{"id":6548,"date":"2010-03-16T09:53:24","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T13:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=6548"},"modified":"2010-03-16T09:53:24","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T13:53:24","slug":"sierra-leone-court-backs-woman-chief-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=6548","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Leone court backs woman chief bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>A judge in Sierra Leone has ruled for the first time that a woman&#8217;s bid to become a paramount chief is lawful.<\/strong> \u00c2\u00a0(Photo: Iye Kendor Bandabla said she &#8220;felt sick&#8221; when she was first barred)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The High Court overturned a ban on Iye Kendor Bandabla from becoming chief in Kissy Teng chiefdom in the country&#8217;s eastern Kailahun district.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Women&#8217;s rights activists hailed the ruling as a landmark decision and vowed to fight similar bans in other regions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Traditionalists oppose women becoming chiefs in most of the country, though they are accepted in the south.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Position of influence<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The BBC&#8217;s Umaru Fofana, in Freetown, says activists will use this ruling to strengthen their case in the Supreme Court, where they are lobbying for the nationwide acceptance of female paramount chiefs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The ruling comes months after courts refused to support another woman who was barred from becoming chief &#8211; prompting the Supreme Court appeal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ms Bandabla told the BBC that her father and grandfather had both served as paramount chiefs, and she had &#8220;felt sick&#8221; when she was barred from standing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;I&#8217;m so happy that I&#8217;ve been given my constitutional right to contest for the position,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Our reporter says that the position of paramount chief remains extremely powerful in Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He says they command huge respect and are able to mobilise large numbers of votes during elections.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The chiefs are elected by local councillors.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">BBC News<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A judge in Sierra Leone has ruled for the first time that a woman&#8217;s bid to become a paramount chief is lawful. \u00c2\u00a0(Photo: Iye Kendor [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,1],"tags":[2469,1185],"class_list":["post-6548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-uncategorized","tag-iye-kendor-bandabla","tag-paramount-chiefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}