Africa | Nigeria | Corruption

Nigeria police rescue 19 young women, girls from ‘baby factory’

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Nigerian authorities said Monday that 19 girls and young women who were abducted and impregnated by captors who planned to sell their babies have been rescued. Lagos police spokesman Bala Elkana said the victims and four babies were rescued from four locations in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city. The victims, aged between 15 and 28, are mainly from eastern Nigeria. They told police they were tricked into coming to Lagos with the promise of jobs. Nigeria has a high number of syndicates that keep young women to produce babies for sale – a scheme locally termed "baby factories." The p
Asia | Taiwan | Crimes

Cops raid ‘killer exorcism cult’ hideout led by ‘female Buddha’ in mountains

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Cops have raided dangerous "exorcism" cult led by a "female Buddha" in a secret mountain hideout in Taiwan. Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said 19 followers were rescued from the cult’s headquarters based in a monastery, in the island’s central landlocked county of Nantou in August. Reports say followers of "Zhonghua Rixing Yishang" – or "China Daily Virtue", were prohibited from leaving or speaking without permission and one was reportedly killed in a sick ritual. The death of Taiwanese national Ms Fang, 20, in mainland China sparked police investigations acro
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

The Saudi government is hunting down women who flee the country by tracking the IMEI number on their cellphones

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Women who flee Saudi Arabia expect to be chased. They expect their friends to be interviewed, their social media to be scoured, their passports to be frozen. They mostly do not expect Saudi government agents to hunt down the old box for their iPhone. But according to multiple sources who spoke with INSIDER, this is what has been happening in Saudi Arabia's quest to track down the growing number of women who flee the country every year. Cellphone packaging can provide information that could — with the help of spy-grade tracking equipment — trace a Saudi runaway to within a few feet of her
South Asia | Pakistan | Crimes

Pakistani officials claim women trafficked into prostitution in China after marriage

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Faisalabad, Pakistan—With waves of arrests, Pakistani investigators are trying to unravel trafficking networks that convince impoverished Pakistanis to marry off their daughters to Chinese men for cash and they say evidence is growing that many of the women and girls are sold into prostitution once in China. At least two dozen Chinese nationals and dozens of their Pakistani partners have been arrested in recent weeks in raids by Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency. Pakistani government officials, however, have ordered police to remain quiet about the extent of the networks, fearing it
Asia | China | Crimes

Report claims thousands of North Korean women sold into sex slavery in China

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Thousands of North Korean women and girls are being trafficked and sold into sexual slavery in China, where many are sold as wives to Chinese men while others are forced into prostitution or to live stream sex acts against their will, a new report claims. The investigation, by the London-based Korea Future Initiative (KFI), includes shocking first-hand reports of girls as young as 12 being raped and women being forced to participate in cybersex for days without eating. Though female defectors have long been targets of human traffickers, the problem has been exacerbated in recent ye
North America | United States | Law

Women’s Rights Advocates Condemn DOJ Decision to Not Defend Female Genital Mutilation Law

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On Thursday, April 25th, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-12) (pictured center) joined elected officials and Equal Rights Amendment advocates to condemn a recent US Department of Justice decision to not  defend a federal law banning FGM/C, to call for Speaker Pelosi to step in to defend the law, and call for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Congresswoman Maloney is the sponsor of H.J. Res. 35, a bill to restart the ratification process of the ERA. While the Trump Administration has decided not to defend the 1996 law banning FGM/C, the House or the Senate could do s
Latin America | Honduras | Crimes

Outrageous: Berta Cáceres, Honduran human rights and environment activist, murdered

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Berta Cáceres, the Honduran indigenous and environmental rights campaigner, has been murdered, barely a week after she was threatened for opposing a hydroelectric project. Her death prompted international outrage at the murderous treatment of campaigners in Honduras, as well as a flood of tributes to a prominent and courageous defender of the natural world. The co-founder of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras (Copinh) was shot dead by gunmen who entered her home in La Esperanza at around 1am on Thursday. Some reports say there were two killers; others suggest 11. They escaped
Latin America | Colombia | Crimes

Colombia finally cracks down on a horrific wave of acid attacks against women

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Colombia is finally taking action against what may be one of the most intense waves of horrific acid attacks on women anywhere in the world. President Juan Manuel Santos this week closed a legal loophole that often allowed attackers to get away scot-free. Official figures acknowledge 628 victims, but women’s rights activists believe the true toll may be far higher. Under the new law, signed Monday, anyone using any kind of “chemical agent” to physically harm another person will receive a minimum sentence of 12 years behind bars. If the victim is permanently disfigured, the
South Asia | India | Culture

How come there are no girls? Pregnant women in India want to know

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The issue of sex-selective abortion is a huge and complex problem in parts of India. It’s led to gender imbalances in some Indian states that have reached “emergency proportions,” according to the United Nations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to use both public relations and law enforcement to combat the practice, which seems only to be growing, especially in the country’s deeply patriarchal northwestern regions. Under Indian law, it’s strictly illegal for a doctor to reveal the sex of a fetus “by any words, by any sign, by any way, by any means — by emailing or an
North America | United States | Crimes

Prosecutors: 2 Women Day Care Workers Ran ‘Fight Club’ For Kids Aged 4-6

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Two New Jersey women face charges for staging a “fight club” among boys and girls at a day care center, Union County prosecutors said. Erica Kenny, 22, of Cranford, and Chanese White, 28, of Roselle, are accused of child abuse. Kenny also faces charges of endangering the welfare of a child. Kenny and White allegedly instigated the fights among kids aged 4 to 6 at Lightbridge Academy in Cranford last month, prosecutors said. Kenny allegedly shot video of the fights and posted them to social media, prosecutors said. White faces up to 18 months in prison. Kenny could get up to f
Africa | South Sudan | Crimes

South Sudanese girls given away as ‘blood money’

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Due to extreme gender inequalities in South Sudan, a large majority of girls in the country are subjected to at least one form of domestic violence in their young lives. They are also three times more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than to finish primary education, according to the international children’s development organization Plan International. But young girls in the country’s Eastern Equatoria State suffer a particularly abhorrent practice which is traditional among at least five of the state’s 12 tribes – “blood money” compensation.
Africa | Sudan | Crimes

A HEMLINE IS NOT A CRIME: 10 Women at risk of flogging for “indecent” clothing

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Sudan's Public Order Police have charged 10 female Christian students with 'indecent dress, and subjected them to humiliation during their detention. On June 25, Sudan's Public Order Police stopped 12 female Christian students in front of the Evangelical Baptist Church where they had attended a ceremony. They were wearing trousers and skirts. The students were charged with "indecent dress" under Article 152 of Sudan's 1991 Criminal Act. Two were released. The students were subjected to degrading treatment and humiliating verbal abuse during their detention. They were released on bail on
South Asia | India | Culture

Female foeticide, India’s ‘ticking bomb’

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The jubilant young man's arrival brought an abrupt halt to the card game contested by the turbaned group sitting under the tree. He thought he had good news for them: "I've been blessed with a baby girl!" he announced proudly.  The response was not what he expected - the group's shock quickly turned to ridicule. "Why didn't you get her killed in the womb?" came the collective cry. "Did you not get a gender determination test done on the foetus?" Such a test is illegal in India, but this reaction - discovered during an undercover investigation by Al Jazeera in the village o
Europe | U.K. | Health

Thousands of teenage girls enduring debilitating illnesses after routine school cancer vaccination

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When Caron Ryalls was asked to sign consent forms so that her then 13-year-old daughter, Emily, could be vaccinated against cervical cancer, she assumed it was the best way to protect Emily’s long-term health. Yet the past four years have turned into a nightmare for the family as Emily soon suffered side effects. Only two weeks after her first HPV injection, the teenager experienced dizziness and nausea. “The symptoms grew increasingly worse after the second and third injections, and I went to A&E several times with severe chest and abdominal pains as well as difficul