by Reem Abbas
-Sudan-

I wait for her on Wednesdays. She comes in the afternoon and spends about two hours ironing my shirts, my grandmother’s dresses, and the bed sheets. I hand her a bucket of ice along with her money. They do not have a fridge and in the scorching heat of Sudan, cold water should not be a luxury. Her name is Fatima. She is a displaced woman from Darfur.

After the war broke out in 2003, many families in Darfur were forced to flee their towns and move to the national capital Khartoum and the surrounding cities. Hundreds of thousands moved north and became part of a sizable internally displaced persons (IDPs) population.

In early 2003 rebels from Darfur, in west Sudan, took up arms against the Sudanese government to protest decades of marginalization. Darfur, a region the size of France, was considered underdeveloped - even by Sudanese standards. The government’s reaction was brutal, and to combat the attacks by the two rebel groups - the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) - they armed equally poor nomads from other tribes in the region. Plagued by drought and famine, igniting a civil war was simple.

by Katharine Daniels,
Executive Editor, The WIP

What began as a simple introduction to Zimbabwean child rights activist Betty Makoni in 2007 through an article published on The WIP has since developed into a partnership with the filmmakers of Tapestries of Hope and a nationwide event to end violence against women worldwide.

Tapestries a Hope, a film documenting Betty Makoni and the Girl Child Network she founded to create a refuge for girls in Zimbabwe, will be shown in 100 theaters around the country for one night only on Tuesday, September 28. In 2007 Director Michealene Cristini Risley traveled to Zimbabwe to film Betty’s work to help the victims of rape and sexual abuse and to expose the pervasive myth that sex with a virgin cures HIV/AIDS. As a result of her filming Michealene was jailed, interrogated, and deported from Zimbabwe.

by Heidi K. Zirtzlaff
-USA-

On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that US President Barack Obama remains committed to his strategy in Afghanistan and that no major changes will be announced in his upcoming December review. A senior administration official reported that "any adjustments to the current strategy would be akin to 'moving the rabbit ears around a little bit to get better reception.'"

During a summer course at the Naval Postgraduate School I began to understand the significance of the current strategy’s civilian component. By spring 2010, the US civilian presence outside Kabul had quadrupled to over 350 personnel and the overall number of US civilians in Afghanistan had tripled to 992. Civilians are deployed both in the capital and in the provinces to provide their broad range of expertise in cooperation with existing military efforts. The success of this civilian surge is crucial to the success of the ultimate goal of sustainable peace.

by Meghan Lewis
-Cambodia-

“Feelings, oh feelings, please accept this. I have not wronged - even in law. We wish to have a place in this world and to love one another freely.” -Noy Sitha, 58, Women’s Network for Unity

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people exist in all countries yet in many places they remain largely invisible and subject to discrimination and human rights violations. In more than 80 countries homosexuality is punishable by law and in several of those countries the punishment for same-sex love may be death. Even in “progressive” countries like England or the United States, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people are still fighting for equal rights including the right to employment, to marry, and to have a family.

• Pride Poster designed by Amy Sanford for RoCK. •

by Rosebell Kagumire
-Uganda-

Political participation of women has changed since 2005 when Uganda, under donor pressure, opened political space to allow political parties in a country that had been largely a one-party state. With these new political changes, more women found space to engage in politics.

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni took power in 1986 after a five-year guerilla war. His rule has been marked by steady economic growth and relative stability in the southern part of the country, but Northern Uganda has seen persistent conflict since he came to power. Thousands have lost their lives in the fight against the Lord's Resistance Army rebels.

Museveni’s government has been marred with corruption, tribalism, and nepotism. Corruption scandals include the swindling of Global Fund money intended for HIV/AIDS and Malaria patients. Museveni himself crafted an amendment to the Ugandan constitution removing presidential term limits, and Uganda faces a possible life presidency situation that many fear will lead to political instability. Yet, according to the President, he is the only Ugandan with a vision to lead the country.

by Emily Wilson
-USA-

Reviving a piece doesn’t happen very often in the dance world, but director, choreographer, and writer Joe Goode doesn’t do things like other choreographers. For one thing, he loves language as much as movement, so in his pieces, his dancers tell stories with words as well as dance.

This summer Joe Goode presented his dance/theater piece, Traveling Light, at the Old Mint in San Francisco. This wasn’t the first time Traveling Light has appeared at the Mint – Goode’s performance group staged the meditation on excess and eco-consciousness there last year as well.

For Traveling Light, Goode worked with longtime lighting designer Jack Carpenter to create a dance that addresses ecological issues. The dancers’ bodies show the strain and struggle of trying to stay afloat in a world that is changing environmentally and economically. They struggle with what they need to do to change, what they need to let go of, and what to hold on to.

by Brittany Shoot
- Denmark -

Every woman I know has, at one time or another, been followed, leered at, or catcalled. For most of my life, I have been fair game - at the grocery store, walking down the street, on the subway. If sexual harassment is illegal in the workplace and domestic violence is illegal in the home, why does going to the mall suddenly make me a target?

While circumstances may vary by region and culture, street harassment affects women's ability to exist in public all around the world. Several groups - including JAGORI’s Safe Delhi in India, Bangalore's Blank Noise Project, the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights, and the London Anti-Street Harassment Campaign – combat the problem locally and raise awareness that street harassment does not happen in a vacuum.

A few years ago, Holly Kearl wrote her Master’s thesis about street harassment. Conducting independent research, she realized very little had been published about gender-based harassment in public space and concluded that legal remedies might provide relief for women bombarded with lewd comments and unsolicited suggestive glances. Kearl founded the Stop Street Harassment website and blog. By the middle of 2009, she had conducted several independent studies with hundreds of women and had enough material for a book.

by Vera von Kreutzbruck
- Argentina/Germany -

Last winter film director Lisa Cholodenko came to Berlin to present The Kids Are All Right at the International Film Festival. Dressed in black with short dark hair and thick-framed glasses Cholodenko is an outgoing and witty person, who occasionally swears. She has a winning sense of humor, which is reflected in the new movie. Her films portray the clash between conservative and creative milieus, places she knows first-hand. Though The Kids Are All Right has not done well outside of the large cities and art house theaters, the topic is “timely” and significant.

On July 15, 2010 a civil rights milestone was set - Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage. Not so long ago, in fact until 1983, homosexuals were persecuted. Homosexuals in Argentina now have the same rights as heterosexuals, including the right to adoption, inheritance, pension, and social security. This is a sign of evolution in a nation in which a Macho-driven culture unfortunately still prevails.