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Welcome to the archives of News Deeply’s Women & Girls Hub. While we paused regular publication of the site on January 22, 2018, and transitioned our coverage to Women’s Advancement Deeply, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on the Arctic. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors contributors.
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Exploring how crisis and conflict affect women and girls.
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To find work, many Zimbabwean women illegally cross the borders into Botswana and South Africa. But during the crossing through the bush, they risk being attacked by “gumagumas” – gangs who rob and frequently rape their victims.
Camilla Bognoe Transnational Threats Department, OSCE
In order to tackle violent extremism, women must be better represented in the security sector – including at the highest levels, says Camilla Bognoe of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
The number of women joining military and police ranks across Africa is rising. As part of our “Women and Jihad” series, we meet the female peacekeepers in Somalia who are taking on al-Shabab, both on the front lines and in the battle against extremist ideology.
As part of our “Women and Jihad” series, we look at how escape from Boko Haram doesn’t always mean the end of the ordeal, as former militants’ ‘wives’ are often rejected and verbally abused by other female abductees.
In Uganda’s massive Bidibidi camp, which is home to more than 272,000 South Sudanese refugees, aid workers are trying to identify and help sexual violence survivors – despite a dearth of resources.
Since their tough start in Istanbul, Sabah and Mayas, two sisters from Aleppo, have mastered Turkish and are now thriving at school. But many Syrian refugee children feel lost in Turkey’s education system – if they make it to class at all.
When al-Shabab controlled Mogadishu, women could be punished for playing sports. As part of our “Women and Jihad” series, we meet the young female ballplayers who are challenging lingering Islamist ideology in the city.
While struggling to restart her career in Europe, Syrian academic Oula Abu-Amsha found solace helping refugees in Jordan access higher education through the Jamiya Project and was reunited with her former students from Damascus University.
Mariam Safi is one of just a handful of researchers focusing on the role of women in post-conflict peace building in Afghanistan. As part of our “Women and Jihad” series, she tells us about the pivotal role women can play in combating the Taliban.
For many of the women whose husbands, sons or fathers have died in clashes over the disputed Kashmir region, photos are all they have left of their loved ones. Photojournalist Aliya Bashir explores the power of a single picture.
As part of our series “Women and Jihad,” we look at how one charity in Pakistan’s Swat Valley worked undercover with mothers of young Taliban recruits to help them spot signs of radicalization and find ways to intervene before their sons carried out acts of violence.
So far this year, 333 women have been rescued from the Mediterranean Sea by the team on the search-and-rescue vessel M.V. Aquarius. Tiziana Cauli, an MSF communication manager on the vessel, tells us about two women she met on board.
Sarah Dryden-Peterson Associate Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Refugee education has focused on preparing students for their return home. But with refugees spending longer periods in exile, Harvard Graduate School of Education professor Sarah Dryden-Peterson says educators must equip children to cope with ‘unknowable futures.’
As Germany starts sending newly arrived refugees back to Greece, we speak to Marcy Hersh of the Women’s Refugee Commission about the tens of thousands of women refugees stuck in Greek detention centers, suffering from violence, unsanitary conditions and food shortages.
Jordan has committed to education for all, but some Syrian refugees still struggle in the country’s public school system. As part of our series on the education crisis among Syrian refugees, we meet Judy, who has been to four schools in the past four years.
Fauziya Abdi represents a network of women’s organizations in Kenya working to prevent violent extremism. Speaking to us for our “Women and Jihad” series, she says women’s increasingly diverse roles within radical groups call for a more sophisticated approach to the problem.
Some of those working with Yazidi former slaves say they have never before seen such severe psychological trauma. As part of our “Women and Jihad” series, experts tell us there are not enough resources to provide long-term care to all of the survivors, who could take a lifetime to recover.
ISIS has captured, enslaved and abused thousands of women and girls from the Yazidi minority in Iraq. As part of our “Women and Jihad” series, we meet the Yazidi women and men living abroad who are working to free the captives and hold the perpetrators to account.
Over 1 million people have fled ethnic cleansing and famine in South Sudan, most of them women and children. In a photo and video essay for Refugees Deeply, Angela Wells and Rachel Reed meet the female leaders and refugee women in Uganda who have become warriors for peace.
As hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees return from Pakistan, Refugees Deeply speaks to Aqeela Asifi, a prize-winning educator of refugee girls in the country’s Punjab province, about how the mass returns will impact girls’ education and thus the future of Afghanistan.
Azizah Sayah’s son died in Syria after joining the ranks of the so-called Islamic State. In the latest installment of “Women and Jihad,” she tells her story and shares her mission to prevent other French young people from leaving to fight in radical Islamist movements.
Since it began its military campaign against the Nigerian government in 2009, the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of girls. But some young women join the group voluntarily, raising questions about how to help them when they come back home.
How ISIS depicts women in its official propaganda tells us a lot about the role it sees for female members of the group. In “Women and Jihad,” we speak with researcher Charlie Winter about the power of the extremist promise.
Fredrick Ogenga Founding Director, Center for Media, Democracy, Peace & Security
The phenomenon of women willingly joining extremist movements is not a new one, but the media often present the issue as a shocking novelty. Security expert Fredrick Ogenga says journalists need to learn how to report on terrorism without breeding prejudice and fear.
The role of women in countering violent extremism has gained momentum over the past few years. Next in “Women and Jihad,” we look at the people and programs challenging the male-dominated security scene and offering new ways to combat the threat of radicalization.
The latest in our “Women and Jihad” series highlights women who have committed to combating the spread of extremist ideology, from saving Yazidi Kurds in Iraq to deradicalizing Boko Haram members in Nigeria.
Most Kosovar men who travel to Syria and Iraq to fight with ISIS are accompanied by their wives. For our series “Women and Jihad,” we talk to counterterrorism experts who believe these women could be the key to challenging violent extremism.
The Himalayan nation of Nepal has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. Two women tell us about their decision to marry early and reveal the challenges they face as young mothers.
An estimated 40 percent of child soldiers around the world are girls, many of whom face discrimination and struggle to reintegrate into their communities once they leave the armed groups who kidnapped them.
Next in our series, we take an in-depth look at the diverse ways in which women are affected by radicalization – as victims, perpetrators and peacemakers – while experts call for a gender shift in the way governments deal with women’s growing role in global terrorism.
For some, being the target of racism can lead to radicalization. For Kenza Isnasni, it did the opposite. In our “Women & Jihad” series, she says the killing of her parents by a right-wing radical inspired her to fight extremism in all its forms, political and religious.
Forced to leave school to help with the housework, Mira Rai ran away to join Nepal’s Maoist rebel group. And she’s been running ever since. Now an internationally acclaimed trail runner, Rai is inspiring a new generation of young girls to challenge expectations.
Now a mentor for girls at risk of radicalization, Yasmin Mulbocus was once a recruiter for an Islamic terrorist organization. In the first part of our series “Women and Jihad,” she says she joined as an idealistic teen drawn by the group’s utopian vision of the future.
On a Japanese island famous for long life expectancies, elderly women are at the forefront of the continuing protest movement against U.S military installations.
Morocco’s policy toward migrants is more generous than most, issuing work permits and refusing to evict undocumented refugees. But it does little to account for gender, leaving women living in refugee camps vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
The documentary “Nobel Nok Dah” explores the journeys of three female Karen refugees who fled their homes, experienced forced labor in Thailand and were finally resettled in the U.S. Refugees Deeply spoke to the filmmakers about understanding resettlement through a gender lens.
As Colombia’s Marxist FARC rebel group prepares to demobilize after five decades of conflict, one former child soldier explains why so many have been drawn into joining the revolutionaries.
Trump’s ban on the citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. threw lives into chaos. Even with the ban suspended, three women describe here the uncertainty that has gripped their lives, not knowing what will happen next to their jobs or families.
In light of a new U.N. report documenting atrocities against Rohingya in Myanmar, photojournalist Allison Joyce profiles Rohingya refugees who recently fled to Bangladesh, relaying their harrowing stories to Refugees Deeply.
Fleeing the Syrian conflict, Muna Darweesh sought refuge in Brazil using a holiday visa. As Refugees Deeply reports, after a tough start, the refugee from Latakia is becoming a culinary star in her adopted country and an example for others.
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