blog
Empty promises: Continuing the fight for trans rights in India
Jashodhara Dasgupta (Consultant)

Despite a rich cultural tradition of gender-fluidity, the transgender community in India have been stigmatised as a ‘criminal tribe’ through a colonial-era law. The community has struggled for their rights over decades, and only after significant engagement with the judiciary […]

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Patriarchy, Convening, India
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The overturning of Roe vs Wade: a dark time for rights
Sohela Nazneen, Tessa Lewin

We live in illiberal times. The systematic attack on women’s rights, and human rights more broadly, is a global emergency. The overturning of Roe vs Wade – the 1973 US Supreme Court ruling that established access to abortion as a […]

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Patriarchy, Policy, Voice
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An Uprising in Parliament? Lebanon’s 2022 Parliamentary Elections
Nay El Rahi, Miguel Mendelek

Lebanon’s 2022 parliamentary election was held in the midst of economic turmoil, and the first since the October 2019 uprising and the world’s largest ever non-nuclear explosions that devastated Beirut’s port. Despite ongoing commentary that there would be a low […]

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Patriarchy, Lebanon
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Advocates for Social Change are tackling backlash in Kenya. Here’s how
Phil E. Otieno

Advocates for Social Change – Kenya (ADSOCK) see victim blaming and ‘what-about-ism’ (‘but what about men and boys?’) around sexual and gender-based violence gaining ground in the country. The organisation’s latest resource book ‘Paradigm Shift: Countering Backlash Reclaiming Gender Justice‘ […]

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Patriarchy, Kenya
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Arthur do Val’s sexism about Ukrainian refugees is shocking – but not surprising. Here’s why
Maíra Kubík Mano

The world is shocked by the beginning of another war. The images of death, destruction and displacement coming from Ukraine are heart-breaking. Brazilian right-wing politician Arthur do Val visited Ukraine on a ‘humanitarian mission’. During his trip, sexist and misogynistic […]

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Brazil
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Online violence against women – a weapon used to silence and degrade
Iffat Jahan Antara

The digital space has become an essential medium for activists and individuals to reach global audiences with messages on human rights, gender justice, and other critical social issues through social media platforms like Facebook.  While online activism for gender justice […]

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Research, Bangladesh
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Living in a digital society – but at what cost?
Becky Faith

The digital revolution and access to online spaces has transformed the ways we communicate, work, and organise. It has also become critical to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – not least SDG target 5b to ‘Enhance the […]

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Research, Bangladesh
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Feminist protests and politics in a world of crisis
Sohela Nazneen

Feminist activism and organising for gender justice are rapidly evolving. We are seeing new energies and new ways of building a feminist future. This is happening in a time of multiple and interconnected crises, adversely impacting women’s, trans folk’s and […]

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Patriarchy, Policy, Voice, Research, Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Lebanon
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By banning ‘gender ideology’ Bolsonaro feeds his far-right ideals
Maíra Kubík Mano

In Jair Bolsonaro’s 2019 inauguration, he swore to ‘combat gender ideology’ and ‘preserve’ familial values. ‘Brazil will once again be a country free of ideological bonds’ he declared – as if what he was stating wasn’t ideological at all. This […]

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Patriarchy, Brazil
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Billionaires, backlash and the phallic symbolism of space colonisation
Chloe Skinner

Billionaires burning inordinate amounts of fossil fuels to undertake their own personal joyrides into space have occupied international headlines this month, in what has sickeningly been dubbed the “billionaire space race”. Meanwhile, rolling news of floods, fires, and droughts continues, […]

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Patriarchy
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Reinterpreting the global tide of patriarchal backlash
Jerker Edström

This week we learned that US conservative state lawmakers have proposed more than 110 ‘anti-trans bills’ across America.  Coming only a month after a UN envoy – on the 10th anniversary of the Istanbul Convention – warned of a pandemic of violence against women, we […]

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Patriarchy, Convening
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Then and now: limits to gender justice in Uganda
David N. Tshimba

Ever since the inaugural celebrations of the International Women’s Day 110 years ago, humanity has been exhorted to challenge the status quo to actualise women’s empowerment and, ultimately, equitable benefit for all. Uganda too, in both its colonial and post-independence […]

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Patriarchy, Policy, Uganda