STORIES
From urgent investigations and breaking news to bold op-eds by global leaders, we bring you the stories shaping the lives of women and girls worldwide.
Afghan Girls Face Uncertain Futures as Pakistan Deports Refugees
Legal advocates and international organizations warn deportations will trap girls in extreme restrictions under the Taliban unless urgent protections are adopted. Photo: Jamaima Afridi
The Bosnian Women Rewriting a Legacy of Violence
Once invisible in law and stigmatized in society, children born of wartime rape are now speaking out, turning personal trauma into a movement for justice and dignity. Photo: Odd Andersen / Getty Images
Inside the Houthis’ War on Women: Blackmail, Sexual Violence, and Forced Recruitment
An investigation into female Houthi security units reveals a systematic campaign of abuse against women in Yemen. Photo: Getty Images
Want Signs of Bipartisanship? In the House, Look to Women.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, women from opposite ends of the political spectrum have united on women’s health initiatives, banning congressional stock trading and releasing the Epstein files. Photo: Office of Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove
“If the Internet Is Cut Off, All Girls Will Remain Illiterate”: Taliban Ban Threatens Afghan Girls’ Last Lifeline
The Taliban are cutting off access to the outside world, severing Afghan girls’ last link to education and freedom. Photo: Petros Giannakouris/AP
Obstetric Violence Is Gender-Based Violence. It’s Time the Law Recognized It.
Just as the fight against domestic violence changed laws and lives, the same clarity is needed on obstetric violence: it is abuse, writes the executive director of the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. Photo: UN Women
In Taliban’s Afghanistan, Some Families Risk Everything to Keep Their Daughters Learning
Across Afghanistan, fathers, brothers and broadcasters are risking their lives to keep girls learning. Photo: Picryl
A Better World for Girls Begins With Raising Boys Who Believe in One
True progress demands that we also invest in boys, writes Room to Read’s Director of Girls’ Education and Gender Equality in South Asia.
A Photojournalist Captures Stories of Birth, Motherhood and Survival in Eastern Ukraine
Photojournalist Emily Garthwaite traveled throughout eastern Ukraine to document the lives of mothers and families in a country still under siege.
The Next Frontier of Misogyny Is Already Here
Misogynistic extremism has flourished online for years. Now, artificial intelligence and virtual worlds threaten to supercharge the abuse and make it inescapable, warn author and activist Laura Bates.
Sudan’s War is Forcing Families to Rethink FGM. We Cannot Waste This Moment.
In Sudan, war has reversed progress against FGM—what happens next will decide the fate of a generation of girls, writes Equality Now’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Gender Advisor. Photo: UN Women
“Revenge Wives”: The Girls in Mozambique Paying the Price of a Forgotten War
Decades after Mozambique’s civil war, girls in rural villages are still being forced into marriages with older men to appease the restless spirits of the dead. Illustration courtesy of Minority Africa.
It’s Time to Keep Our Promises to Women and Girls
As the United Nations turns 80, Melissa Fleming, Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, urges world leaders to finally honor their commitments to protecting women and girls amid escalating wars and crises.
They Escaped Their Husbands. Then They Took On Poachers.
In Zimbabwe, survivors of domestic abuse are finding purpose and protection in Akashinga, an all-women ranger unit where they defend endangered wildlife — and themselves. Photo: Rex Opara for Minority Africa
The Last Shepherdesses of Changthang
In the Himalayas of northern India, women carry the twin griefs of miscarriages and climate change, finding solace in resilience, prayer, and each other. Photo: Umar Mir
Women Struggle for Reliable Healthcare After Pakistan’s Floods
More than 800 people have died and thousands are displaced as women in Buner face childbirth without hospitals, medicine, or even roads. Photo: Jamaima Afridi
The Woman Who Brought Chess to the Children of Boko Haram’s War
Boko Haram stole their childhoods — one woman is helping these children reclaim their futures with chess. Photo: Vivian Ibrahim
“There Is No Honor in Abuse”: New UK Law Seeks to Protect Women and Girls
‘Honor’ violence has surged 60% in just two years across England and Wales. Now, the UK has introduced its first legal definition of honor-based abuse—progress survivors hope will finally protect women and girls.
Women Shouldn’t Have to Choose Between Faith and Freedom
Shirin Taber, Executive Director of Empower Women Media, argues that true religious freedom cannot exist without women’s equality. Photo: Fareed Khan / AP
In Madagascar’s Remote Villages, Women Do the Work of Doctors Without Recognition or Pay
They trek for miles, deliver babies, fight malnutrition, and save lives — in a role experts say governments can’t afford to overlook. Photo: Trisha Mukherjee / More to Her Story