Five years after the Taliban takeover, Afghan women and girls face increasingly institutionalized exclusion from education, employment and public life. UN Women warns against normalizing these restrictions.

A new UN Women report warns that record aid cuts have left at least one million women and girls without critical support, as women’s organizations on the frontlines of humanitarian crises struggle to meet soaring demand and face the risk of shutting down.

Beyond cooking, cleaning, or caregiving lies the constant planning, organizing, remembering, and anticipating that keeps households running. This unseen work falls disproportionately on women, shaping their time, careers, health, and well-being. What if true equality isn't just about sharing household chores, but also sharing the responsibility of thinking about them in the first place? In UN Women’s Hand in Hand “social experiment”, couples in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco completed timed care tasks like changing diapers and preparing meals, first competing individually, and then working together.

Modern warfare destroys homes, weaponizes fear, and forces women and girls to survive violence, displacement, hunger, and trauma daily.

In Gaza, there is no safe place to work – or to live. Women on the frontlines of the response are working under extreme hardship, insecurity and repeated attacks. 

Women are living longer, but they are not living better. An explainer by UN Women lays out how deep‑rooted gender bias in healthcare continues to undermine women’s health worldwide. Women are more likely to have their pain dismissed, symptoms misread and conditions diagnosed too late, reflecting medical systems built without women in mind. From outdated examination tools to male‑centric data driving diagnosis and treatment, inequality is embedded in everyday care. These systemic gaps have lasting consequences for women’s health, safety and quality of life, prompting calls for research, services and systems that deliver dignity, accuracy and respect for all women and girls.

She woke to a nightmare: AI-generated sexual images of her had spread online while she slept, reaching thousands within minutes. For many women and girls, this is now an everyday reality. Deepfakes are overwhelmingly weaponized against women, often pornographic and non-consensual. Once shared, they spread rapidly and are nearly impossible to remove, causing lasting harm. Accountability remains weak: laws lag, enforcement is inconsistent, and platforms respond slowly. Reporting can retraumatize survivors, while perpetrators go unpunished. Ending this abuse requires stronger laws, faster action by platforms, and better survivor support. Deepfake abuse is preventable and survivors are demanding justice.

Globally, women face violence and discrimination, and justice systems fail, making accountability, legal aid, and systemic reform urgently necessary. Case is now open.

Ending female genital mutilation requires more than laws, it demands survivor-centred justice, including healing, support, accountability, and changing enabling social attitudes.

Technology-facilitated violence against women and girls is rapidly increasing worldwide, with online abuse such as deepfakes, doxing, and harassment causing real-world harm and demanding urgent action from governments and the tech industry.

Nearly half of global migrants are women whose vital care work sustains economies, yet harmful stereotypes continue to fuel discrimination, exclusion, and violence.

Online and digital spaces should empower women and girls. Yet every day, for millions of women and girls, the digital world has become a minefield of harassment, abuse, and control. What can start small, on screens – a message, a comment, or a post – can quickly spiral into a torrent of threats and violence in real life. Private photos are stolen without consent. Lies spread in a matter of seconds. Locations are tracked. AI is weaponized to create deepfakes designed to shame and silence women. During the 16 Days of Activism (25 November – 10 December), join us as we rally for a world where technology is a force for equality — not harm.

Nadia, a young tutor from Karachi, faced harassment through WhatsApp from a trusted neighbor, leading to a traumatic assault. In the past five years in Pakistan, around 1.8 million women have experienced cyber-crimes, but only 3.5% of offenders face conviction. The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016 aims to combat such crimes, but enforcement is weak. After her attack, Nadia found support at Pakistan's first Anti-Rape Crisis Cell, established in 2023. There, she received medical, legal, and psychological help, helping her regain confidence and a sense of justice, inspiring her to advocate for all silenced women.

This International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25 November), let’s turn our attention to the digital world. Online violence against women is a fast-growing threat aimed at silencing their voices: through cyberbullying, harassment, doxing, and more. AI is only amplifying the harm. Yet fewer than 40% of countries have laws protecting women from cyber harassment or stalking. Join UN Women’s campaign and call on governments, tech companies, users, and society to convert technology into a force for equality, not harm. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse.

Investing in care isn’t just compassion, it’s powerful economics that creates jobs, empowers women, and builds healthier, fairer societies for generations.