News on Gender equality

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?
UNITED NATIONS, New York – Twenty-five years ago, at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, 179 governments adopted a visionary Programme of Action that aimed to safeguard the health and... 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
3 May 2019
News
It's not your mother's motherhood. © UNFPA/Bruno Feder
Just like your mother? Seven ways motherhood has changed (or not) in the last 25 years
UNITED NATIONS, New York – Twenty-five years ago, the world was transforming. South Africa held its first multiracial elections, electing Nelson Mandela as President. Sweden began to allow the registration of same-sex... Read more
9 April 2019
News
Khadija had no income after she left her husband. © UNFPA Morocco
Survivors of gender-based violence get a fresh start in Morocco
FEZ, Morocco – “I was forced to leave home with my baby in my hands," Khadija, 42, told UNFPA. When she finally decided to divorce her husband after over 10 years of suffering abuse, she thought her agony would end. She... Read more
10 April 2019
News
Marta Paula, from Guinea-Bissau, was hospitalized when she gave birth at 13. Doctors were worried she might die. Today, she calls for young people to have access to family planning. © UNFPA/I. Barbosa
Vast numbers of women lack decision-making power over their own bodies, says UNFPA flagship report
UNITED NATIONS, New York – Reproductive rights and choices have become a reality for more women than ever, says UNFPA’s flagship report, State of World Population 2019, released today. Yet despite these gains, vast... Read more

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