Abuse of women

Afghan official: Women's rights activist shot dead in north

Dec. 24, 2020 11:29 AM EST

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan women’s rights activist was shot and killed by unknown gunmen in northern Kapisa province Thursday, an Interior Ministry official said. Tariq Arian, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said Freshta Kohistani was assassinated by unknown gunmen in the Kohistan...

Shelly R. Fyant, chairwoman of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana, poses for a photo on Nov. 30, 2020 in Pablo, Mont. Fyant said she was blindsided by a request to use a tribal seal on the ABC series “Big Sky” when she was unaware the Flathead Nation tribe might be written into a scene. (Amy Schlatter via AP)

'Big Sky' stumbles in addressing Native American criticism

Dec. 14, 2020 2:14 PM EST

LOS ANGELES (AP) — After ABC's “Big Sky” drew Native American censure for overlooking an epidemic of violence against Indigenous women and girls, its producers set about making changes. But the first, hurried steps were called “bumpy” and insulting by Native leaders. The...

Iran sentences British-Iranian researcher to 9 years in jail

Dec. 13, 2020 3:21 PM EST

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran sentenced a British-Iranian anthropologist who has studied child marriage and female genital mutilation to nine years in jail and fined him over $700,000 in cash, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported Sunday. The report said Kameel Ahmady was sentenced by Iran's...

FILE - In this Nov. 26, 2018, file photo, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad talks during a joint statement along with Nobel Peace Laureat Denis Mukwege and European Union Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini, at European Council's Europa building in Brussels. Murad says the coronavirus pandemic has increased trafficking of women and gender-based violence, leaving the health and safety of women “on the line.” The 27-year-old activist, who was forced into sexual slavery by Islamic State fighters in Iraq, says curfews, lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed by governments to slow the spread of the virus “have had unintended consequences on women worldwide.” (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)

Nobel laureate says pandemic raising violence, trafficking

Dec. 1, 2020 2:00 AM EST

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad said the coronavirus pandemic has increased trafficking of women and gender-based violence, leaving the health and safety of women “on the line.” The 27-year-old activist, who was forced into sexual slavery by Islamic State fighters...

Posters of women victims of domestic violence are pictured at the Saint Michel fountain Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020 in Paris. With domestic violence on the rise amid the pandemic, activists are holding protests Wednesday from France to Turkey and world dignitaries are trying to find ways to protect millions of women killed or abused every year by their partners. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Global push to end domestic violence, worse amid COVID-19

Nov. 25, 2020 3:01 PM EST

BRUSSELS (AP) — In a global push to end violence against women, activists held rallies Wednesday and world leaders called for action to stop the abuse, which has worsened because of the coronavirus pandemic this year. Protests from France to Ukraine were held on the International Day for the Elimination of...

A woman looks at the Mexico’s Human Rights Commission (CNDH) headquarters which has been occupied for almost three months by women’s rights activists who have converted it into a refuge for victims of gender violence in Mexico City, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020. Feminist activists are occupying the building to demand justice for the victims of sexual abuse, femicide, and other gender violence, and are hosting some women and their children after the government either failed to solve or investigate sexual attacks on their guest’s daughters. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

AP PHOTOS: Occupied Mexico rights office becomes refuge

Nov. 25, 2020 12:01 AM EST

MEXICO CITY (AP) — In a colonial-era building in downtown Mexico City, dozens of feminist activists and crime victims have settled in after nearly three months of occupying the headquarters of Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission. The women said they took over the building because the...