The thing (the authorities) are most angry about is my voice," says Philo Ikonya, president of PEN Kenya. Ikonya has been involved in a number of protests and political readings recently and was arrested and severely beaten in police custody this past February. Ikonya was one of four extraordinary women who met across a table at a "Silenced Women's Voices" panel on 4 June in Oslo, Norway at the recent Global Forum on Freedom of Expression (GFFE).

Learning institutions in the country have been urged by experts to set rules and regulations regarding homosexual behaviour in schools. Kenya Female Advisory Organisation coordinator Dolphin Oketch has said that boarding schools are more prone to witnessing cases of students practicing homosexuality, and thus the need for some set rules. While not expounding on the matter, Oketch however said that these educational institutions should create space for dialogue among students on their sexual lives, and not resort to only discussing the issue when a crisis has occurred.

Agenda Feminist Media is seeking a consultant to explore options for maximising the reach and effectiveness of its journal. The scope of the research includes evaluating possibilities for maximising the efficiency and effectiveness of the journal, as well as costing the different options. Interested parties should send a CV and statement of interest to [email][email protected] The time frame for completion of the project is until end-July. Further information and full TOR can be provided upon request.

cc Following Barack Obama’s 4 June speech in Cairo, Algerian secularist Marieme Helie Lucas doesn’t think the president’s discourse is the new voice of peace. Critical of Obama’s idea of homogenous civilisations and his equating of civilisation with religion, Lucas argues that by essentialising Islam and ignoring the large differences that exist among Muslim believers themselves, Obama feeds into the plans of Muslim fundamentalists who claim that there is one single Islam. Obama does not raise the issue of who defines culture, who defines religion or who speaks for 'the Muslims', says Lucas. Instead, he talks to religions rather than citizens, nations or countries. By assuming that everyone has to have a religion, he leaves no place for those who choose ‘not to have religion as their main marker of identity’ and overlooks the fact that in many instances ‘people are forced into religious identities’, Lucas contends.

Talk openly about rape. That is the gist of a new campaign in Cameroon, where according to a study an estimated 432,000 women and girls have been raped in the past 20 years. Some 200 rape survivors gathered on 28 May in the capital Yaoundé, several of the women and girls telling their stories during the campaign’s opening ceremony.

Trial for a rape case of a gay man known only as Luanda will be heard on 22 June this year following its postponement on Friday 29 May as two of the three accused did not pitch up. On Friday members of the Western Cape End Hate Alliance gathered outside the Blue Downs Magistrate Court to protest against this homophobic attack and to offer support to the victim. Luanda was allegedly raped and left in the ditch of his eMfuleni township home on 26 April last year.

President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia has once again denounced homosexuality at a recent tour in Banjul, suggesting that the practice will not be tolerated in that country. The Gambian President made these remarks at the end of his People’s Tour held in Banjul at the Arch 22nd, an arch built to mark the rise of President Jammeh and his victory which put an end to the democratically elected government in Gambia in 1996.

After 500 young women in Uganda endured genital mutilations in the most recent season for the initiation rite, a physician lawmaker here is optimistic about outlawing the practice this year and finding new income for traditional surgeons.

The very survival of women and children in Africa may depend on the newly-launched Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA). According to latest estimates by the African Union (AU), over the next ten years there will be 2.5 million maternal deaths, another 2.5 million child deaths and 49 million maternal disabilities in Africa alone if urgent actions are not taken.

How does intimate-partner violence affect Kenyan women's rights? How can the government, NGOs, and the legal and healthcare systems support abused women? This paper from the Institute of Development Studies explores links between intimate-partner violence and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) rights in Nairobi. Significant gaps exist between formal legal rights and the realities experienced by individuals. Legal reform, improved services for affected women and better coordination among service providers are required.

In line with its mandate of developing, promoting, consolidating, and disseminating the highest quality of research on and about Africa, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) will hold a Gender Symposium from November 23rd to 25th in Cairo, Egypt. The Gender Symposium is an annual event that provides a platform for gender-focused debates. The theme for the 2009 symposium is Gender and Sports in Africa’s Development.

This series of seven 8-page briefs, all with the title "Revitalizing Underutilized FP Methods", looks at how the ACQUIRE Project (which stands for Access, Quality, and Use in Reproductive Health) integrated various communication strategies to stimulate authentic community demand for the intrauterine device (IUD) and vasectomy in seven countries – Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Honduras, Kenya, and Uganda.

It has been just over a year since the few weeks of seeming madness in May 2008, when xenophobic violence broke out across South Africa, shocking the nation and attracting international condemnation. However, migrant women in South Africa consider that period as an example, albeit extreme, of what they experience in their daily lives as foreigners in South Africa. Research recently conducted by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) on migrant women in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban – before, during and after the xenophobic attacks in May 2008 – found migrant women’s daily experiences of xenophobia far-reaching.

Thousands of Ethiopian women have turned to begging with their children in order to survive, advocacy group has said. The group claims that thousands of Ethiopian children are dying of malnutrition every day, as a result of a famine affecting close to six million people – but which remains hidden from the public and from the international community. The group has called for donor agencies to reassess their development efforts in Ethiopia, saying that the government’s policies on land, agriculture, and trade and bilateral agreements it has signed have had ‘serious impacts on food production and consumption’.

Pervasive use of ethnic and religious stereotypes by law enforcement across Europe is harming efforts to combat crime and terrorism, according to a report released today by the Open Society Justice Initiative. Ethnic profiling occurs most often in police decisions about who to stop, question, search, and, at times, arrest. Yet there is no evidence that ethnic profiling actually prevents terrorism or lowers crime rates.

The Africa Advocacy Coordinator leads the Nobel Women’s Initiative’s advocacy and strategic communication initiatives in Africa. The Coordinator is focused primarily on women’s rights and armed violence in Sudan and Darfur, but also provides analysis and support for other Nobel Women’s Initiative issue areas, including violence and repression in Burma and Iran, climate justice and nuclear disarmament.

When Nora Adhiambo, 21, started working as a housekeeper for a family in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, she expected to cook, clean and look after their young children; not that she would have to regularly have sex with her employer. "He would force me to have sex with him; every time he would sleep with me without a condom and this went on for two years," she told IRIN/PlusNews. "He threw me out when I told him I was pregnant; I realised later that I had not only left that house with a pregnancy but also HIV."

Amnesty International has said Rwandan gays and lesbians face serious hostilities, harassment and intimidation in the East African state. According to the Amnesty International 2009 report, the treatment of the lesbian community is not isolated but indicative of general short-fall in the respect of human rights, saying the Rwanda government reacted with hostility to criticism on gay and lesbian community.

An innovative new campaign was recently launched in Johannesburg, that aims to ensure that young people are empowered to use their cell phones and the Internet for positive self expression. The campaign was launched by Girls’Net, a daughter project of Women’sNet. Says Faith Nkomo of Girls’Net “80% of young people have access to a cellphone – we must be acting to make sure we take advantage of this tool to help young people access opportunities and create positive social spaces to interact in.”

A Non Governmental Organization in Kenya's Nyanza province is set to launch a sexual identity and human rights debate project on Tuesday.Kenya Female Advisory Organization (KEFEADO)’s executive director Dolphin Oketch says the debate will open space for dialogue on sexuality. Oketch says there has been silence on homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality and transsexual practices in Kenyan schools, families and the society that must be addressed.