Malala Yousafzai urges Muslim leaders to back gender apartheid legal push

Islamabad, Pakistan Reuters Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders on Sunday to back efforts to make gender apartheid a crime under international law, and called on them to speak out against Afghanistan’s Taliban over its treatment of women and girls. At a summit on girls’ education in Muslim communities attended by international […]
One in eight girls and women raped or sexually assaulted before age 18, UNICEF says
United Nations Reuters More than 370 million girls and women alive today, or one in every eight worldwide, experienced rape or sexual assault before the age of 18, the United Nations children’s agency said on Wednesday. The number rises to 650 million, or one in five, when taking into account “non-contact” forms of sexual violence, […]
Haiti gangs are recruiting more child soldiers, human rights report says

Reuters Haiti’s armed gangs are increasingly recruiting children into their ranks, a report by Human Rights Watch warned on Wednesday, as near-famine conditions push boys to pick up guns while girls are sexually abused and forced into domestic work. The group, which advocates for human rights globally, said it had spoken to six children recently […]
Gambia parliament rejects bill to end ban on female genital mutilation

Updated: 9:25am Dakar, Senegal Reuters Gambia’s parliament on Monday rejected a bill that would have ended a ban on female genital mutilation, after lawmakers voted down all the clauses in the proposed law. “The ban on FGM is still firmly maintained in the Gambia,” the Ministry of Information said in a statement after the vote. […]
Mass wedding plans deferred in Nigeria, some girls, women marry privately
Maiduguri, Nigeria Reuters Religious leaders and a state lawmaker suspended their plans for a mass wedding of 100 girls and young women in north-west Nigeria after it sparked outrage, but some were married in private ceremonies, the state assembly speaker and one of the girls said on Tuesday. The wedding plans in largely Muslim Niger […]
“Alarming” rise in rape and abduction from Sudan war – aid agencies

Reuters The conflict between military factions in Sudan has caused a surge in cases of rape and the abduction of women and girls, some as young as 12, aid agencies and officials said. Teenage girls are being sexually assaulted and raped by armed combatants in “alarming numbers”, Save the Children said in a statement on […]
Wow!: In Zimbabwe, female rugby team seeks to keep girls off the streets

NYASHA CHINGONO, of Reuters, reports from Domboshava…
Essay: Some refugee girls are forced into early marriage for safety – here’s why

UK academic AISHA HUTCHINSON looks at the reasons why the incidence of child marriage increase in communities impacted by conflicts or disasters…
Anglican Church of Uganda intensifies mentorship for boys to fight gender-based violence and disparity

Kampala, Uganda The Anglican Church of Uganda will intensify its mentorship program for boys in a bid to fight gender-based violence and gender disparity. The Archbishop of the Anglican Church, Dr Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu, observed that while girls are mentored on how to treat men in Africa, boys are, on the other hand, left on […]
Suspected schoolgirl poisoning attacks rattle a shaken Iran

Dubai, United Arab Emirates AP Over the past three months, hundreds of young girls attending different schools in Iran have become overpowered by what are believed to be noxious fumes wafting into their classrooms, with some ending up weakened on hospital beds. Officials in Iran’s theocracy initially dismissed these incidents, but now describe them as […]