Ria Sharma wasn’t always an activist. Just a few years back she was a fashion student at Leeds College of Art. But she felt uninspired by the work, and decided to branch into film. Her first project: A documentary about acid attack survivors.

The Nigerian military has been touting its recent successes against Boko Haram. Officials say many of the thousands of women and girls who’d been held hostage by the Islamist militant group have been freed.

“This verdict is just,” says a women’s rights activist in the Democratic Republic of Congo about a verdict related to the neighboring Central African Republic. “We are expecting the rebel leaders who have bloodied the DRC to one day face trial.”

The program coordinator of the Safe OUTside the System Collective in Brooklyn, N.Y., talks about the effort to foster community wellness among queer and trans people of color contending with police violence and criminalization.

In recent months, I interviewed 163 women who were raped – many of them brutally gang raped – during the three-month period after the disputed presidential election. So far, they have been left out of all forms of recognition and reparation.

They would rather be home taking care of their children. But they say mining operations are employing paramilitary forces to attack and harass them and drive them from their land. “I just want the killings to stop,” says one woman.

The country is a magnet for female immigrants from Eritrea, Nigeria, Somalia, Guinea and Ethiopia. Thousands of women from these countries have fled FGM and help define what it means to be a refugee in Europe.

After Japan agreed to pay $8.3 million to a South Korean foundation that aids comfort women, a handful of Filipina survivors want that same recognition. But they also refuse to give up their freedom to keep telling their stories.

Being female in Afghanistan is hard, even if you have a supportive family like teen writer Haya does.