Women
Killing women in the name of religion
Friday, August 13th, 2010DHAKA, 13 August 2010 (IRIN) – Nearly two decades after a peasant woman’s suicide first raised national awareness about the danger of religious rulings, and one month after a high court outlawed deadly edicts, killings of women in the name of religion continue in Bangladesh, human rights groups say.
Seventeen years ago, Nurjahan Begum, a peasant [...]
East Timor aims to send teen mums back to school
Friday, April 16th, 2010DILI, April 16 (AFP) – When Graziela Sarmento was 16, she got pregnant, dropped out of school, left her parents behind in the countryside and went to live with her aunt and uncle in Dili, East Timor’s capital.
Three years later her life revolves around Bruno, her son, with her dreams of an education dashed and [...]
‘The Quality of Women Is Very Important’
Friday, April 2nd, 2010DILI, Sep 22 , 2009 (IPS) – For more than seven years, the men and women of East Timor have been working to rebuild their nation after a destructive 24-year occupation by the Indonesian army.
The country of more than one million people – which became an independent nation in May 2002 – put back the [...]
Lifesaving lessons in childbirth
Friday, April 2nd, 2010DILI, 2 September 2009 (IRIN) – In 2005, a woman was taken to hospital in Maliana District, Timor-Leste, after experiencing labour pains for three days at home. She delivered a stillbirth and was referred to the national hospital in the capital Dili with complications that needed eight operations. Her husband left her and her family [...]
Women Learn the Political Ropes
Friday, April 2nd, 2010DILI, Jul 27, 2009 (IPS) – Like many women in East Timor, 34-year-old Mariquita Soares joined the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN) party during the nation’s 24-year resistance struggle against Indonesian occupation from 1975 to 1999.
Today, she is proud not only of her involvement in the fight for independence, but of her [...]
Politics — Women Take the Plunge
Friday, April 2nd, 2010DILI, Jul 8, 2009 (IPS) – Women in East Timor are being wooed to participate in the local council elections, likely to be held in September.
“I hope there will be more women participating. This is one of the rights of women now,” says Paulina Lemos, 29, who intends to run in the suco (village) level [...]
Women get WISE to self-employment
Friday, April 2nd, 2010IRIN
DILI, 19 February 2009 (IRIN) – Natercia da Costa, 40, lives in Baucau District with her husband and four children. She used to battle to find the cash for food and school fees but now a 20-strong women’s enterprise to sell fruit and vegetable chips offers hope.
In 2002, Da Costa was given a US$50 loan [...]