women's rights — Blog Posts

Sosin and her family moved from rural Turkey to Istanbul, the country's largest city, and for four years she did not leave the house, not even to buy food for her children.

"I was afraid to be lost. I never saw any place outside the house. We would be starving with the children until evening when my husband would come home," she told researchers...

The plight of poor women who have moved to Istanbul from rural Anatolia was among the many sad, fascinating, and empowering stories I encountered while covering the recent 12th Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) International Forum in Istanbul.

After attending an activist-led talk on "The impact on women's rights of economic underdevelopment and forced migration in the Kurdish region of Turkey," I delved into the topic of Turkey's female migrants, publishing a piece for Women's eNews that was also picked up by United Press International (UPI) and the Thomson Reuters Foundation legal news service TrustLaw.

Read my story for Women's eNews : "Kurdish Female Migrants Meet Isolation in Istanbul"

Uprisings across the Arab world, financial crises in Europe, and the growing threat of environmental disasters have shaken confidence in the global economic system, calling into question its ability to generate long-term prosperity and stability.

Over the weekend, some 2,000 women from around the world – former presidents and indigenous leaders, media executives and advocates for sex workers, academics and activists – gathered in Istanbul to explore new ways to create a stronger, more equitable economy amid these societal upheavals.

I covered the 12th Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) International Forum for the Inter Press Service (IPS) News Agency, writing one story about gender budgeting – a wonky-sounding topic that has very real impact on women's lives – and one wrap-up of the weekend's discussions and debates.

Over the coming weeks, I'll be following up on some of the wealth of story ideas generated by the forum, from the growing problem of time poverty to the threats facing women's rights defenders.

Read my AWID Forum coverage for IPS:

"Economic Crisis Hits Gender Budgeting" (22 April 2012)
"Women of the World Unite for Rights" (23 April 2012)