Women’s rights and gender equality – War Watch

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Women behind the lens: six of our most striking images from 2025
ByGuardian staff January 7, 2026

A few of our favourite photographs taken by women from the global south and capturing moments of everyday life and art Continue reading…

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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Benjamin Netanyahu | Donald Trump | Feminism | Gaza | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Israel | Israel–Iran War | Middle East and north Africa | Nuclear weapons | Palestinian territories | Petrol prices | Syria | Women | Women's rights and gender equality | World news

Yes, women’s rights are under threat around the world. But we’ve found hope in unlikely places | Rahila Gupta
ByRahila Gupta December 31, 2025

From El Salvador to Russia, Iceland and Syria, women are pushing back against the rise of regressive forces. Let’s support their fightRahila Gupta is an anti-racist feminist activist and the co-author, with Beatrix Campbell, of Planet Patriarchy In 202…

Read More Yes, women’s rights are under threat around the world. But we’ve found hope in unlikely places | Rahila Gupta
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‘Even in the most unlikely places there is beauty’: stories of hope from newsrooms around the world
ByGuardian staff December 31, 2025

From the construction worker who won a place at medical school to an art exhibition in a country with no galleries, we asked journalists for their most optimistic tales of the yearFounder of the Migration Story, India Continue reading…

Read More ‘Even in the most unlikely places there is beauty’: stories of hope from newsrooms around the world
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‘You sneak in and hope you make it back’: the Sudanese volunteers risking it all to bring care to millions
ByMark Townsend December 24, 2025

Members of Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms network tell Guardian they didn’t mind missing out on the Nobel peace prize because ‘we only want to help’Doing good gets you killed in Sudan. It was why Amira did not tell her mother when she joined a volunt…

Read More ‘You sneak in and hope you make it back’: the Sudanese volunteers risking it all to bring care to millions
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‘I can’t forget the horror’: a young mother on giving birth twice during the Gaza war
ByHoda Osman December 22, 2025

Hadeel Al Gherbawi survived her two pregnancies despite extreme hunger and painChildbirth under attack: how women and babies became targets in conflicts around the worldHadeel Al Gherbawi was seven months pregnant when the war started in October 2023. …

Read More ‘I can’t forget the horror’: a young mother on giving birth twice during the Gaza war
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Child bride spared execution in Iran after blood money is paid
BySarah Johnson December 11, 2025

Guardian story helped to draw attention to planned hanging of Goli Kouhkan over death of abusive husbandA child bride who was due to be executed this month in Iran over the death of her husband has had her life spared by his parents, who were paid the …

Read More Child bride spared execution in Iran after blood money is paid
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‘Will my baby be born in a tent? Will it have food?’: what it’s like to be pregnant in Gaza
ByNour Ziad al-Batsh October 1, 2025

The World Health Organization has warned that more than 40% of pregnant women in the Gaza Strip are malnourished. Here, Nour Ziad al-Batsh, who is expecting her third child in March, describes her daily struggle to find food and healthcareThis pregnanc…

Read More ‘Will my baby be born in a tent? Will it have food?’: what it’s like to be pregnant in Gaza
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Benjamin Netanyahu | Donald Trump | Food security | Gaza | Global development | Global health | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Israel | Israel-Gaza war | Israel–Iran War | Malnutrition | Maternal health | Middle East and north Africa | Nuclear weapons | Palestine | Palestinian territories | Petrol prices | Women's rights and gender equality | World news

‘Will my baby be born in a tent? Will it have food?’: what it’s like to be pregnant in Gaza
ByNour Ziad al-Batsh October 1, 2025

The World Health Organization has warned that more than 40% of pregnant women in the Gaza Strip are malnourished. Here, Nour Ziad al-Batsh, who is expecting her third child in March, describes her daily struggle to find food and healthcareThis pregnanc…

Read More ‘Will my baby be born in a tent? Will it have food?’: what it’s like to be pregnant in Gaza
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When I was married at 13 I was told refusal would end in my death. Now girls in Iraq as young as nine face the same fate
ByShams Ali* September 25, 2025

A new law legitimises violence and entrenches control over the bodies of millions of women and girls like meI was about 13 when my family decided to marry me off to a man of 29. I cried, I resisted. The pain was doubled because even at that age I was a…

Read More When I was married at 13 I was told refusal would end in my death. Now girls in Iraq as young as nine face the same fate
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Benjamin Netanyahu | Children | Children's rights | Donald Trump | Family | Forced marriage | Gaza | Global development | Human rights | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Iraq | Israel | Israel–Iran War | Life and style | Marriage | Middle East and north Africa | Nuclear weapons | Palestinian territories | Petrol prices | Society | Women's rights and gender equality | World news

When I was married at 13 I was told refusal would end in my death. Now girls in Iraq as young as nine face the same fate
ByShams Ali* September 25, 2025

A new law legitimises violence and entrenches control over the bodies of millions of women and girls like meI was about 13 when my family decided to marry me off to a man of 29. I cried, I resisted. The pain was doubled because even at that age I was a…

Read More When I was married at 13 I was told refusal would end in my death. Now girls in Iraq as young as nine face the same fate