Nigerian Women Crucial to Politics

From allAfrica.com:

"Today, women are participating more actively in political issues than ever before as a result of political re-awakening and awareness.

Despite the difficulties faced by women in politics, they continue with their political ambition, contributing enormously to political and national development in their own way as the challenges militating against them are not present, although Nigeria is yet to have a female president.

In 1957 during the pre-independence era of Nigeria, a couple of women political activists such as, Mrs. Margaret Ekpo, Mrs. Janet Mokelu and Ms. Young were members of the Eastern House of Assembly. The late Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, though not a full-fledged politician, was a very strong force to reckon with in the politics of the Western Region. And Hajia Gambo Sawaba waged a fierce battle for the political and cultural emancipation of women in the North.

The Babangida era marked a turning point in the history of women struggle in Nigeria, when Maryam Babangida institutionalized the office of the first lady in 1987. She became the first working First Lady and launched the "Better Life for Rural Women" program. Other women who have made impact in the country's political scene include, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala former minister of finance, who saved the nation records of billions of Naira as a result of her hard working nature as a public officer. Mrs. Obi Ezekwesili also laid a land mark in the history of Nigeria politics. Prof. Dora Akunyili, the NAFDAC boss has also performed credibly; leading the fight against adulterated pharmaceutical drugs, her name can never be forgotten in the annals of history."

Women still have a long way to go in obtaining larger representative numbers in government - but at least they have they feet firmly in the door.

Benazir Bhutto

Word on the street is that former Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, will be posthumously awarded the UN Human Rights Award on 10th December 2008 - UN Human Rights Day.

According to sources, the President of United Nations General Assembly, Mr Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, is in the process of informing President Asif Ali Zardari who took over the reins of Pakistan People’s Party as its co-chairman after Ms Bhutto’s murder.

A Very Wicked Woman

Could this be an image of one of the Renaissance's most notorious women???


From the Herald Sun:

"A mystery painting held by the National Gallery of Victoria for 43 years is being hailed as a "revelatory" portrait of the infamous, incestuous Italian Renaissance woman Lucrezia Borgia.

The mystery of the portrait has finally been solved, more than four decades after the gallery took possession of it as a work by an unknown artist, featuring an unknown subject.

The gallery today revealed the woman in the portrait is Lucrezia Borgia, captured by famed Renaissance artist Dosso Dossi (circa 1486-1542)."

And from The Australian:

"The oval painting, purchased by the gallery in London in 1965, was titled Portrait of a Youth, by an unknown northern Italian painter.

It had baffled every expert on the subject since it came into public view during the later 20th century and it was always assumed it was of a young male."

Queen Sesheshet

From Reuters Africa:
"The pyramid, found about two months ago in the sand south of Cairo, probably housed the remains of Queen Sesheshet, the mother of King Teti, who ruled from 2323 to 2291 BC and founded Egypt's Sixth Dynasty, Zahi Hawass told reporters.

"The only queen whose pyramid is missing is Shesheshet, which is why I am sure it belonged to her," Hawass said. "This will enrich our knowledge about the Old Kingdom."

The Sixth Dynasty, a time of conflict in Egypt's royal family and erosion of centralised power, is considered to be the last dynasty of the Old Kingdom, after which Egypt descended into famine and social upheaval. Archaeologists had previously discovered pyramids belonging to two of the king's wives nearby, but had never found a tomb belonging to Sesheshet."

From ABC News:
"Hawass said he believes the pyramid belonged to Queen Sesheshet, who is thought to have played a significant role in establishing the 6th Dynasty and uniting two branches of the feuding royal family. Her son, Teti, ruled for about a dozen years until his likely assassination, in a sign of the turbulent times.

Still, only about a third of the Saqqara complex has been explored so far, with recent digging turning up a number of key finds. The last new pyramid, found here three years ago, is thought to belong to the wife of Teti's successor, Pepi I."

Ann E Dunwoody

Or ... General Dunwoody.

Ann Dunwoody has achieved what no other woman has - she has attained the rank of 4-Star General with the US Army. And this she has done after 33 years of service.

From BBC News:
"She said no one was more surprised than she and her husband. "Behind every successful woman there's an astonished man," she added.

There are 21 female generals, most of them one-star, in the US army. Women make up 14% of the army's active-service strength of more than 500,000 soldiers.

She is now head of the Army Materiel Command, in charge of weapons, equipment and uniforms for the army.

Women are barred from combat roles but have been allowed in the last two decades to serve in a wide variety of other positions."


A much deserved "well done Ann!"

Miriam Makeba - "Mama Africa"

Miriam Makeba - the "Voice of Africa" - has passed away in Italy.

Miriam was performing at a concert in the Italian town of Caserta, when she collapsed. She later died of a heart attack.

Miriam, born in Johannesburg in the 1930a, was the first black Africa woman to receive a grammy award - this was in 1965 - and she shared the honour with Harry Balefonte.

Miriam was the headline act at Melbourne's Commonwealth Games Arts Festival in 2006.

The loss of such a woman and performer will be felt world-wide.

Helene Berr

The war-time diaries of a young French girl are being published.

Helene Berr was a young Jewish girl, living in Paris at the time of the German occupation, during World War II.

She kept a journal of her time in Paris until her capture and imprisonment. Although she and her family could have escaped and thus saved their own lives, they chose to remain behind and assist in the escape of young Jewish children.

The Telegraph has a three page article:
"She began writing in April 1942, when she was 21 and life was still relatively good for prosperous professionals like the Berrs.

But their initial belief that they would be protected by their centuries of Frenchness was pitifully eroded - first as they were forced to wear the yellow star, then as friends and colleagues were rounded up and stories filtered back of death and degradation.

They were arrested and deported to Auschwitz on her 23rd birthday, March 27. Antoinette Berr was gassed and her husband, Raymond, an inspiration to the other internees, was poisoned.

Hélène survived the death march from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen. Sick with typhus, she was beaten to death because she was too weak to get up from her bunk for reveille."

Woman Brutally Murdered

From The International News:

"Women from different walks of life here Tuesday strongly condemned the brutal murder of 17-year-old Taslim Solangi, who was thrown to dogs and was forced to give birth to her premature baby in Khairpur.

While talking to ‘The News’ they expressed their extreme reaction against the barbaric act and severely criticised government and Non-Government Organisations (NGO) for just raising slogans and doing nothing in practical.

Sabiha Aftab, a woman working at a private organisation, said that the incident was mocking the Constitution of Pakistan according to which such acts were unlawful and deserve severe punishment.“The culprits should be hanged to death so that nobody in future would ever dare to commit such horrendous crime,” she said, adding that the culprit should be hanged publicly for a lesson.

Another woman Ayesha Saleem said that a woman could better imagine the pain that the poor woman (Taslim) had gone through during forced delivery. “The people who were involved in the act should not be given the status of human beings as they are worst than animals in their practices,” she said.

She termed the incident the most shocking and barbaric that could ever happen in the face of this earth as far as the human rights especially the women rights are concerned.Fayeza Shah, a housewife, said that it was failure of our state that such incidents were taking place. “What our law enforcement agencies for?” She said.She said that it appears as if we were living in the time before the advent of Islam. “There is no rule prevalent here except the rule of jungle,” she said.

Maria Hafeez said that the silence over such issues by the government and other law enforcing agencies have increased such incidents. “The politicians and members of civil society just raise slogans for their own benefit, but nothing has been done so far,” she said.

Maria quoted the example of a previous barbaric incident in which five women buried alive and nothing has been done so far to punish the culprits. “The political workers and NGOs staged protests just to get fame through media and after that they preferred to sit quite,” she said.

Javeria Musa said that it was unfortunate that we were living in a society where women were treated worst than animals and nobody including the government ever bothered to take initiatives to curb such incidents in future.“It is the time when government and civil society organisations should join hands to take some solid steps to discourage such practices by properly pursuing the cases and punishing the culprits,” she said.

Javeria said that although the president of Pakistan has taken notice of the bone-chilling incident, yet he should also properly pursue the case to ensure punishment to the culprits involved in the incident."

Somali Woman Stoned to Death

From The Star:

"Somali Islamists have stoned to death a woman accused of adultery, witnesses said, the first such public killing by the militants for about two years.

The 23-year-old woman was placed in a hole up to her neck for the execution late on Monday in front of hundreds of people in a square of the southern port of Kismayu, which the Islamist insurgents captured in August.

Stones were hurled at her head and she was pulled out three times to see if she was dead, witnesses said.

"A woman in green veil and black mask was brought in a car as we waited to watch the merciless act of stoning," one local resident, Abdullahi Aden, told Reuters.

"We were told she submitted herself to be punished, yet we could see her screaming as she was forcefully bound, legs and hands. A relative of hers ran towards her, but the Islamists opened fire and killed a child."

Islamist leaders at the execution said the woman had broken Islamic law. They promised to punish the guard who had shot the child in the melee around the execution.

"We apologise for killing the child. And we promise we shall bring the one who opened fire before the courts and deal with him accordingly," one unnamed Islamist leader told the crowd.

The European Union's presidency condemned the stoning."

Edit (2/11/08): Reports have been coming in over the weekend that Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, the woman stoned to death for adultery after reporting she had been raped, was only 13yo.