Women's Human Rights

Rights are Human Rights." The affirmation of women's rights as full universal rights and the identification of violence against women in particular as a key issue on the global human rights agenda in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (VDPA) initiated a process of integration of women and of gender based perspectives into human rights theory and practice that is on-going. This success did not come out of nowhere. Women organized for the Vienna Conference as part of the growing global feminist movement that emerged in the 1980-90's -a social movement that crossed Global South and North lines and saw the UN as an important international space for advancing women's rights. We sought to bring a feminist analysis and women's presence to bear on global issues of peace, security, development, environment, and human rights through influencing the UN World Conferences held in that decade in Rio, Vienna, Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, and Rome, culminating in the World Conference against Racism in Durban in 2001.

The  paper reflects  on the supreme  courts opinion in some which the apex court  declared  the customary laws practices which denies women inheritance rights as repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience, and unconstitutional and evaluates the implication of of these pronouncements for protection of woman's in Nigeria...

The multi-layered system of human rights protection complemented by a comprehensive campaign for human rights promotion in Canada can provide strategic guidance for the Philippine Commission on Human Rights as it manifests unfortunate hesitation to exercise its statutory mandate to protect and promote women's rights. Originally created for the primary purpose of investigating all forms of human rights violations involving civil and political rights under the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the Philippine Commission on Human Rights lacks the capacity and has insufficient resources to extend its reach. The three main functions of mediation, investigation, and referral to adjudication, of the human rights commissions in various Canadian provinces and territories, as well as at the federal level, readily offer an appropriate and affordable model that can be easily emulated in the Philippine setting.

Prepared by Women for Women’s Human Rights - New Ways, Women’s Solidarity Foundation, Foundation for Women’s Solidarity, Women’s Coalition - International Working Group, Association for Struggle Against Sexual Violence, Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation, Equality Monitoring Women’s Group, YERELİZ - Local Monitoring, Research and Implementation Association, this alternative report aims to present a civil society perspective, from a gender equality and empowerment of women and girls framework, on Turkey’s implementation of Agenda 2030 and the SDGs.

Law can be the site through which women's dignity and equality can be expressed and pursued. Speaking the language of rights translates one's needs from private interests to public claims through words and concepts that the community – local, national and/or international – have already validated. Law can therefore offer a medium to confront the injustices and unfairness built into other systems of political, social and economic ordering. Women's rights advocates have won significant victories through law and have generated gains for women's dignity and equality. However, law can also be a place where women's rights are not only silenced but where social, economic and political power structures are replicated and work against women's rights.

This paper argues that effective rule of law programming focused on women's rights and democratic governance must begin with a clear definition of the rule of law, a careful analysis of the causes of women's inequality and the context in which it is perpetuated and sustained, coupled with an ability and desire to harness law as an instrument of social change that is tempered by a sober understanding that law is unpredictable and complex in its results.

This paper proceeds in several parts. First, it identifies the key issues relating to women's democratic governance, women's rights and the rule of law. The second part identifies the importance of normativity and power relations for feminist theorizing around the rule of law. Feminist conceptions of the rule of law recognize that law is shot throughout with social and economic power and that harnessing women's emancipation to law is fraught with uncertainties and complications. At the same time, feminist theorizing around the rule of law also recognizes the importance of using law to speak truth to power and to gain access to the sites in which social relations are defined, evaluated and consolidated. The final sections of this paper discuss the different barriers to access to justice that face elite and marginalized women, the possible roles that NGOs can play in the realization of women's rights, and the possible mutually interdependent and reinforcing roles that women in various positions of power can play in promoting women's rights more generally. The very last section sets out areas for further research and analysis. While scholars and advocates have significantly advanced the thinking about and harnessing of law in support of women's needs and interests, much conceptualization, implementation and assessment or evaluation work remains to be done.

Synopsis -In 1995, over 30,000 women's rights advocates attended the United Nations (UN) Fourth World Conference on Women and made a substantial difference in conference outcomes. However, advocates' achievements at their ''own'' conference was not the central gain of the 1990s. It was their success in ''gendering the agenda'' of the other global conferences of the 1990s: mainstreaming gender analysis into areas considered ''gender-neutral'' and prioritizing women's rights as integral to conference goals. However, the success of the transnational women's rights movement was accompanied by a major challenge: the development of a transnational conservative countermovement. To explain both the success and challenges of the movement, this article extends local/national social movement analysis to the transnational level. D

Initiated as a peasants’ revolt against the ruling Congress Government in the Indian state of West Bengal, the Naxalite Movement took a gigantic shape with political CPI (Maoist) activists constituting tribal folks belonging to the volatile areas, young college students from Calcutta, and intellectuals from various parts of the country. A lot of media reports and academic scholarships have covered the events and consequences of the rebellion. However, women’s role(s) in the movement has been compromised from major discussions. This essay, instead, is a feminist exploration of the Naxalite Movement. It deals with the status and fate of women, directly or indirectly, actively or passively, voluntarily or involuntarily involved in the movement. Finally, it critiques the lack of feminist scholarship for the Naxalite movement and the absence of effective measures taken by the Indian government to support the female survivors of this movement.

Rights of women in prison have been addressed in the Bangkok Resolution in 2011 and later in 2015 by the Mandela Rules. Nevertheless, with more than 700 000 women in prison around the world it is appalling to witness the lack of measures enforced in practice.
This research aims to give a comparative study of how women and more specifically pregnant women and young mothers are treated in French and Norwegian prisons.

In this paper, I discuss how the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), impact how violence against women (VAW) is addressed domestically, regionally, and internationally. I will discuss CEDAW, its Optional Protocol and violence against women, particularly focusing on how CEDAW jurisprudence set standards and precedence, impact policies, and contribute to women's movements and individual women’s quest for justice. I will highlight continuing challenges and argue the importance of translation and local realization of women’s human rights

Investigating minority and indigenous women’s rights in Muslim-majority states,
this book critically examines the human rights regime within international law.
Based on extensive and diverse ethnographic research on Amazigh women in
Morocco, the book unpacks and challenges generally accepted notions of rights and
equality. Significantly, and controversially, the book challenges the supposedly
‘emancipatory’ power vested in the human rights project; arguing that rights-based
discourses are sites of contestation for different groups that use them to assert their
agency in society. More specifically, it shows how the very conditions that make
minority and indigenous women instrumental to the preservation of their culture may
condemn them to a position of subalternity. In response, and engaging the notion
and meaning of Islamic feminism, the book proposes that feminism should be interpreted
and contextualised locally in order to be effective and inclusive, and so in order
for the human rights project to fully realise its potential to empower the marginalised
and make space for their voices to be heard.
Providing a detailed, empirically based, analysis of rights in action, this book will
be of relevance to scholars, students and practitioners in human rights policy and
practice, in international law, minorities’ and indigenous peoples’ rights, gender
studies, and Middle Eastern and North African Studies.

This course is at the intersection between international relations, peace studies, security studies, human rights and gender studies. It will first seek to explore the mainstream theories on security, the feminist perspectives on security, as well as feminist theorizing about international politics. We will then examine the gender dimensions of violence in the private and public spheres, both in wartime and “peacetime,” and both by state and non-state agents. We will also analyze the ways in which a conflict is gendered in each of its phases, and what the implications are in terms of security and the building of peace. We will address specific issues such as gender-based crimes, the militarization of women, national identities, and gender in conflict zones. We will also examine the international context and the evolution of peacebuilding policies since the mid-1990s. In this respect, we will analyze the United Nations responses to the violation of women’s human rights (Resolution 1325), as well as the violations of women’s human rights by the UN themselves. Finally, we will explore the feminist approaches to peacebuilding (including the origins of the “ethics of care”), the emergence and the meaning of women’s peace movements worldwide, as well as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual and Transgendered peace activism.

The African continent has generally been characterised by low levels of economic growth, political instability and respect for traditions cultures and customs, which have a negative impact on the rights of African women. The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa offers new hope for the promotion and protection of women’s rights. It covers a wide range of women’s rights and in many instances goes beyond previous international and regional human rights instruments, although it falls short in some areas.  The question of whether the situation of African women’s rights will be improved will largely depend on the strength of the African Union human rights mechanisms and the political will of its members. It is challenging to implement and enforce the Protocol and other international human rights standards within the current cultural and social context and women’s rights will generally be realized progressively through cultural transformation.

‘Women’s rights are human rights!’ This notion may seem self evident, as the international system for the promotion and the protection of human rights that was installed under the auspice of the United Nations (UN) builds on the idea of equality in dignity and rights of men and women. Yet, as was convincingly showed by critics of this system, it is not. In 1993 a lobby of women’s rights activists and organisations from all over the world gathered in Vienna at the World Conference on Human Rights to make clear to the 171 states represented there that the international human rights system ignored blatant human rights violations that occur on a daily basis in the lives of women from all over the world. The states represented at the World Conference recognised this deficiency of the international human rights system and called upon the monitoring bodies of the mainstream international human rights treaties to include the status and human rights of women in their deliberations and findings. This study examines whether two of these monitoring bodies: the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) have taken up this call. It thereby focused specifically on matters that affect women’s physical integrity. The study shows that the HRC and the CESCR make good use of the possibilities within their mandates to address issues that affect women’s physical integrity: they address not only issues like rape and domestic violence, but also for example female genital mutilation, unsafe abortions, and lack of access to contraceptives. It is in this respect interesting to note that the monitoring bodies do not consider abortion to be a violation of any human right, but, on the contrary, recommend states that have general prohibitions on abortion to amend their laws and allow for abortion under certain circumstances. Moreover, the HRC and the CESCR generally formulate obligations for states parties that take into account the gender-specific form, circumstances and consequences of these human rights abuses. But the HRC and the CESCR could and should do more. Only in a few instances do the bodies expressly link issues like rape, female genital mutilation, and trafficking of women to discrimination of women in societies. Hence, the recommendations of the HRC and the CESCR generally do not request the states parties to tackle the root cause of human rights abuses and constraints: the subordinate position of women in society. Further action is required to overcome this deficit. In this, NGOs and academics also have an important role to play, as they should make the bodies aware of the discriminatory background and nature of specific situations and issues and could present them with ideas on how best to tackle these underlying causes. What is clear is that the request of the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights is not a short-term assignment for the monitoring bodies, but rather is a process that will be ongoing for as long as gender inequality exists. The commitment of not only UN agencies, but also academics, and NGOs is required to transform the international system so as to ensure that it fully accommodates and responds to human rights abuses and constraints that are typical of women’s lives, now and in the future

This Chapter, an excerpt from the book entitled, ‘Water is Life: Women’s human rights in national and local water governance in Southern and Eastern Africa,’ explores how different women farm workers and their households on three resettlement farms are accessing water for multiple uses and participating in water governance on the basis of a plurality of norms and institutions ranging from community-based customary water governance systems to local government institutions post Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme. The three case studies clearly show how intersectional discrimination shapes access to water as well as environmental concerns. The violent invasion of white-owned large-scale commercial farms resulted in a dramatic change of circumstances for farm workers who lost their jobs and homes and free access to sanitation and water for domestic and livelihood use as provided by the white farmers. The Chapter whose focus was on farm worker households on A1 resettlement farms in Mazowe Catchment reveals how displaced farm worker women’s urgent need for clean water and sanitation was neglected by national, local and international humanitarian actors in the aftermath of the cholera outbreaks in 2008. Viewing the farm workers as aliens, the new settlers, who had taken over the formerly white-owned farms, did not see themselves as having an obligation to share available sources of clean drinking water with them; clear evidence of the limit of community based customary norms that establish a duty to share clean drinking water. In some instances however, local traditional leaders, in deference to the customary norms guaranteeing everybody water and food, gave displaced farm worker women permission to access garden land close to the rivers in the area. Despite this noble gesture seeking to respect, protect and fulfil the customary right to livelihood, this conflicted with the traditional leaders’ duty to protect riparian land in conjunction with the Environmental Management Agency (EMA). This apparent conflict of laws raised several key questions which needed answers as drawn from the empirical research in Mazowe catchment, namely; the extent to which these community-based water norms and institutions, constituting the lifeline for poor rural farm worker households, were recognized and protected in national water laws and policies? Further to that, to what extent was women farm workers’ right to participation in water governance recognized within this multiplicity of coexisting water governance structures?

The article analyses the content of the 16 issues of the Polish émigré journal “Północ” [“North”] which appeared in Paris in 1835. Through its editors, Jan Czyński and Szymon Konarski, “Północ” was connected with the ideology of Young Poland – a revolutionary and national liberation organisation which was established by Poles fleeing their homeland after the fall of the November Uprising. The journal addressed national issues and dealt with social, political and religious reforms. Although it not was not formally the organ of Young Poland, its editors and articles expressed thoughts which were entirely in the spirit of this organisation. Young Poland, being a part of an international conspiracy organisation founded by Giusseppe Mazzini - Young Europe, was an organization characterised by revolutionary democratic principles, which Polish emigrants understood primarily at the national pursuit of independence. In addition, the programme strongly emphasized both Christian and utopian socialist themes.

Przedmiot niniejszej analizy obejmuje treść szesnastu numerów polskiego emigracyjnego czasopisma "Północ", które ukazały się w Paryżu w ciągu roku 1835. "Północ" przez osoby swoich redaktorów – Jana Czyńskiego i Szymona Konarskiego, związana była z ideologią Młodej Polski - organizacji o charakterze rewolucyjnym i narodowowyzwoleńczym, która zawiązana została przez uchodzących z kraju Polaków po upadku powstania listopadowego. Czasopismo to podejmowało problematykę krajową, reform społecznych, ustrojowych, religijnych i politycznych, i mimo, że  formalnie nie było organem Młodej Polski, to poprzez swoich redaktorów i publikowane na jej łamach artykuły, głosiła myśli całkowicie w duchu tej organizacji. Młoda Polska, będąca częścią międzynarodowej organizacji spiskowej założonej przez Giuseppe Mazziniego – Młodej Europy, stanowiła organizację, którą cechował programowo rewolucyjny demokratyzm, który w rozumieniu polskich emigrantów oznaczał przede wszystkim dążenie o charakterze narodowym upatrujące swój cel w odzyskaniu niepodległości narodowej. Poza tym jednak program silnie akcentował wątki zarówno chrześcijańskie, jak i te sięgające do koncepcji utopijnego socjalizmu.

This is a collaborative paper by Aida F. Santos and Cecilia T. Hofmann, with assistance by Alma Bulawan  (May 1998), submitted to the International Planning Meeting on WOMEN AND CHILDREN, MILITARISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS, held on May 1- 4, 1997, at Naha, Okinawa. It provides a Brief history of the US bases in the Philippines, the socio-cultural and economic impact of the US bases in the country, examples of xxperiences of women in Olongapo bars, 1972-92, responses of women’s organizations to the issues, and lessons of the bases conversion program in the Philippines.

Sexual orientation segregation is, and has been worldwide reprobate from the initiation of human advancement till now. Despite which a portion of the world we watch, ladies will even now be at the hindrance. What is so essential about this entangled social forbidden is that, it has being an acknowledged as a standard in the public eye making it troublesome for this issue to be assaulted forcefully by activists. Family values, religious teachings, school exercises and the various social associations between the genders, depicts male strength from a more youthful stage in life. Men in this way achieve their development supposing they should be the prevailing. Ladies then again inactively figure out how to acknowledge their position (of second grade native) in the public eye as they achieve adulthood.
My life would never at any point be the same in the event that I was the inverse sex because of family values, religious teachings and the acknowledged part of ladies in my way of life. My way of life like numerous others, instructs ladies to be subordinate to men. As a tyke grows up, these fundamental part of the genders are seen from the folks' and ingrained in the tyke. As they experience religious encounters, the same practice is underlined once more. At the point when kids begin school, they likewise watch the predominant part men play in games, physical work, school band et cetera. These three sociological environments have an awesome effect in the compelling part they play in tyke's life, making it troublesome for society to become strange. These mistreated impacts finish ladies their expert attempts.

This paper seeks to capture the gradual process of acceptance and recognition of violence-against-women-issue as a human right violation in the International human rights discourses. It discusses the role off our World Conferences on women and the Convention on Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in bringing the issue under International spotlight .India is a multiparty, federal, parliamentary democracy with a bicameral parliament. The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles. The Constitution not only grants equality to women, but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women. The Constitution of India grants Fundamental Rights, ensure equality before the law and equal protection of law, prohibits discrimination against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, and guarantee equality of opportunity to all citizens in matters relating to employment. 'Women's rights are the edifice on which human rights stand' (Dr APJ Abdul Kalam).However, women often denied of their right to freedom at form part of everyday life such as freedom of movement, access to education and participation in decision-making process. Violation of women rights is one of the most direct expressions of the power imbalance between men and women. Therefore, any attempt to assess the status and problem of women in a society should start from the social framework; social structure, cultural norms, and value systems are crucial determinants of women's role and their position in society. In respect of the status there is a gap between the theoretical possibilities and their actual realization.

How can women’s rights be seen as a universal value rather than a Western value imposed upon the rest of the world? Addressing this question, Eileen Hunt Botting offers the first comparative study of writings by Mary Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill. Although Wollstonecraft and Mill were the primary philosophical architects of the view that women’s rights are human rights, Botting shows how non-Western thinkers have revised and internationalized their original theories since the nineteenth century. Botting explains why this revised and internationalized theory of women’s human rights—grown out of Wollstonecraft and Mill but stripped of their Eurocentric biases—is an important contribution to thinking about human rights in truly universal terms.

The task to reshape governments in the countries confronted with the Arab Spring prompts the question whether there are necessary conditions to realize a stable society that simultaneously seeks to eliminate the elements that have led to the uprisings. Acknowledging some constitutional rights seems indispensable in such a process. I argue that such a state of affairs is indeed the case, at least now that the ‘old’ justifications to differentiate between people do not suffice anymore. That is not to say that the countries involved will have identical laws in each respect, but merely that a common basis has to be realized, manifested in political and legal equality, so this given does not derogate from the fact that each country’s specific legislation needs to be shaped in the light of its own history. Such a basis has no ‘moral’ character, but is simply a necessary condition to prevent sedition.

Islam and Gender: Major Issues and Debates draws attention to the debates on gender in Islam, emphasizing on lived experiences of Muslim women and men. It focuses on the evolving cultural interplay between women studies, critical feminist theories, and normative religious study (p. 2) and discusses the epistemological advancement of the first three waves of feminism and evolving applications of the woman and gender problems in the disciplinary study of religion and theology. Adis Duderija, Alina Alak, and Kristin Hissong explain various theories behind the traditional construction of masculine and feminine dichotomy and trace Muslim women's ontological and epistemological advancement from diverse nationalities. Finally, they contextualize the debates and discourses initiated by Islamic feminists Fatima Mernissi, Rifat Hassan, Amina Wadud, Asma Barlas, and others. The book traces the evolution of gender in Islam and examines the tensions between the modern and Islamic understanding of gender. The book traverses two major themes. First, it examines a traditional gender discourse in the Islamic jurisprudence, and how they have been interpreted through the Quran and Hadith. It scrutinizes the concept of "topos," known as assumption theory, as the basis of the gender hierarchical and patriarchal nature of the religion. The book has a broad discussion on the nature of the premodern Islamic tradition on gender issues, noting its subscription to the "gender oppositionality" theory that operates behind the tradition of patriarchal construction (p. 25). It explores the logic and the dynamics behind the conceptual patriarchal honor and female modesty law concerning the practice of veiling, seclusion, gender segregation, honor-based violence, and female genital mutation. The main argument provided in the book is whether or not these practices are "Islamic"; all these practices are rooted in the same operative logic, termed as "the logic of patriarchal honor," to control and regulate the female sexuality to uphold patriarchal honor (p. 44). The book argues the importance of the interpretative and hermeneutical approach to the Quran and Sunna in forming gender norms and rules in Islam. It includes a short history of the evolution of Quranic exegesis in Islamic thought and also presents the interpretative methods applied to the Quran in classical Islam that facilitated the construction of a hierarchical gender relation (p. 59).

The psychological damage inflicted on women who were victims of an atrocious repression continues to persist in the background of the female psyche, and it will take a long time and a complete mental paradigm shift in society to achieve total healing.
But in the same way, those women who were forced to exercise the role of jailers, informers and repressors were, without realizing it, victims themselves of a carefully designed thorough work of manipulation. They were led to believe that they were guilty of ignominy because they were women, because they brought sin, and therefore they needed to redeem themselves through submission and blind obedience to a system that made them vulgar pawns, objects of caprice of the true criminals.

This report seeks to capture the essence of the two day consultation on Violence against women and Girls in Odisha. It begins with brief background information on crime against women situation in Odisha. The report then records the discussions and presentations held in the consultation-on Domestic Violence, Witch hunting and Child marriage, problems in implementation of law and the ideas and suggestions to meet the challenges. Background:

Este libro presenta experiencias de acción política de mujeres organizadas contra la impunidad de graves violaciones de derechos humanos cometidas contra ellas y contra la población civil en general, en varios países que han vivido o que continúan inmersos en conflictos armados y entornos represivos. En todos los casos existe un movimiento de mujeres que se niega a que sus reivindicaciones sean relegadas a la periferia de los procesos de verdad, justicia, reparación y garantías de no repetición. Se trata de mujeres que, si bien en su mayoría son y se reconocen como víctimas de la violencia, trascienden esa condición y se afirman como sujetas políticas clave en las transiciones hacia la paz, la recuperación del tejido social destruido, la búsqueda de salidas negociadas a los conflictos, las demandas de justicia y la defensa de los derechos humanos, no solo en el contexto de sus comunidades más próximas, sino también a nivel estatal e internacional. La suya es una acción colectiva, organizada y consciente que supera las visiones estereotipadas sobre la victimización de las mujeres en los conflictos armados, y que da cuenta de trayectorias dilatadas de resistencia y de lucha por sobrevivir, sobreponerse a la violencia y construir sociedades más justas e igualitarias.

Human trafficking in Japan at the turn of the 20th century from a groundbreaking human rights perspective that anticipated later developments.
An ethnographic account of 'mizu shôbai', based upon fieldwork among Latina sex workers and the NGOs, Japanese customers, Japanese police, migration officers, 'yakuza', Iranian mafia, 'nikkeijin' workers and friends with whom they interacted daily.

Conflicts and violence have continued to result in a substantial number of internally displaced persons in Ethiopia. Even though an attempt has been made to respond to internal displacement, the protection offered to IDPs, particularly for women, is limited to life-saving assistance. Internally displaced women are more vulnerable to and highly impacted by the consequences of conflict. This study doctrinally examines whether the legislative measures taken by the government are adequate and compatible with international and regional instruments to protect  IDP women from sexual and gender-based violence. The study establishes that there is an inadequacy of laws and policies framework to respond to sexual and gender-based violence against internally displaced women in Ethiopia, becoming a  major challenge to offer them comprehensive protection.
Keywords: Internal displacement, conflict-induced displacement, internally  displaced women, sexual and gender-based violence, Ethiopia

Women civilized men, not the other way around. This book is also intended to showcase the the women’s ancient culture from where the ancient Egyptian civilization was born and give the women and women’s culture its due credit.

Introduction
Diodorus Siculus wrote that the culture of ancient Egypt was Ethiopian, due to Ethiopians having founded ancient Egypt and preserving their culture there. What he did not take the time to mention, though, was women’s role in the development of ancient Egyptian culture. This book provides, through ancient Egypt’s Ethiopian Amarigna and Tigrigna dual hieroglyphic language, a way of learning about the culture of the women of ancient Egypt.

Ancient texts are messages from the bygone eras. They stand as a testimony to heights of development achieved by our ancient civilizations. Historians for long have depended on ancient texts for understanding contemporary events of ancient periods. These ancient texts give us a first-hand account of the forgotten events, times and culture of the past. Now we focus on ancient women.

The Rosetta Stone is a singularly important artifact and document that has changed the course of our understanding of Egyptian civilization. The Rosetta Stone enabled historians to bring a purportedly dead language back to life, paving the way for a better understanding of the available hieroglyphic literature. In fact, the language was never dead, thriving in over 30 million speakers.

Although known to ancient Greek historians, like Diodorus Siculus, but unbeknownst to the yesteryear colonial-era historians, the Ethiopian languages of Amarigna and Tigrigna still today hold the elements of the women’s ancient hieroglyphic language intact. New path-breaking examinations about women’s role in the development of ancient Egyptian civilization and invention of writing are leading to a revision of hitherto translated documents and are giving deeper insights into the women’s role in the Egyptian civilization.

This book provides an understanding of women’s history and culture in their development of Egyptian civilization by peering through the prism of dual hieroglyphic languages of Amarigna and Tigrigna and analyzing the hieroglyphs, more so, with the help of those of the Rosetta Stone. This approach affords us advantages of not only getting a deeper understanding of historical documents but also an understanding of vast information about ancient Egyptian women lying embedded in hieroglyphic texts.

Meshing hieroglyphs in-between the women’s history of ancient Egypt, we take a look at ancient Egyptian women’s customs, trade and symbology. Another outcome of this exercise is understanding the global relationship between ancient texts from all over the ancient world, which repeat the ancient Egyptian founding of Lower Egypt. Though a thorough examination of such relationships is beyond the scope of this book, it lays foundations for the students, especially school girls to explore this path on their own about their own ancient culture and their ancient women’s rights.

With the world shrinking closer day-by-day and multi-cultural societies a norm, this book paves way for appreciation of the cradle of all the civilizations and how other cultures have readily embraced the elements of ancient Egyptian and therefore Ethiopian culture and civilization, without knowing it to be women’s culture.

We are proud to claim that India is the world’s largest democracy. Going by the numbers, the assertion is correct and there are also theoretical reasons for advancing this claim. The Preamble and chapters on Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles of State Policy make it clear that the Constitution of the Indian Republic guarantees justice, liberty equality to all its citizens irrespective of gender, caste, race, religion, class and place of birth. In terms of gender equality, the Preamble, Articles 14, 15, 16, 21, 23 (Part III dealing with Fundamental Rights), 39, 42, 44 (Part IV dealing with Directive Principles of State Policy) and 51-A (e) (Part IVA dealing with Fundamental Duties) not only give women all the rights accorded to men, but also provides them with special rights.
Sadly enough, there is an immense mismatch between these pious declarations and the status of women at the ground level in India. In global terms, the Indian Republic has the largest number of malnourished women; the highest number of maternal deaths and as well as the record for ‘Missing Girls’, who number in the millions. Violence against women–which includes ‘Honour Killings’, domestic violence and sexual harassment–is rampant despite the occasional stringent dose of laws to control violence against women.
The extent of women’s insecurity in India can be known by the number of incidents of rape and the conviction rate during 2006-2008 as provided by the National Crime Record Bureau. These statistics show that the number of rape cases is steadfastly increasing while the conviction rate is continues to fall. However, this data may not reflect the ground reality as RK Raghavan, a much decorated policeman and ex-chief of the CBI commented that this data “is a gross underestimation. A majority of rapes occurring in villages are suppressed by local bigwigs who run their parallel criminal justice system…Our Caste system and the role of money in the rural setting are principal contributors to this state of affairs.”4
Any student or researcher will be hard pressed to find an explanation for this mismatch. Despite comprehensive laws and the huge machinery of enforcement in place, the Indian Republic is becoming a risky terrain for women in India. There is no denying the fact that Indian democracy is becoming less and less compatible with the rights of women.
This discrimination is allowed to flourish unabated due to a structural belief that women are inferior, backward and the object of denigration. The philosophical moorings regarding the status of women has been spread and strengthened by popular religious literature available in every corner of India. In this paper an attempt has been made to study and investigate the multi-lingual popular religious literature being circulated throughout India. While this study is confined to Hindu and Muslim popular religious literature, it does represent an accurate reflection of the general reality. According to 2001 national census data Hindus and Muslim together constituted 93.9% of the total Indian population. This freely available literature openly denigrates women and preaches violence against them. This paper provides facts and analysis to show how despite a democracy in India women are becoming more and more vulnerable and democracy becoming out of bound for them.
It is interesting to note that flag bearers of the purity of these two religions; Hinduism & Islam, despite serious theological/normative differences with each other, hold absolutely identical views on the status of women. This similarity is most glaring in the low-priced religious propaganda literature circulated by them in every nook and corner of India (Pakistan, Bangladesh & Nepal being no exceptions) which openly demean and denigrate women.
This paper is the outcome of extensive research of popular religious literature regarding women which in fact is anti-women and openly denigrates them.
[This write-up was earlier posted titled as " POPULAR RELIGIOUS LITERATURE: MAKING INDIAN DEMOCRACY INCOMPATIBLE WITH WOMEN’S RIGHTS". This version is a revised one.]
For Hindi version: https://www.academia.edu/38074195/%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%B0_%E0%A4%AE_%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BE_%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%80_%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE_%E0%A4%94%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%82_%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%88%E0%A4%82_

Abstract

Children are the future of a nation and the hope for a better tomorrow. For a country to develop, the rights of a child should be of paramount concern to the government of the nation. These rights include, but are not limited to, the right to adequate standard of living, health care, education, play and recreation, protection from abuse, negligence and exploitation. Unfortunately, many children are denied these rights and the joy of childhood by being involved in child labour as a means to survive. In Nigeria, child labourers engage in
all forms of labour and this is becoming widespread. The major causes of increasing incidence of child labour in Nigeria are the prevailing unemployment rate in the country, poverty, illiteracy, household size, culture and family structure. Several writers have written on the increasing incidence of child labour and the prohibition of child labour. Some writers have also written on the underlying major causes and health consequences of child labour in Nigeria. Although it may be impossible to totally eradicate child labour in Nigeria however, ultimate consideration to strategies and mechanisms on how to eradicate the worst forms of child labour in Nigeria is yet to be analysed. This is pertinent bearing in mind that Nigeria has ratified the ILO Convention on Worst Forms of Child Labour. This dissertation aims to address some of these issues by focusing on why children work as child labourers and the consequences and effects of child labour on the growth and development of the child. It will also analyse the efforts made by the International Labour Organisation and International Programs for the Elimination of Child Labour in eradicating the worst forms of child labour in Nigeria. Furthermore, this dissertation will attempt to determine what accounts for gaps in effective implementation of international laws on child labour ratified by Nigeria and national legislation enacted to prohibits the worst forms of child labour. Finally, it will suggest possible state and policy interventions, in the form of strategies and mechanisms, that could eradicate the worst forms of child labour in Nigeria.