Answer to Question 1
The status of women is mixed in Sub-Saharan Africa with many Sub-Saharan African countries showing relative gender equality. Also, women in most Sub-Saharan societies do not suffer the kinds of traditional social restrictions encountered in much of South Asia, Southwest Asia, and North Africa; in Sub-Saharan Africa, women work outside the home, conduct business, and own property. In 2006, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was sworn in as Liberia's president, making her Africa's first elected female leader. In 2012, she was joined by Joyce Banda, the recently elected president of Malawi. In fact, throughout the region, women occupied 22 percent of all seats in national parliaments in 2012. While women contribute to the agricultural productivity and play a key role in the informal economy. Practices such as polygamy, brideprice, and the denial of property inheritance are forms of discrimination, as is female circumcision. Education and greater access to reproductive freedom would help improve the status of women.
Answer to Question 2
The various conflicts in Southwest Asia, Central Asia, and North Africa are creating intense push factors for both refugees fleeing war and chaos and economic migrants seeking a better life. The removal of internal borders means that refugees can try to illegally enter Europe in a variety of different ways, and perhaps gravitate toward those routes that are the weakest.