Exploring how crisis and conflict affect women and girls.
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As someone who was married as a child, Rawda al-Mazloum, a Syrian refugee in Lebanon, is working hard to prevent this from happening to girls in the refugee camp where she lives. Mazloum has experienced stigma for being divorced, and warns that young refugee divorcees are particularly vulnerable to abuse.
In war-torn South Sudan, Girl Guides learn peace-building skills – such as asking the adults around them to put away their weapons – and are counseled on how to support victims of rape.
Pregnancy was outlawed among the rebel armies of Colombia during the 52-year civil war. Now the guerilla camps are demobilizing, female fighters are free to have children for the first time.
Worldwide, women are vastly underrepresented in official peacekeeping and peace-building efforts. While they face significant roadblocks, there are also signs of real progress, says Claire Hutchinson, a senior gender adviser at the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping.
For the past year, herders and farmers have regularly clashed and spilled blood in Nigeria’s north-central Kaduna state. Their wives, many of whom work side by side in the local markets, are trying to bring an end to this spiral of violence.
When she was appointed to head the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Cyprus, Maj. Gen. Kristin Lund became the United Nation’s first female force commander. In a conversation with Women & Girls, she recounts how she shattered the glass ceiling.
Ortrun Merkle PhD Fellow, United Nations University
Diego Salama Communications Officer, United Nations University
Due to U.S. pressure, the U.N. General Assembly has voted to cut $600 million from the U.N. Peacekeeping budget. The impact on women and girls must be addressed, or the cuts could cause serious harm, say Ortrun Merkle and Diego Salama of United Nations University.
Alejandra Segura is one of the eight women deminers working to clear Colombia of deadly explosives – a gargantuan task that the country’s president has promised to finish in the next four years.
A collection of testimonials by Cambodian women who survived the brutal Khmer Rouge regime reveals the long-term effects of enslavement, terror and sexual abuse, and gives the women a chance to break their silence about a tragic period of the country’s history.
In the West Bank, opportunities for women are few, and they suffer higher unemployment rates than men. But one community initiative based on a famous hiking trail is offering a chance for women to welcome tourists, sharing their experiences and culture along the way.
Just when the Kenyan women of Lake Victoria were able to shake off the threat of sexual assault and join the fishing trade, a conflict with Ugandan authorities has stripped them of their hard-earned savings.
Sylvia Bawa Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology at York University
By 2022, 95 percent of Canada’s international assistance programs will target women and girls. But will this policy actually empower those it seeks to help? York University’s Sylvia Bawa questions how the new “feminist” approach will operate on the ground.
Once known as a pocket of peace in South Sudan, the small town of Mundri now has a reputation for its high rate of sexual assaults on women. But one group is determined to help the community’s women take back their town.
In parts of Kenya, women farmers are turning away from traditional techniques and instead using mulching and machinery to protect their soil from the worst effects of drought.
As more women become involved in violent extremism, Indonesia has embraced a new weapon in the fight against radicalization: its first recognized cohort of female Muslim clerics.
Inhabited by various rebel groups fighting the conflict in DRC, Virunga National Park is a dangerous place to work. As rangers risk their lives to protect the park’s animals, a local project helps provide support and financial security for the women left behind.
The United Nations has documented shocking accounts of sexual violence, including gang rape, against Rohingya women and girls at the hands of Myanmar’s military. News Deeply spoke with a U.N. investigator about what she found when she talked to survivors.
The Syrian Female Journalists’ Network was founded to ensure better coverage of gender issues and better representation of women in newsrooms in the midst of the country’s protracted conflict. Milia Eidmouni tells News Deeply how they do it.
For women in Gaza, dire economic conditions combined with a dearth of legal protections can cause many marriage-related problems. Among them are early marriages, wedding-related debt and domestic abuse.
Many Samburu women in Kenya’s north had come to fear lions, but now they’re taking up the conservation cause – and demanding the same training and opportunities as men.
In the Central African Republic, the women of Obo are considering leaving their homes when Ugandan and U.S. troops abandon the hunt for Joseph Kony.
Marni Sommer Worked in Global Health and Development
For millions of girls and women, menstruation is a burden. Here’s why helping displaced and poor women and girls with their periods is a way to show them proper respect.
The island nation of Fiji has one of the world’s highest rates of domestic violence, and climate change disasters are making matters worse for women. One crisis center is tackling the problem by giving women the support they need to prosecute perpetrators.
A head teacher in Yemen’s biggest camp for internally displaced people is struggling to keep the doors of his school open – and to prevent girls dropping out.
Syrian refugee women in Ontario have launched their own successful catering business, Karam Kitchen. It helps them not only to support their families financially but also to improve their English and meet more people in their new home.
The Syrian Women’s Advisory Board wants equal involvement of women and men as part of a peaceful transition for Syria. Board member Sawsan Zakzak made the case to negotiating parties at the latest round of Geneva talks and discussed its importance with News Deeply.
In our first year, we’ve brought you insights into the lives of women and girls around the world. We look back on the best of our coverage, and give a hint of what’s to come in the year ahead.
We’ve made some significant progress in gender equality in the past year, but there’s still a long way to go. Our panel of experts share their views on what’s next.
In its first year, Women & Girls published dozens of photographs taken by our talented contributors all over the world. Here’s a look back at some of the most memorable images.
By speaking out about how she was abused by her husband, a Palestinian domestic violence survivor helped launch a conversation about the need to reform the Palestinian Penal Code to protect women.
Tropical storm Dineo destroyed the homes and livelihoods of hundreds of Zimbabwean women, who are now struggling to get back to work and rebuild their lives. Experts say such disasters disproportionately affect women, who do more unpaid tasks than men.
Rita Nehme Reproductive Health Officer, International Rescue Committee
Ashley Wolfington Reproductive Health Senior Technical Adviser, IRC’s Health Unit
In the refugee camps of Uganda, South Sudanese and local women are being given access to proper maternity care and contraception, often for the first time.
Melanie Smith Researcher, Institute for Strategic Dialogue
ISIS has succeeded in mobilizing unprecedented numbers of women in the past few years, but their role within the organization is changing in crucial ways, says Melanie Smith of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
As they work to protect their communities from resource-hungry corporations, female environmental activists are often subject to threats, assault and even murder. And little is being done to help, they say.
Helen Sherpa Country Director, World Education Nepal
Small-scale loans aren’t as photogenic as blankets or food donations in the wake of a disaster, but the recovery from Nepal’s devastating 2015 earthquake shows that a tiny amount of invested money can help women turn their lives around.
Conflicts over livestock and resources are causing families to flee to squalid refugee camps in Baringo County, western Kenya. Separated from home and family, women are going hungry and girls are dropping out of school.
More than 1 million homes were damaged or destroyed during the earthquake that hit Nepal on April 25, 2015. With many Nepali men working overseas, women are learning new skills to help rebuild the country from the rubble.
Many Palestinian women living in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem want to work. But their search for jobs is often blocked by slow bureaucracy, impossible demands and lack of support.
According to estimates, more than 60,000 Colombians were forcibly disappeared during the decadeslong conflict with FARC, the majority of them men. We meet the women still searching for them, from their wives and mothers to forensic doctors and human rights experts.
As borders have tightened along the western Balkan route to Europe, more lone female refugees are arriving in Serbia having experienced violence and trafficking. Many who want to continue their journeys are using even riskier routes and never appear in official data.
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