A fatwa was issed against me; they condemned me for normalizing obscenity and indecency among women by persuading them to come out of their homes. … I said, ‘You should also give a fatwa against Hazrat Khadija (the first wife of Prophet Muhammad) because she was also a trader.’ “God has not made us as weak as we have made ourselves.”

A cross-agency training on gender in communications brought together UN staff from 13 agencies in Nepal last month. The two-day session provided the 25 participants with a range of tools and skills to develop gender-responsive communication materials in their respective lines of work. “There is a need for devising coherent communications plans and strategies that position the United Nations as the torchbearer of incorporating gender in communications,” said Valerie Julliand, UN Resident Coordinator.

Ishani Shrestha, 28, is a social activist and entrepreneur in Nepal. After she was crowned Miss World-Nepal 2013, she founded Project Smile to improve women’s health and children’s education and to end gender discrimination. As a feminist and a Nepali woman, I see the uncountable challenges girls and women face in our country. Some of the major challenges that I want to help ease are the lack of awareness of human rights, the lack of education and access to health care, and the social stereotypes that restrict women from becoming who they want to be.

Millions of girls around the world are still threatened by genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), despite a century of efforts to put an end to it.

At the India premiere of the Oscar award winning documentary, Saving Face in New Delhi on 23 July, the audience walked away touched by the courage of Zakia and Rakshana, who had acid thrown on their faces by their husbands.