FRIDAY FILE: Three months after the enactment of the Framework Law for true Equality between Women and Men in France, AWID spoke to women’s and LGBTQI rights activists about the various components of French policy on gender equality, to learn more about its limitatio

FRIDAY FILE - Russia’s QueerFest 2014 was marred by four last-minute venue cancellations, over 40 venue refusals, one bomb threat, frequent visits by aggressive men, and guests being “sprayed with a green, noxious substance”. More than ever before, however, QueerFest demonstrated its necessity and relevance in a country hostile towards LGBTI rights.

By Rochelle Jones

FRIDAY FILE - “When we speak of Roma women, discrimination becomes three-fold: for being women, for being Roma and for belonging to an ethnic minority”, say Maria José Jiménez Cortiñas and Aurora Fernández, President and Secretary of Asociación Gitanas Feministas por la Diversidad (AGFD)[i] , who AWID interviewed to learn how Roma feminist women work to tackle the discrimination they face on a daily basis.

By Gabby De Cicco

FRIDAY FILE – In the latest interview forming part of AWID’s commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, AWID speaks to radical feminist activist and an anti-war lesbian, Lepa Mladjenovic, about how the conference helped to advance feminist anti-war work and LGBT rights; and how it shaped and strengthened the women’s movement and solidarity building in Central and Eastern Europe/ Commonwealth of Independent States

FRIDAY FILE - News of the lower court decision[1] at the beginning of July that a construction project in Istanbul’s Gezi Park be halted was overshadowed by the police crackdown on what had started as a small demonstration against the park’s destruction.

FRIDAY FILE – Last July, a high court sentenced the Namibian state for the forced sterilization of three HIV-positive women. In Uzbekistan, authorities continue to deny reported cases. AWID looks into forced sterilizations in both countries and what it means for women’s reproductive rights.

By Ani Colekessian*

FRIDAY FILE - After a five-year-long case, a Dutch Court has held the Nigerian Subsidiary of Shell responsible for the pollution of farmlands in Nigeria, marking a victory in the struggle against the oil company that has been at the centre of environmental concerns in Nigeria for over 40 years.

AWID interviewed Caroline Usikpedo, the National President of the Niger Delta Women’s movement for Peace and Development (NDWPD), for a women’s rights perspective on the ongoing struggle against the oil giant

By Rochelle Jones

FRIDAY FILE - In this article, AWID takes a look at what the Eurozone crisis looks like now, and some of the gendered dynamics occurring as a result.

By Rochelle Jones

FRIDAY FILE: A wave of shortsighted pro-natalist policies throughout Eastern Europe exposes the failures of neoliberal reform to realize rights for young women in the region.

By Masum Momaya

As another June 12th – Russia’s “National Day” – passed in Moscow, the Kremlin calculated how successful its efforts have been to encourage Russia’s women to have more babies. Worried about declining population numbers, the Russian government has introduced a host of measures designed to encourage procreation.

FRIDAY FILE: Growing unemployment, dwindling pensions, increasing taxes, domestic violence and a possible reinforcing of “traditional values” were just a few of the challenges facing women during Greece’s first wave of economic crisis and structural adjustment.

By Lois Woestman and Kathambi Kinoti