Gender

Muttaqi, a key architect of the Taliban's post-2021 takeover diplomacy, travelled to the southern province of Kandahar on Friday for the audience with Akhundzada.

The 24-month cohort follow-up, conducted between August 2022 and December 2024, paints a troubling picture of early marriage, adolescent pregnancy, violence, and severe gaps in reproductive health services for some of the country’s most marginalised women.

the violence was triggered after a 12-year-old Marma girl was allegedly raped by three Bengali youths on September 23 while returning home from tuition in the Singinala area.

The discovery of three transgender persons dead on a roadside in Karachi on the night of September 21 has sent shockwaves through Pakistan’s already vulnerable transgender community, igniting fear, anger, and renewed demands for protection and justice.

With just five years left to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a new United Nations report has warned that the world is “alarmingly off-track” on gender equality, placing millions of women and girls at risk of being left behind.

While male participation in the labour market remained largely steady, dipping only slightly from 48.1 million to 48.0 million, female participation plunged more markedly – from 25.3 million in 2023 to 23.7 million in 2024.

The crisis has been compounded by the rise of hardline Islamist groups since the collapse of Sheikh Hasina’s long rule. Women’s rights activists warn that these groups are contributing to an atmosphere of communalism and hostility towards women, exacerbating their vulnerability.

The study urged that the Rohingya crisis not be seen in isolation but as a social, economic, and humanitarian challenge requiring integrated responses that combine humanitarian action, climate resilience, and peace-building.