Category Archives: Women’s rights and gender equality

‘Women always take the brunt’: India sees surge in unsafe abortion

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Low priority for reproductive health during lockdown leaves millions unable to access contraception or safe terminations

Sadhna Gupta* discovered she was pregnant just after India imposed a crippling lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The 21-year-old from the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar didn’t want to be pregnant. With no public transport available, clinics closed and Bhubaneswar at a standstill, she bought an abortion pill without consulting a doctor. While what she did was not unusual, Indian law requires a prescription for the pills from a licensed medical professional.

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The world’s poorest women and girls risk being biggest losers in DfID merger

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The department is a world leader in programmes based on gender equality. The government must show this will continue

News that the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are to merge raised many questions about the UK’s commitment to supporting the world’s poorest people. A key question for us is how the new department will support women and girls.

For more than 20 years, UK aid has saved and transformed the lives of women and girls in some of the world’s poorest countries. In the past five years, 10 million women and girls have received humanitarian assistance and more than 6 million girls have been able to access quality education. Upwards of £25m has been invested to prevent violence against women and girls through the government’s What Works programme, and a further £67m committed.

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Priti Patel accused of ‘shameful’ bid to deport girl at risk of FGM

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Barrister says Home Office’s unwillingness to protect 11-year-old makes a mockery of FGM protection orders

Human rights lawyers have launched a scathing attack on the Home Office for failing to grant asylum to an 11-year-old girl found by judges to be at high risk of female genital mutilation if removed from Britain.

The girl, who is thriving at school and only speaks English, was brought to the UK in 2012 by her mother, herself a victim of what is known as type 3 FGM whose two sisters died after being cut in their native Sudan.

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Fury in Colombia as soldiers admit rape of 13-year-old indigenous girl

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Seven soldiers confessed to raping child from the Emberà tribe

Outrage has been sparked in Colombia after a 13-year-old girl was gang-raped by seven soldiers from the country’s army last weekend.

On Thursday, seven soldiers confessed to raping the child from the indigenous Emberá tribe, who went missing from her rural reserve in northern Colombia on Sunday. She was found the next day at a nearby school. News of the horrific crime shocked much of the South American nation, which has long reckoned with violence against indigenous women and girls.

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Nigerian pop star allegedly abducts woman after she accuses him of rape

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Seyitan Babatayo’s claims against D’banj spark outrage in Nigeria as activism against sexual abuse rises

A woman who accused an Afrobeats star of rape has claimed she was subsequently targeted by police and then held hostage by the singer, sparking outrage amid rising activism in Nigeria against endemic sexual abuse.

Seyitan Babatayo reported to Nigerian police on 6 June, three days after she alleged on Twitter that the music star D’banj, whose real name is Oladapo Oyebanjo, had forcibly gained access to her hotel room as she slept and raped her.

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‘Divorce isn’t an option’: Afghan women find hope in saffron scheme

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Drug addiction is common among men in many villages, leaving their wives to develop survival strategies for the family

Anita Zadid would divorce her husband if she could. Eight years into the marriage, her husband turned to opium and crystal meth because he couldn’t find work. He’s now addicted.

As well as taking care of her three children, Zadid, who was married at 14, says she also has to support her spouse. “Divorcing him is not an option in rural Afghanistan, but I mentally left my marriage many years ago,” the 30-year-old tells the Guardian. Sadly, she’s not the only woman to do so.

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‘White faux feminism’: Women Deliver investigate internal racism allegations

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Move follows previous and current staff complaining of toxic working environment at global advocacy group

The global advocacy group for gender equality Women Deliver has launched an investigation into allegations of racism and discrimination within the organisation.

Its CEO, Katja Iversen, a G7 advisor on gender equality, has issued an apology and taken a leave of absence until the conclusion of the investigation.

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Why coronavirus has placed millions more girls at risk of FGM

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As lockdowns linger and economies falter, girls who are out of school are at increased risk of being cut

Covid-19 has exposed just how much work remains to be done to wipe out female genital mutilation (FGM) around the world. Two million girls who would otherwise be safe from the practice are believed to be at risk over the next decade as a direct result of the virus.

As lockdowns linger and economies tumble, many families have been spurred into action over the fate of their daughters, using school closures to cut them and marry them off, campaigners say.

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Street snacks to sanitiser: the Afghan women fighting coronavirus in Kabul

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When lockdown closed their businesses, food sellers adapted their carts into mini disinfection units to tackle the outbreak

Photographs by Stefanie Glinski

Freshta had spent months building up a franchise business to help to feed her family – and break a few taboos on women at the same time – when coronavirus hit Afghanistan.

In November, the engineering student, (who has asked to be identified by one name only) became one of a fleet of female drivers taking 40 Banu’s Kitchen food carts around Kabul, serving up burgers and rice to a predominantly male customer base. “At the beginning, men on the streets would be shocked to see us driving a motorbike and selling food, but after about two or three months, they are now used to it. They even support us,” she says.

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Egyptian father to stand trial on charges of forced FGM of three daughters

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Girls were allegedly told they were to have Covid-19 vaccinations but were cut by doctor after being sedated

Egypt’s public prosecutor has ordered the immediate trial of a father on charges of forcing his three young daughters to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM), after he told them they were going to be vaccinated against coronavirus. The doctor involved will also go on trial.

The procedure was banned in 2008 and criminalised in 2016.

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Turning grief into hope: one Afghan terror victim’s legacy of learning

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When his sister Rahila was killed by a bomber, Hamid Rafi was inspired by her diaries to set up an education centre in her name

The night before she died, Rahila Rafi felt too tired for homework; uncharacteristic for the studious 17-year-old. When her brother Hamid asked what was wrong, she told him she had a strange feeling in her heart and couldn’t bring herself to look at her books.

Hamid kissed his sister’s forehead and asked her what she wanted to do after she passed the Kankor exam – Afghanistan’s standard university admissions test. 

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Rape and murder of student in church sparks outrage across Nigeria

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Brutality of 22-year-old Vera Uwaila Omozuwa’s killing has shocked the country amid a chorus of demands for justice

Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a 22-year-old microbiology student, sought the quiet of her empty church in Benin City, southern Nigeria, as a place to study. Hours later she was raped and killed in a crime that has sparked outrage across Nigeria. 

Last Wednesday evening, a church security guard found Uwa, as she is known, unconscious in a pool of blood, according to her family.

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‘Men don’t trust we’re strong enough’: Somali women push into fish industry

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Selling fish has enabled some to quadruple their usual earnings but sexist attitudes are harder to overcome

Every morning before sunrise, when most residents in the southern coastal city of Kismayo are asleep, Fardowsa Mohamed Ahmed, 32, goes to the beach to purchase fresh fish, which she will sell in the market.

Like most women in this business, she depends on men to catch the fish. Men dominate the fishing sector. It is considered “men’s work” in Somali society. But Ahmed is determined to push her way in.

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Death of Algerian girl, 10, in ‘faith healing’ ceremony sparks outcry

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A 28-year-old man has been arrested over the death of the girl, who showed signs of ‘blows and burns’

A 10-year-old girl who died in eastern Algeria while undergoing faith healing appeared to suffer “blows and burns”, a prosecutor said, sparking angry reactions online after the arrest of a man.

The public prosecutor in Guelma, 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of the capital Algiers, announced a 28-year-old man had been arrested on Thursday after the death of the girl “who was abused during a ruqya (faith healing) to which she was subjected in her family home”.

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Covid-19 has gifted us a chance to end gender-based violence. We must take it

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If the world can unite to beat coronavirus, it should apply the same energy to rooting out abuse

The pandemic is gifting us an unprecedented opportunity to take innovative action and comprehensively confront the scourge of violence against women.

We have a unique window in which, as a human family, we are able to boldly address the social ills Covid-19 is unearthing, and redesign and rebuild our social fabric.

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‘We are losers in this crisis’: research finds lockdowns reinforcing gender inequality

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Campaign groups warn women across Europe risk being pushed back into traditional roles

Life during the coronavirus lockdown has reinforced gender inequality across Europe with research emphasising that the economic and social consequences of the crisis are far greater for women and threaten to push them back into traditional roles in the home which they will struggle to shake off once it is over.

Throughout the continent, campaign groups are warning that the burdens of the home office and home schooling together with additional household duties and extra cooking, has been unequally carried by women and that improvements made in their lives by the growth in equality over the past decades are in danger of being rolled back by the health crisis.

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Denied beds, pain relief and contact with their babies: the women giving birth amid Covid-19

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Following reports worldwide, experts are warning that pandemic is pushing back progress on prenatal and maternity care

After Denisa’s son was born premature at 26 weeks she was unable to hold him, but spent as much time as possible near his incubator so he could get used to her voice. By the time he was well enough to be held by his mother, a state of emergency had been declared in Slovakia and Denisa was told to vacate her bed and leave the hospital to make way for Covid-19 patients.

The rush of patients never came, but strict rules meant she was unable to see her baby until he was discharged six weeks later. “Instead of a hug, I went home empty-handed only with my head full of questions,” she says. “Each day without my baby was taking away my strength and harming my mental health.”

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‘Where are the women?’ Outcry over all-male government meeting in Afghanistan

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Tweet showed 12 male political leaders after Ghani promised women would be involved in high-level decision-making

People in Afghanistan protested on social media that no women were present at a high-level government meeting, despite assurances from the president that they would be involved in important decision-making roles.

The outcry followed a tweeted photo of a meeting of 12 political leaders at the presidential palace – all of them men.

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Rwanda to release 50 women jailed for having abortions

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Activists welcome pardons, but call for relaxation of abortion laws and an end to punitive measures such as life sentences

Rwanda is to release 50 women who were jailed for having abortions after a personal pardon was issued by the country’s president, Paul Kagame.

Human rights activists welcomed the pending release of the women, six of whom had been given life sentences – the highest penalty available to the courts – two serving 25 years and the others terms ranging from 12 months to 20 years.

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