gender inequality - The African Mirror

Nov

2020

‘Feminist’ mayors vow all-out drive against gender inequality in pandemic

ANASTASIA MOLONEY CITIES must move to the frontline of efforts to fight gender inequality that has grown worse in the coronavirus pandemic, said six mayors from three continents as they joined forces in a new network to advance women's rights. Around the world, women's jobs, unpaid labor, health and safety have been upended by the impacts of COVID-19 and need critical attention, said the organizers of City Hub and Network for Gender Equity (CHANGE). The network aims to promote and share among city mayors around the world innovative projects focused on combating gender inequality. "Local governments can and should lead,"…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Could Egypt’s #MeToo movement be the tinder for a ‘feminist revolution’?

HUMAN RIGHTS

MENNA A FAROUK IN just two months, Egypt's burgeoning #MeToo movement has exposed sexual assaults, spurred legal reform and emboldened hundreds of abuse victims including celebrities to speak out, sparking a long-overdue debate about gender inequality. Now, rights activists in the conservative country say keeping the social media campaign's momentum going hinges on taking the message offline to reach poorer women, especially in rural areas, and changing attitudes in the justice system. "I hope this momentum does not remain in the upper- and middle-class segments of society but moves downwards to the lower social classes as well," said Entessar El-Saeed,…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe divorce law spurs women’s fight for property

HUMAN RIGHTS

LUNGELO NDHLOVU WHEN Smangele Tshuma got divorced after five years of marriage, her in-laws forced her out of the home that she had been living in with her husband in southwestern Zimbabwe and took the three donkeys she had bought with money from selling blankets. Like most marriages in the country's rural areas, Tshuma's had been a customary, unregistered union in which everything she brought to the marriage was considered her husband's property, the mother of two told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. In a country where women are largely treated as dependents of men, a ruling by Zimbabwe's Supreme Court…