30 March 2021 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & women's rights

Articles

Damage: the silent forms of violence against women
The Guardian, 30 Mar 2021

It is a truism to say that everyone knows violence when they see it, but if one thing has become clear in the past decade, it is that the most prevalent, insidious forms of violence are those that cannot be seen. Consider, for example, a photograph from January 2017. A group of identical-looking white men in dark suits looked on as their president signed an executive order banning US state funding to groups anywhere in the world offering abortion or abortion counselling.

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Killing of Salvadoran Refugee by Police in Mexico Incites Furor
The New York Times, 29 Mar 2021

The death at the hands of police of a woman who was a refugee from El Salvador has drawn international condemnation and potential embarrassment for Mexico, which on Monday began hosting a United Nations summit focused on gender equality. The woman, Victoria Esperanza Salazar Arriaza, died on Saturday after being detained by the police in Tulum, a resort town on the Yucatán Peninsula. Videos shared on social media show an officer kneeling on the woman’s back as she cried out. Officers can later be seen dragging her limp body into the back of a police truck.

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Generation Equality: Accelerating Progress on Women’s Rights
Human Rights Watch, 29 Mar 2021

Beginning today, governments, corporations, and civil society are converging physically and virtually in Mexico City to kickstart the Generation Equality Forum, convened by UN Women. Between today and Wednesday, they will reveal a 10-year agenda aimed at accelerating gender equality. Over the next few months, these parties are meant to shore up “game-changing,” “scalable,” and “measurable” support for these goals, before showing up at the concluding Generation Equality Forum meeting in Paris in late June to announce their financial, advocacy, policy, or programmatic commitments.

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Egypt: Al-Azhar approves tougher penalties for FGM
Middle East Monitor, 29 Mar 2021

The Speaker of the Egyptian House of Representatives, Hanafy El-Gebali, has said that the opinion of the famed Al-Azhar University had been sought about a draft law submitted by the government to amend some provisions of the Penal Code regarding female genital mutilation (FGM). El-Gebali told parliament on Sunday that the scholars of Al-Azhar had approved the bill.

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‘We’re treated as children,’ Qatari women tell rights group
The Guardian, 29 Mar 2021

Women in Qatar are living under a system of “deep discrimination” – dependent on men for permission to marry, travel, pursue higher education or make decisions about their own children, according to a new report. Opaque rules on male guardianship leave women without basic freedoms, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has analysed for the first time the way the system works in practice.

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When the Only Woman in the Room Has to Stare Down Warlords
Bloomberg, 28 Mar 2021

“Why should I be the only woman in the room?” It’s a question most women have asked themselves at least once in their career. In this case, it was Habiba Sarabi raising the issue. She was one of a 16-member delegation of Afghan government and political leaders at a summit in Moscow last week with a 10-man team sent by the Taliban. And the sole woman representing her country.

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Gabon wants more equality between men and women
Africanews, 28 Mar 2021

Gabon will present three bills to parliament to strengthen equality between men and women, notably by fighting against "violence" and "discrimination", Prime Minister Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda told AFP on Friday. One of the texts introduces divorce by mutual consent. And adultery, committed by the man or the woman, will be a reason for separation for both spouses, whereas until now it could only be invoked by the man before the judge.

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