As part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign, Urgent Action Fund has launched a new video — Funding Courage: Securing Justice for a Women in Nepal.
This short film tells the story of activists, like Dr. Renu Adhikari in Nepal, who work daily to end sexual violence in their communities and to create swift and
Despite the international attention and support that recent Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai has brought to the issue of girls’ education in Pakistan, women and girls in rural areas of the country continue to face threats in attending school.
Following attacks and threats against female students and teachers in Pakistan’s Balochistan region
In Afghanistan, a vocal public campaign is calling on President Hamid Karzai to block a bill that weakens domestic violence laws in a country where 4 out of 5 women experience violence.
The new law, passed by both houses of the Afghan parliament and waiting for President Karzai’s ratification,
On June 16, 2012, the body of a woman in her early twenties was found in the surrounding forest of the Kavre district in Nepal. Her family believes she was murdered at the hands of her husband for not bringing in enough dowry – the payment of money or goods by a woman’s family to her husband at the time
“On the nights of July 6th and 7th, twelve gay and transgender people were arrested along the east and southeast areas of the Mandalay moat and subjected to verbal, physical, and sexual abuse by police officials… Approximately ten policemen assaulted the detainees verbally and physically—kicking them, hitting them with police batons, and yelling at them with homophobic
Pakistan’s national election on 11 May 2013 was a historic event. In addition to being the country’s first transfer of power from one civilian government to another, Pakistan’s election represented a milestone for Pakistani women. Figures released by the Election Commission show a 130% increase in the number of women contesting general seats since the country’s last national election in
On 16 December 2012, a 23-year-old woman was beaten and gang-raped on a bus in Delhi, India. She died from her injuries thirteen days later. In the weeks that followed, waves of protests took place across India. Young people and college students came out in big
Urgent Action Fund joins human rights advocates around the world in denouncing the shooting of a 14-year-old girl in Pakistan who is a vocal promoter of girls’ education in the country.
At only 11 years old, Malala Yousufzai began writing a blog about life under the Taliban, which was published by the BBC under a pen name. She bravely chronicled
After providing shelter and protection to a survivor of domestic violence, two former UAF grantee organizations (WOREC and Mitini Nepal) are facing threats and harassment by both police and the survivor’s family members. Police have now accused the two organizations of hiding the woman from her family and have unlawfully forced their way into the offices of the organizations.
The Situation: In Pakistan, domestic work is an unregulated, unorganized and undervalued form of employment. Current legislation excludes domestic workers from the legal definition of ‘worker’, and so they work without basic benefits such as holidays, maternity leave or sick pay. In 2011, violence against women domestic workers increased dramatically in Khyber Pakhtunkwa, with cases ranging from instances of false
