Category: Women

Afghanistan: UN predicts restrictions on women’s rights will worsen economic catastrophe

UNAMA/Farzana Zeba Kalam/An Afghan girl snatches a moment away from her watermelon selling duties to work on her homework The draconian restrictions on women’s ability to study and work have contributed to the calamitous socio-economic situation in Afghanistan, with devastating consequences for the population, according to a UN report released on Tuesday. The Afghanistan Socio-Economic Outlook […]

Equality drive launched by African women leaders at landmark conference

UN Women/Ryan | Brown African women leaders are playing a key role in transforming the continent. 14 February 2023 Women Women leaders called for swift, concerted action to advance gender rights at the first International Conference on Women’s Transformational Leadership, in Juba, South Sudan on Tuesday. Almost 400 women leaders from 15 African countries joined the UN-backed […]

‘We are not afraid’: Indigenous Brazilian women stand up to gender violence

21 January 2023 Women Women from Brazil’s indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence, but UN-backed initiatives, and a change in the law, are encouraging them to seek protection. In Parque das Tribos, an indigenous neighbourhood in Manaus, the capital of Brazil’s Amazonas state, violence against women is not uncommon. “As a leader, I […]

‘World is failing adolescent girls’ warns UNFPA chief, as report shows third of women in developing countries give birth in teen years

Nurse taking women's blood pressure

Nearly a third of all women in developing countries, start having children at the age of 19 or younger, and nearly half of first births to adolescents, are to children or girls aged 17 or under, new research released on Tuesday by UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, reveals.  While total fertility across the […]

The crisis behind closed doors: a look into the ‘shadow pandemic’

Although we are currently facing a public health crisis, COVID-19 has also caused a surge in intimate partner violence (IPV), negatively affecting our world’s pursuit of SDG #5: Gender Equality. While stage three restrictions have been reinforced in order to control the pandemic’s spread in Metropolitan Melbourne, stay-at-home mandates have also left many women and […]