News on Gender equality

3 October 2019
News
The school for husbands and future husbands teaches men to empower their wives through behavior change. Here, men practice domestic skills to ease the burden on their wives. © UNFPA/Ollivier Girard
Real men respect women, says school for husbands in Burkina Faso
MAMBOUE, Burkina Faso – Waimbabie Gnoumou is learning to be a better husband, says his wife, Martine. That’s because he is going to a special school that teaches men exactly that. The Husbands and Future Husbands School... Read more
30 September 2019
News
Spotlight Initiative shows early progress on making women and girls feel safe
BUENOS AIRES/TEGUCIGALPA/NEW YORK – Like many teenagers in Argentina’s Jujuy Province, Camila used to lack access to comprehensive sexuality education in school. She saw her peers face risks like adolescent pregnancy... Read more
26 September 2019
News
South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have seen particularly widespread sexual and gender-based violence, both during and in the aftermath of conflict. © UNFPA DRC
Leaders call on world to end scourge of gender violence
JUBA/KINSHASA/NEW YORK – Betty* is a survivor. The South Sudanese teenager has risen above a horrific act of violence and reclaimed her life. But her heroic act of recovery should never have been necessary, leaders at... Read more
2 August 2019
News
Trik Dulene (sitting) with friends in the Kologe II displacement camp. She teaches women about family planning. © UNFPA Ethiopia
Displaced women in eastern Ethiopia stand up to pressure, stigma over family planning
UNITED NATIONS, New York/SOMALI REGION, Ethiopia – Trik Dulene knows all about bullying and coercion when it comes to a woman’s reproductive choices.  Although she and her husband agreed to use family planning after... Read more
24 July 2019
News
Women UN leaders meet with female leaders and advocates in Kabul, Afghanistan. Women's voices must be heard, they emphasized. © Fardin Waezi / UNAMA
Women belong at the centre of peace efforts, women UN leaders urge in Afghanistan
Kabul, Afghanistan/UNITED NATIONS, New York – UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem joined a high-level delegation of women UN leaders on an intensive two-day “solidarity mission” to Afghanistan to highlight the... Read more
10 July 2019
News
Twenty-five years ago, 179 governments adopted a visionary Programme of Action that aimed to safeguard the health and rights of women and girls and to promote their empowerment. © UNFPA Morocco
Twenty-five years ago, leaders promised to advance women’s health and rights. Have they delivered?
The ICPD Programme of Action was adopted on 13 September 1994. It set out to change the world for women and girls. Find out how much of this promise has been fulfilled. UNITED NATIONS, New York – Twenty-five years ago,... Read more
11 June 2019
News
Fighting for girls’ right to say no to child marriage in South Sudan
Fighting for girls’ right to say no to child marriage in South Sudan
JUBA, South Sudan – When Poni Helen found out she was pregnant at 16, she was confused and had no idea where the situation would lead. She only had one thing in mind and she was certain of it – she wanted to continue... Read more
28 May 2019
News
UNFPA holds sessions raising awareness about gender-based violence, and the availability of support services, in a displacement camp in Yemen. © UNFPA Yemen
A nightmare within a nightmare: Taking on sexual and gender-based violence in humanitarian crises
SANA’A, Yemen/OSLO, Norway – When Maram* showed up at her parents' house, battered and bruised by her husband, her mother urged her to be less stubborn, more obedient – anything to avoid a divorce. It was a nightmare... Read more
28 May 2019
News
In India, 15-year-old Priyanka Meena sleeps outside her home when she has her periods. She wears the same clothes and uses the same utensils when she menstruates; these are believed to be unclean. © UNFPA India
Menstruation is not a girls' or women’s issue – it’s a human rights issue
JUBA/COX’S BAZAR/UNITED NATIONS – “My periods are a nightmare,” Nyanjuma Galoth, 20, told UNFPA at a civilian protection camp in South Sudan. “They are very painful, and I can’t get any sanitary products.”It is a major... Read more
13 May 2019
News
Today, Ms. Wen and Ms. Yan see eye-to-eye on the equality of women and girls. © Dushan Township Family Planning Office/Zhang Min
In China, women work to raise the status of girls
LILING, China – Not long ago, Wen Xiujuan was swept up in a romance. Against the wishes of her parents, she moved to the small village of Liling, 300 km from her hometown, to marry a young man named Yang Liu. They lived... Read more

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