Category Archives: Women’s rights and gender equality

Iranian women violently dragged from streets by police amid hijab crackdown

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Video evidence shows multiple arrests after regime launched new draconian campaign against women and girls

Harrowing first-hand accounts of women being dragged from the streets of Iran and detained by security services have emerged as human rights groups say country’s hijab rules have been brutally enforced since the country’s drone strikes on Israel on 13 April.

A new campaign, called Noor (“light” in Persian), was announced the same day the Iranian regime launched drone attacks against Israel, to crack down on “violations” of the country’s draconian hijab rules, which dictate that all women must cover their heads in public.

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Honduras referred to UN human rights committee over total abortion ban

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Petition filed on behalf of woman known as as Fausia, who underwent a forced pregnancy after being raped

Honduras is being taken to a global human rights body for the first time over its total abortion ban, which campaigners say violates women’s fundamental rights and the country’s international commitments.

The Center for Reproductive Rights and the Honduras-based Centro de Derechos de la Mujer (Center for Women’s Rights, CDM) filed a petition with the UN human rights committee this month on behalf of a woman known as Fausia, who underwent a forced pregnancy after being raped and denied an abortion under Honduras’ draconian laws.

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Taliban edict to resume stoning women to death met with horror

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Afghan regime’s return to public stoning and flogging is because there is ‘no one to hold them accountable’ for abuses, say activists

The Taliban’s announcement that it is resuming publicly stoning women to death has been enabled by the international community’s silence, human rights groups have said.

Safia Arefi, a lawyer and head of the Afghan human rights organisation Women’s Window of Hope, said the announcement had condemned Afghan women to return to the darkest days of Taliban rule in the 1990s.

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‘Staggering’ rise in women with reproductive health issues near DRC cobalt mines – study

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Investigation reveals reports of miscarriages, infections and birth defects among women and girls in mining communities

Women and girls living in cobalt-mining communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are reporting a “staggering” rise in serious reproductive health issues, including miscarriages and birth defects, according to a new report.

An investigation published by the UK-based human rights group Rights & Accountability in Development (Raid) and the Kinshasa-based NGO Afrewatch said that women and girls living around cobalt mines reported experiencing irregular menstruations, urogenital infections, vaginal mycoses and warts.

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UN: Iran committed crimes against humanity during protest crackdown

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Fact-finding mission concludes regime murdered, imprisoned, tortured and raped those who protested the death of Mahsa Amini

The Iranian regime’s human rights violations during its brutal suppression of protests in 2022 amount to crimes against humanity, a UN fact-finding mission (FFM) has said.

Established by the UN human rights council in November 2022 – two months after the Woman, Life, Freedom protests swept the country in response to the death in custody of Mahsa Amini – the FFM has released a report concluding the regime carried out widespread and sustained human rights violations against its own people, which broke international laws and specifically targeted women and girls.

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Anti-FGM caravan embarks on 7,400-mile campaign to end cutting in Africa

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Activists will cross the continent visiting areas where the practice is prevalent to revive progress in protecting women and girls

African female genital mutilation survivors will lead thousands of campaigners in a two-year “caravan campaign” across the continent, calling for an end to the practice.

Organised by #FrontlineEndingFGM, a group of grassroots activists and organisations in Africa will cover about 7,400 miles (12,000km) across 20 countries, including Nigeria, Sudan and Cameroon.

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Three girls die after FGM rituals in Sierra Leone

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Children’s parents and those who performed the procedure are in police custody, according to local reports

Police in Sierra Leone are investigating the deaths of three girls who underwent female genital mutilation (FGM).

Adamsay Sesay, 12; Salamatu Jalloh, 13; and Kadiatu Bangura, 17, died during initiation ceremonies in the country’s North West province last month, according to local reports.

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Somalia to launch its first current affairs TV show led by women

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New show will follow Question Time format answering audience questions on taboo subjects from periods to women in politics

Somalia’s only all-female media team, Bilan, is launching the country’s first TV current affairs show to be hosted by a woman.

The debate show, which plans to address some taboo subjects, will also be the first programme on Somali television to have a panel of at least 50% women, and the first to broach contentious topics, such as a critical shortage of female teachers and the challenges faced by women trying to get into politics, as well as environmental issues.

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Femicide in Kenya a national crisis, say rights groups

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At least four women have been murdered since the start of the year, leading to accusations of government inaction

Rights groups are calling for the Kenyan government to urgently investigate and prosecute cases of femicide, after the brutal murders of two women.

“This is a national crisis – we are not doing enough as a country to protect women,” said Audrey Mugeni, the co-founder of Femicide Count Kenya, an NGO that documents the number of women killed across the country each year.

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Afghan girls detained and lashed by Taliban for violating hijab rules

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Girls as young as 16 arrested in shops, classes and markets in Kabul by the Taliban, who labelled them ‘infidels’ for wearing ‘bad hijab’

Girls as young as 16 have been arrested across the Afghan capital, Kabul, in the past week for violating the Taliban’s hijab rules.

The girls – who were detained in shopping centres, classes and street markets – were accused of “spreading and encouraging others to wear a bad hijab” and wearing makeup.

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Police officer stoned to death after rescuing FGM survivors in Kenya

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Activists see the killing as a setback in the efforts to eliminate the practice, despite it being illegal in the east African country

Efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation in Kenya have suffered a setback after a police officer was killed in a confrontation with a gang of youths.

Activists and local leaders condemned the murder, calling it a backward step in the fight to eradicate the practice in the country. Police in Elgeyo Marakwet county, in the Rift Valley region, had taken a group of girls who had been forced to undergo the illegal procedure to hospital when a mob of young men stormed a police station and stoned Cpl Mushote Boma to death.

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Most Garrick club members favour admitting women, poll reveals

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Members campaigning against men-only rule say numbers opposed to change had fallen due to revised legal advise

The slow-moving campaign to force the Garrick, one of London’s last remaining gentlemen’s clubs, to admit women has notched a partial victory with an internal poll revealing that a majority of members are in favour of dropping the men-only rule.

This is the second significant development in the space of a year in the remarkably languid battle for gender equality at the club, which counts among its members the former supreme court judges Lord Neuberger and Lord Sumption, actors Hugh Bonneville and Stephen Fry, and Michael Gove, a cabinet minister.

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‘We can have a beautiful future now’: Nepal’s first legally married same-sex couple celebrates

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After months of legal challenges Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey registered their marriage, giving hope to other same-sex couples in the south Asian country

The dancing continued until the early hours. Family and friends – and Suru the dog – gathered in western Nepal to mark the joyful end to what had been a historic day for Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey. On Wednesday, they became the first same-sex couple in south Asia to have their marriage legally recognised.

“Finally, we are completely together, finally we are completely each other’s, finally we can perform each other’s funeral if we die tomorrow,” Gurung, 37, a transgender woman, says as the couple sit in the register office in rural Dordi municipality, where she was born.

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Taliban could be convinced to open girls’ schools, says Afghanistan ex-education minister

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Global governments should engage with the Taliban because some in the regime support reversing the ban, says Rangina Hamidi

There are many Taliban officials who would support reversing the ban on schooling for girls in Afghanistan, according to the country’s last education minister before the takeover.

Under Taliban rule, Afghanistan has become the only country in the world where girls are banned from schooling beyond the age of 11. The group has also imposed what has been described as a policy of “gender apartheid”, banning women from most work and public spaces.

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One in seven HR heads believe men are better suited to top jobs

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‘Shocking’ poll in England and Wales shows nearly one in five reluctant to hire women they think may go on to have children

A significant minority of human resources executives believe men are better suited to senior management than women, according to the results of a “shocking” poll.

Nearly one in seven HR decision-makers rate men as better for top jobs and nearly one in five admitted they were reluctant to hire women they thought might go on to start families, the survey of personnel managers in England and Wales for the charity Young Women’s Trust (YWT) found.

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South Africa to introduce shared parental leave after landmark judgment

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Country will be first in Africa to introduce measure after its high court ruled that both parents must have right to time off

South Africa is set to become the first country in Africa to introduce shared parental leave after a high court ruled that both parents must have the right to time off after the birth of a baby or adopting a child.

The landmark judgment allows parents to choose how to divide four months parental leave between them.

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Threats against rape victim, 10, lay bare Bolivia’s culture of sexual violence

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Supporters of alleged rapist, girl’s 39-year-old headmaster, stormed police station in effort to prevent arrest

The ombudsman’s office in Bolivia has condemned threats against a 10-year-old rape victim and her family after teachers and school staff tried to prevent the arrest of the alleged rapist, a 39-year-old headmaster, by trying to invade a local police station and scuffling with police officers.

Videos posted on social media show the group gathered outside the police station, trying to pressure the prosecutor and judge to release the alleged perpetrator.

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FGM ban in the Gambia under threat as calls grow to repeal law

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Women’s rights campaigners denounce ‘hugely regressive’ proposals from political and religious leaders to decriminalise practice

Political and religious leaders in the Gambia are threatening to introduce a bill to decriminalise female genital mutilation, eight years after the practice was outlawed.

Members of the country’s national assembly have backed a proposal for the 2015 law to be scrapped while the Supreme Islamic Council has issued a fatwa condemning anyone who denounces the practice and calling for the government to reconsider the legislation.

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Iran approves stricter hijab bill targeting those who ‘mock’ dress code

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Protestors face 10-year jail terms under new hijab and chastity bill, which UN human rights body says is intended to suppress women into ‘total submission’

Iran’s parliament has approved a controversial new bill under which women face up to 10 years in prison if they continue to defy the country’s mandatory hijab rules.

As well as harsher penalties on women defying the strict dress code, the draft law also intends to identify those who “promote nudity [or] indecency” or “mock” the rules in a virtual or non-virtual space.

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‘We never stopped protesting’: Iran’s youth take freedom fight underground

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Students tell of secret acts of defiance ahead of the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody

Young Iranians have taken their protests against the authoritarian regime underground one year on from the death in custody of a 22-year-old woman detained for allegedly wearing the Islamic headscarf incorrectly.

The death of Mahsa Amini on 16 September last year led to the largest wave of popular unrest for years in Iran and a brutal crackdown by security services in response, with hundreds of men, women and children killed and thousands more injured, according to human rights groups.

At the beginning of the uprising, one of these two women, both 25, was arrested at a protest gathering and spent 16 days in prison. One of her fellow inmates was Yalda Aghafazli, a 19-year-old protester who died under suspicious circumstances after her release

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