Nicole Itano, Author at Women's eNews

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Woos Female Vote

By Nicole Itano ● Arts & Culture ● March 31, 2005

Zimbabwe’s ruling party is reaching out to female voters as it battles for victories in today’s parliamentary election. But critics of the Mugabe government say women’s rights begin with enough food to eat.

Sex-Assault Continues Unchecked in Congo

By Nicole Itano ● Uncategorized ● March 13, 2005

In the jungles and border towns of eastern Congo, a civil war staggers on, largely ignored. So far tens of thousands of women and girls have been sexually assaulted during this humanitarian crisis, according to Human Rights Watch.

African Women Snared by Two Legal Systems

By Nicole Itano ● Arts & Culture ● February 15, 2005

Ten years after the U.N. called for the strengthening of women’s legal rights around the globe, African women’s rights are still often caught in the tangle between traditional and civil laws. The first of a seven-part series on the Beijing Platform.

Peace Process Often Ignores Female Ex-Soldiers

By Nicole Itano ● Politics ● June 27, 2004

Girls and women are active combatants in wars across the world, but the international community is failing to recognize that. As a result, the post-conflict needs of female soldiers are not being met.

Africa’s Future May Depend on Women’s Employment

By Nicole Itano ● Arts & Culture ● February 8, 2004

A young South African woman’s income as a rural tour guide is meager. But in so far as it shelters her from pressures to marry early or resort to sex work, research suggests it may help buffer sub-Saharan Africa’s risks of further civil war.

Anti-Abortion Policies Take Heavy Toll in Africa

By Nicole Itano ● Health & Science ● November 2, 2003

A Kenyan woman bleeding from a botched abortion is denied medical help by disapproving hospital nurses. It is the kind of incident that translates into high maternal mortality rates in Africa, where reproductive-health clinics are losing U.S. funding.

Sex Assault Now a Political Act in Zimbabwe

By Nicole Itano ● Arts & Culture ● September 5, 2003

Sexual assault is prevalent in Zimbabwe, according to rights groups. Concubinage in youth militia camps and the governmental use of rape as a means of punishing female political dissidents are both forms of the problem.

Women Trade Unsafe Sex for Survival in Lesotho

By Nicole Itano ● Arts & Culture ● June 1, 2003

Under-qualified for the new textile jobs that drew them to Lesotho’s capital city of Maseru, many young women from the famine-plagued countryside are surviving by selling sex, with and without a condom. Louise Bernikow’s “Our Story” follows.

South Africa Begins Getting Tough on Rape

By Nicole Itano ● Uncategorized ● February 24, 2003

South African prosecutors are adopting a hard-line stance against rape, instituting special courts to address the crime and studying the reasons behind the astounding breadth of the problem.

3,000 Rwandan Women Await Trials for Genocide

By Nicole Itano ● Arts & Culture ● December 20, 2002

Some 3,000 women are accused of participating in the Rwandan genocide that killed up to 1 million members of the country’s ethnic minority. Meanwhile, survivors worry about what will happen when some of the accused are returned to the nation’s villages.

Nicole Itano

Nicole Itano's Latest Articles