As the school year begins again and children return to their classrooms after a months-long summer break, there’s been a momentous change for female teachers in the KSA. As part of a government initiative to improve the country’s education system, entitled “The Early Childhood Schools Project”, female teaching staff will be educating boys in the youngest school years. The project targets boys and girls from kindergarten to primary school stage, between the ages of four and eight, in 1,460 public schools across the kingdom. Women will teach 13.5 per cent of the young male students involved, which, according to the Saudi Ministry of Education, will leave millions of dollars in the education budget to spend elsewhere. Young boys and girls will continue to study in separate classrooms and use separate facilities. This is a first for women in the kingdom and follows a string of recent steps forward – including…

Home will help women and children escape family violence and poverty Aneela Azeem, president of the Canadian Pakistani Support Group, says the project has been three years in the making. She already has her sights set on opening similar homes in other parts of the province. A new transitional home for immigrant women and children fleeing domestic violence will give them help and support while respecting their different religious and cultural needs, with help delivered in languages they speak and understand. For some newcomers a new life in Canada often doesn’t go as planned, with relationships and families facing extreme pressures that can sometimes end in violence and relationships turning bad. Immigrant women want to leave violent situations but sometimes don’t know where to go to get help, or try mainstream shelters only to find their religious and cultural needs aren’t being met or understood by staff and fellow clients.…

They were on the front lines and in the negotiating rooms that brought down military rule but Sudan’s women have yet to take their rightful place in the new institutions. The signing last week of the documents outlining the transition to civilian rule was a moment of national jubilation, turning the page on 30 years of dictatorship and eight months of deadly protests. But as the ceremony attended by a host of foreign dignitaries unfolded, one thing jumped out: the only female speaker at the three-hour event was the host. “That scene was a slap in our face,” Rabah Sadeq, a woman activist and longtime campaigner for gender equality, said the next day. “So many women are talking about this now, we have to raise this issue.” Some women attending the signing heckled the speakers to express their displeasure and the indignation quickly spread to the street and social media.…