by A. Mahjar-Barducci, MEMRI, USA - On October 7, 2011, the private Tunisian satellite TV channel Nessma aired the award-winning French animated film Persepolis, which is based on Iranian-born illustrator Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel and tells of the challenges she faced growing up in Iran during the 1979 revolution. The airing of the film, which was dubbed into Tunisian Arabic, was followed by a 90-minute debate on religious fundamentalism that focused on the similarity between the situation in Iran in 1979 and what might happen in Tunisia if an Islamist party won the Tunisian Constituent Assembly election set for October 23, 2011.

by Keri Leicher, Consultancy Africa Intelligence, South Africa - One of Africa’s largest and wealthiest nations in terms of natural resources, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is currently gearing itself to host multi-party elections on 27 November 2011, only the second of its kind since the country gained independence some fifty years ago. Whilst high expectations surround the event, calls of foul play have already been heard as many claim that the elections have become a one-man game, as current President Joseph Kabila seeks to entrench his power.

by Anna Khakee, FRIDE, Spain - Criticism focuses on the funds looted by Ben Ali and stashed away in European banks; European failure to engage with civil society demands regarding debt relief; the lack of a clear vision for future relations; and the treatment of Tunisian migrants and visitors to Europe.

by Dr. Gonul Tol, Middle East Institute, USA - Kurdish demands for education or public services in Kurdish are part of their claim for the survival of Kurdish cultural practices and denying the collective dimension of the Kurdish question will intensify the political and ethnic isolation of the Kurds.

by Laura Carlsen, Foreign Policy in Focus, USA - A secret operation to run guns across the border to Mexican drug cartels — overseen by U.S. government agents — threatens to become a major scandal for the Obama administration.

by Nadia Hijab, Al-Shabaka, USA - The Egyptian people’s massive demonstrations against the Mubarak regime, following on from the Tunisian people’s successful despatch of their own dictator, took the limelight away from the Palestine Papers, Al-Jazeera’s 23-26 January 2011 release of over 1,600 confidential records of the “peace process” over the past decade. But for Palestinians the burning questions remain: how to assess the content of the documents and the meaning of their release — and how to deal with the revelations.

by Liz Weiss, Center for American Progress, USA - The U.S. workforce development system is not meeting the needs of one half of our workforce—women. The Workforce Investment Act is a critical tool for employment and training for American workers. But WIA emphasizes quick job placement over building skills or attaining education, and the system is not set up to recognize and prevent unequal results of women or other participants.

by Denine Walters, Consultancy Africa Intelligence, South Africa - “From scouting for diamonds in the deserts of Botswana to signing oil deals with Sudan and sending peacekeepers to [the] volatile [Democratic Republic of the] Congo, India is busy trying to match China’s ever-growing clout in mineral-rich Africa and secure energy resources for its booming economy." Is India following in China’s footsteps with regards to its continuously growing involvement in Africa?

by Brenda Norrell, Americas Program, Mexico - Indigenous Peoples from around the world, including Maori from New Zealand and Gwich’in from the far north in Alaska, came to the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth to share their wisdom and set new ground rules to ensure the protection of Mother Earth and the survival of the planet.

by Laura Carlsen, Americas Program, Mexico - Gender justice is an unfamiliar term to most people. Many assume it is merely a feminine (and therefore diminutive) form of justice, created by adding an awkward adjective to an abstract ideal.

by Brittany Stalsburg and Scott Novakowski
- Demos -

All over America, there were plenty of reasons to celebrate women last month: August marked the 88th anniversary of the 19th Amendment's ratification, which gave women the right to vote. Women's Equality Day, which was on August 26, commemorated that victory. There are now more women in the U.S. Congress than ever (88) and 2008 was a year when a woman came within a hair's breadth of becoming a major ticket presidential nominee.

But this year, there's also a real threat to the voting rights of millions of low-income women, and it is in direct violation of Federal law.