The results of South Africa’s 2019 general election on May 8 were promising for champions of gender equality in politics, but
On April 9, 2019, Ivy Wangechi, a sixth-year medical student at Moi University in Kenya, was murdered. Like many stories of femicides that came before Wangechi’s, the media’s depiction of this murder was problematic.
Zimbabwean students, both male and female, are struggling to pay for higher education. In response, a number of female Zimbabwean university students have begun to engage in transactional sex to pay their tuition and otherwise survive.
Ugandan Tourism Minister John Kiwanda plans to feature “curvy and sexy women” as a primary Ugandan attraction in the official literature for the nation’s tourism. The plan also includes the launch of a beauty pageant called “Miss Curvy Uganda,” the winner of which will be used in an advertising campaign.
Serbian astrophysicist Dr. Mirjana Pović told the FBomb about how her experiences have helped her understand the struggles impoverished people face, and how individuals from marginalized communities can develop skills in fields like STEM.
The practice of paying a bride price occurs in multiple African countries, although exact traditions and levels of legality vary. While some advocates want the practice to be eradicated, many Zimbabweans are still in favor of upholding the practice. Despite popular opinion, there is still very real damage done to women as a result of it.
It’s not uncommon for Kenyan public schools to have a “no-hair” policy, meaning both girls and boys have to shave off their tresses, policies that are the legacy of colonialism and, as such, still perpetuate racism.
The next generation of feminists are being nurtured in Sierra Leone, and Moiyattu Banya-Keister, a Sierra Leonean educator and feminist, has created a safe space for this to happen: Girls Empowerment Sierra Leone (GESL).
In March 2019, the first private African satellite will be rocketed into space, thanks to a group of school girls based in Cape Town, South Africa.
South Africa’s entertainment industry has historically told monolithic narratives of black lives. While these narratives do reflect the reality of many black South Africans, they are not the only experiences of black South Africans and, moreover, not the only experiences black South Africans should be told are available to them.
That an American celebrity considered it lucrative to not only market a skin lightening brand abroad, but also travel all the way to Nigeria to promote it, says a lot about the socio-economic influence skin lightening products have in West Africa.
Cheryl Zondi is a 22-year-old University of Johannesburg student studying social work. On October 15, Zondi began what would be a three-day-long trial at Port Elizabeth High Court based on her allegations that her church leader, Pastor Timothy Omotoso, raped her between the years 2010 and 2015.
By creatively merging theater, dialogue, and activism in Ghana, Drama Queens, a nonprofit feminist organization, is challenging patriarchal norms and ideas and changing the damaging narratives about rape culture and sexuality that are deeply entrenched in many African societies.
In 2017, Forbes listed Morocco as the second most dangerous country in the world to which women can travel. Earlier this year, the Moroccan government, thanks in no small part to complaints made by women’s rights organizations, finally acknowledged the country’s problem with harassment by passing the Violence Against Women Act in February.
A new documentary, Stolen Daughters: Kidnapped by Boko Haram, follows the lives of the 276 Nigerian schoolgirls who had been kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014. The film also features interviews with girls who had been previously taken from their homes by the same group.
The Safe Schools for Girls Project, created by Care International, takes place in 174 Rwandan schools after regular classes end and aims to address issues related to gender-based violence through education.
We need to change the message we’re sending kids at a young age. it is necessary to provide children with books and media that provide positive representations of gender equality, and do not associate particular abilities or responsibilities with any gender.
In Nigeria, adulterous men are commonly excused and the blame for their actions is placed squarely on women.
Over 42 women had been kidnapped or killed in Uganda since May 2017. Ugandan politicians didn’t seem to take these deaths seriously. A feminist group called the Women’s Protest Working Group transformed Ugandan feminists' Twitter conversations into a march.
Girls marrying before the age of 18 are more likely not to finish their education, putting them at the risk of financial dependency.
There are currently no policies in Zimbabwe that protect girls who become pregnant while in school. Pregnant students are frequently forced out of their schools due to rules and regulations within the education system that discriminate against them.
While there are no laws that blatantly incriminate homosexuality, same-sex marriage is not legally recognized in Kenya, a country that is also generally quite socially hostile to members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The feminization of poverty is the phenomenon in which women experience poverty at rates that are disproportionately high in comparison to men. According to UN Women, as of 2015, a majority of the 1.5 billion people who live on $1 a day or less are women. Of all the people in the world living in poverty, 70 percent are women.
As a black person with light-skin privilege, it took me a while to understand that society treats dark-skinned black people with a similar indifference and insensitivity to that which the ugly duckling experienced.