The media

A Pakistani soldier overlooks Pakistan’s Swat Valley (May 2009). Since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan last year, more militants have re-emerged in Swat and other border areas. Just last month, the Taliban captured an army and a police officer in the mountains around Swat. Al Jazeera English / Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) The Pakistani … Read more

Two young girls during an exam at a school in Kerala, India. Although education is a basic human right, not everyone can enjoy this right. Girls are particularly excluded, with all the ensuing consequences. Discrimination and stereotypes prevent girls from accessing education, and thus have a detrimental effect on women’s leadership, writes Margo Bells, researcher … Read more

The global food crisis threatens the lives of millions of girls. This is written by Sven Coppins, Regional Director for West and Central Africa at Plan International. This growing disaster is largely ignored by all the other news, but its impact on girls is increasing day by day. And so it seems once again that … Read more

Aspirant leaders, a mystical community. Pictured on the right is Amadou Bamba, “the great Sufi teacher who was exiled to Gabon and Mauritania.” Erica Kowal (CC BY-SA 2.0) Journalist Kris Berwouts from MO* traveled through Senegal to make a cross-section of a country with a unique religious history. On the one hand, he saw moderate … Read more

Since being ridiculed for bloodstains on her military uniform, Ghanaian student Juliette Opoko misses school for about a week each month. © Thomson Reuters News Foundation / Kent Mensah The phenomenon of menstrual poverty is escalating due to the inflation crisis. In some areas of Africa, this results in girls offering sex in exchange for … Read more