Women's rights and gender equality
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The girls of my Himalayan valley are not victims – education is the only bridge they need out of their isolation | Amreen Qadir
In my tribe, the Dard Shin, girls’ dreams are often over by 13. It is time we cleared a path towards them all …
- Afghanistan, Global development, South and Central Asia, Taliban, Women under the Taliban, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
The secret Afghan women’s book club defying the Taliban to read Orwell
Banned from education, a clandestine reading circle meets every week to pore over novels by Abbas Maroufi, Zoy…
- Afghanistan, Charities, Contraception and family planning, Reproductive rights, Women's health, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
Progress on family planning in Afghanistan is still possible | Letter
George Papachristou and Gigih Yudhistira offer some hope in response to a report on how the Taliban’s ban on b…
- Art and design, Child marriage, Global development, Human rights, India, Photography, Society, South and Central Asia, Women, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
Women behind the lens: ‘I met 14-year-old Arti a day before her wedding. Her suicide six years later hit home’
Despite being illegal, child marriage is still common in much of India. Saumya Khandelwal, a photojournalist, …
- Global development, Pakistan, Reproductive rights, Society, South and Central Asia, Women, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
I’m married, Pakistani – and I don’t want children. That doesn’t make me broken | Fizza Abbas
I live in a country where a woman’s value is often measured by motherhood, but for me and many others fulfilme…
- Afghanistan, Contraception and family planning, Gender, Taliban, Women, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
The death of medical care for Afghan women | Letter
Dr Carol Mann says the world is silent while women in Afghanistan face a bleak future, in response to an artic…
- Afghanistan, Contraception and family planning, Family, Global development, Global health, Health, Health & wellbeing, Life and style, Pregnancy, Society, South and Central Asia, Taliban, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
Taliban birth control ban: women ‘broken’ by lethal pregnancies and untreated miscarriages
Women across Afghanistan describe the traumatic impact of disappearing clinics and contraceptionParwana* no lo…
- Afghanistan, Photography, Refugees, South and Central Asia, Taliban, United Nations, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
Afghan women in the UK: amplifying their voice – a photo essay
Over four years have passed since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. Claudia Janke’s photographic s…
- Africa, Americas, Art and design, Colombia, Cuba, Culture, Global development, India, Middle East and North Africa, Morocco, Photography, South Africa, South and Central Asia, Uganda, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
Women behind the lens: six of our most striking images from 2025
A few of our favourite photographs taken by women from the global south and capturing moments of everyday life…
- Education, Global development, Pakistan, South and Central Asia, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
‘I wasn’t allowed to study, but I will make sure no girl in this village hears those same words’
Health worker Naushaba Roonjho was ostracised by her family in Pakistan for wanting to work but now she is cam…
- Afghanistan, Africa, Art, Art and design, Culture, Employment, Global development, Guinea-Bissau, India, Middle East and North Africa, Migration and development, Somalia, South and Central Asia, Taliban, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
‘Even in the most unlikely places there is beauty’: stories of hope from newsrooms around the world
From the construction worker who won a place at medical school to an art exhibition in a country with no galle…
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‘That video saved our lives’: how women are defying the Taliban’s brutal crackdown on protest
The activist Zarmina Paryani speaks from exile in Germany about how Afghanistan has tried to silence the voice…
- Artificial intelligence (AI), Bollywood, Computing, Deepfake, Digital media, Global development, India, Instagram, Life and style, Media, Social media, Society, South and Central Asia, Technology, Women, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
‘The chilling effect’: how fear of ‘nudify’ apps and AI deepfakes is keeping Indian women off the internet
Widespread adoption of artificial intelligence has been accompanied by new ways to harass women onlineGaatha S…
- Global development, Global health, Law, Pakistan, Reproductive rights, South and Central Asia, Women's health, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
The young lawyer taking Pakistan to court over its unfair ‘period tax’
Mahnoor Omer hopes the case will put public pressure on the government to make sanitary products affordable in…
- Africa, Americas, Art and design, Asia Pacific, Brazil, Cambodia, Conservation, Conservation and indigenous people, Culture, Environment, Global development, Human rights, Nepal, Nigeria, Photography, South and Central Asia, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
Visions of resistance: women fighting to save their homeland – in pictures
The theme of this year’s Women By Women exhibition, Rooted in Resistance, is to showcase images of women defen…