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02/07/2024

The WHO gathered for its 77th World Health Assembly in May this year to tackle global health priorities, however, despite its critical role in addressing worldwide health issues, the crucial topic of menstrual health was overlooked.

This article written by members of Menstrual Rights Global, a collective of activists, health workers and researchers working to promote menstrual health worldwide, says that menstrual health remains a deeply neglected issue and calls for a commitment from member states to drive menstrual health policies forward, such as abolishing the pink tax and making period products free.

"An inclusionary global health sector must consider, respond to, and make accommodations for the 1.8 billion women, adolescent girls, and people who are menstruating each month," they say.

"It should recognise the specific health concerns and needs of people who menstruate. It must mainstream these across health and social care systems globally. We urge global health leaders to listen to the voices of those with lived experience, technical expertise, and decades of fighting for menstrual health and justice."

05/06/2024

The Istanbul Convention is 10 years old. As of this year, 38 countries have signed and ratified the landmark agreement to prevent violence against women and girls.

The Convention has led to significant improvements, including the establishment of 24-hour helplines for survivors of domestic violence in Finland, and the introduction of consent-based definitions of r**e in Iceland, Sweden, Greece, Croatia, Malta, Denmark and Slovenia since 2018.

Now the Council of Europe has launched a new Gender Equality Strategy for the next five years, which aims to tackle gender stereotyping and includes an intersectional approach in all its policies.

“The Istanbul Convention is a landmark treaty in the battle to end violence against women and domestic violence,” said Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić at a conference on gender equality in Strasbourg, France.

“Violence that scars, intimidates, and inhibits its victims, undermining their freedom, security, and potential. Until that battle is won, and it must be won, true gender equality cannot be achieved.”

Head to our website to read more.

30/05/2024

These 20 countries have the lowest gender equality rating worldwide, according to a report by InsiderMonkey based on the UNDP's Gender Equality Index, among other metrics.

👉 Swipe through to find out more

24/05/2024

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Together we will build a supportive feminist community, and a fairer media landscape for everyone.

Illustration by ipsitadivedi for

12/01/2024

The European Union is failing to agree on a unified legal definition of r**e. Specifically, the European Commission, the Council and Parliament haven’t been able to reach an agreement as definitions vary between European countries.

While Parliament and the Commission have proposed defining r**e as s*xual in*******se without consent with support from Spain, Italy and Belgium among others, the Council has rejected this proposal, backed by ten countries including Poland, Hungary, Ireland, France and Germany.

The lack of consensus has hindered progress on a directive that proposes a standard definition of r**e across the EU, as well as addressing forced marriages, female ge***al mutilation, cyber harassment and forced sterilisation. The European Commission first presented the proposal on International Women’s Day on March 8 2022, hoping it would be adopted by the end of 2023. However this did not happen due to disagreement between the countries; it is now hoped it will be finalised by the end of January 2024.

The European Union is failing to agree on a unified legal definition of r**e as definitions vary between European countries.

26/07/2023

A new measure that eliminates permanent alimony payments for ex-spouses in Florida has been signed into law.

Judges can now make 'modifications' to alimony payments after considering aspects such as the economic impact a reduction in payments would have on the recipient, and the ability of both parties to obtain the skills or education to enable themselves to either contribute to support or become self-supporting.

It can also be amended if “a supportive relationship exists or has existed” involving their ex-spouses in the previous year. Critics argue that this is too vague and could be interpreted to mean a roommate who helped an ex-spouse to cover their cost of living temporarily.

The decision has drawn widespread outrage, including from the First Wives Advocacy Group, a coalition of women who state the change will disproportionately affect women, and in particular older women.

We spoke to Tara Pretend Eagle Weber, a social worker based in Florida, who said, “This new alimony law is scary and frankly caters to wealthy men.

“Modifications = unaddressed issues in family court. Several modifications would take paying a lawyer for three or four appearances in court rather than getting it all addressed in one hearing. It is designed to overwhelm the ex-wife and mother to not have the money to pay for it all, meaning her issues may never be addressed.”

This means that circumstances such as domestic violence and abuse that took place within the marriage may never go on record. “At one point these hearings were either not being recorded or were at cost to the ex-wife to be recorded. It has been getting progressively worse as the years go by here in Florida,” Weber adds.

Read more: bit.ly/4503iIn

First Wives Advocacy Group - Florida Alimony & Custody Laws

21/07/2023

Photojournalist Zainab has captured the struggles of the people of Kashmir in her new exhibition 'The Weight of Snow on Her Chest'.

Since India announced its independence from Britain in 1947, the region has been split disputed between India and Pakistan, with 20% of its land not controlled by either. Since the 1950s China has also been involved in the dispute given the region’s proximity to Tibet.

Its people have faced militarisation, displacement and human rights abuses for more than 70 years. In her new exhibition at Gulf Photo Plus in Dubai, Zainab explores themes of exile, home, and the unpredictability of conflict, while also celebrating the culture of Kashmir.

Despite this, Zainab's photographs show the resilience of Kashmiri people and the importance of 'home'. “No matter how messed up things are, you just want to be there," she tells Lana Alsakka Amini. "You still want to face everything and to resist as well as to survive through it. And I think that’s what makes it home”.

Read the full story by clicking the link in our bio.

17/07/2023

The Disabled Mothers’ Rights Campaign has launched a charter calling for an end to discrimination against disabled mothers in the UK.

The Disabled Mothers’ Rights Charter has five key demands, including calling for support for all disabled mothers who ask for it from their local councils, for accessible meetings and family court hearings, and for mothers to never face benefit cuts.

This follows an investigation that found that parents with learning disabilities are 54 times more likely to have their children placed in care than other parents, with disabled single mothers and mothers with invisible impairments such as ME at particular risk of having their children removed by social services, especially if they are working class and of colour.

Campaigners from the Disabled Mothers' Rights Campaign, WinVisible and Support Not Separation say these parents are disproportionately impacted by the cost of living crisis and cuts to support services, and are therefore at the greatest risk of having their children removed as social workers frequently conflate poverty with neglect.

“Many social care and health professionals treat us as unfit mothers,” the Charter states. “Often we are pressured to have an abortion, even up to the birth. Deaf mothers are wrongly told that we are a risk as we can’t hear the baby cry, blind mothers that we can’t breastfeed if we can’t see the baby, mothers with mobility disabilities that we can’t run after our children.

“If we have learning disabilities, we are 54 times more likely to have our children taken away. We experience worse discrimination as single mothers, women of colour, immigrants, victims of domestic violence, and for other reasons. Yet we have raised children safely and successfully, including with help from family or friends.”

Read more by clicking the link in our bio.

07/07/2023

We need to talk about the cost of period products.

A new study highlights the most and least affordable countries for menstrual products. The most expensive is Algeria, where it costs $34.05 on average per month to purchase period products – the equivalent of 14.8% of someone’s monthly salary. It is followed by Zambia, Nigeria and Ghana - where these are classed as luxury items, forcing women and girls to use rags in place of sanitary pads and tampons.

The UK, Switzerland and Luxembourg are the most affordable countries for period products.

It is estimated that around 50% of all women and girls worldwide use rags, grass and paper to manage their periods, which poses a significant risk to their health as these can cause urinary tract infections and bacterial vaginosis.

As well as health problems, period poverty perpetuates gender inequality. In Africa 1 in 10 girls miss school because of their periods, causing them to fall behind boys of their age. In India it is estimated that 23% of young girls drop out of school permanently when they start menstruating.

Read more by clicking the link in our bio.

Like this post if you agree that period products should be free, or least tax-free.

23/06/2023

A woman has been appointed Lord Chief Justice for the first time in England and Wales' history. Dame Sue Carr will officially take up the position on October 1st.

The appointment of a woman to this role is a huge milestone, as the UK trails behind other countries in terms of diversity in the judiciary. While the rule of law must be applied objectively and impartially, in this article we ask, is it possible to have objective reasoning from a judiciary that is formed in its majority by white men?

Read the full story by clicking the link in our bio. 

   

14/06/2023

Caroline Dennett, the former safety consultant for Shell whose resignation video went viral a year ago, has delivered a blistering speech at the oil giant’s AGM.

Addressing the executive committee at Shell’s annual meeting, she presented a report on their failures in safety performance which she says have contributed to catastrophic leaks and spills in the Niger Delta.

“I worked with you for over 10 years trying to keep people safe, trying to prevent oil and gas leaks, major incidents, injuries and fatalities," she began. "For those who don’t know, your stated safety ambition is to do no harm to people and you call it Goal Zero. It sounds honourable, and I was proud to work with that ambition for many years, but you are completely failing on it.”

“Management were informed in January last year that 40% of the workforce said you did not have adequate personnel to conduct operations safely. 35% said they believe you are putting production first and process safety second in the pursuit of profits."

“Organisational restructuring has led to reduced manpower with increased workloads for people, a system-induced error enforcing condition for people to attempt to take shortcuts or neglect critical aspects when executing jobs. And this is a recipe for process safety incidents."

Shell's CEO responded by saying that the corporation intends to withdraw from the Niger Delta because "the risk-reward to operate in a place like Nigeria is no longer tolerable when it comes to onshore oil."

“Shell has clearly stated in real speak they would rather abandon their operations there to save money than provide the necessary resources and capital to improve process safety and make good their harms," Dennett said since.

"They’ve spent decades exploiting the Delta and will now walk away from the Armageddon they have created. The activist’s cry of ‘Go to hell Shell’ is entirely fair given Shell’s evil actions and unwillingness to acknowledge their sins, show remorse or repent.”

Read the full story by clicking the link in our bio.

09/06/2023

Switzerland is changing its law to recognise that all s*x without consent is r**e.

Up until now the country only defined r**e as forced s*x involving violence, threats or psychological pressure. This meant that unless a victim tried to defend themselves, the attacker would be charged with s*xual harassment instead of r**e. It did not take into account shock, which can paralyse the victim and prevent them from resisting the attack. The new legislation also recognises for the first time that men can also be victims of r**e.

Politicians had been split between those arguing for a “no means no” approach, where r**e cases are only brought if a person explicitly objects and the proposed “yes means yes” revision, which recognises all non-consensual s*x as r**e.

Cyrielle Huguenot, Amnesty International’s Head of Women’s Rights in Switzerland, has called the decision a “historic victory, not just for those campaigners who have worked tirelessly to see this day, but for all survivors of s*xual violence in Switzerland.”

Read the full story via the link in our bio.

05/06/2023

The world's first feminist mini golf course has opened in the town of Middlebury in Vermont, US, and it's been designed to start conversations about reproductive justice.

Each of the 11 full-sized holes represents a real-world situation related to a different topic on reproductive rights issues.

Take for example hole number 6, where players will find two doors – one leading to an abortion clinic and the other to a crisis pregnancy centre. The two doors have been designed to be practically indistinguishable, showing the impact of crisis pregnancy centres that aim to discourage people from obtaining abortions.

Other holes represent hospitals, prisons and classrooms, covering forced sterilisation, surrogacy and even how the sensationalised “crack baby epidemic” played one of the greatest roles in producing a foster care system that disproportionately impacts mothers and children of colour.

The golf course has been created by the Center for Public Feminism in partnership with Middlebury College’s Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies program and led by Professor Carly Thomsen in collaboration with students from her Feminist Building class.

Read the full story via the link in our bio. 

 
   

05/06/2023

The world's first feminist mini golf course has opened in the town of Middlebury in Vermont, US, and it's been designed to start conversations about reproductive justice.

Each of the 11 full-sized holes represents a real-world situation related to a different topic on reproductive rights issues.

Take for example hole number 6, where players will find two doors – one leading to an abortion clinic and the other to a crisis pregnancy centre. The two doors have been designed to be practically indistinguishable, showing the impact of crisis pregnancy centres that aim to discourage people from obtaining abortions.

Other holes represent hospitals, prisons and classrooms, covering forced sterilisation, surrogacy and even how the sensationalised “crack baby epidemic” played one of the greatest roles in producing a foster care system that disproportionately impacts mothers and children of colour.

The golf course has been created by the Center for Public Feminism in partnership with Middlebury College’s Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies program and led by Professor Carly Thomsen in collaboration with students from her Feminist Building class.

Read the full story via the link in our bio. 

 
 

05/06/2023

The world's first feminist mini golf course has opened in the town of Middlebury in Vermont, US, and it's been designed to start conversations about reproductive justice.

Each of the 11 full-sized holes represents a real-world situation related to a different topic on reproductive rights issues.

Take for example hole number 6, where players will find two doors – one leading to an abortion clinic and the other to a crisis pregnancy centre. The two doors have been designed to be practically indistinguishable, showing the impact of crisis pregnancy centres that aim to discourage people from obtaining abortions.

Other holes represent hospitals, prisons and classrooms, covering forced sterilisation, surrogacy and even how the sensationalised “crack baby epidemic” played one of the greatest roles in producing a foster care system that disproportionately impacts mothers and children of colour.

The golf course has been created by the Center for Public Feminism in partnership with Middlebury College’s Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies program and led by Professor Carly Thomsen in collaboration with students from her Feminist Building class.

Read the full story via the link in our bio.

02/06/2023

Imagine dropping out of school, not being able to cook or work, and being forced to marry at an early age – just because you menstruate.

This is the reality for millions of girls and women around the world who lack access to toilets, clean water and hygienic menstrual products, and therefore don’t know how to effectively manage their periods.

To address this, Marie-Claire Kuja created , an initiative with a mission to end period poverty by producing eco-friendly, affordable and accessible sanitary pads.

“I grew up in Cameroon, in a very small village. And prior to having my period, I didn’t have sanitary pads to use or the appropriate knowledge about menstruation. I fumbled a lot using rags, which caused a lot of infections and rashes,” she says.

Years later, things haven’t changed much. “Girls skip three to five days of school a month, and eventually drop out, which perpetuates a cycle of early forced marriages, early pregnancies, prostitution, illiteracy, poverty and shame. Women are isolated and treated like dirt: they cannot cook, or sleep in the same bed with their husbands when they have their periods. Some are kept in huts for three to five days a month. This shouldn’t happen.”

Kuja spent years researching how she could tackle period poverty in her country. Eventually she landed on an innovative idea: creating sanitary pads from banana stems.

“I found out that mainstream disposable pads are made from 90% plastic and other chemicals, which is a hazard to the environment and to women’s health as well. I really didn’t want to bring that to women who were already vulnerable.

"In the 18th century, Japanese women used a cloth made of banana stems to hold menstrual blood," she explains. "They would also use them as wipes for babies. I had it tested in labs and it turned out that it absorbs eight times more than a regular menstruating product, – and it’s natural."

Read more about how Kuja is making her eco-friendly products available via the link in our bio

     

31/05/2023

The latest research on the climate states that the world is on track for a rise in temperature of 2.7C by the end of the century. This will put one-third of the global population in uninhabitable conditions, forcing up to 1 billion people to migrate to cooler regions.

It represents the failure of 27 successive Conventions on Climate Change (COP), where pledges have come, failed to be adopted and gone - leaving it to people to try and affect change at a local level.

Dr Jane McCarthy, from Buckinghamshire, England, is protesting her local council's role in fossil fuel investments by withholding council tax.

The council's pension fund is held by Barclays Bank, the biggest lender to fossil fuel companies in the UK and Europe. Residents have repeatedly written to councillors to ask for the council to terminate its contract with the bank, but say they are failing to accept responsibility and instead send responses that ignore the questions they ask.

McCarthy says she chose this form of protest because she has been shielding since the pandemic began, and wanted to continue campaigning. It is not a decision she took lightly, and she has set the money aside to pay council tax for a time when the council does decide to divest from Barclays.

She has since been taken to court, and her case has been passed on to an enforcement team. Despite the risk, she has no plans to back down just yet.

“We want Buckinghamshire Council to give very clear direction to remove all investments from fossil fuels, and have a very clear schedule for doing that,” McCarthy says.

“What we’re able to do with this campaign is make it very clear to the council that we’re not going away."

Read the full story via the link in our bio.

     
 

30/05/2023

The latest research on the climate states that the world is on track for a rise in temperature of 2.7C by the end of the century. This will put one-third of the global population in uninhabitable conditions, forcing up to 1 billion people to migrate to cooler regions.

It represents the failure of 27 successive Conventions on Climate Change (COP), where pledges have come, failed to be adopted and gone - leaving it to people to try and affect change at a local level.

Dr Jane McCarthy, from Buckinghamshire, England, is protesting her local council's role in fossil fuel investments by withholding council tax.

The council's pension fund is held by Barclays Bank, the biggest lender to fossil fuel companies in the UK and Europe. Residents have repeatedly written to councillors to ask for the council to terminate its contract with the bank, but say they are failing to accept responsibility and instead send responses that ignore the questions they ask.

McCarthy says she chose this form of protest because she has been shielding since the pandemic began, and wanted to continue campaigning. It is not a decision she took lightly, and she has set the money aside to pay council tax for a time when the council does decide to divest from Barclays.

She has since been taken to court, and her case has been passed on to an enforcement team. Despite the risk, she has no plans to back down just yet.

“We want Buckinghamshire Council to give very clear direction to remove all investments from fossil fuels, and have a very clear schedule for doing that,” she says.

“What we’re able to do with this campaign is make it very clear to the council that we’re not going away."

Read the full story via the link in our bio.

24/05/2023

Far more people around the world support women’s rights than it is generally believed, according to new research from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH).

Academics found that in 41 countries, more than 90% of respondents support basic rights for women.

There were surprising results from countries usually considered to be less gender-equal, such as Saudi Arabia, where the research found that “the vast majority of men privately support women working outside the home, but underestimate the extent to which others share this view.”

So why is support for women's rights so greatly underestimated?

The researchers presented various theories, including the fact that support from men is often heavily underestimated, as well as the role of mainstream media.

Earlier this year, a survey by YouGov found that people in Western Europe and the US did not identify as feminists, even though they believed women should have the same rights in society as men. These results showed that the word "feminism" is misunderstood by a majority of the public.

As this new research points out, these misperceptions are additional obstacles to advancing gender equality.

Read the full story by clicking the link in our bio.

23/05/2023

In 2002, during a spate of anti-Muslim riots in the western state of Gujarat in India, a violent mob attacked 21-year-old Bilkis Bano and her family. Bano, then five months pregnant, was gang r**ed and left for dead, while 14 members of her family including her 3-year-old daughter were killed.

More than 20 years later, the 11 men responsible have still not been brought to justice, and were in fact released from jail in 2022 as per India's dated remission policy and given a hero's welcome.

This sequence of events is symbolic of the way patriarchal India views women and minorities, writes 

"The final hearing in the Bilkis Bano case had been scheduled for May 2023, but it has now been adjourned till July. The woman waiting for justice for two decades has been left in the darkness yet again. The patriarchs fuelled by hate against a minority have worked out minor loopholes in the legal system to keep the case from reaching its just end.

"The deferring of the case and the calculated dragging of the date is just political signalling of a crime the majority approves of. Muslim women have historically been subjected to violence by patriarchs’ thirst for the assertion of power.

"Neglecting her pain depicts who we have become as a society, however Bano is determined that she will get justice one day."

Read the full article by clicking the link in our bio.

19/05/2023

Mexico is famous for its arabica coffee, and is among the biggest exporters of organic coffee worldwide. However it has become increasingly difficult to cultivate this commodity due to unpredictable weather patterns and diseases brought on by climate change. As a result, many people have abandoned their plantations and migrated.

In Buenavista, almost every woman has some family member on the other side of the northern border. La Mixteca region in Oaxaca has some of the poorest regions in Mexico and migration has been a strategy for families to make ends meet. As men migrate, women are often the ones passing on the knowledge of how to grow coffee plants.

They have been growing coffee in agroforestry systems, which makes the plants resist challenges that come with climate change. And while the cost of their work is increasing, the price of coffee is not.

Climate change adaptation by small farmers in La Mixteca Alta is much more than just a set of farming practices. It involves community action to tackle collective problems, and the women in Buenavista are a clear example of this.

Read more about Mexico's indigenous women farmers are saving the world’s favourite drink by clicking the link in our bio.

Thanks to Unbias The News and author for sharing this story with us.

04/05/2023

Months after Turkey's devastating earthquake, millions of people are still struggling to access shelter, food and safety.

Social worker Asli Saban has given us the inside story of the long term impact on women, children and people with disabilities.

Click the link in our bio for more.

20/04/2023

Mahatma Gandhi once said that the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. We recently spoke to Eden Tadesse about the lives and right to work of refugees in Ethiopia, which is currently in the midst of a huge displacement crisis due to the Tigray conflict.

The situation in Ethiopia is by no means perfect, however in this infographic we've compared some key statistics with the UK, which despite being among the wealthiest countries in the world welcomes less people seeking asylum than most of Europe, and is currently trying to pass a law that would deport anyone arriving via an "irregular" route, effectively making claiming asylum impossible.

As Baroness Helena Kennedy QC said, if we don't provide safety to people fleeing the most unimaginable horrors of war and persecution, we have lost our sense of humanity.

Sources: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency Statista Women for Women International

12/04/2023

After a long campaign from women’s and human rights activists, the parliament in Uzbekistan has approved a legislation aimed at criminalising domestic violence.

Under the new law, people found guilty of assaulting a current or former partner will face fines or prison time, and s*xual offenders will not be eligible for early release. Perpetrators of s*xual violence against minors will be registered and prohibited from working with children, and claims of ignorance of a victim’s age will no longer be admitted as grounds for mitigation during sentencing.

“The Government has taken a vital step to eradicate gender-based violence, yet much remains to be done to implement the new law, prevent domestic violence and tackle patriarchal attitudes in society," said Heather McGill,  's Central Asia Researcher. “We are concerned that although physical violence has now been criminalised, economic and psychological violence remain unaddressed.”

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