While abuse and discrimination against women and persons with disabilities is punishable by law in Malawi, in a patriarchal culture with a pronounced belief in the existence of witchcraft, men are at liberty to abandon their families on the basis of disability alone.

The events following the February 24 Russian invasion of Ukraine brought despair for thousands of elderly and disabled civilians who were unable to flee. Russia has been claiming strikes on cities all around the country, and the fighting has left countless civilians injured, helpless, and desperate in a war zone.

The conflict-torn Himalayan valley has seen a surge in mental health cases since the abrogation of the autonomous status of the region, with women among the most distressed.

While murder rates are falling in Brazil, femicide rates continue to steadily climb, and with President Jair Bolsonaro at the helm, there are no promising signs of the violence abating.

Zimbabwe's maternal mortality crisis is pushing the debate on abortion, but the current economic crisis and stigma stand in the way of legalization.

The Trump administration’s latest use of domestic politics to hold international rights hostage will cost women's lives.

When toxic masculinity is present at an anti-harassment training.

Each year, hundreds of people—most of them women—have been killed for being suspected witches. Rights activists say raising awareness and investing in development can help stop communities from turning on their elders.

Rahaf feared going home. Her clothes had been torn, making visible the painful red welts that would turn into eggplant-colored bruises. On her arms and legs, her family and fiance would be able to see the round burn marks where they put out cigarettes on her skin.

Once known as a refugee-friendly nation, Kenya is becoming more resistant to taking in people who have been forced to flee their homes. That means added challenges for the nonprofit Heshima and the refugee girls it supports, says executive director Alisa Roadcup.

The woman looked uneasy and uncomfortable as she peered outside her tent. All she could see was an empty stretch with a few bushes, where men were taking turns to urinate. There were no facilities available for women. This was the situation nine months ago at the border of Serbia and Hungary, when I visited a refugee camp where men, women, and children were stuck for days. Unfortunately, not much has changed since then, and for one hidden segment of refugee society, life is even harder than this.

There’s a darkish room, maybe 12 feet by 13 feet, tucked into the back area of the ground floor of a school called Lycée Wima. Seated along walls of peeling paint are more than a dozen women sewing patterned bags, shoes, dresses, and dolls on elegant Singer sewing machines from the time between the last world wars. The work is exacting.

Just like any other population caught up in a war zone, people with disabilities suffer displacement, injury, and trauma. About 6.5 million of the 43.51 million people who have been displaced due to conflict live with a disability. Yet in conflict, when the social fabric is vulnerable and resources are limited, people with disabilities face increased violence while their protection needs often go ignored.

All across the war-torn country, regime soldiers are said to be sexually violating women and men from the opposition, destroying families and, in some cases, claiming lives.

I was sexually abused at the age of 6. I did not know this experience was merely an initiation into sexualized violence that seems, too often, throughout the world to be as inescapable a part of becoming a woman as menstruation. My experience of sexualized violence culminated in being brutally raped while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger, West Africa.