Gender

Senegal: Democracy in the Balance?

By Andrew Firmin
Civic space is deteriorating in Senegal ahead of next February’s presidential election. Recent protests have been met with lethal violence and internet and social media restrictions. Senegal’s democracy will soon face a key test, and whether it passes will depend largely on whether civic space is respected.

#AfghanGirlsVoices Campaign to Elevate Voices of Young Afghan Girls on Global Stage

By Joyce Chimbi
Two years ago, the then 19-year-old Somaya Faruqi and the Afghan Robotic Team travelled from Herat City to Kabul, the heart of Afghanistan—the Taliban had taken over Herat city, cutting off electricity and internet. The all-girls team’s great passion for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) had driven them to Kabul to rehearse for a competition.

Social Activists Demand Real Equality for Chilean Women

By Orlando Milesi
Women social activists recognize that gender equality is gaining ground in Chile, but maintain that there is still a long way to go to turn into reality the promises to "level the playing field" between women and men, while they highlight the importance of addressing the issue of care work.

Taking Stock of Two Decades of Trailblazing Protocol on Women’s Rights in Africa

By Joyce Chimbi
It promised to be the most defining, groundbreaking, and transformative protocol on African women’s rights. Specific in its approach, broad in its reach, and unique in its all-encompassing nature, covering issues such as HIV/Aids, widow inheritance and property disinheritance in a most unprecedented manner.

Blockade in Nagorno-Karabakh: When Bread and Sanitary Pads Become Luxury Items

By Anush Ghavalyan and Siranush Sargsyan
Tatev Azizyan, a 28-year-old journalist from Nagorno-Karabakh, says she has explained to her child that they both have to switch to “energy save mode” to survive.

Stubborn and Persistent: The Gender Pay Gap Refuses to Budge

By Jemimah Njuki and Jocelyn Chu
Last week, there was uproar in Kenya when a report about one of the largest banks, Equity Bank, revealed a 52 percent gender pay gap between their female and male employees working in similar positions. This difference is neither okay nor acceptable. However, documenting the gap is laudable because that is the first step in trying to fix it.

“No” to Sex Education Fuels Early Pregnancies in Central America

By Edgardo Ayala
Pregnancies among girls and adolescents continue unabated in Central America, where legislation to prevent them, when it exists, is a dead letter, and governments are influenced by conservative sectors opposed to sex education in schools.

How Nigeria’s Legal System is Failing to Safeguard Widows’ Rights

By Promise Eze
In February this year, Chichi Okonkwo not only lost her husband but was stripped of everything they owned together. Her husband was severely injured in a car accident about a month earlier. Despite being rushed to a hospital in Enugu, where they resided, he succumbed to his injuries weeks later. To compound her grief, Okonkwo’s late husband's male siblings forcibly entered her home in the city a few hours after his passing, confiscating her husband’s land documents, car, money, clothes, and marriage certificate.

Women Shatter Gender Barriers in Uganda’s Fish Farming Industry

By Pearl Amina Karungi
In a groundbreaking turn of events, women in Bugiri District, Eastern Uganda, have defied societal norms and broken into the traditionally male-dominated fish farming industry.

Afghan Girls, Women Deprived of Education, Find Hope in Africa

By Aimable Twahirwa
When providing education to her small group of Afghan girls, who had been studying at a boarding school back home, became tenuous, Shabana Basij-Rasikh, relocated them to Rwanda.

Nepal Poised To Start HPV Vaccination To Prevent Cervical Cancer, Awaiting GAVI

By Marty Logan
As Dipak Subedi was organizing a vaccination programme against the human papillomavirus (HPV) in the city of Bharatpur in Chitwan district of southern Nepal he was getting phone calls from neighbouring districts asking if he had extra doses available — people were willing to travel for hours to get their girls vaccinated against HPV, which causes cervical cancer, the deadliest form of cancer for women in Nepal.

Nepal’s Same-Sex Marriage Breakthrough

By Andrew Firmin
Nepal is the latest country to join the global wave of marriage equality. On 28 June, its Supreme Court ruled that the government must immediately offer temporary registration of same-sex marriages, pending a change in the law. Around 200 couples reportedly sought to register as soon as the court judgment was made.

Vulnerable Women Suffer the Worst Face of Discrimination in Argentina

By Daniel Gutman
Remi Cáceres experienced gender-based violence firsthand. She struggled, got out and today helps other women in Argentina to find an escape valve. But because she is in a wheelchair and is a foreign national, she says the process was even more painful and arduous: "Being a migrant with a disability, it's two or three times harder. You have to empower yourself and it's very difficult."

A Shot in the Arm Can Prevent Cervical Cancer

By Zofeen Ebrahim
“Listen to your body, and if there is anything strange happening, do not ignore it,” is the advice of 57-year-old Afshan Bhurgri, a cancer survivor.

Transgender People Face Growing Violence, Discrimination in Pakistan

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
“The problems transgender people face start from their homes as their parents, especially fathers and brothers, look them down upon and disrespect them,” says 20-year-old Pari Gul.

Lawmakers’ Vital Roles in Ensuring Dignity for Aging Populations

By Cecilia Russell
Countries with falling population growth face twin dilemmas: Ensuring their aging population live healthy and fulfilling lives and removing barriers to parenthood. This was the focus of a recent workshop in Thailand reviewing the ICPD30 process and preparation for the Summit for the Future slated for next year (2024).

Women Recyclers in Bolivia Build Hope, Demand Recognition

By Franz Chávez
They haul many kilos of recyclable materials on their backs but receive little in return. These Bolivian women who help clean up the environment from dawn to dusk are fighting for recognition of their work and social and labor rights.

Invisible Women in Energy: Millions of Household Biomass Producers

By Alexandra Peek and Philippe Benoit
An estimated 2.4 billion people currently lack access to clean cooking fuels, with the majority relying on biomass (firewood, charcoal, dung) to meet household cooking needs. This is only a slight decrease from 2017, when 2.5 billion people lacked access to clean cooking fuels.

Extremist Ideology in Europe: ‘Leave Everyone Behind’ (Except Us)

By Baher Kamal
A quick glance at the current European political map would clearly show how far the extremist ideology has been installed in European countries –those who still wave the French Revolution’s flag of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.”

The Dark Side of Wind and Solar Farms as Sustainable Energy in Brazil

By Mario Osava
"Anxiety, insomnia and depression have become widespread. We don't sleep well, I wake up three, four times a night," complained Brazilian farmer Roselma de Melo Oliveira, 35, who has lived 160 meters from a wind turbine for eight years.

Wood Smoke Continues to Make Women Sick in El Salvador

By Edgardo Ayala
Using a few dry sticks as fuel, Margarita Ramos of El Salvador lit the fire in her wood stove and set about frying two fish, occasionally fanning the flame, aware that the smoke she inhaled could affect her health.
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