10.032016

The alienation of Nigerian women in widowhood

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This ethnographic study describes the plight of many women in widowhood in Nigeria, particularly in rural areas and more traditional communities such as those found in Etche, in the Niger Delta region. The cause of the women’s plight are harmful cultural practices that are ritualistically applied in the event of a husband’s death, and which see widows alienated from their communities and families, and from themselves as autonomous, empowered individuals. This alienation runs deep in many communities, and manifests in a variety of ways. Widows are forced to lie with the corpse in state, relinquish possessions to the husband’s family, restrict their movement and agency in decisions concerning them. Additionally, the widows are often labelled as dirty, or subject to accusations they cannot contend for fear of further alienation.

The paper examines the traditional practices in Etche, and places them in the context of a developing world wherein education is making them ever more anachronistic. This growing disconnect serves to increase the harm inflicted on people that do not accept such outdated modes of dealing with death. Despite this, it is important to note that many women themselves are fundamental in perpetuating the customs, be it through a duty to tradition, or even the opportunity for personal gain and the new found freedom to act upon feelings of jealousy, rejection, or personal disliking.

The complex nature of attitudes towards these rituals and practices, including the sometimes deep-rooted feeling that they are important and necessary components of these communities heritage, means that a head-on approach toward eradicating them may be ineffective, or even counter-productive. Instead, the author advocates for attitudinal change through mass education programmes that are free, compulsory, and accessible in rural areas. Other ideas include: the organisation of widows with the aim of instituting an endowment fund to alleviate widow's plight, and allow them access to legal services; the inclusion of the Church, who are urged to protect the rights of all of their flock; and a campaign to highlight and enlighten people as to the negative impacts of such...

10.032016

Feminist perspectives on the law on the use of force

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Article 2(4) of the UN Charter concerning the prohibition on the use of force by nation states fails to incorporate the diversity of feminist approaches to conflict resolution and peacebuilding. Instead it predicates itself narrowly on discussion about when and how force is justified. That is the argument put forth in this publication, which analyses Article 2(4) and other structural, organisational, and normative structures from a variety of feminist perspectives. It also puts forward insights and recommendations on how such perspectives could be incorporated into and benefit international law.

 

The author, Gina Heathcote, points to the lack of female representation at all levels of the United Nations and other international bodies and governments, which she links to the gendering of international legal categories. Heathcote then explains how this can contribute to the harm and discrimination women experience globally. Next, she notes critically that the Security Council’s women, peace, and security resolutions support and legitimise the use of force, and recommends a focus on the prohibition of force instead. Heathcote discusses in detail the role of women as participants in decision-making structures, including the Security Council, before turning to the topic of feminist peace activism.

 

Heathcote suggests that rather than acting as a prohibition on force, Article 2(4) is instead viewed as a trigger mechanism used to justify force. Acknowledging and incorporating feminist discourse and agency within Article 2(4) would necessarily shine a light on this dynamic, and force us to speak and seek peace, and not just war. Such an approach would highlight the contradictory nature of invoking women's plights to justify violence, only to worsen their suffering through said violence and it's long-lasting negative...

10.032016

Rapping feminism, rapping the family: hip hop, the Mudawwana, and the monarchy in Morocco

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Feminisms can be expressed in many forms, in a variety of complex sub-cultural systems that are full of synergies and contradictions. One such arena is music. In this paper, Casey Jo Brege examines the types of feminism expressed through rap and hip hop in Morocco, in the context of the Mudawwana and the monarchy. Since the 1999 coronation of King Muhammed VI, Morocco has undergone large-scale legal reform via the nation’s Islamic family and personal status laws (the Mudawwana), gendered social roles and gender equality, and accepted modes of feminist political engagement in public space.

Brege uses the work of cultural theorist Stuart Hall to look at the music of two hip hop artists, Fnaire and MC Soultana, to demonstrate the ways that musicians work within and reflect the contemporary landscape of Moroccan feminism, political resistance, and reconstructions of gendered identities, all while working with, through, and around the regime’s co-optive power. The paper is structured in three parts: an introduction to the Moroccan Mudawwana, and analysis of the two artists work.

Brege notes that the differences between the artists provides a telling look at developments in both feminist thought and political environment. Hip hop group Fnaire's “Ma Tqich Bladi” evokes the symbolically potent khamsa (a palm-shaped amulet) to engage directly with regime rhetoric, employing the language of Islam in an apolitical way. Fnaire speaks of women, but does not include their voices or bodies in song or video. By contrast, MC Soultana reflects the calls of the 20 February Movement, which emerged during the Arab Spring, for political action disengaged from official regime channels. She raps publicly about gendered concerns from a position of experience, and no longer depicts women as passive national symbols but as active citizens of the nation.

The gap between these musicians discourse and action remains a potentially rich field of investigation. Both Fnaire and MC Soultana engage in activities that can be seen as both confirming and denying regime legitimacy, e.g. large-scale music events that affirm regime control over public space. Rather than making judgement on the relative ethics of musical output, it is Brege’s aim to highlight these discrepancies to demonstrate the complex, shifting nexus of individual agency, socio-musical expression, and external political pressure in contemporary Moroccan hip hop. Understanding this nexus can provide a deep insight into the multi-faceted expressions of hip hop artists and their fans, and doing so begs a re-evaluation of both protest and culture as widely perceived.

Brege concludes that there is still work to be done in exploring the intersections between regime legitimacy, feminist opposition, and emerging hip hop artists in Morocco. A deeper understanding of the history and construction of gendered social spaces, and the Kingdom’s use of religious rhetoric as a mode of legitimation, would provide a strong starting point for examining the continued evolution of Moroccan feminist...

10.032016

Stella Oyedepo and the feminist vision in the Rebellion of the Bumpy-Chested

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Feminist activism and civic participation can come in many forms, including theatre. The prolific playwright Stella Oyedepo is arguably one of the most visible practitioners of theatre in Nigeria today, with plays including Survive, We Will, The Missing Ingredient, and Brain has no Gender. Oyedepo’s feminism strongly informs her work, which centres around the many ills, perversions, and misplaced social values she perceives in Nigerian society. Her drama has spoken out against the violence women face in society, and has proffered educational empowerment of women to address their marginalisation.

This essay by John Yeseibo examines one of Oyedepo’s plays in particular, The Rebellion of the Bumpy-Chested, to identify and analyse Oyedepo’s feminist vision. It begins by offering a synopsis; a club of impressionable women, led by a frustrated and "beefy" Captain Sharp, embark on a rebellion against the injustices meted out by their husbands. The women take on many roles traditionally regarded as being in the domain of men, but when the men do likewise and take on the roles of women, the disgust felt by one wife, Salwa, spells doom for the rebellion.

Having analysed the play, Yeseibo concludes that the purpose of the play is to challenge institutionalised male monopoly of leadership in decision-making roles, and to emphasise the need to reverse this trend. Also predominant however is the belief that men themselves need to be liberated as a necessary condition in redressing the marginalisation of women. Oyedepo is of the view that radical feminism will not work in the Nigerian context, and will not lessen the denigration of women in society. Instead, complementarity is needed as the panacea for socio-political-economic...

10.032016

Global Nutrition Report 2015: Actions and accountability to advance nutrition and sustainable development

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Tackling, reducing, and even eliminating malnutrition in all of its forms should be considered an achievable priority for the world. This is a sentiment expressed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), at the 2015 Nutrition for Growth (N4G) summit, and in this 2015 Global Nutrition Report. A vast number of authors and researchers from multiple institutes and organisations contributed to make this report the most comprehensive and authoritative study on the state of global nutrition. This edition places a particular focus on the role of action and accountability in driving advances in nutrition and sustainable development.

This latest report introduces a number of new features to the annual series, including new analysis of stunting and wasting data from five countries, more nuanced methods of tracking countries progress toward meeting global nutrition targets, a greater focus on obesity and noncommunicable diseases, and the incorporation of more indirect, but nevertheless important, sectors and actors that influence nutrition. The report includes many graphs, graphics, and data-sets, as well as boxes featuring expert perspectives. In the appendix, data regarding progress toward nutrition status targets and N4G commitments are provided, as well as estimates on the necessary scaling up of financial and capacity resources for nutrition.

The report begins by assessing progress globally in four nutrition domains: nutrition status compared with global targets; the commitments made at the 2015 N4G summit; actions to address malnutrition in all its forms; and the scaling up of nutrition finance and capacity. In each case, detailed descriptions of key findings and recommendations are provided. Next, the authors identify vital opportunities, actions, and metrics to advance nutrition through climate policy, food systems, and the private sector. The report recommends ways of building stronger accountability in nutrition in these domains and sectors by drawing on lessons from other fields, identifying key gaps in data and capacity, and describing innovative ways of filling these gaps. The final section presents ten 'calls to action', each of which are as specific, measurable, assignable, realistic, and time bound as possible.

The executive summary of the report presents six key messages that summarise the details of the reports main findings:

  • Ending all forms of malnutrition will drive sustainable development. This fact needs to be emphasised more strongly in efforts to achieve and monitor the SDGs. New evidence shows that investment in reducing malnutrition gives a high return on investment, and can result in benefits across multiple SDG targets.
  • Despite significant reductions in levels of malnutrition, progress is still too slow and too uneven. Some forms of malnutrition, namely adult overweight and obesity, are actually increasing and should receive greater attention in the SDGs. In some countries, such as Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Pakistan, children growing up healthily actually represent a slight minority.
  • Concrete action to address malnutrition, backed by financing, is being scaled up too slowly to achieve the 2025 World Health Assembly (WHA) targets, or the SDG target of ending malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. This requires significant ramping-up, and the N4G summit in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 is an opportunity to make progress in this regard.
  • A virtuous circle of improved nutrition and sustainable development can be unleashed if action to address malnutrition in all its forms can be embedded within key development sectors. Numerous opportunities for interventions are identified within social protection, climate policy, food systems, and the business sector.
  • The accountability of all nutrition stakeholders needs to improve if this virtuous circle is to emerge. The report found examples of missing and incomplete data, inconsistent reporting of data, lack of attention to the seasonality of data, and patchy financial reporting from donors. Additionally, more data is required on diets of 6-24 month-old children, given the importance of this stage of a child's development.
  • Significant reductions of malnutrition, in all its forms, is possible by 2030. This conclusion is predicated on a significant increase in funding, effective cooperation between G7 countries accountable for ambitious poverty reduction commitments made in 2015, and the adoption of ambitious goals at the Rio summit in 2016.

10.032016

Analytical paper: the right of women to public political space

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Published by Nazra for Feminist Studies, a group that aims to build an Egyptian feminist movement, this analytical paper examines the rights of women to public political space in Egypt of 2013, following a new wave of revolution which led to the removal of Mohammed Morsi from power. The paper aims to shed more light on policies and laws adopted by different institutions of the state, namely the Constitution and Family Law, and focus on the extent to which these policies affect women's participation in public political space.

The first section is an examination of the status of women in the last constitution of Egypt (suspended by the time of writing), and notes a number of fundamental flaws and examples of deep-rooted gender-based inequalities. These include: the unrepresentative nature of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the constitution, as shown by the lack of Christians, Nubians, Bedouins, and other racial and religious minorities groups, as well as a meagre 6% representation of women; the discriminatory criteria for selection of the members of the Assembly; the reduction of provisions protecting women to a single, non-specific statement on equality; a counter-productive focus on women in the context of family, viewing women as divorcees, widows, and mothers rather than equal citizens; and that even though the constitution prohibited forced human exploitation, abuse, and trafficking, it does so while neglecting to frame such concerns as rights unto themselves.

Next, the authors talk about the status of women in Family Law, one of the most important legislations to be discussed in this context. Women's position in the public space is connected to her position in the private space, since the latter is highly influential when it comes to the formation of the kind of life women experience and want to experience, beyond their roles as mothers and wives. Although most Egyptians laws are supposed to have moved away from the religious courts of the 19th Century, judgements nevertheless continue to engage with and reproduce socially conservatives values and religious customs. Yet, while Family Law may be governed by religious and societal principles that both affect it and get reproduced by it, it also has political dimensions that differ according to the nature of the ruling regime.

In spite of restrictions, women are still organising and making a difference, as exemplified by the amendments won in 2000 which granted increased rights to women concerning divorce, and increased the legal marriage age from 16 to 18. However, conflicts regarding Family Law are far from over. The twin pressure from religious and state gender-based discrimination must be tackled in a way that connects women’s personal affairs in the private space to her ambitions in the public space. So long as Family Law continues to embody inequality, be it through the concept of absolute guardianship (Qawama) of men over women, the unequal sharing of inheritance, or the lack of women’s representation in the courts, then society will continue to reproduce prevailing discriminatory social concepts.

In conclusion, the authors find that public space in Egypt is becoming a crucial area for political power and expression, and that both the suspended Constitution and the long-established Family Law work to prohibit and undermine women’s ability to participate safely and effectively. Laws in place to protect women from harassment and sexual abuse are loose and rarely enforced or investigated. Thus, women’s presence in the public space is a structural issue that affects all institutions, both government and civil society, and they should be included in discussion dealing with women’s issues. It is asserted that forms of political participation should be diversified and widened in order to guarantee the ability of women to criticise the realities of their lives, and to express their visions for...

10.032016

Judicial activism as a tool for the actualisation of socio-economic rights in Nigeria: comparison with Indian and South African experience

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Due to the provisions in the 1999 constitution which gives room for judge’s activism, it is sometimes said that judicial activism is the most viable route for the actualisation of socio-economic rights for Nigerian citizens. This is because the Nigerian judiciary has recourse to act as a check and balance on the executive and legislative branches of power if it is thought that they have exercised excessive, arbitrary, or tyrannical use of power. However, the prevalent attitudes of Nigerian judges on social and economic rights casts doubt on this assertion.

This paper adopts a doctrinal research method, using primary and secondary sources, to examine the role of activist judges in Nigeria, and the viability of this route being an effect driver of social and legal change. The author then looks at judicial activism in India and South Africa, and highlights the actualisation of socio-economic rights as enforceable rights in the two countries. Finally, the author makes observations, recommendations, and conclusions concerning how these case studies might inform efforts in a Nigerian context.

The author distinguishes between the tenets and characteristics of an active judge, who is a servant of power, and an activist judge, who is a servant of the people’s rights and entitlement, before examining in more detail the constitutional laws and legal concepts directing judges’ actions in Nigeria. The socio-economic rights of Nigerian citizens in the constitution are discussed, before the two country case studies are presented. The author concludes that due to resource and financial pressures, and the state of the Nigerian courts, it is too soon to expect progress through judicial activism. What is required is significant state funding focused on securing socio-economic rights of citizens; efforts by civil society to join a campaign to have the Chapter II provisions of the constitution transferred to Chapter IV, so that economic and social rights become fundamental rights; and for Nigeria to be put under international pressure to implement the treaties to which the state has willingly accepted membership...

10.032016

The Raising Her Voice global programme

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Oxfam’s Raising Her Voice (RHV) programme is predicated on the alarming inequalities women systemically face around the world. On average, women earn less than half of men, while women account for roughly two-thirds of those who cannot read or write globally. Seeking to address these inequalities and empower women, RHV focuses on long-term and collaborative processes to attain social transformation.

This case study examines the programme as a whole, explaining the feminist theory of change underpinning RHV as including three broad spheres: personal, political, and social, all of which influence women’s opportunities to participate in governance. These areas, once identified and understood, can then be changed in order to strengthen women’s voices. The RHV programme itself focuses on four main areas: enabling poor and marginalised women activists to network and advocate; working with public institutions, including traditional structures; empowering civil society organisations to achieve poor women’s rights as citizens; and disseminating lessons and good practice.

The various aspects involved in these areas are discussed, before wider lessons on the potential benefits of a global programme approach are presented in the conclusion. These include: more effective and manageable disbursement of funds; the potential for ‘cross-fertilisation’ of ideas and lessons; enhanced motivation via being part of a global project; and more direct links between global advisers and local country staff. There are also disadvantages though, one of which is that the common denominator, in this particular case Oxfam, can take away some of the focus that should possibly be aimed at being context specific and...

10.032016

The internet and the Nigerian woman: a case of female undergraduates

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The last decade has seen an information revolution not just in Nigeria, but around the world. The internet is connecting individuals, groups, organisations, and states like never before. Activists, advocates and sub-cultures have all embraced the communicative power of the world wide web to connect, organise, educate, entertain, and empower. However, despite the countless benefits, there are significant challenges concerning Internet access and use for many people, particularly women. It can even impact university students, such as the female students at the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria.

This paper examines Internet access and use among female undergraduates at the university, through the use of surveys completed by the students. The findings show that the university computer centre is the predominant Internet access point among the respondents. In terms of how it is used, research ranked first, while financial constraints were the major challenge to access and use the Internet. Respondents found women-related websites useful, but most do not post or contribute material or information on the web. Their interaction with the web instead involves mostly downloading.

The study concludes that Internet access and use among female students, and women in general, would be greatly enhanced if women’s organisations concentrated on addressing the challenges identified in this study; namely the financial cost, and women’s confidence and capacity to interact and produce content. Attention should be paid to students in particular, who have the educational capabilities and potential to impact women empowerment efforts online....

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