WELDD's blog

Day 10 of the 16 Days Blogging Series:

People are struggling with a lack of freedom; university students, journalists, human rights defenders, activists and politicians can be arrested anywhere at any time because of their views and ideologies. During September 2013 over 170 people, including several children, were killed by the national security forces on the streets.

Day 9 of the 16 Days Blogging Series:

In 2009 we were given a chance to do a research on the effects of conflict on Moro women in Basilan and Sulu. It was difficult for many of us to hear their stories of deaths in the family and the trauma they have experienced. But somehow through their stories we sense their hope for a better Bangsamoro.

Day 8 of the 16 Days Blogging Series:

For more than 50 years of independence, Sudan has never witnessed peace; except for a few short years. When the longest and most brutal civil war in South Sudan was under negotiation for a peace deal in 2002-2003, a new war started in Darfur. It wasn't new in terms of the atrocitites or human suffering, but it was indeed new for the type of weapons used in the conflict.

Day 7 of the 16 Days Blogging Series:

Since the early 20th century, Tunisian women played a key role in securing the independence of their country. August 13, 1956, marked the promulgation of the Code of Personal Status (CPS) that included progressive laws aiming at the institution of gender equality. The Code is known for abolishing polygamy, creating a judicial procedure for divorce, the regulation of family law, marriage, social security, and abortion, among other issues. It also gave women a status that allows them to create their own businesses, have a bank account and the ability to have their own passports.

Day 6 of the 16 Days Blogging Series:

The purpose of peace talks is to alleviate the dependency on militarism and bring an end to violence in general, but the absence of women’s voices in the discussions often results in the absence of a focus on women in the solution.

Day 5 of the 16 Days Blogging Series:

A student of the Lahore University of Management Sciences recently made a claim of sexual harassment against a former professor at the university's law faculty. He was then found guilty by the Provincial (Punjab) Ombudsman for Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace. This case has brought back the issue of sexual harassment to the spotlight, despite it being obvious that it only disappeared from the public eye and not so much from the daily working life of many people in Pakistan.

Day 4 of the 16 Days Blogging Series:

Operation Zarb-e-Azb[1] cost Pakistan at least two billion dollars in its first month. This, according to one of Pakistan’s most astute military commentators who is a retired brigadier of the Pakistan army, Samson Simon Sharaf. The operation’s effectiveness is now being doubted by military strategists because terrorists seem to have found sanctuary in neighbouring Afghanistan well before the war in North Waziristan started.

Day 3 of the 16 Days Blogging Series:

In her second installment, Donna Swita Hardiani, from Solidaritas Perempuan (Women’s Solidarity) recalls her experiences in Aceh during the immediate years after the peace agreement, including the time she was interrogated by militiamen for women's rights work.