guinea: Women Fight to Overcome Cultural Barriers

Idiatou Balde, in her late 30s, exhibits and sells indigo-tinted fabrics in an up market in Conakry, the capital of Guinea. Balde, a chemical engineer, who runs a local organisation called ''Walinderin'' (let's help each other, in a local language), is a divorcee whose trajectory in life is similar to that of hundreds of other Guinean women who have refused to pay heed to the dictates of men.