English
ItalianoPer la protezione e la promozione dei diritti umani, della democrazia, dello stato di diritto e della giustizia internazionale
8 March 2022 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & Women's Rights
Articles
Repression of women on rise in rebel-held Yemen
France 24, 08 Mar 2022
Her voice shaking, 26-year-old Balqees recounts her ordeal at a Huthi rebel checkpoint in northern Yemen, where experts say repression of women is rampant after years of civil war. "There is no limit to their shame," she said, asking to use a pseudonym for fear of reprisal.The Huthis, from the Zaidi Shiite sect of Islam, whose traditional stronghold is Yemen's mountainous north, control the capital Sanaa as well as swathes of the country.Yemen has long been a deeply conservative society, but the Iran-backed Huthis are enforcing their austere brand of Islam with an iron fist, witnesses say.
Continua
Despite progress elsewhere, Egypt's FGM numbers still high
Deutsche Welle, 08 Mar 2022
Despite Egypt's outlawing female genital mutilation and introducing punishments, a new study has found that the country is nowhere close to achieving its aim of ending FGM by 2030. Other places have had more success. A new study by the Cairo-based Tadwein Center for Gender Studies has found that that 86% of underprivileged women aged 18 to 35 in Egypt, a country of more than 102 million people, have been subject to female genital mutilation (FGM), also called female genital cutting (FGC). That is only down one percentage point from the FGM figures in Egypt's last National Health Survey, in 2014.
‘No one cares’: ISIL’s ‘invisible’ victims
Al Jazeera, 08 Mar 2022
Non-Yazidi women who were abducted and raped say they have been rejected by their families and abandoned by their government. These women call themselves ISIL’s invisible victims – both because their families and communities have rejected them and because they are not included in the Yazidi Survivors Law, passed by the Iraqi parliament in March 2021.This law recognises acts of genocide and crimes against humanity perpetrated by ISIL against the Yazidi, Christian, Turkmen and Shabak minorities and provides for reparations for, among others, women and girls subjected to sexual violence. But the women in this shelter are not from a minority. They are Shia and Sunni Muslim Arabs and the law does not apply to them.
Continua
Women’s Fears Rising in Pakistan Ahead of International Women’s Day
Voice of America, 07 Mar 2022
Thousands of women are set to march in cities across Pakistan on Tuesday to mark International Women's Day and demand greater rights in the highly conservative, male-dominated society. They are doing so under the slogan "My body, my right", meaning freedom in decision-making about subjects like marriage, sex, reproductive health and clothing choices in the Muslim-majority country. Pakistani women activists also use the occasion to draw attention to promote gender equality, increase pressure on the government to enforce domestic abuse legislation, and demand protections from rape, saying many incidences of rape and harassment go unreported.
Continua
States Aren’t Waiting for the Supreme Court to Tighten Abortion Laws
New York Times, 07 Mar 2022
In anticipation of the Court's decision, a frenzy of legislative activity to shut down access to abortion forms a picture of a post-Roe America.Both sides of the abortion debate anticipate that come July, the Supreme Court will have overturned Roe v.Wade and with it the constitutional right to abortion, handing anti-abortion activists a victory they have sought for five decades. But from Florida to Idaho, Republican-led state legislatures are not waiting: They are operating as if Roe has already been struck down, advancing new restrictions that aim to make abortion illegal in as many circumstances as possible.
Continua
Urgent investment needed to meet UN goal of eliminating FGM by 2030
RFI, 06 Mar 2022
More than 2 million women around the world have experienced genital mutilation, according to the United Nations, with around 4 million girls at risk every year. As it marks the annual International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM, the agency warns that funding is key to stamping out the practice, which has regained ground during the Covid pandemic.
Continua
First female judge presides over hearing at top court in Egypt
The Guardian, 05 Mar 2022
Radwa Helmi ha made history as the first female judge to sit on the bench of Egypt's state council, a top court in the Arab country. Helmi, making her appearance in a Cairo courthouqse, was among 98 women appointed last year to join the council, one of Egypt's main judicial bodies, after a decision by the Egyptian president, Andel Fattah al-Sisi. "The fifth of March has become a new historical day for Egyptian women", said the head of the National Council for Women (NCW), Maya Morsi.
Continua
Most EU women blame COVID pandemic for spike in gender violence -poll
Reuters, 04 Mar 2022
Nearly three out of four European Union women think the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred an increase in physical and psychological violence against them, according to a Eurobarometer poll published on Friday. The poll, commissioned by the European Parliament ahead of Women's Day on March 8, shows 77% of women in the EU think the pandemic caused a rise in gender violence in their countries, with nine in 10 respondents in Greece and Portugal saying so.
Continua
Nigerian women protest parliament rejection of pro-equality bills
Al Jazeera, 02 Mar 2022
Nigerian women have converged at the country’s parliament in Abuja to protest its decision to vote against the adoption of five gender bills. As early as 8am on Wednesday, hundreds of women showed up at the National Assembly Complex in the Nigerian capital to demonstrate against the Senate’s decisions at yesterday’s constitution amendment session.
Continua