Dear Deeply Readers,
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.
We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].
Exploring how crisis and conflict affect women and girls.
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A joint initiative by U.N. Women and UNESCO aims to highlight the problem of gender-based violence in and around schools, as well as provide teachers and students tools for tackling the issue. The first step, says UNESCO’s Joanna Herat, is to face up to the challenge.
Desperate decisions on the road to refuge left a young Afghan mother disabled, bereaved and stranded. Her story, as told to Refugees Deeply, illustrates the appalling risks Afghan refugees are taking in the face of rising European asylum rejections and deportations.
When Kashmiri women lose their husbands to the ongoing conflict, their grief is often compounded by discrimination, ostracism and poverty, in a region where a woman’s social status is tied to that of the man she married.
Even as Myanmar slowly adapts to democracy, the government shows little interest in furthering women’s rights, leaving progress to pioneering women working at a community level, says Jenny Hedström, gender adviser for Fortify Rights.
As part of our series on women in Myanmar, we look at an innovative charity that helps women talk about sex and sexuality, challenging traditional concepts of female subservience and demureness.
As part of our “Untold Stories” series, we meet Makui Lainyiu, who regrets not having done more to pass on her community’s traditions to the younger generation. Her song is a rare glimpse of a world all but lost in the remote hills between India and Myanmar.
As Mozambique suffers through southern Africa’s worst drought in 35 years, activists say the pressure on families to find food and water is starting to reverse the gender equality gains that have been made in the country.
During El Salvador’s decade-long civil war, Maria Lidia Guardado was cooking for guerrilla forces. Fifteen years later, she was educating herself so that she could lead a nonviolent campaign to protect local farmland from mining companies.
The Ludu Library is a treasure trove in a nation still reeling from the oppression of army rule. Built to house books and manuscripts accumulated over the lifetimes of Myanmar’s most famous literary couple, it is one of the very few modern libraries in the country.
Once known as a refugee-friendly nation, Kenya is becoming more resistant to taking in people who have been forced to flee their homes. That means added challenges for the nonprofit Heshima and the refugee girls it supports, says executive director Alisa Roadcup.
A portrait of how Syria’s war has carved homes into fighting factions, told through the story of Um Mahmoud, a Damascus mother whose three sons ended up on opposing sides of the battle lines.
As part of our “Untold Stories” series, we meet some of the women fighting against Myanmar’s ingrained gender discrimination by competing in Lethwei, a ferocious, no-holds-barred style of kickboxing.
The next part in our “Untold Stories” series features Mya Thet Mu, who lived as an openly gay woman in exile in Thailand for 19 years, but faced public abuse when she returned to Myanmar. Now she brings together young people to challenge discrimination.
This year, we’ll dig deeper into the stories we brought you in 2016 while exploring the issues that don’t get the attention they deserve – and we will continue to champion people and organizations who work for the good of women and girls at home and around the world.
Farah is a young woman living in Syria’s capital city, where she faces the daily struggles of maintaining a normal social and professional life in a country being ripped apart by war.
In the second installment of the series “Untold Stories,” we meet a young feminist from Myanmar’s Kayan ethnic group who wanted to set up a women’s organization. But first she had to escape the military junta, crossing the border to Thailand in the dead of night.
Thin Lei Win South East Asia Correspondent, Thomson Reuters Foundation
Last year, journalists Thin Lei Win and Kelly Macnamara gathered oral histories from people all over Myanmar. In our series “Untold Stories,” they spotlight some of the women they spoke to, many whose experiences living under military rule have been largely ignored.
As the government of the DRC continues its crackdown on the media, political reporting in the country carries significant risks. For the country’s female political journalists, widespread misogyny compounds their struggle to do their jobs.
From family planning to HIV activism, and from the mother of an ISIS recruit to survivors of Burundi’s conflict, here are five of our most-read stories this year and five that you may have missed.
Many of the children fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s militia groups were abducted and forced to enlist. But researchers have found that girls are joining the groups voluntarily, motivated by a lack of access to education and a future with no prospects.
Hundreds of thousands of families fleeing Boko Haram are now stranded in a remote and harsh border region, beyond the reach of humanitarian aid. Photojournalist Ashley Hamer documents the challenges facing the displaced who have found themselves in the Lake Chad Basin.
There were major setbacks – prolonged conflict, global health crises, patriarchal policies – but also victories, large and small. We look at some of the milestones, moments and issues that had an impact on women’s and girls’ rights over the past year.
Women being held in Syria’s government prisons report psychological abuse, sexual assault and torture. But for many, the emotional and physical suffering they experience after their release is even worse.
The Brazilian samba jazz diva Elza Soares discusses the theme behind her Latin Grammy-winning album “A Mulher Do Fim Do Mundo,” an anthem for women fighting against domestic violence.
In rural Zimbabwe, food aid is supposed to be distributed according to need. But rights advocates say some village heads are keeping rations from people – mainly women – who don’t support the ruling party.
Nikita Malik Senior Researcher, Quilliam
As civilians are finally allowed to evacuate Syria’s besieged city, Nikita Malik of counter-extremist organization Quilliam says the violence against women and children in the battle for Aleppo risks radicalizing a whole new generation.
As desertification claims more of Sudan’s once fertile land, women in farming communities struggle to keep their families healthy while constantly fighting the encroaching sand dunes.
Yanar Mohammed’s organization has sheltered sex-trafficking survivors in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. But with the arrival of ISIS two years ago – and the battle for Mosul underway – the country’s women and girls need her help now more than ever.
While the rate of births by cesarean section in Lebanon remains considerably above internationally recommended levels, the incidence of the procedure among Syrian refugee women comes with additional risks and hardship, writes Federica Marsi, of Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper.
Nazifa Alizada Graduate of the Asian University for Women
The beheading of seven ethnic Hazara in 2015 saw unprecedented numbers of women across Afghanistan demonstrate for their rights. But in a country where they have so few, even the language of the protest movement is masculine, says Afghan researcher Nazifa Alizada.
Activist Isatou Touray hoped to bring women’s issues to the forefront in the country’s December 1 vote, but dropped out of the race after the male-dominated opposition formed a coalition, undermining her bid in the process.
As the Syrian regime and Russia intensify their bombing of Aleppo, activist and aid worker Zein al-Sham says she refuses to leave the besieged city, even after spending 14 months in prison and years witnessing the unforgettable horrors of war.
As surprise flooding and unexpected droughts continue to hit Kenyan farmers, the government of Makueni region has put weather information into the hands of a local women’s group, giving villagers the farming advice they need from a source they can trust.
When Dr. Charles Ochieng decided to get a vasectomy, he found few doctors in Nairobi who could perform the procedure. Since then, he has been on a mission to get more men to take a role in avoiding unplanned pregnancies and make family planning a family affair.
When men die fighting for Kashmir’s independence, friends and neighbors hail them as “martyrs.” But then their widows are left broke, alone and attempting to keep their sons from joining the conflict that killed their fathers.
As parts of Kenya are gripped by drought, people and animals increasingly come into conflict over water and grazing areas. In Lamu County, women farmers often have to face off against herders and wild animals as they compete for the dwindling resources.
When Sarah and Jane fled South Sudan, they joined the thousands of unaccompanied minors living in Uganda’s refugee camps. Organizations help kids like them feel safe by providing money, therapy and even foster families, but their loss is harder to escape.
Farah is a young woman living in Syria’s capital city, where she faces the daily struggles of trying to maintain a normal social and professional life in a country being ripped apart by war.
Members of the Afghan national women’s cycling team have kept on riding through misogyny, harassment and physical violence. Now a corruption scandal threatens to knock the trailblazers off their bikes for good.
After escaping North Korea for China, many mothers have been forced to make the difficult decision to abandon their children while fleeing again, this time for South Korea, to avoid repatriation. Now those women are fighting for access to the children they left behind.
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