15 March 2022 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & women's rights

Articles

Helping the victims of female genital mutilation
Deutsche Welle, 15 Mar 2022

Thousands of women continue to share the same fate as Marie-Claire - in Europe, too. In the French city of Bordeaux Marie-Claire Kakpotia Moraldo is campaigning against female genital mutilation through her association called Les orchidees rouges, or The Red Orchids. She suffered from the physical and psychological effects of FGM for a very long time. "Now, I’m doing well,” she says.  

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Another deeply gendered war is being waged in Ukraine
Aljazeera, 15 Mar 2022

Even before the Russian military fired its first strikes in its assault on Ukraine, there were signs that this conflict, like all wars, would upend the peacetime relations and identities of men, women, and people of all genders and inflict suffering on them in very particular ways.
Writing about World War II, the Russian author Svetlana Alexievich reflected that, “Women’s war has its own colours, its own smells, its own lighting, and its own range of feelings. Its own words. There are no heroes and incredible feats, there are simply people who are busy doing inhumanly human things.” 

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Women need to see themselves in politics. It’s the only way change will come to Zimbabwe
The Guardian, 15 Mar 2022

It is fair to say there has been reasonable progress for women in political leadership and decision-making in the past three decades. Yet, 27 years after the Beijing declaration at the world conference on women, adopted by 189 countries and seen as the key moment for radical change in gender equality, too much remains the same.

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‘I don’t feel safe’: Guatemalans denounce anti-abortion law
Aljazeera, 14 Mar 2022

With chants of “this pro-life government doesn’t value our lives”, hundreds of people during the weekend converged on the Guatemalan Congress to show their indignation at a new law they say threatens the rights of women and members of the LGBTQ community.
On March 8, while hundreds were commemorating International Women’s Day, Guatemala’s conservative-controlled Congress approved the “Protection of Life and Family” law in a 101-8 vote. There are 160 seats in Congress. 

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EU gives initial agreement to board quotas for women, more talks needed
Reuters, 14 Mar 2022

European Union states have given initial approval to pushing firms to appoint women to at least 40% of non-executive director roles or 33% of all board jobs by 2027, the latest attempt to advance a draft law that has been stalled for a decade.
The proposed legislation would apply to companies that are listed or have at least 250 employees, with estimates suggesting it could affect some 2,300 firms in the bloc of 450 million people.

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Pledging to End Female Genital Mutilation in Somalia
The Organization for World Peace, 13 Mar 2022

February 6th marked the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, a day led by the United Nation’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency (UNFPA) to end the practice of female genital mutilation globally. Annually, the United Nations calls for governmental cooperation at all levels and alliance across every sector of society to protect the millions of women and girls at risk from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). 

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‘We deserve a fresh start’: The UK’s female victims of slavery
Aljazeera, 09 Mar 2022

 How a system that is supposed to support survivors of sex trafficking leaves them feeling triggered and vulnerable.

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The Limits of Foreign Intervention in Promoting Women’s Rights in Afghanistan
The Diplomat, 08 Mar 2022

A foreign military presence was never meant to provide a long-term solution for securing protections for Afghan women. It’s time for the international community to support substantive and sustainable achievements. 

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