Women’s Rights News in Brief (2016/10/14)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/10/14
Women’s rights organisations’ funding on a five-year decline
According to The Guardian, the funding to women’s rights groups have continued to decline by over half through the previous five years, which contrasts with recent reports on the improvement in the lives of women in the long term through women’s rights organisations’ activities.
There was a financial support review of the major donor countries. According to the Gendernet report, which is a “subsidiary body of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development” (OECD), only .5% or £144m was dedicated to promotion of gender equality in poor countries.
The number in 2011 was 1.2%. In short, the monetary funding has decreased substantially from the previous amounts. “Only 8% of the funds earmarked for civil society went” straight to the developing country groups with a “fraction” to local women’s groups.
Muslim women challenge polygamy and triple talaq
According to the Daily Mail: India, a “war of words” emerged in the wake of All India Muslim Personal Law Board’s (AIMPLB) boycott of a “questionnaire on authoring a common code for issues such as marriage, divorce and property rights.”
The AIMPLB made the accusation that the law panel acted as “an agent of the Narendra Modi government.” That is, the proposal for the Uniform Civil Code threatens the diversity and pluralism of India. Many Muslim women activists stated that the AIMPLB does not speak for “the entire community.”
President of Maulana Arshad Madani, Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind, said, “If a uniform civil code is implemented, attempts will be made to paint all in one colour, which is not in the interest of the country.” Many Muslim women challenged the legitimacy of the practices of triple talaq and polygamy.
Women climb Africa’s highest mountain in call for land rights
According to Reuters, a Kenyan woman’s, Ann Ondaye’s, husband died and the deceased husband’s brothers took the widow’s possessions. Ondaye is left with three young daughters.
There were attempts to oust her from her “matrimonial home” with claims about her children not being entitled to the father’s land. Why? They’re girls. Elders in the Luo community, and women activists, fought for Ondaye to stay on the 2.5-hectare lot of land.
“Ondaye is one of hundreds of women from more than 20 African countries meeting in Tanzania this week to write a charter” that will make explicit demands for the improvement of “access to and control over land.” The fittest will climb Mount Kilimanjaro to sign the charter.
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