The debate over Islamic law is raging globally, among Muslim women's groups alarmed by cases in Nigeria and Pakistan. "I believe in the justice of God. So if justice is not done to me here on earth it will be done in the hereafter," says Amina Lawal. Ms Lawal, divorced mother-of-three, retains a strong faith in her Islamic religion, even though she has become what many see as a victim of Islamic law.

A failure to achieve gender equality in basic education will result in almost certain failure of the other Millenium Development Goals (MDG's), according to a report that aims to inform campaigning and advocacy work in the North and South on girls' education. The report highlights the progress that has been made in reducing gender gaps in education in the developing world and the size of the challenge that remains. Despite individual success stories, says the report, very large inequalities still exist in the majority of developing countries, and the rate of progress needs to accelerate four-fold to achieve the gender equity goal.

Water experts have predicted that a worldwide water shortage is set to worsen significantly over the next 25 years with billions of people affected by an unprecedented global crisis. The experts also forecast that women and children, especially in Africa, are the group that would be hit hardest. During a recent international workshop on the privatization of essential services participants sent distress signals that women would be the worse affected if water were put in private hands.

A two-day conference on women's participation in politics opened in Abuja this week, with a call on women to work towards neutralising male-dominance in politics, with a view to contributing towards the sustenance of democracy in the country. Held by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), the conference is expected to analyse and work out strategies for supporting women's participation in politics.

A report from the United Nations (UN) Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) that presents data, statistics and analysis to show a picture of women's empowerment in the new century, and illuminate what remains to be done to achieve true gender equality, shows that Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest levels of achievement, primarily because of a devastating combination of national poverty, conflict and the effects of HIV/AIDS. The report shows that the level of women's representation in national governments has been improving. "The rise in women's share of parliamentary seats is primarily due to special measures - such as quotas - being introduced and is not tied to a nation's relative wealth or poverty."

Why are women hugely under-represented in parliaments across the world? What strategies can bring women’s interests into the policy-making process? What are the pros and cons of quotas reserving parliamentary places for women? How can participants in women’s movements avoid being co-opted? A paper from the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) takes a look at a subject largely ignored in the mainstream literature on democratisation. It notes the contrast between the lively debates on the reform of governments in ethnically segmented societies with the deafening silence on women’s absence from the world of institutional politics.

The Swiss-based human rights group, World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has expressed concern over a recent incident in which Sudanese security forces reportedly arrested a group of women activists, and it urged the authorities in Khartoum to conduct a "thorough and impartial" investigation.

Sixty women peace activists in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, have appealed for the restoration of peace and stability in the city. Their call was made during a women's forum held in Mogadishu, organised by the Centre for Research and Dialogue (CRD), an affiliate of the War-Torn Societies Project International, according to Maryam Mahmud Haji, a CRD gender officer.

UNIFEM Southern African Regional Office is currently compiling a database on women economists in Southern Africa. The objective of the exercise is to facilitate networking as well as creating a pool of resource persons who can be hired to either write articles on gender and economics or to make presentations at workshops. The targeted persons should have wide knowledge in macroeconomics, trade, gender and human rights issues. If you are interested, please contact Rachel Mujuru.

When 54-year old Mary Kuluo saw a poster urging Maasai women to rear dairy goats that had high milk potential she got interested. "The women are only allowed to own chickens, goats and donkeys", says Bernard Momanyi, the Narok District Agriculture and Livestock Extension Officer. "Thus any introduction of dairy goats among the Maasai had to involve women and they are excited about it".

Women in Lesotho married under customary law continue to be discriminated against. This was a conclusion reached at a two-day workshop on customary law and women's rights organised jointly by the Community Legal Resource and Advice Centre (CLRAC) of Lesotho and the Legal Resource Centre (LRC) of South Africa. The workshop, which is the result of a comparative study of women's rights in Lesotho and South Africa under customary law, found that the struggle of women for equal access to the law is still far from being reached.

Minister of Women and Children's Affairs Gladys Asmah has called for the concerns of women to be highlighted, noting that although women produced about 60 per cent of the foodstuffs in the country, many were illiterate and poor.

Under-qualified for the new textile jobs that drew them to Lesotho's capital city of Maseru, many young women from the famine-plagued countryside are surviving by selling sex, with and without a condom. "The first time I did it, I cried," said 22-year-old Lonia Ratesebe as she waits on her normal corner with her friend and housemate, Ana Dikeledi. "I felt guilty, but there was no food, no clothing and no jobs."

ICT's for Rural Women is an information and announcement list which circulates information on resources, events and organisations working on issues related to how women can use ICTs to support their grassroots productive enterprises.

In June, UN Security Council (UNSC) members will travel to Central and West Africa to witness the current armed conflict and post-conflict situations in countries in the respective regions. In order to support the Council's compliance with paragraph 15 of the UNSC Resolution 1325, the Inter-Agency Taskforce on Women, Peace and Security, led by the Office for the Special Advisor on Gender Issues, has submitted the names of local and national women's organisations that should be contacted by the Council members and has provided a list of gender issues and concerns that should be taken into consideration by the Council in each country. There is a concern among advocates for women's participation in peace and security matters that the quality of and quantity of time allotted to consultation with women's organisations while on mission is insubstantial and inconsistent with the Security Council's mandate in UNSC Resolution 1325.

The Leadership Institute is an opportunity for young women to come together to hone their skills, articulate their own visions for a women's rights agenda, and work collaboratively to launch strategic and cutting-edge campaigns. Throughout the workshop, participants will explore the challenges posed by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and poverty in Africa, sharing their personal experiences of successful and not-so-successful initiatives in their own communities while developing new strategies to effect real change for women's rights and social justice in Africa.

A meeting of Kenyan women has called for a truth and justice commission as a platform for them to speak out about the injustices of the past as a first step towards healing. Speaking at a May 28 consultation to reflect on the need for a truth, justice and reconciliation commission, women victims of repression gave accounts of how they were manhandled by the previous regime.

Is South Africa’s post-apartheid commitment to gender rights incompatible with the recognition given to unelected hereditary authorities? Who makes decisions about land allocation and use in the overcrowded former ‘bantustans’ (ex-homelands)? What is the impact on female-headed households? Can the aborted move towards gender equity and land reform be put back on track? A paper ‘Gender, traditional authority and the politics of rural reform in South Africa’ by the Universities of Monash and Nottingham Trent shows the ways in which constitutional contradictions block progress on land reform in the black homelands where three-quarters of South Africa’s poor households are found.

Three Nigerians sentenced to be stoned to death for having sex outside marriage will appeal before Islamic courts this week, turning the spotlight back on a bitter battle over Sharia law. In the best known case, 33-year-old mother-of-three Amina Lawal will on Tuesday begin her second appeal against her conviction for adultery at the Sharia Appeal Court in the northern city of Katsina.

Leading women rights activists in Malawi have cautioned President Bakili Muluzi against using abusive language towards women at political rallies, a practice they claim frustrates efforts to uplift their social status.