Friday 22 February 2013

Highlights of the week

As part of the Wikiprogress on Gender Equality series, this progblog brings you the ‘highlights of the week’. 


This week's highlights are focused on gender and include: Lebanese women taking on judges; the challenges facing Italian women; and a British political party attempts to increase female representation in parliament. Women also continued to make headline news this week as campaigns on gender such as One Billion Rising and Half the sky gain momentum. Finally, Wikigender recently organised an online discussion on Violence Against Women. Perhaps the subject of gender equality is starting to be taken seriously by the media?

Gender and Justice  
                                        
Lebanese women took to the streets to demand that their government introduce laws to protect them from domestic violenceCriminalizing marital rape "could lead to the imprisonment of the man," Sheik Ahmad Al-Kurdi, a judge in the Sunni religious court, told CNN, "where in reality he is exercising the least of his marital rights."

This report by the International Development Law Organisation “highlights the critical role legal empowerment strategies can play in changing and challenging oppressive gender relations that are justified under the name of culture, by showcasing an impressive range of legal empowerment approaches in diverse geographical and cultural settings”. The study profiles a great selection of case studies and also discusses the role of discriminatory social institutions
"As we seek to build the world we want, let us intensify our efforts to achieve a more inclusive, equitable and sustainable development path built on dialogue, transparency and social justice." 
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon -  Message for the World Day of Social Justice (20 February 2013)


Gender and Politics

Lib Dems draw up job-share plans to boost number of women MPs

As British political parties struggle to find ways to increase female representation in parliament, plans for Members of Parliament (MPs) to job share in parliament are being developed by the Liberal Democrats (currently part of UK coalition government) to up the number of women elected and break up the 'male culture' that still dominates politics.

The six things wrong with Italy – and how to solve them

This Guardian articles outlines the 6 primary challenges that face Italy today, including: a stagnating economy, corruption, organised crime, political apathy, youth unemployment and the “treatment of women”, which came in second! Italy's female employment rate is, according to the OECD, at 46.5% (among the OECD members this is only better than Greece, Mexico and Turkey).

This weeks videos

Women of the (Arab Spring)Revolution - This is a great selection of videos on how women reflect on the changes that have occured in their countries, how they were a part of it, and whether attitudes have changed.

It’s nice to see children’s voices being given a serious platform. This talk is by 13 year-old Logan LaPlante, who wants to be happy and healthy ‘when he grows up’. He discusses how hacking his education is helping him achieve this goal. 




I leave you with a few words in Bangla (my mother tongue) paying tribute to International Mother Language Day which was held on 21 February.

আগামী সপ্তাহে আমি আপনাকে দেখতে হবে

Salema Gulbahar
(Wikiprogress Coordinator)

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