Violence against women and girls

Acid attacks disproportionately affect women. Sonali, NurunNahar and Jasmen have all been attacked with acid – a traumatising experience leaving them with severe physical and emotional scars. They have not let their suffering silence them though. Through support from the Acid Survivors’ Network set up by ActionAid Bangladesh, they have helped one another integrate back into society and speak out.

Acid attacks disproportionately affect women. Find out the reasons behind acid attacks, their consequences and statistics about acid throwing around the world.

Ama was abducted for child marriage on her way home from school when she was 14, in the Upper West region of Ghana. Based on her personal account, we’ve created an animation to tell her story of child marriage. Watch the film and read more below to find out how ActionAid helps girls like Ama be girls, not wives.

Meet Abiba, Valeria and Fidos. These brave women are all part of ActionAid COMBAT squads - Community Based Anti-Violence Teams - working to end violence against women and girls, especially child marriage, in their communities in northern Ghana.

Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale imagines a totalitarian society in which women's rights have been completely erased. Denied control over their own bodies, women are used as servants, wives, or, as in the case of the narrator Offred, 'handmaids'. Offred describes handmaids as "two-legged wombs", as they are ritually raped by powerful men and forced to bear their children. 

Plans for women-only screenings of the Wonder Woman film premiere in the US and a festival primarily for black women in Paris have raised questions about the impact of dedicated spaces for marginalised groups. Some people have raised concerns that women-only groups may create even more division within society.