Gender

Human Trafficking, Rape, Extortion Behind ‘Forced Conversions’, say Experts

By Zofeen Ebrahim
Two years after Michelle, 15, was kidnapped, sold, forced to convert to Islam and married to a stranger, relatives still ostracise her.

Key Pillars Mostly in Place to Speed up Africa’s Free Trade in 2022

By Kingsley Ighobor
The official start of free trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in January 2021 moved a major continental aspiration closer to reality.

Adolescents Left Behind Global AIDS Response – Experts

By Joyce Chimbi
The ominous warning came in 2019 through an anonymous message on her mobile phone to stay away from a man she met on social media.

Kenyan Domestic Workers’ Doomed Voyages to the Gulf

By Joyce Chimbi
Distress calls from vulnerable Kenyan women in Saudi Arabia experiencing mistreatment and torture at the hands of their employers went from 88 in 2019/2020 to 1,025 just one year later.

Climate Action Incomplete Without Women’s Contribution

By Joyce Chimbi
Judy Wangari is one of an estimated 800,000 smallholder potato farmers who, according to the National Potato Council of Kenya, contribute at least 83 percent of the total potato production.

Clean Water, Decent Toilets, Hygiene Challenge for Southern African Community

By Charles Mpaka
The toilets in the maternity wing of Namatapa Health Centre in the populous Bangwe Township in Blantyre, Malawi’s commercial city, fell into disrepair a few years ago. So, pregnant women who come to deliver their babies and their guardians use two pit latrines.

Discriminatory Sexual Violence Laws in Latin America Stigmatize Adolescent Victims of Abuse

By Barbara Jimenez-Santiago
Across Latin America and the Caribbean there is a culture of impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence. Crimes against women and girls often go unpunished and under-reported due to societal misconceptions about victimhood and the nature of sex crimes.

Once Tossed and Abused, Human Trafficking Survivor Finds Solace

By Mehru Jaffer
For over two decades, Nina tossed around like a leaf in a storm. While a teenager, she was lured into the sex trade, and pimps kept a huge chunk of the money that she earned as a sex slave. Nina was often bruised. Once, she refused sex with a man who did not want to use a condom. He beat her so severely that she had found it difficult to breathe.

Extraordinary Lives of Indian Muslim Women Documented

By Mehru Jaffer
It’s time the achievements of Indian Muslim women were documented to make their contribution to society visible, says international health and gender expert Dr Farah Usmani.

2021: Yet Another Challenging Year in Review

In 2020, 1.8 million people across the world died from COVID-19. At the end of 2021 the death toll has risen to over 5.3 million.

Women’s Rights Groups Welcome New Legal Protections Against Sexual Violence in the Maldives, including Marital Rape

By Divya Srinivasan and Humaida Abdulghafoor
Marital rape has now been criminalized without exception in the Maldives, as part of a raft of significant amendments to the Sexual Offences Act (2014). The First Amendment to the Sexual Offences Act was ratified on 6 December 2021 by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

Rural Women in Peru Seed Water Today to Harvest It Tomorrow

By Mariela Jara
"When I was a little girl we didn't suffer from water shortages like we do now. Today we are experiencing more droughts, our water sources are drying up and we cannot sit idly by," Kely Quispe, a small farmer from the community of Huasao, located half an hour from Cuzco, the capital of Peru's ancient Inca empire, told IPS.

Getting Beyond Body-Shaming

By Fairuz Ahmed
This is an age where pandemics are raging, millions live in war-torn strife, yet women are judged on their skin tones and height, says matchmaker Hirion Shah.

Liberal Facade Hides Lebanon’s Patriarchy

By Mona Alami
Despite its apparent liberalism, Lebanon scores low in gender equality, especially in politics.

Trafficked and Trapped in Libya: A Nigerian Woman’s Story

By Sam Olukoya
Miriam* hoped for a better life in Europe. Instead, her journey ended in Libya, where, double-crossed by traffickers she was raped and abused.  She has returned to Nigeria and shared her experiences with Sam Olukoya.

Open Letter to the Secretary General, Heads of UN Agencies & International Donor Community

By Rebecca Reichmann Tavares, Roberta Clarke and Meryem Aslan
We are former UN officials with decades of combined experience supporting international civil society and governments to advance the rights of women and girls.

Noorjehan Niaz and Zakia Soman: Bonded to Change the Trajectory of Muslim Women in India

By Mariya Salim
Discriminated in society and concerned about the discrimination of women in their homes, the two women who co-founded the Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) started the movement to further Muslim women’s leadership and help them reclaim their rights.

Fighting Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting in Asia – Podcast

By Marty Logan
I suspect that most of you have at least heard of female genital mutilation, or FGM. It’s a practice that happens in numerous African countries, in which girls’ genitalia are removed or cut, for cultural or religious reasons. FGM has been condemned globally for years and campaigners continue working to end it.

Q&A: Femicides, Domestic Violence and Online Violence Have Been Exacerbated

By Mariela Jara
"The level of injustice in the world cannot go on like this…I am not pessimistic about the future," said Gladys Acosta, president of the CEDAW Committee, in an interview with IPS in the Peruvian capital.

ECW Interviews UK Special Envoy for Girls’ Education, Helen Grant

Helen Grant became actively involved in politics in 2006 and was elected as Member of Parliament for the Kent constituency of Maidstone & The Weald at the 2010 General Election.

ECW Joins Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies: Global Community Urged to Orange the World and End Gender-Based Violence Now

By Joyce Chimbi
The statistics are dire: One in three women have experienced a form of gender-based violence in their lifetime, be it sexual violence, physical violence, or child marriage. The message is clear: Women and girls deserve a safer, brighter future – free from gender-based violence.
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