Women ‘bored and fed-up’ at being forced to stay home after latest edict which has hit business hardThe Taliban have banned Afghan women from entering the capital’s public parks and funfairs, just months after ordering access to be segregated by gender…
‘No darkness is for ever’: can an activist in exile persuade the Taliban to allow teaching on TV?
The regime’s closure of her support and literacy centres for women and girls was crushing, but Jamila Afghani is looking for ways to build a brighter future for the Afghan women she left behind Jamila Afghani was settling into her new home in Kitchener…
Young girls being sold in India to repay loans, says human rights body
Notice issued to Rajasthan state government demanding police inquiry into ‘abominable’ practiceYoung girls in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan are being sold as “repayment” for loans their parents cannot afford, the national body that protects hu…
Thai transgender tycoon buys Miss Universe Organization for $20m
Jakapong ‘Anne’ Jakrajutatip has spoken about her experience as a transgender woman and advocated for trans rightsA Thai celebrity media tycoon who is transgender woman has bought the Miss Universe Organization for $20m, marking the first time the beau…
Testimony of boy who witnessed mother’s murder leads to life sentence in India
Court sentenced boy’s father and grandparents for killing his mother over demands for higher dowryThe testimony of an Indian child who witnessed his father and grandparents murder his mother in the living room of his home when he was four years old has…
I was supposed to grow up to be a ‘good Indian woman’. I chose freedom instead | Sangeeta Pillai
I was told to listen to my parents, find a husband and ignore my own needs. But I decided to take my own path As a young girl growing up in a very traditional Mumbai family, I knew I was expected to grow up to be a certain sort of woman.Here’s what I w…
‘Without a wheelchair my life would be useless’: the woman changing the lives of disabled Pakistanis
Zahida Qureshi, who became disabled after contracting polio, was forced to crawl around her school as a child. Now, her organisation gives away thousands of custom wheelchairsFor 12 years, Zahida Qureshi travelled to and from school in Pakistan each da…
High-profile China #MeToo case settled in US out of court
Liu Jingyao launched civil proceedings in 2019 against retail billionaire Liu Qiangdong One of China’s biggest and most divisive #MeToo cases, which had been set to play out with extraordinary transparency because of its US location and was closely wat…
UN expert describes ‘staggering repression’ of women and girls in Afghanistan
UN mission accused Taliban authorities of harassing UN Afghan female employeesA UN expert has described the “staggering repression” of women and girls in Afghanistan, as the UN mission in the country accused Taliban authorities of harassing its female …
I have spent a year helping people flee the Taliban: failure is traumatic, success bittersweet | Ruchi Kumar
We are still trying to find ways to get visas – writing letters, appealing to governments – but the options are running outIt was past midnight on 9 August 2021, and I was immersed in writing when my phone pinged: a message from a contact at the Indi…
‘The Taliban don’t know how to govern’: the Afghan women shaping global policy from exile
Despite the upheaval of the Taliban takeover, the ‘group of six’ are finding ways to tackle the political and humanitarian crisisIt has been described as Afghanistan’s brain drain, after the Taliban’s return to power last year precipitated an exodus of…
Chinese government attempts to boost birth rate with new policies
Measures include improved maternal healthcare and efforts to reduce abortions as China seeks to reverse declining population growthThe Chinese government has pledged to improve pre- and post-natal services to encourage more people to have children and …
‘I daren’t go far’: Taliban rules trap Afghan women with no male guardian
Those without a male relative to act as a mahram are in legal limbo and unable to travel long distancesHasina* cannot send her two daughters to school, because they are teenagers and high school is banned for girls in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.But she …
‘The Taliban no longer wanted to kill me. Now they wanted to marry me’
Last August, one Afghan reporter told how her life imploded when the militants took power. One year on, she tells of desperate months trying to evade capture and flee the countryThe day the Taliban entered my city last August, I started to receive rene…
The Guardian view on the Taliban’s victory: Afghanistan’s nightmare is intensifying | Editorial
One year after the fall of Kabul, the people face both intensifying repression and mass hungerOn Monday it will be a year since the Taliban seized Kabul, marking “not the collapse of a regime, but the collapse of the dreams of a nation”, in the words o…