14 Aug 2018 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & women's rights

NPWJ press release

Mauritania: NPWJ strongly condemns arrest of prominent anti-slavery activist Biram Abeid on eve of legislative elections
No Peace Without Justice, 09 Aug 2018

On Tuesday 7 August 2018, Biram Dah Abeid, prominent anti-slavery activist and leader of Mauritania’s Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement, was arrested at his home in the capital, Nouakchott, and imprisoned in the southern part of the city. Mauritanian authorities have so far provided no information on the reasons for his arrest. Mr Abeid has been arrested multiple times for his activism and had last been released in May 2016, after having spent 20 months of a 2-year sentence on false charges of “inciting trouble” and belonging to an “unrecognized organisation”.

Read More

Articles

Tunisia's president vows to give women equal inheritance rights
ALJAZEERA, 13 Aug 2018

Tunisia's President Beji Caid Essebsi says he will submit a bill to parliament granting women and men equal inheritance rights, in line with a proposal put forward by a government-backed committee. A report by the Individual Freedoms and Equality Committee (COLIBE) released in June sought to address a number of issues related to individual freedoms and gender equality, but drew the ire of the country's conservative forces.

Read More

Young people hold the power to end FGM in their generation
Thomson Reuters Foundation, 12 Aug 2018

A collective voice will be heard across Africa on Sunday. Vibrant and strong, the voice asks all of us to listen carefully. The voice is demanding change and reform. Masses of young people across Africa and beyond are speaking out together on International Youth Day. Their message is loud, their message is clear, they will end female genital mutilation (FGM) will you join them?

Read More

Saudi Arabia’s reforms expand the space for women — but still deny them a voice of their own
The Wasington Post, 11 Aug 2018

On June 24, Saudi Arabia, making a long-awaited change, officially lifted its ban on women driving. Yet for the past seven weeks, Hatoon al-Fassi, an internationally known scholar, professor and women’s rights advocate, has remained in detention, having been arrested just as she was preparing to exercise the newly granted permission to drive in her country. The tensions and contradictions of Saudi reform, especially when it comes to women, could not be more clearly illustrated than in her case.

Read More

The Fight to End HIV Is Also a Fight for Women’s Rights
Open Society Foundations, 08 Aug 2018

Duduzile (Dudu) Dlamini is a mother, a sex worker, and an advocate for sex worker rights in South Africa. A few years ago, she went to a holiday party with coworkers at the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force (SWEAT). She couldn’t help noticing how many children there were in the room, and realized that these families needed an advocate, too. Dlamini launched Mothers for the Future as a support group and platform for sharing and speaking out.

Read More

Seventeen girls escape from early marriage and FGM
Standard Digital - Kenya, 08 Aug 2018

Seventeen girls, who escaped forced early marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), have sought refuge at a public school. Kabarnet School for the Deaf and Blind Principal Salina Dilot said the girls, from Tiaty in Baringo County, were aged between 10 and 14.

Read More