Investigation launched into the International Women’s Health Coalition following criticism of ‘toxic’ culture, weeks after Women Deliver CEO issues public apology
A global women’s health organisation has launched an independent investigation into claims that it operated a “paralysing” culture of racism and bullying.
The International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), which advocates for women and adolescent girls, will also conduct an internal review.
Continue reading...The conservative South American country has high levels of sexual violence against minors and a shocking child pregnancy rate
Human rights activists in Paraguay have led a wave of fierce public indignation after a series of alarming cases in which sexual violence towards young girls has culminated in murder and child pregnancy.
The highly conservative South American country has long struggled with high levels of sexual violence towards children.
Continue reading...Experts fear the pandemic may set gender equality back decades. Here, seven women explain the struggles it has brought and their hopes for the future
More men than women may have contracted Covid-19 around the world, but experts have warned that the pandemic may set gender equality back by decades.
Melinda Gates, the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said in a paper this week that policymakers risked prolonging the crisis and slowing economic recovery if they ignored the gendered impacts of coronavirus. She added that overhauling systems could allow governments to build “more prosperous, more prepared and more equal” countries.
Continue reading...‘We get recovery if we get equality’ philanthropist argues in new paper urging policymakers to address unpaid labour
The failure of leaders to take into account the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on women, and their roles in lessening its harm, will mean a long, slow recovery that could cost the world economy trillions of dollars, Melinda Gates has warned.
Even a four-year delay in programmes that promote gender equality, such as advancing women’s digital and financial inclusion, would wipe a potential $5tn (£4tn) from global GDP by 2030.
Continue reading...A job scheme for women who may otherwise be shunned as outcasts is giving many the opportunity to rebuild their lives
Margaret Heera runs her fingers through her customer’s hair. “You must manage time for yourself and your skin,” she says, as she ties the hair into an elaborate knot.
The beauty salon in Lahore is busy. Sitting between potted plants on chairs facing full-length mirrors, women are waiting to get their hair cut or styled, for manicures and pedicures.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...A bicycle scheme is shaving hours off long journeys to get milk fresh to market, boosting women’s incomes and benefiting their whole community
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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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