High-level discussion about the situation of women at the UN. Credit:BomoonLee/IPS

By Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 9, 2010 (IPS) – “What do I get from them? Nothing but bullsh*t,” says Nupur Acharya, reflecting about how she is treated by her husband and two grown sons on daily basis. Continue Reading

Breaking the Silence: Sexual Violence in Cambodia/AI Report

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Mar 9, 2010 (IPS) – Cambodia’s new penal code, which comes into force later this year, should be accompanied by stronger law enforcement measures if the country’s women and girls are to be better protected from rape, says the global rights lobby Amnesty International (AI). Continue Reading

Children in the coastal town of Kalmunai. Credit:Amantha Perera/IPS

By Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Mar 9, 2010 (IPS) – As a wife of a rice farmer and mother of two children aged nine and two, Sanjeevani Bandara’s days are packed with chores. Yet while she used to be able to keep up with all she has to do in a day, this Sri Lankan mother now finds herself struggling to accomplish even the most basic tasks. Continue Reading

"We're exhausted, says the sign, painted all over Haitian capital Port-Au-Prince. Credit: Ansel Herz/IPS TerraViva

By Ansel Herz in Port-Au-Prince and Marguerite A. Suozzi in New York

Women’s day, a women’s week, has brought focus again on loss and inequality that women live with – because they are women. This year it throws up the devastation women have suffered in Haiti. But not just the suffering; also the rebuilding, and with spirit. Continue Reading

Haitian woman wait to inoculate children. Credit: UN Photo/Sophia Paris

By Thalif Deen

Natural disasters hit women harder than they affect men.

During the 1991 cyclone that killed 140,000 in Bangladesh, 90 percent of victims were women. During the 2004 Asian tsunami, 70 to 80 percent of those who died were women, according to the New York-based Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO). Continue Reading

Credit: IPS TerraViva

By Claire Ngozo

LILONGWE, Mar 9, 2010 (IPS) – Mercy Gondwe, 51, from Rumphi in northern Malawi, was married for 34 years. When her husband died in 2008, she assumed she would inherit the land they had been cultivating together since they got married. But this was not the case. Continue Reading

Emily Sikazwe / Credit: Bomoon Lee

By Sanjay Suri

The Chinese are much abused over their new extractive enterprises in Africa, but they have done little that Western countries have not for much longer, says Emily Sikazwe, executive director of Women for Change, Zambia. Continue Reading

Deliberations at CSW. Credit: Bomoon Lee/IPS TerraViva

By Thalif Deen

A longstanding proposal for the creation of a special U.N. agency for women, the – “gender entity” as everyone calls it – is taking its time going anywhere. Continue Reading

Aminata Toure

By Christian Benoni

Africa has achieved as many milestones as it has missed since the Beijing agreement 15 years ago. While the milestones call for a celebration, little progress has been made on indelible issues like conflict, which continues to have devastating impact on women. Continue Reading

An uncertain world to grow up in. Credit: IPS TerraViva

By Sanjay Suri and Marguerite A. Suozzi

The problem now, almost, is to find a way to relive the peak of that economic crisis of September 2008. The current move back to business of old – on the face of it anyhow – could well turn out to be a longer-running difficulty than the crisis it supposedly left behind. A difficulty far greater for women than for men. Continue Reading