Faiza Jama Mohamed

Tenderfeet

As I reflect back on my 35 years of activism fighting injustices against women and girls, my feelings are conflicted. On the one hand, I have a sense of fulfilment arising from all I have contributed and the gains won along the way. But on the other, I know gender equality is still a dream, not a reality, and all I have done is just a drop in the ocean.

J.M.

As the world celebrates this year’s International Women’s Day, Faiza Jama Mohamed, who has immensely contributed to the struggles for African women’s rights for many decades. 

AW

Woineshet is now 27 and living in relative safety. This week's ruling means that she can finally complete the horrific chapter in her life and move on in the knowledge that she has helped to make life better for future generations of Ethiopian women and girls.

ISN S W

Five years after the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa came into force, the campaign to ensure that it is implemented and enforced across the continent continues. Faiza Jama Mohamed looks at SOAWR’s strategy for future advocacy, in light of the experience it has gained.

With the in Geneva due to consider calls for re-eliminating laws discriminating against women next week, Faiza Mohamed urges Pambazuka News readers to petition their governments to support the mandate. Please read the full letter for details of how to contact your representatives.

What gains and what challenges do we have two years after the entry into force of the protocol? This is the overall question that the various articles presented in this special issue of Pambazuka aim at addressing. And what is clearly coming out is that the challenges outweigh the gains made so far, says Faiza Mohamed.

What gains and what challenges do we have two years after the entry into force of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Wome...read more

Before African governments can win the confidence of African women that they will deliver on huge projects like a continental government, they must first come up with a plan for the implementation of the articles of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, argues Faiza Mohamed. African leaders should get rid of all the customary practices that continue to limit women’s potentials as a necessary step for continental government.

Barely two weeks from the time of writing, African he...read more

In July 2003 African Heads of States adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa at their summit in Maputo (full text of the Protocol is available at A little over a year later only four countries (The Comoros, Libya, Rwanda and Namibia) have ratified it. This is far from the required 15 ratifications for the Protocol to come into force.

One might ask why ratification of the Protocol is so important and what value it brings to African women. The Protocol offers women in ...read more

It took almost a decade (eight years to be precise) for African leaders to finally agree on a text and adopt the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa at the Second Ordinary Summit of the African Union held in Maputo in July 2003. The Protocol is a legal framework for African women to use in the exercise of their rights. It is comprehensive in that it addresses various concerns of women of different ages and various conditions based on the realities at the ground. For that reason it is we...read more