News Updates

Alternative Vote System in Tunisia

Françoise Gaspard, former member of the French Parliament and expert of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw) conceded an interview when she returned to Tunisia. She spent the end of March in a mission of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Created in 1889 with 155 members, the IPU works for peace and cooperation among peoples and for the strengthening of representative democracy. It is especially active in the defense of women representation. Read more

Photo: alliance/dpa

Rebellion: Smashing stereotypes of Arab women

The Arab revolutions are not only shaking the structure of tyranny to the core - they are shattering many of the myths about the Arab region that have been accumulating for decades. Topping the list of dominant myths are those of Arab women as caged in, silenced, and invisible. Yet these are not the types of women that have emerged out of Tunisia, Egypt, or even ultra-conservative Yemen in the last few weeks and months. Read more

Photo: Shahram Sharif 

Glimpses of the Tunisian Revolution: The Victory of Dignity over Fear

“You can tear a flower but you can’t stop spring from coming!” (An activist in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia). The African Social Forum, continental Chapter of the World Social Forum (WSF), has convened a solidarity caravan across Tunisia from the 1th to the 5th of April to meet the women and men that ignited the transformations that now affect several countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Dubbed by mainstream media the Arab Spring (though it started in December), the wave of protests started in Tunisia spread like wildfire through Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and on to Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia (briefly, or so it seems) Syria and Libya. By Giuseppe Caruso, Centre of Excellence in Global Governance Research - University of Helsinki. Read more