Events in the lives of two women in Nigeria once more focus our attention on the position of women in class society. Safiya Huseini's face tells a life story - a woman oppressed by her religion, her womanhood, her society. For daring to challenge the dictates of a patriarchal society she was condemned to death. Amina Lawal is herself a no less "perfect" specimen of a Muslim woman. Neither was her crime any different from that of Safiya’s. They both had sex outside wedlock. But, while Safiya has escaped punishment Amina’s fate still hangs in the balance. Both women have more in common than a shared crime - and they share this with millions of women, particularly under the rule of Islamic law. To be sure the position of women in "Christian" society is not a paradise and much still has to be done to achieve genuine emancipation, but compared to her Muslim counterpart she has conquered more rights.

The Society for Women and AIDS in Africa (SWAA) is pleased to announce its IXth International Conference: Access to Care and Treatment for Women, Children and Families in Africa. Since 1989, SWAA has successfully organized eight pan-African conferences in venues from Harare to Kampala. These meetings bring together advocates, practitioners, scientists, community groups and People Living With HIV/AIDS from across Africa and around the world.

Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) is a non-governmental organisation initiated to develop the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) among women as tools to share information and address issues collectively. WOUGNET requires an information/researcher officer to strengthen the delivery of WOUGNET programs. Women are particularly encouraged to apply.

Women church leaders in Zimbabwe have declared war on abuse of women and children. The leaders argue that women and children are treated as sex workers.

Testing and treating pregnant women for HIV reduces the likelihood of infecting the child. But do women want to know if they have HIV? Researchers with the Medical Research Council programme in Uganda investigated how rural women feel about counselling and testing for HIV during pregnancy. While most women are prepared to undergo testing, they are worried about confidentiality and the behaviour of medical staff.

A week-long survey by a newspaper in Tanzania has revealed that despite the enactment of the Sexual Offences and Special Provisions Act of 1998, which states that any person found guilty of enforcing Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is liable to a term of imprisonment of not less than 5 years, FGM is still widely practiced.

This paper examines the correlates of mistimed and unwanted childbearing in Kenya. The results show that unplanned childbearing in Kenya is associated with a number of factors, including urban/rural residence, region, ethnicity, maternal education, maternal age, marital status, birth order, length of preceding birth interval, family planning practice, fertility preference and unmet need for family planning.

The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has launched an initiative to link African ICT entrepreneurs living in Africa with those living in the Diaspora. The goal of the programme is to help bridge the digital divide in Africa by providing women with access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) to help improve their livelihoods. It works by fostering and supporting collaborations to strengthen African women entrepreneurs and their use of ICT.

In order to "save Africa from two catastrophes" -- the HIV/AIDS epidemic and famine -- "we would do well to focus on saving Africa's women," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan writes in a New York Times opinion piece.

Parliamentarians from more than 20 African and Asian countries meeting recently in Bangkok, Thailand, called for stepped up efforts to adopt legislation and policies for equality between women and men, one of the Millennium Development Goals.

Since coming to power in 1986, Uganda's National Resistance Movement (NRM) has made significant strides towards including women as partners in the country's development and decision-making process. But tradition dies hard, and Ugandan women complain there is still a long way to go.

The Women's World Organization for Rights, Literature, and Development, or Women's WORLD, was formed because nowhere on earth are women's voices given the same respect as men's. “In far too many countries, women who try to have a public voice are met with hatred, contempt, suppression, exile, or death,” says their web site.

Forced displacement can lead to new social and economic benefits in some cases. Largely, however, it is a traumatic event that leads to a decline in the standard of living and a diminished sense of wellbeing for those displaced. How does current resettlement research deal with the problems of vulnerable groups in displacement processes?

As part of activities marking 16 Days of Activism on Violence Against Women declared by UNIFEM world wide, The Ark Foundation (Ghana), an advocacy-based women's human rights NGO undertook an educational campaign targeting nine communities in the Eastern Region of the country.

Testing and treating pregnant women for HIV reduces the likelihood of infecting the child. But do women want to know if they have HIV? Researchers with the Medical Research Council programme in Uganda investigated how rural women feel about counselling and testing for HIV during pregnancy. While most women are prepared to undergo testing, they are worried about confidentiality and the behaviour of medical staff.

Women's Aid Collective (WACOL), a non-governmental organisation which seeks to protect the rights of women, has decried the high incidence of violence against women in the country and called on all relevant authorities to help stem the scourge.

The international community must act forcefully and immediately to end impunity and stop flagrant violations of women's human rights in conflict and post-conflict situations, UNIFEM Executive Director, Noeleen Heyzer, told participants at a meeting here. The meeting, convened by UNIFEM, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, marked International Human Rights Day.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said there is continued sexual harassment of female staff at various workplaces and called for an urgent law to address the matter. This is contained in the Gender Needs Assessment draft report done by the ILO Gender Project. It covered several government departments, National Organisation of Trade Unions and Federation of Uganda Employers.

Africa's women have borne the brunt of caring for the young, the old, the sick and dying, the survival of households, the sustaining of livelihoods and sustaining of the cycle of life itself, says UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Speaking upon receiving an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Cape Town, at Columbia University in New York on December 9, Annan said there was no effective development strategy in which women did not play a central role. When women were fully involved, the benefits could be seen immediately.

With environmentalists warning about Kenya's dwindling energy sources, the use of fireless cookers in poor households is becoming the answer - a small step that could save the countryside fuel sources in the east African nation of 32 million people.