Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/tag/liberia/)
The reputation of the U.N.’s peacekeeping troops in the country has been blemished by allegations of sexual misconduct and the mission is incomplete. But many Liberians still trust foreign security forces more than their own, raising questions about the fate of girls and women.
But what often prepares these women as first responders – their traditional roles as caregivers – is a cultural hurdle that keeps them in non-decision making roles. From Vanuatu and Liberia, two women tell firsthand stories.
Education has done so much for me. It has made it possible for me to break the shackles of fear, pain and trauma and it has given me a new energy to give back to Liberia, my “crying society.” So many more girls around the world need this same chance in life.
Female-focused events are erupting around March 8. African women are digging into land rights, safety activists are planning another Million Women Rise march in London and the Twitter hashtag #IWD2014 is booming.
As the U.N. superagency loses its founding leader, participants at the Commission on the Status of Women expect the fight between conservative and progressive factions to intensify over sexual orientation, reproductive rights and even domestic violence.
Schoolgirls in Monrovia, Liberia.
Mae Azango has won international acclaim for her work, but faces ongoing criticism and death threats at home for challenging her own culture. If she were a white woman, she says, her work would not have hit such a nerve.
Imagine a world where women living directly with the realities of war help build the peace. Jacqueline O’Neill says three major events this month show that vision–and the ideals of “inclusive security”–gaining hold.
Three women in Africa and the Middle East were named winners of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, an award that recognized the Arab Spring with a pointed emphasis on women’s rights in the region, The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 7.
