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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 the challenges of achieving equal political representation and the impact of laws that specifically affect women.
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Rwanda’s current penal code says the final decision over whether a woman can have an abortion lies with courts. Often women have to wait weeks or months for a ruling. Now, a new amendment would allow most abortions to go through with the consent of the woman and her doctor.
In the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, mothers serving prison sentences are allowed to keep children under 4 with them as they serve their sentence. They say having the kids there helps, but some worry it’s sending the wrong message.
Women’s care homes in India are meant to offer protection for those who have nowhere else to go. But activists, authorities and former residents accuse the overcrowded, understaffed homes of trapping women in a cycle of abuse.
Dr. Bipasha Baruah Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Women's Issues, Western University
Dr. Kate Grantham Research Associate, International Development, McGill University
In contemporary global development circles, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are now performing many more roles and activities than they did a few decades ago.
Skye Wheeler Emergencies Researcher, Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch
State-run clinics are exempt from the ban on U.S. funding going to groups that provide abortion services. But many government clinics rely on essential support from NGOs, who can no longer afford to offer it, says Skye Wheeler of Human Rights Watch.
As Zimbabwe adjusts to its first new president in almost four decades, News Deeply spoke to women leaders and rights campaigners about whether they think the status of women will improve under the new regime.
The Delhi High Court is hearing petitions on whether to criminalize marital rape in India, a country where acts of sexual violence by husbands are 40 times more common than those committed by anyone else.
Penalties handed down by Sudan’s Public Order Courts, whose role is to ‘uphold moral order,’ mean vast sums of money are going into the state treasury and judges’ pockets – and 70 percent of such cases involve women.
Miki Jacevic Vice-Chair, Inclusive Security
Olivia Holt-Ivry Deputy Director, Inclusive Security
Inclusive Security has released a guide to implementing U.N. Resolution 1325 through national action plans. Miki Jacevic and Olivia Holt-Ivry explain what they learned through the process.
Lakshmi Sundaram Executive Director, Girls Not Brides
Climate change makes already vulnerable girls even more so. As world leaders gather at the COP23 climate summit in Bonn this week, Lakshmi Sundaram of Girls Not Brides says child marriage must be on the agenda.
Most of the women jailed in Kyrgyzstan for murder are survivors of long-term domestic violence. A new law offers hope that more women will see their abusers brought to justice long before they are pushed to the breaking point.
Indonesia has banned its citizens from migrating to 21 Middle Eastern countries for work. But the women of Lombok are still heading to the Gulf in search of jobs, and may be even more vulnerable than before.
Sharmila Rudrappa Teaches and Researches on Issues Related to Gender, Race and Labor
India’s restrictions on commercial surrogacy have pleased some ethicists and advocates who argue that foreign couples should not be allowed to use surrogates in poorer countries. But Sharmila Rudrappa argues that bans have just made the practice more dangerous.
Campaigner Leyla Hussein spoke with News Deeply about her work to end FGM in the U.K., her concerns for the U.S., and how working with families can change the root cause of oppression against girls.
Liberians will vote today to elect Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s successor. But progress on women’s political representation has been slow under the country’s first female president, and justice remains elusive for women who have suffered sexual violence.
Ahead of the upcoming by-election, Malawi has made it cheaper for women candidates to run. But in past elections, while the fee reduction helped get more women on the ballot, it did nothing to get more of them into parliament.
Rothna Begum Women’s rights researcher for the Middle East and North Africa region at Human Rights Watch
Saudi Arabia has lifted its ban on women driving, after 17 years of protest from committed women’s rights activists. Now the government must make sure they have exactly the same driving rights as men, says Rothna Begum of Human Rights Watch.
Rights activists are calling for Zimbabwe’s government to withdraw a proof of residence requirement for anyone who wants to register to vote, saying it disenfranchises thousands of women who don’t have permanent addresses or property of their own.
A new report provides the first comprehensive estimate of the extent of modern slavery worldwide. In most contexts, women and girls are especially vulnerable to exploitation.
More women than ever before were elected in Kenya’s disputed poll. While the presidential candidates prepare for a rerun, female representatives are getting ready to serve in their new roles across the country, with the help of supportive men.
Women & Girls speaks with Lina Abirafeh of the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World and Jordan-based reporter Elspeth Dehnert on recent battles won by campaigners against gender-based violence in the Middle East and North Africa.
In South Africa, many activists and health workers argue that prostitution should be decriminalized to improve the lives of sex workers – and they are sorely disappointed by a long-awaited report that recommended keeping the practice illegal.
Nicaragua’s total ban on abortion puts women and girls’ lives in danger, and forces raped children to have babies of their own. Yet the Central American country recently ranked 10th in the world for gender equality.
Women activists in Cambodia are demanding justice after residents were displaced by the development of Boeung Kak lake – and are persevering despite the imprisonment of their movement’s leader.
In the month of August alone, India has banned instant divorce, Jordan and Lebanon have ended “marry-your-rapist” laws, Chile has lifted its total abortion ban and Nepal has outlawed menstrual discrimination.
Activists are hopeful that other countries will follow Lebanon, Jordan and Tunisia in abolishing the laws that let rapists walk free by marrying their victims. But they say more needs to be done to end the practice for good.
Lina Abirafeh Director of Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World, Lebanese American University
Lebanon is the latest country to close a legal loophole allowing rapists to escape punishment by marrying the women they raped. But more work needs to be done on legislating for women’s rights, writes Lina Abirafeh of the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World.
With a higher proportion of women in Parliament than any other country, Rwanda seems to be a model of equal representation and empowerment. But politicians and rights campaigners say the nation’s women still struggle to be heard.
Uganda has made progress on HIV/AIDS, but activists say discrimination is still rampant. Now, two women who say they were fired after forced testing revealed them to be HIV positive are fighting back.
One-fifth of Hong Kong’s prison population is female, the highest proportion of any major country in the world. Activists say local laws are stacked against women, in particular foreign women.
Nepal has banned the practice of banishing menstruating women and girls to sheds. Activists have welcomed the new law, but say there is more work to be done to change people’s minds about the tradition, which has led to a number of deaths in recent years.
As Kenya heads to the polls, all eyes are on the country’s leaders and candidates. But behind the scenes, the country’s women grassroots organizers are working to make sure violence doesn’t break out in their communities.
The government of Assam wants to put a limit on family size to try to slow the state’s population growth. But mistrust of contraception could make it impossible to convince people about the benefits of family planning.
Kenya has never had a female governor, but that is likely to change this year, with nine women running to represent their counties. With a week to go until election day, some of these hopefuls spoke to News Deeply about their plans for office.
Kenyan women running for election on August 8 face harassment, abuse and even violence. But they say they won’t be intimidated in their campaign to see women elected to all levels of power.
Under the shadow of Donald Trump’s proposed funding cuts, governments and NGOs have renewed their commitment to make family planning available to 120 million more women and girls by 2020.
Ulla Müller President and CEO, EngenderHealth
As the United States pulls out of the global family planning movement, new space is opening to reconsider how we provide family planning to women and girls worldwide, and what equality really means.
Kenya’s parliament has missed a mandated deadline to enact a law that requires all elected bodies have at least one-third representation of women. With the parliament adjourned ahead of August 8 elections, activists aren’t giving up the fight for affirmative action.
With the rise of smartphones and social media, the problem of revenge pornography is growing across sub-Saharan Africa. But countries such as Zimbabwe have failed to introduce laws to protect victims against this destructive trend.
Uganda has partially lifted a ban on citizens working as domestic workers in the Middle East, which was implemented in 2016 after reports of abuse. The government says increased supervision will lead to safer working conditions, but some say the measures are not enough.
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