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Gender

Women fight for respect in Japan’s sumo rings 

Japan in Focus

Sumo wrestling in Japan is among the world’s oldest sports, dating back at least 1,500 years. The rules are simple: Square off with an opponent in a ring lined with sand, then try to push the other person out. Another rule: Japanese professional sumo is also off-limits to women. Japanese women wrestlers who achieve champion status at international sumo events are frustrated to face prejudice back home.

Uganda Women Birders tackles limiting gender taboos by giving women the experience and resources they need to prove they can do the job.

‘Birds are everywhere!’ Women bird guides in Uganda set a global example

Jobs
Nathalie Vilgrain, sixth from left, is the head of Marijàn, a feminist organization in Port-Au-Prince that is sheltering about 150 women who have been displaced by sexual violence.

In Haiti, sexual violence is devastating women and girls

Sexual violence
Clarissa Bitar plays the oud, a classic string instrument.

How the oud brought this Palestinian American musician closer to their culture, family and history

Movement
The site of a music festival near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023.

Rape is ‘the most neglected war crime,’ sexual violence expert says

Israel-Hamas war
Pope Francis arrives for leading a prayer for peace inside St. Peter's Basilica, at The Vatican, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. 

Roman Catholic Church remains inconclusive about reforms for women, LGBTQ after monthlong meeting wraps

Sacred Nation

More than 450 church leaders from around the world came to the Vatican in early October to debate this and other questions during the latest synod, a monthlong meeting to discuss the church’s future. Their conclusion: more research is needed.

Intricate carvings adorn the marble pillars inside a Jain temple in Ahmedabad, western India. Jainism is an ancient religion whose followers often renounce the world to lead a life of extreme austerity. Most of them are women, some as young as 8.

‘Happiness is in your hands’: Young Jain women continue to renounce the world

Sacred Nation

The Jain religious community in India makes up less than than 1% of the population. A steady number of them — even children — are renouncing the material world to join Jain monasteries.

portrait photo of a woman

‘She is the evolution of reggaeton’: The rise of trans Puerto Rican artist Villano Antillano

Planet Hip Hop

Puerto Rican rapper Villano Antillano is a leading voice in a new generation of LGBTQ artists subverting traditional gender norms in reggaeton and reclaiming the political roots of the genre.

Women rush out of a train during peak hours at Churchgate station in Mumbai, India, Monday, March 20, 2023.

Indian women do less paid work. It’s bad news for the economy.

Jobs

Across the world, higher economic growth has seen a rise in women’s employment, according to the United Nations. But India is bucking that trend, where educated women are working less in paid positions.

The capital Quito is the city in Ecuador that has received the biggest numbers of Venezuelan migrants. 

As Ecuador’s political crisis deepens, Venezuelan LGBTQ migrants feel the pain

LGBTQ

Ecuador is in the throes of political turmoil and discrimination against foreigners is on the rise. This is affecting gay and transgender Venezuelans particularly hard.

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“I Felt the System Was Raping Me All Over Again”: Senator McSally Reveals Sexual Assault in the Military