The United States and Afghanistan have agreed on the final language of a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that will help determine the role of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan post-2014. The agreement is now being considered by the Loya Jirga, a council composed of 2500 members including Afghan political, community, business, youth and non-profit organization […]
US Leaders Speak Out on Role of Women in Afghanistan’s Transition
Secretary of State John Kerry, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former First Lady Laura Bush called for increased support for Afghan women during the “Advancing Afghan Women: Promoting Peace and Progress in Afghanistan” symposium held in Washington, DC last week. The US leaders asserted that women must be a strong part of Afghanistan’s […]
Report Shows Strong Global Commitment to Family Planning
“Together, so much has already been achieved, and the incredibly positive spirit expressed during this conference convinces me that we can do so much more.”
Take Action TODAY and Stand With Saudi Women for Freedom!
We’ve just learned that the Saudi Ministry of the Interior has issued a threatening warning to women planning to drive on Saturday despite the Kingdom’s de facto ban on women driving. The Ministry compared women driving openly in the streets to “disturbing the public peace and opening venues to sedition” and stated, that the women […]
Registration to Run in Afghanistan Elections Closed This Week
Registration wrapped up on October 6 for both the Afghanistan presidential and provincial council elections. Twenty-seven candidates have registered for the presidential race, and 2,327 candidates registered to run for the provincial council, including 240 women. Every one of the country’s 34 provinces has one or more women candidates running in that election. Of the […]
Afghanistan Holds First Social Media Summit
Afghanistan held its first social media summit this week in Kabul, the first in a three-part project. The summit – entitled “Paiwand,” meaning “connection” in Dari – was organized by local digital media agency Impassion Afghanistan and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Themed “Social Media for Social Good,” the summit brought together over 200 […]
New Campaign Encourages Women to Participate in Afghanistan’s Next Election
A new campaign in Afghanistan urges women to vote – specifically, for candidates that support their rights and equality.
UN Agencies Condemn Violence Against Women in Afghanistan
UN Women, the United Nations agency committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment, condemned the recent intimidation and targeted killings of Afghan women government officials. Several prominent women have been intimidated, abducted, and killed – including Afghanistan’s most senior female police officer, Lieutenant Negar, who died on Monday after being shot by an unidentified gunman […]
Women Commit Majority of Suicides in Afghanistan
95 percent of all suicides in Afghanistan are committed by women and girls. According to officials at the Ministry of Public Health yesterday at World Suicide Prevention Day in Kabul, more than 2,500 Afghan women have already committed suicide in 2013. Experts cited extreme levels of violence against women and forced marriage between young girls […]
Afghanistan Leaders Discuss Need for More Women Judges
At a four-day conference at the Afghan Supreme Court in Kabul last week, over 180 female judges affiliated with the Afghan Women Judges Association (AWJA) and other leaders discussed strategies for improving the number of Afghanistan’s female judges and ensuring justice to those who come to the courts. Women now make up 10 percent of […]
New All-Women Jirga in Pakistan Takes Steps Toward Equality
In Pakistan, the rights of fundamentalists surpass the rights of women.
Women Are The Driving, and Oft Forgotten, Force Behind the Western Sahara’s Movement for Independence
If there is any coverage in regards to Western Sahara’s struggle for independence, women are, more often than not, left out of the conversation – yet it is women in Western Sahara who are leading and playing a large role in the movement.
Happy Malala Day!
Girls Learn International, a project of the Feminist Majority Foundation, has been working to aid in Malala’s effort for broader education around the globe for 10 years – and today they’re honoring Malala as part of their 10th anniversary celebration, 30 Days of Sheroes.
A Women in Academia Mini-Roundtable
It’s clear that women still struggle to find standing in academia. Two FMF interns tackle the issue right at the line where the personal becomes political.
Supreme Court Reversed Woman’s Torture Case in Afghanistan
A case of three Afghans who were jailed for torturing a girl has been reversed by the Afghan Supreme Court. Sahar Gul was sold for $5,000 to a 30 years old man New York Times said . She was forced to marry in 2011 in her 13 or 14 years of age. As a result, […]
Taliban Agrees to US, Afghan Peace Talks; Afghanistan Backs Out
A day after the Taliban announced that it will agree to peace talks with the United States and Afghanistan, the Afghan government has announced it will not participate until Afghanistan plays a larger lead role. Senior US officials confirmed that two key conditions of the negotiations would be that the Taliban breaks ties with al-Qaeda […]
Global Heroes Honored in L.A.
An Afghan rapper. The founder of the first primary school for girls in a Kenyan village. A trailblazing member of Congress who fights to create an AIDS-free generation. An advocate for women’s and children’s rights and empowerment. Tonite in Los Angeles, the Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms.) will award these four women with its […]
Media Blackout: Why Is the World Not Acknowledging Shahbagh?
When I was a little girl, I always wanted Bangladesh to be famous. I did not like that whenever people asked me where I was from I would have to explain, “Bangladesh, this tiny country on the East of India.” Why could people not just know where my Motherland was? At the age of 18 […]
The Female Factor: Bangladesh Protests Break Boundaries
It is over a week now that crowds refuse to die down in Shahbagh Square in the heart of Dhaka, Bangladesh. While most of the “western media” has either ignored the swelling numbers of ordinary Bangladeshis joining the movement, others have wrongly labeled it as a mass demand for capital punishment. This is perhaps the biggest misconception about […]
Women’s Rights Advocate Slain in Afghanistan
Najia Seddiqi, the head of women’s affairs for Laghman province and known women’s rights activist, was murdered yesterday on her way to her office. She was getting into a rickshaw when two gunmen on a motorbike shot her. She was traveling with no bodyguards despite multiple requests for protection from authorities, according to her family. […]
