Sexual violence survivors and their friends and family have been making headlines across India since December, when about 5,000 of them began a 6,000-mile journey across 24 states. The “Dignity March,” which concludes this Friday in Delhi, aims to raise public awareness of the sexual violence that affects an untold number of women and children …
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Kausar Ansari has come a long way since her first job. Today, she is a leader at Awaaz-e-Niswaan, an AJWS grantee that supports Muslim women and girls in Mumbai to stay in school and pursue careers. But at age 14, she worked in a garment factory, where she earned only 700 rupees a month—about $10 …
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Three years after AJWS made a film about Khushi’s life, she’s gone from driving cabs to training a new generation of girls just beginning their careers. When I first met Khushi Prajapati, her story was already unusual. As a teenager, she’d worked as a maid to try to help her family make ends meet. It …
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I am elated today because our grantee partners in India have achieved an historic victory for LGBTQI+ rights. Earlier today, the Indian Supreme Court struck down a colonial-era law that criminalized consensual sex between same sex adults. As India is home to nearly one-fifth of the world’s population, this single ruling removes the threat of …
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I came out to my father in 1998, over the phone. He was in Bombay, India. I was in Denver, Colorado. The first thing he said to me, without missing a beat, was: “I’m proud that you’ve decided to not live a lie.” The very next thing he said was: “I wish you’d never told …
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