Ramallah - On 31 August 2015, 15-year-old Ahed Tamimi made world headlines when a video of Ahed helping her mother and aunt wrestle her younger brother out of the grip of an Israeli soldier went viral. This was not the first time Ahed’s unshakable commitment to resisting the occupation of Palestinian land made her the subject of international...

Cape Town (UN News Centre) - The Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit, a South African ranger group consisting mostly of women, has been named as one of the winners of the top United Nations environmental prize, Champions of the Earth. Bestowed by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the award recognizes the “rapid and impressive impact”...

Hebron (Al Jazeera) – Challenging and transforming traditional gender roles in society is a piecemeal process, the sum of hundreds of efforts made by individual women and men in their striving for a gender-equality in all areas of private and public life. Nadia Ahmad is one of these change-makers: defying social norms that confine women to household...

Uttar Pradesh (The Better India) - In the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, women have since 2002 been the leading figures in bringing about social change for the benefit of men and women alike in their local communities. Through Khabar Lahariya, an eight-page weekly rural newspaper written, edited, illustrated, produced and marketed by a group of...

Johannesburg (Nisaa FM) - Throughout the month of August, South Africa every year celebrates Women’s Month as a tribute to the more than 20 000 women who on 9 August 1956 marched to the Union Buildings in protest against the extension of Pass Laws to women. The Pass Laws of the Apartheid regime were a form of internal passport system used,...

Minneapolis (Star Tribune) - Minneapolis, the biggest city in the American state of Minnesota, has for the past few years witnessed the entrepreneurial spirit of a growing group of Somali women, the driving force behind the growth of the Karmel Square Mall. Despite its modest beginnings as a collection of storefronts in an old machine shop, the mall...

Tokyo (Nisaa FM) - In her opening speech at the second World Assembly of Women in Tokyo, held from 28-29 August, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka declared 2015 to be “a big year for women”.  This year’s assembly is held in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action,...

Ramallah (Ma’an News Agency): On July 29 2015, Palestine saw the appointment of its first woman mazouna, a Muslim official authorized to carry out marriage ceremonies. While being the only one of her kind in the Palestinian Territories, Tahrir Hamad is also one of the few woman mazounas on a global scale, since only Egypt and Abu Dhabi, and now...

Washington (AFP): On 29 August, organizers of the 2015 Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical journalism announced that this year’s award goes to Syrian-based journalist Zaina Erhaim. Just 30 years old, Ms Erhaim already has an impressive track record in improving the Syrian media scene: she has trained about 100 citizen reporters - a...

Lagos (AP): Irish rockstar and U2 frontman Bono on August 28 joined African singers as part of a campaign to empower women around the world through the medium of music. Along with the leading African male musicians D’banj, Diamond and Banky W, Bono announced that they will work on a remix of the song Strong Girl, a rallying cry for women’s...