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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
Europe | Great Britain | Crimes

Muslim community shuns women released from prison, says report

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The Muslim community in Britain shuns women who have been to prison while forgiving convicted men, “no matter what they’ve done”, according to a report. Female former prisoners told researchers, Muslim experts in the criminal justice system, that they suffered a “conspiracy of silence” after being released from jail, having to hide or move away in order to not bring shame on their families. The Muslim Women in Prison project worked with 55 women on their release from HMP New Hall and Askham Grange, two Yorkshire jails, helping them reconnect with their families – or to start
Africa | Burundi | Crimes

Merck Wants To ‘Empower’ Infertile Women In Africa. Can Music Videos Help?

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In June, an unusual email arrived in the inbox of an NPR global health correspondent. The headline was: "Merck Foundation together with First Lady of Burundi release 'Plus Qu'une Mere' an empowering French Song as courtesy to all infertile women in Burundi and Africa." The email had a link to a video of a performance with an all-female choir. Wearing traditional African clothing printed with the Merck Foundation's logo, they sing a song with lyrics that encourage people not to blame women for infertility. They're performing before an audience of maybe a hundred people, most of them in
Latin America | Colombia | Activism

Revered Social Leader and Activist Killed in Colombia

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Social leader Tatiana Paola Posso Espitia, 35, was shot twice in the head Wednesday morning in front of her house in El Copey located in the Department of Cesar when two men on motorcycles fired at the activist and fled the scene. The assassination occurred just as Espitia’s taxi driver, Wilson Ortega Palomino, arrived at her home to take the social leader to work, according to local media reports. The bad timing resulted in Ortega also being shot four times by the hitmen. He is in critical condition at a nearby hospital. The National Network for Democracy and Peace in Colombia
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
Latin America | El Salvador | Crimes

Violence Against Women in El Salvador Is Driving Them to Suicide — Or to the U.S. Border

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It’s hard to grasp the scale of El Salvador’s problem with gender violence. In the Central American country of just six million people, one woman was the victim of a femicide — a man murdering of a woman or girl because of her gender — every 24 hours in 2018. That’s one of the worst rates of femicide in the world, according to the United Nations. Sixty-seven percent of Salvadoran women have suffered some form of violence in their lifetime, including sexual assault, intimate partner violence and abuse by family members, a 2017 national survey found. But only 6% of victims had re
Africa | Nigeria | Corruption

Nigerian police arrested 65 women in a raid. Some of the women say officers raped them

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In a sparsely decorated room in Nigeria's capital city of Abuja, seven women are seated in a row, their backs turned to the assembled media to remain anonymous. One after the other, the women recount horrific physical and sexual abuse they say they were subjected to following their arrests on April 27 by officers of a special task force that raided hotels and nightclubs in Abuja. The 65 women who were arrested say they were beaten and harassed by officers, who forced them into their vans and drove them to the police station, their lawyers and NGOs told CNN. The seven women in the vid
South Asia | Afghanistan | Crimes

Mena Mangal: Journalist and women’s rights campaigner shot dead in broad daylight in Kabul

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An Afghan journalist and political advisor, who was vocal about women’s rights in the country, has been gunned down in broad daylight, just days after saying she believed her life was in danger. Mena Mangal was shot dead on Saturday morning in a public place while she was on her way to work in the capital city of Kabul. Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said one or possibly more assailants had escaped the scene but no one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack and police say it is not yet clear whether the murder was a terror attack or an attack from
South Asia | Pakistan | Crimes

Woman Stabbed 23 Times in Pakistan Wins Appeal Against Assailant’s Acquittal

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The Pakistan Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the acquittal of a man accused of stabbing a woman 23 times, nearly three years after the attack prompted a national debate on violence against women. Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, leading a three-member panel, reinstated the conviction of Shah Hussain, accepting an appeal from Khadija Siddiqi, who survived the attack in Lahore in May 2016. Ms. Siddiqi said that Mr. Hussain, a former classmate, had attacked her after she rebuffed his romantic overtures. Mr. Hussain was rearrested in the courtroom on Wednesday. Ms. Siddiqi, a 24-ye
North America | United States | Corruption

Sheila Jackson Lee Resigns from Head of Congressional Black Caucus

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Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee has resigned from the top post of the Congressional Black Caucus following a former employee’s accusation that she was fired for reporting a rape. Recently, a lawsuit was filed by a former aide to Rep. Lee, alleging that she was fired after reporting that an employee of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation raped her. The litigant says that Lee deliberately fired her after she let it be known that she was planning to sue the Foundation.
North America | United States | Business

The CIA’s Top Directorates Are All Women — Reportedly For The First Time Ever

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CIA Director Gina Haspel — the first woman to ever head the intelligence agency — has appointed Cynthia "Didi" Rapp as the agency's deputy director for analysis. While Rapp isn't the first female to serve as deputy director of the CIA's Directorate of Analysis, her recent appointment has helped women break a major barrier at the CIA. According to NBC News, three of the CIA's top directorates are now headed by women — reportedly for the first time ever. Rapp's appointment follows Elizabeth Kimber's appointment as deputy director for operations in early December. According to The Hill
Africa | Zimbabwe | Crimes

These women survived domestic abuse, now they’re sharpshooters protecting animals from poachers

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Abused and disadvantaged women have become Zimbabwe's hidden weapon against poachers who kill elephants and rhinos for their tusks and horns. The Akashinga squad, or "The Brave Ones," is Zimbabwe's first all-female anti-poaching team that has quickly earned a top reputation as sharpshooters. They've arrested 80 armed poachers in the past year. Petronella Chigumbura, the star sniper of the squad, wears a full camouflage suit for solo night patrols. "When I wear this suit no one can see me, and I can hide from the poacher," Chigumbura told CBS News foreign correspondent Debora Patta in a

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