More Than A Magazine, A Movement
The marriage or informal union between a child under 18 years old to an adult or another child. Child marriages affect one in five girls around the world and lead to increased risks of intimate partner violence, impoverishment, child pregnancy and insufficient education.
It’ll only take us three more centuries to gain equality, because conservatives in the U.S., Iran and Afghanistan and elsewhere don’t want equality at all.
The last century has largely been a good one for women’s progress. But with every large step forward, we’ve seen backlash, and this is a global trend.
On Dec. 12, the U.S. government launched its updated and long-awaited Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally. On paper, the strategy looks great. But, as always, the questions we’re left with are: What does the U.S. government do with this document now? How is it implemented? Will funding increase and be sustained?
As the halfway mark of this administration’s current term approaches, we need to ensure that words are backed up with action.
The fight to end child marriage can no longer be confined to the shadows. The COVID-19 crisis, climate change and food insecurity have only compounded the problem. If we don’t act fast, we leave millions of girls at risk.
The nearly-two decades prior to the pandemic saw 82 million more girls in school, girls’ primary school enrollment up 65 percent, and a 25-percent increase in parity between girls and boys completing primary school.
Among the pandemic’s worst legacies has been its ravaging blow to these decades of progress, with 20 million additional secondary school-age girls who may never return to school.
Tackling the food crisis cannot be done in isolation but requires a gendered and interdisciplinary approach by addressing the underlying causes such as conflict, human rights abuses and gender inequality.
Daniella Mestyanek Young’s powerfully immersive and exceptionally honest debut memoir Uncultured describes her childhood growing up in the Children of God cult.
I also grew up in a cult. I know that the path out—both physically and emotionally—involves education, critical thinking, and taking one’s power back.
Aug. 12 is International Youth Day (IYD), and this year’s theme is intergenerational solidarity. Renewed intergenerational solidarity and concern for future generations is critical to tackling global issues not just for young people, but for aging populations and everyone in between.
Because the Ukrainian health system is drastically strained, international humanitarian aid is playing an outsized role in delivering healthcare throughout the country. But all humanitarian aid provided by the U.S.—the largest single-country donor of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine—is subject to the Helms Amendment, which limits the use of U.S. foreign assistance funds for abortion. In this way, rather than alleviating their suffering, U.S. aid could be the reason that victims of wartime rape are denied abortions and forced to give birth.
Any lawmaker serious about their solidarity with Ukraine should commit to a full repeal of the Helms Amendment.
Mona Heydari was forced to marry her cousin as a 12-year-old and birthed his child at 14. At 17, after fleeing the country and attempting to escape the abusive marriage, her life was ended by her husband.
Honor killings involving young women in Iran have become an all too common occurrence over the last two years, with a long list of victims. The lasting oppressive patriarchal and misogynistic ideologies prominent in law enforcement, government and Iranian society has allowed the killing of young women to become a crime without punishment.
Ms. readers are fed up. You know how I know? Your reading patterns.
Explore the most popular articles published this year on MsMagazine.com—measured by page views, average time spent on each page, times shared and a few other technical measures.
