Dans la Région de l’Extrême-Nord du Cameroun, des pères privent leurs filles de leur droit à l’éducation. Aîssa Ngatansou Doumara décrit le combat quotidien pour changer les comportements qui transforment ces protecteurs en tyran et font des jeunes filles des éternelles inadaptées sociales
In the extreme north region of Cameroon, fathers routinely deprive their daughters of the legal right to education. Aîssa Ngatansou Doumara describes the daily struggle to change the attitudes which turn a guardian into a tyrant, and condemn girls to a life of social exclusion
In the company of souls departed and souls vibrantly alive, Jessica Horn reflects on the significance of the lives of Nobel laureates Leymah Gbowee and the late Wangari Maathai, and the transgressive power of African women on a mission.
" ان هذه الجائزة تشمل الربيع العربى أيضا، و لكن ذلك يتم فى سياق معين هو ان أى فشل فى ضمان مشاركة النساء فى الثورة و الديمقراطيات الجديدة سيعنى انه لن تكون هناك ديمقراطية." ثوربيورن ياغلاند. رئيس لجنة جائزة نوبل للسلام
“We have included the Arab Spring in this prize, but we have put it in a particular context. Namely, if one fails to include the women in the revolution and the new democracies, there will be no democracy.” Thorbjoern Jagland, chair of the Nobel Prize Committee
