Dear JOhn,

With just a few months left of a tumultuous year, our team of human rights lawyers and advocates are doubling down to #MakeEqualityReality for women and girls. Thank you for making this work possible.

News from our teams around the world

Addressing rape as a grave and systematic human rights violation and gender-based violence against women

Sexual violence is a human rights violation that predominantly affects women and girls as a consequence of systemic and structural inequality. At Equality Now, work to advance gender equality around the world supports our efforts to get justice for survivors and victims of sexual violence – with the ultimate goal of preventing such violence altogether.

That’s why earlier this year, together with the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (UN SR VAW), we (virtually!) brought together academics, gender equality and women’s rights activists, practitioners, UN and independent mechanisms experts, and civil society organizations from around the world to discuss what more needs to be done to address rape as a human rights violation and gender-based violence against women. 

You can read the full report out from the meeting on our website.

Jamia Wilson talks women in media, the Equal Rights Amendment & intersectional feminism

In August, Equality Now board member, Patricia Amira, sat down with author, activist and movement builder, Jamia Wilson in conversation to discuss her writings, intersectional feminism and the history of women's equality in the United States, specifically the importance of the Equal Rights Amendment and how that fits or in this case, does not fit, with gender equality on an international scale.

Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments and Equality Now

The Testaments, Margaret Atwood’s best selling sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, is out now in paperback from Vintage Books. Equality Now has continued our partnership with Margaret Atwood and Vintage Books and over the next few weeks, we’re going behind the covers to investigate Gilead-like laws that exist in our world today. ⁣We will be posting these on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, follow us to see how Gilead is a global reality.

Watch and Share

As we celebrate one year since the release of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments and the newly launched paperback edition, we remember that although Gilead and The Testaments are fictional, they hold a mirror up to the state of women’s rights today. Gilead depicts a dystopian future in which women are enslaved, married off, raped and denied their most fundamental human rights. The patriarchal and discriminatory practices of Gilead are the kinds of practices Equality Now tackles every day.

Watch and share this video and help us #MakeEqualityReality.

Coming up next 

The 75th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly starts in just over a week! This year, member states and civil society participants will also be marking the 25th anniversary of the World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in September 1995. Even though we won’t be able to participate in person this year, we’re looking forward to taking part in many different activities and sessions, while working with other civil society organizations to push governments toward even greater progress on women’s rights. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to get updates!

Equality Now in the news 

📰On August 26th, the United States celebrates “Women’s Equality Day” in honor of the adoption of the 19th Amendment. Our Global Lead for Legal Equality and Access to Justice wrote for Ms. Magazine about the ways in which the United States is actually an outlier when it comes to gender inequality. For example, The U.S. is one of very few UN Member states without explicit constitutional provisions that prohibit on the basis of sex and/or gender.

📰Violence against women is increasing in the COVID-19 pandemic as more countries report infection and lockdown, more shelters and hotlines report an increase in calls. Equality Now staff, Janette Akhilgova (Russia and Caucasus consultant), Barbara Jiménez-Santiago (Americas Regional Coordinator) along with Caleb Ng’ombo (an Equality Now partner in Malawi) spoke with Voice of America about this issue in their perspective regions and worldwide.

📰Equality Now  and our partners, PSGR and UltraViolet were featured as one of the top 10 Women’s Organizations Making Moves during COVID-19 this month alongside some of our other incredible partners!

Thank you for being a huge part of our work, which would not be possible without your constant support and activism.

In solidarity,

Bryna Subherwal
Advocacy Campaign Manager

P.S. One way you can support our work is by wearing your #feminism on your sleeve! Our online shop is open and we’ve just added some new styles, like a Tie Dye box tee! Check it out!