Gender Violence

Myanmar’s Protection Bill falls Short of Addressing Violence against Women

By Samira Sadeque
A legislation that aims to protect women against violence in Myanmar, while long overdue, is raising concern among human rights advocates about its inadequate definition of rape, vague definition for “consent”, and anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rhetoric.

Gender Inequality and Oppression of Women: A Survivor’s Story

By Fairuz Ahmed
“What do you think happens to kerosene when it is poured on your head?” Surya stumbles as she speaks to IPS. “It goes down, it goes trickling down.” When someone speaks to a burn victim, one naturally feels shocked, sad, and sympathetic. But in talking to Surya, who has the major part of her body burned, the feelings were of hope and inspiration. How is it possible to survive this trauma and still have so much love and joy to share?

It was Meant to Be a Ground-breaking Year for Gender Equality but COVID-19 Widened Inequalities

By Neena Bhandari
Sixteen-year-old Suhana Khan had just completed her grade 10 exams in March, when India imposed a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. Since then, she has been spending her mornings and evenings doing household chores, from cooking and cleaning to fetching drinking water from the tube well. 

Challenging Cultural Norms and Removing Stigma is Key to Confronting Lesotho’s Rape Culture

By Mamello Makhele
The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed and given rise to a new, deeply concerning wave of rape culture in Lesotho. Although the true extent is not known yet, we have noticed concerning reports that the onset of the pandemic has worsened sexual violence with more women and girls being confined to small living places whilst social tensions are exacerbated.

The World Needs You. Now.

By Yasmine Sherif
“We may all come on different ships, but we are in the same boat now,” Martin Luther King Jr once said. His timeless wisdom rings truer than ever today for the many challenges the world is facing. COVID-19, continued armed conflicts and forced displacement, climate-change induced disasters, deep divides and widespread discrimination mark the human family in the 21st century.

IPS Webinar: Gender Equality Crucial in ‘Building Back Better’ Post-COVID-19

By Miriam Gathigah
While men are more likely to die from COVID-19, women are facing the full blow of the socio-economic fallout from the ongoing pandemic as well as seeing a reversal in equality gains made over the last two decades, says an all-women panel of international thought leaders, who met virtually during a discussion convened by IPS.

The Fuzia Story: Empowering Women Through the Fusion of Cultures and Ideas

By Fairuz Ahmed
A young and dynamic digital platform, named Fuzia, has attracted millions of women social media followers and 100,000 active global users with its eclectic mix of content. The platform showcases women’s talent and provides a support network.

The Quiet Survivors of a Global Pandemic

By Saima W. Hossain
The issue of women’s rights, feminism and gender is complex and ongoing in most countries including Bangladesh. When I was asked to write about impact of COVID-19 on women and girls, I found myself drawn towards writing about women’s situation in general as that automatically impacts COVID-19 response as well. Since I am a woman who has been a part of many different cultures, yet a Bangali at heart, I am not only a survivor within its ranks but also responsible for being a part of the solution to the problems we face.

When Women and Children Cannot Escape their Abusers

By Sabine Saliba
Reports of escalating violence against women and children made the news almost everyday in March and April following the announcement of lockdowns to control the spread of Covid-19. The main concern has been that victims cannot escape their abusers or seek help when they share a confined space and are under constant scrutiny and the threat of violence.

Safety of Children an Afterthought for Tech Companies

By Charlotte Munns
Global upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has left society’s most vulnerable exposed. Instances of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) found online have increased at an alarming rate over past months.

What still needs to happen to win the fight against human trafficking

By Earl R Miller and John Cotton Richmond
In late 2019, we learned of the harrowing plight of Suma Akter, a Bangladeshi woman in Saudi Arabia who secretly recorded and shared on social media her story of abuse and exploitation abroad. In Saudi Arabia, Akter said, her employer beat her and at one point poured hot oil on her hand. Later on, when she fell ill, Akter said her employer sold her to another person for 22,000 riyals (almost Tk 5 lakh).

African Governments Failing Survivors of Child Sexual Exploitation

By Tsitsi Matekaire
In Malawi, Mary* was only 14 years old when she was recruited and trafficked to the city of Blantyre and sold for sex in a bar. A man had arrived in her village looking for girls to work as domestic helpers for families.

Broke and broken, sex workers ending up homeless

By Nilima Jahan
The life of sex workers on the streets, hard as it is during normal times, has taken a worse turn after the coronavirus pandemic hit the country.

Q&A: Sexual Violence Survivors and their Access to Care Should not Be Forgotten

By Samira Sadeque
While the coronavirus does not discriminate, its impact does. And the needs of survivors of sexual violence in conflict "cannot be put on pause, and neither can the response” during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Migrant Women Exploited by Those They Trust

By Fairuz Ahmed
Maliha Masud (25), was promised an affluent life and opportunities for higher education. A bright student studying Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, she wanted to complete her studies and become someone her parents would be proud of. She was promised an opportunity to get her Master’s degree from a good university in the United States but, two years later, was left battered and wounded at the doorstep of a shelter.

No Woman Should Ever Die Giving Life

By Sheikha Hend Al Qassimi and Siddharth Chatterjee
Consider this. 24 women, children and babies were murdered at a hospital in Kabul, the Afghan capital. Even by standards of a country as accustomed to bloodshed as Afghanistan, the May 12 attack on a Kabul maternity clinic was an event of unmitigated horror.

My Adherence My Fallacy: Stigma and Mental Health

By Fairuz Ahmed
The World Health Organization (2019) states that every 40 seconds someone dies by suicide. Annually, this represents over 800,000 people, more than the number of people who die in conflict and by homicide put together. Every suicide is a tragedy that has long-lasting effects on the people left behind and most cases stem from prolonged mental health issues and abuses that are not reported.

Q&A: COVID-19 Means we Must Innovate Data Collection, Especially on Gender

By Samira Sadeque
The current coronavirus pandemic can offer insight into how to shake-up traditional methods of data collection, and might provide an opportunity to do it in more innovative ways, in turn enhancing progress towards gender equality.

Why Reproductive Rights Must Be a Critical Part of Our Arsenal to Fight Pandemics

By Siddharth Chatterjee
Sexual and reproductive health and pandemics might seem to be unrelated topics, but large and dense populations are drivers of the high velocity transmission of COVID-19, and there are lessons to be learned for the future.

Addressing the rise in domestic violence during lockdown

By Fahmida Hasan
While one-fourth of the world's population is under home-quarantine to contain the spread of the novel Covid-19 pandemic, another crisis is brewing behind closed doors—domestic violence.

Domestic violence during the time of corona

By Arpeeta Shams Mizan
The Covid-19 pandemic has opened our eyes to many vulnerabilities. With home quarantine proving to be a successful strategy, we are finally catching up and practicing it. Bangladeshi narratives about home quarantine now discuss how home is the safest place to ensure sanitisation, hygiene and disinfection.
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