Category Archives: Women’s rights and gender equality

Kenya split over campaign to give women the right to safe abortions

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MP Esther Passaris says lives are being put at risk in a country where 40% of pregnancies are unplanned

The pills arrived with no instructions. Delivered on a Sunday to Joy’s home in Kayole, an informal settlement in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, by someone she didn’t know.

She had ordered them because she was pregnant, and didn’t want to be. At 19, she said, she couldn’t support a baby, and the father had stopped answering his phone after she told him. Desperate, she had asked an older friend, who said she knew someone who could help.

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True numbers of FGM victims could be far higher as countries fail to record cases

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New report calls for national surveys by governments to underline scale of worldwide abuse

The number of women and girls who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) could be much higher than previously estimated, as a new report shows the practice is carried out in more than 90 countries around the world.

The UN estimates that 200 million women and girls have undergone FGM. But this figure is drawn from only 31 countries – 27 in Africa – where national data has been collected.

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Texan who led sex trafficking ring linked to teenager’s murder is jailed in Ecuador

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Royce Phillips sentenced to 25 years for running gang that groomed and abused young girls from district in Quito

An American man has been sentenced to more than 25 years in prison for leading a sex trafficking ring in Ecuador that was connected to the murder of a 15-year-old girl and the rape, sexual and physical abuse of dozens more.

Royce Phillips, 66, from Texas, and four Ecuadorean co-defendants, were jailed on Wednesday for 25 years and four months, the maximum sentence for people trafficking with the purpose of sexual exploitation.

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Women shouldering the burden of climate crisis need action, not speeches

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From loss of livelihoods to domestic abuse, women bear the brunt of natural disasters. Without change, progress on gender equality will be undone

Milikini Failautusi, 30, lives on the Pacific island of Tuvalu. She has become virtually a nomad in her own country after rising tides forced her to leave her ancestral atoll and move to the main island, Funafuti.

She is now a climate activist. She can no longer visit her home island, yet remains committed to her country with a burning desire to prevent her own children from inheriting an underwater ghost town. This is not just Milikini’s story.

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‘No school, no skating’: the Indian skate park bringing children together

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Bringing skateboards to children in Madhya Pradesh gives them enthusiasm to go to school and gives girls a confidence in themselves

The children skid into the dusty courtyard at breakfast time, grabbing skateboards from a stack near a tethered brown cow.

Boards jammed under arms, they sprint barefoot past a large well pump, the main water supply for many families here. They slap their wheels on to the still-clean concrete of Janwaar Castle – India’s newest skateboard park.

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Seven out of 10 global health leaders are men – and change is half a century away

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‘Stagnant’ global health system is dominated by rich states, rooted in colonialism and undervalues women, says study

A small group of privileged men based in Europe and the US preside over a global health system which is 70% male, according to new research.

The Global Health 50/50 report, published on Monday by University College London’s Institute of Global Health, warns it could take 54 years until the world’s major health organisations have equality in their leadership.

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Snapshot sisterhood: women train the lens on women – in pictures

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To mark International Women’s Day, ActionAid is staging a photography exhibition that celebrates female trailblazers in poor countries – from the Guatemalan hip-hop artist who uses her music to champion feminism, to the founder of Kabul’s first yoga studio. All of the images, which are on show at the Oxo Tower in London until 8 March, are taken by female photographers

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Nine out of 10 people found to be biased against women

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Analysis of 75 countries reveals ‘shocking’ scale of global women’s rights backlash

Almost 90% of people are biased against women, according to a new index that highlights the “shocking” extent of the global backlash towards gender equality.

Despite progress in closing the equality gap, 91% of men and 86% of women hold at least one bias against women in relation to politics, economics, education, violence or reproductive rights.

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Girls stay longer in school but obesity, suicide and sexual violence remain risks

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A quarter of a century after world conference pledged to advance gender equality, reports finds opportunities and rights still lacking

Girls are far less likely to get married or drop out of school than ever before, but worryingly high rates of obesity, suicide and sexually transmitted infections underline how uneven global progress has been for them over the past 25 years, according to a report published on Wednesday.

Despite major gains in some aspects of girls’ lives since governments pledged at the fourth world conference on women in 1995 to advance the rights of women and girls, violence against them is still not only common but accepted, claim the UN children’s agency, Plan International, and UN Women. They warn that if discrimination continues, the 2030 gender equality targets are unlikely to be achieved.

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The contraceptive helping refugee women plan their families

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Instead of becoming ‘factories for babies’, women who’ve fled South Sudan to Uganda are trying new options for managing their reproductive health

Christine Lamwaka and her husband gathered their six children and fled. It was April 2017 and their town in South Sudan had just been attacked. They walked for two days from Eastern Equatoria before crossing the border into Uganda.

“It was hard to flee with the young children. We struggled to run. I thought we couldn’t make it alive,” says Lamwaka, who was 22 at the time of the attack.

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The cheating wife, her rich lover and a court case for ‘immoral’ Pakistan TV hit Meray Paas Tum Ho

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Creators of Meray Paas Tum Ho could be facing legal suit amid accusations the hugely popular show was ‘misogynistic’

A court in Pakistan has summoned the creators of a wildly popular television series after a petition was filed demanding they apologise for portraying Pakistani women as “greedy, selfish and non-professional”.

In the petition filed at the Sindh high court last month, lawyer Sana Saleem said the television series Meray Paas Tum Ho (I Have You) was “ridiculing a woman who makes the same decision as every other man in society”.

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More than half of women in Zimbabwe have faced sextortion, finds survey

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Widespread corruption and deteriorating economy have contributed to rise in sexual bribery, say researchers

Zimbabwe has recorded an unprecedented number of women reporting being forced to exchange sex for employment or business favours.

More than 57% of women surveyed by Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) said they had been forced to offer sexual favours in exchange for jobs, medical care and even when seeking placements at schools for their children.

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We will end female genital mutilation only by backing frontline activists

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From the Gambia to Kenya, FGM has been fought most successfully at grassroots level. The world must pay heed

I underwent female genital mutilation at the age of seven, while on holiday in Djibouti. When I returned to school in the UK my teacher told me that this happened to “girls like me”.

Thankfully, this type of reaction is no longer common, and this country is much better equipped to protect girls at risk. FGM is now seen as a global issue, which we know has affected more than 200 million women and girls around the world.

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‘I have no regrets’: Tanzania politician branded traitor over World Bank loan

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Opposition leader Zitto Kabwe received death threats after asking bank to suspend education fund over human rights concerns

An opposition leader in Tanzania said he was taking death threats he received after he urged the World Bank to withdraw a $500m (£382m) education loan to the country over human rights concerns “very seriously”.

But Zitto Kabwe, leader of the alliance for change and transparency party (Act), added that he would not be intimidated by comments made by the leader of the ruling party and other officials that his request to the bank was an act of betrayal and he should be killed.

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FGM doctor arrested in Egypt after girl, 12, bleeds to death

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Child had been taken by her family to have the procedure, still prevalent in the country despite new laws to combat it

A doctor has been arrested after the death of a 12-year-old girl he had performed female genital mutilation (FGM) on.

Nada Hassan Abdel-Maqsoud bled to death at a private clinic in Manfalout, close to the city of Assiut, after her parents, uncle and aunt took her for the procedure.

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‘I’ll put those monsters behind bars’: India’s law school for rape survivors

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Women who were forced into sex work are helped to seek justice by a unique scheme that trains them as lawyers

Saira* wants to become a lawyer so she can put her rapists in jail. “I want to fight my own case and put those monsters behind bars,” says the 31-year-old from West Bengal.

She may achieve her objective. In June, after three years of study, Saira will become the first student to graduate from a unique programme that offers survivors of sexual exploitation the chance to enrol in fully funded law courses.

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Landmark case held on alleged sexual abuse of Ecuadorian schoolgirl

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Hearing on teen who later killed herself could lead to first standard for protection from sexual violence at schools in Latin America

An international court hearing that involves the alleged sexual abuse of an Ecuadorian schoolgirl between the age of 14 and 16 by her deputy head could transform girls’ rights across Latin America.

In a region where 30% of students between 13 and 15 claim to have experienced sexual harassment while at school, it is hoped that the case, heard on Tuesday at the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACHR) in Costa Rica, will establish the first international standards to protect girls from coercion and sexual violence in school.

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‘She can’t say no’: the Ugandan men demanding to be breastfed

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A study is looking into the coercive practice in Uganda, amid calls for the government to address the issue

Jane’s* husband likes breast milk. “He says he likes the taste of it, and that it helps him in terms of his health. He feels good afterwards,” said the 20-year-old from Uganda, who has a six-month-old baby.

Jane said her husband started asking for her milk the night she came home from the hospital after giving birth. “He said it was to help me with the milk flow. I felt it was OK.”

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World Bank urged to scrap $500m loan to Tanzania over schoolgirls’ rights concerns

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Campaigners say education funding would be ‘inappropriate if not irresponsible’ in light of ban on pregnant girls attending school

An opposition MP and activists in Tanzania are urging the World Bank to withdraw a $500m (£381m) loan to the country, amid concerns over deteriorating human rights, particularly for women and girls.

In a letter addressed to the bank’s board members, Zitto Kabwe said he feared the money would be used by the ruling party “to distort our electoral processes’” and ensure an easy victory in an election year.

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Scandal overshadows Peru election’s focus on gender equality

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Allegations of domestic violence and marital infidelity have bogged down one of the most diverse parties

Scandals involving domestic violence and marital infidelity have overshadowed the campaign to elect a new congress in Peru, in which gender equality and women’s rights have been key issues.

Peruvians will elect 130 new lawmakers on Sunday after the previous chamber was dissolved by President Martín Vizcarra in a controversial but popular move in September.

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