Abstract Gender-based violence (GBV) is a global issue with severe impacts on individuals. Healthcare professionals, as frontline responders, play a crucial role in addressing GBV. This study evaluates healthcare professionals’ preparedness and training needs at JGMM Medical College in Hubballi, Karnataka. A cross-sectional survey targeted faculty and staff, including doctors and nurses, at JGMM Medical College. Data were collected from 138 participants using a modified, prevalidated structured questionnaire from IPPF-PAHO, assessing preparedness, training needs, knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions regarding GBV. Data were analyzed using SPSS Software Version 25. Of the 138 participants, 80.4% had not attended any GBV training sessions. Many, particularly female participants, felt inadequately trained in key areas such as providing care to GBV victims and detecting cases of violence. Significant gender differences in self-assessed training adequacy were observed, suggesting potential impacts of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Participants expressed a clear demand for further training on GBV-related topics, including legal issues and clinical examinations. According to the review of all postgraduate and undergraduate medical curriculum records in India, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is a neglected issue. Enhanced training programs are urgently needed to equip healthcare professionals with the skills and knowledge to effectively address GBV. Improved preparedness and training will enable better support for survivors, contribute to better health outcomes, and promote gender equality. Integrating interdisciplinary training modules into medical curricula is essential to adequately prepare healthcare professionals to address gender-based violence effectively and compassionately.

Introduction/Objective A community health assessment conducted with the Washington West Africa Center identified ending domestic violence (DV) as a priority within the West African immigrant population in the greater Seattle area. This study seeks to understand the intersecting factors that increase the risk of DV and identify strategies to inform prevention and policy. Methods This cross-sectional qualitative study utilized the principles of community - based participatory research, involving in-depth interviews with 32 immigrant African women who survived DV from male intimate partners in Washington state (n=31) or acted as a key informant of DV (n=1). The interview transcripts were analyzed using descriptive thematic analytical methods. Results All participants experienced their first DV episode before age 26, typically during cohabitation, pregnancy, or childrearing with partners aged 26–30 years. Duration of DV ranged from 3 to 36 months. Key facilitators for exiting DV relationships included social support (50%), safety concerns for self or children (31.6%), economic empowerment (~8%), and DV education (5.3%). Perceived love by survivors was the most common reason for remaining in abusive relationships (58%), followed by fear of law enforcement involvement (18%). Stigma and shame were major barriers to seeking help. Discussion Study findings were similar to the regional existing literature of risk factors and common stressors that increase DV, but strategies to prevent it were distinct to this demographic. Conclusion Interventions leveraging cultural values like community networks of social support, empowerment and family values should be prioritized for effective DV prevention in close-knit African immigrant communities.

ABSTRACT This study uses Feminist Thematic Analysis to examine the hashtags #MenAreTrash and #AmINext through eighteen YouTube videos. YouTube serves as a valuable space for feminist inquiry because it allows complex social issues to be discussed through both visual and verbal storytelling. It also provides a platform for voices that are often unheard, encouraging open and inclusive dialogue. The research focuses on how sexual and gender-based violence, along with rape culture, are understood and discussed in South Africa. Across the videos, many women spoke about the meaning of these hashtags, systemic oppression, and the normalisation of violence in everyday life. Rape culture is widespread but often poorly understood, and victim blaming remains common. The study also reveals that exposure to digital violence can lead to emotional distress and a sense of vicarious victimisation, particularly among marginalised groups, resulting in heightened vigilance and changes in behaviour.

ABSTRACT The article aims to outline the posthuman feminist becoming of the eponymous heroine, Bulbbul in Anvitaa Dutt’s directorial debut film, Bulbbul streaming on Netflix. A gothic re-imagination of the witch figuration in popular discourse, Dutt’s screenplay presents Bulbbul as an assemblage of embodied uncanniness and speculative liminality. In addressing the appalling realities of gender-based violence and patriarchal oppression, the film presents the titular heroine/witch as a posthuman feminist becoming, who transgresses the patriarchal constraints imposed by the Man/Hero on screen. Drawing on Rosi Braidotti’s critical insights on “wanting out” in the work Posthuman Feminism (2022), the article examines modes of becoming-a-witch through speculative feminist retellings on screen. While registering gruesome underpinnings of socio-sexual violence in the film, the article foregrounds Bulbbul’s desire to materialize an alternative existence away from patriarchal exclusions by becoming-a-witch. In doing so, the article endeavors to situate an empathic bond with the witch figuration on the screen by closely assessing her creative and critical transgression from being-a-wife to becoming-a-witch in Dutt’s film.

A qualitative study of gender-based violence against women with disabilities in conflict-affected North West Cameroon.

Abstract: Gender equality is a cornerstone of democratic governance and sustainable development. Yet, despite constitutional guarantees and international commitments, gender-based violence continues to undermine the dignity, safety, and autonomy of millions of individuals worldwide. The recognition of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) as a public law and human rights issue represents a significant transformation in legal and political discourse. What was once dismissed as a private matter—particularly domestic violence—has now become a central concern of international law, constitutional governance, and criminal justice systems. The international community has increasingly recognized GBV as not merely a social problem but a violation of fundamental human rights. Over the past few decades, legal reforms across jurisdictions have attempted to criminalize gendered violence, expand definitions of abuse, strengthen victim protection, and improve access to justice. However, the persistence of GBV indicates that reform only in legal aspects alone is not enough to resort this serious concern, because the reform will not yield results unless it is implemented properly. Along with this, it is hardly possible to start a fight against this kind of violence until we rise above the patriarchal thinking in the society and move towards social transformation.

ABSTRACT In May 2024, the authors organized a Legislative Theatre workshop to rethink and generate policy reforms that incorporated the principles of abolitionist feminism into university GBV complaints policies. Informed by our PI’s work on A pleasure and radical care-centered ethic of embodied and relational Otherness: Version 2.0, this article summarizes, analyses and reflects on our work during and since that workshop, with an eye to providing an experiential case study for academics and practitioners working in similar areas. It also articulates novel policy recommendations on the subject of complaint and gender-based violence as its central contribution to this area of research. The article begins with some context followed by a discussion of Legislative Theatre (LT) as a methodology, and an overview of the previous work on creative policy interventions that went into this project. We then engage in a descriptive and reflective articulation of the day itself and detail its outcomes. Our objective is to reflect on our experiences of using LT to intervene in GBV policy at the university with the hope that this innovative contribution will be helpful to other scholars and practitioners who want to use innovative, participatory approaches to address these issues.

As a contribution to African context-based sociocultural psychology (Nsamenang, 2006), this chapter explores children’s experiences of sociocultural anxieties and gender-based violence (GBV) in the Busoga sub-region of Uganda. Drawing on child-focused qualitative methods and activities with school children, the study reveals how deeply entrenched cultural norms and gender stereotypes contribute to the prevalence of GBV in schools. The findings highlight that children, girls and boys face and/or perceive multiple forms of gender-related violence, including physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, which are often directly or inadvertently perpetuated by peers, teachers, and other community members. The chapter presents a unique understanding of the sociocultural anxieties related to violence, from the perception of traditional gender roles, and the pressure to conform to societal expectations, among school children. The chapter presents a discussion of the psychological and educational impacts of GBV as a threat to children’s school achievement. By examining the intersection of sociocultural factors and GBV, this chapter provides a nuanced understanding of the challenges faced by school children in Busoga and offers practical recommendations for creating safer and more supportive educational environments. The study underscores the role of children in advancing their own agency that provides a voice relevant to school-based and other interventions in addressing these issues. This research contributes to the broader discourse on GBV in educational settings and highlights the urgent need for culturally sensitive approaches to combating violence and supporting vulnerable children in Uganda. The chapter is also a leapfrog towards decolonial psychologies, as earlier idealised by African Psychologists, like, among others, Bame Nsamenang. The chapter concludes by calling for increased awareness and targeted efforts to dismantle actual and perceived harmful cultural practices and promote gender equality, thereby fostering a more inclusive and protective atmosphere for all students.

ABSTRACT Gender-based violence (GBV) is a significant global public health and human rights issue. Despite experiencing violence, many survivors hesitate to seek professional help due to individual, social, and cultural barriers. Understanding these barriers is essential for improving access to support services. The Barriers to Help-Seeking – Trauma Version (BHS-TR) Scale was developed to identify such barriers across different cultural contexts. This study aimed to culturally adapt the BHS-TR Scale into Turkish and evaluate its psychometric properties in a sample of GBV survivors. A cultural adaptation and cross-sectional psychometric study was conducted between May and August 2024 at two universities in Türkiye. The sample included 163 women students who reported experiences of GBV. Data were collected using a demographic form, the Turkish version of the BHS-TR Scale, and the Barriers to Seeking Mental Health Counseling Scale (BMHC). Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 21, Jamovi, and JASP. Descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), reliability testing (Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega), and convergent validity assessment were performed. Participants most reported psychological violence (88.3%), coercion and threats (31.3%), childhood abuse (25.8%); 61.3% had never sought professional help. CFA supported the seven-factor structure of the BHS-TR Scale. Internal consistency was high (Cronbach’s α = .934). BHS-TR scores showed a moderate-positive correlation with the BMHC (r = .312, p < .01), supporting convergent validity. The Turkish BHS-TR Scale is a valid and reliable tool to assess help-seeking barriers among GBV survivors. It offers culturally relevant measures for research, policy, and intervention planning.

Within the framework of international criminal law, the International Criminal Court (ICC) plays a pivotal role in tackling gender-based crimes and advancing women’s dignity. This paper critically examines the ICC’s increasing efforts to combat sexual, reproductive, and other forms of gender-based violence, focusing particularly on the Office of the Prosecutor’s 2023 Policy on Gender-Based Crimes and related ICC case law.

Water justice is the equitable, reliable, and safe access to clean water and sanitation and meaningful community inclusion in water governance, which is constrained by multiple social inequities. Financial (housing) and social inequities such as gender inequitable norms and gender-based violence, land insecurity, racial discrimination, and sexuality diversity (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer [LGBTQ+]) exclusion perpetuate unequal access to water and sanitation for historically marginalized populations. This highlights the need for an intersectional approach to building alliances to advance water justice across diverse social movements. In Cape Town, South Africa, legacies of colonialism and apartheid continue to shape spatial and infrastructural inequalities, especially in backyards. In response, we co-developed the "Water Justice Alliance-Building Toolkit" through a community-engaged process with activists from five intersecting movements: water justice, women's rights, housing rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and racial justice. The participatory co-production process involved filmed walk-along interviews, focus groups, arts-based workshops, and community dialogue, culminating in modular tools designed to support intersectional education, alliance-building, and advocacy. In this article, we describe the toolkit's development, its components, and an accompanying documentary, "Its Ebbs and Flows," which centers lived experiences of water injustice through visuals and multilingual narration. Toolkit activities, including discussion guides, artmaking, song-making, and role-play, facilitate inclusive dialogue. We conclude with implications for practice and policy, highlighting how participatory, arts-based approaches can foster more responsive health promotion strategies. By validating community knowledge and creative expression, this toolkit expands on whose expertise counts to guide a just transition and offers replicable templates for promoting health equity in climate-vulnerable settings.

Effective public health leadership is necessary to sustain vision, culture, and necessary health promotion amongst communities and societies. Leadership that is committed to social justice and epistemic freedom enhances the capacity for innovative direction, fostering the development of additional leaders. The COVID-19 experience revealed the need for open and transparent communication from effective leadership that empowers citizens to knowledge and informed collaboration. This qualitative study demonstrates how public health leaders implemented initiatives using multidisciplinary approaches to embolden middle managers from three South African provinces. Facilitators conducted training sessions covering human rights, health ethics, and gender-based violence (GBV), highlighting the impact of these areas on public health leadership. The findings indicate that meticulous public health leadership requires activism aimed at addressing imbalances and social injustices. The trainees maintained that it was critical that middle managers in districts should lead transformative health systems that can improve the community well-being. The study concludes that meaningful public health leadership relies on collaborative approaches that prioritize training to develop communities and sustain visionary leadership.

This study examines the institutional determinants influencing the implementation of gender-based violence policies in Oromia, Ethiopia, focusing on the moderating role of urban-rural contexts. While national and regional gender-based violence policies are well-established, their effectiveness at the community level is inconsistent, with rural areas facing considerable challenges. These challenges include weak institutional capacity, cultural resistance, limited access to services, and reliance on informal dispute resolution mechanisms. The study combines both qualitative and quantitative methods, including a Likert scale questionnaire and in-depth interviews with a diverse group of stakeholders, such as community elders, rural women, health workers, police officers, and local government officials. The quantitative data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling and Qualitative data analysis by NVivo 14 software. The findings reveal notable differences between urban and rural areas: urban regions benefit from stronger institutional support, better public awareness, and greater access to services, while rural areas face barriers such as cultural resistance, weak enforcement mechanisms, and limited institutional capacity, hindering effective policy implementation. The study highlights the need for targeted, context-sensitive interventions to raise community awareness, strengthen institutional capacity, and improve coordination, particularly in rural areas. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers, non-governmental organizations, and civil society organizations aiming to improve gender-based violence policy outcomes in Ethiopia, with recommendations for developing an inclusive, culturally sensitive support system for survivors across both urban and rural contexts.

ABSTRACT Gender-based violence (GBV) among trafficked persons in South Africa remains a critical human rights concern, further marginalizing an already vulnerable population. Despite existing laws and international commitments, justice and support mechanisms often fail in practice, leaving survivors without adequate protection or recourse. Challenges in victim identification, reporting, and prosecution hinder justice delivery, while inadequate support services, such as shelter, healthcare, and psycho-social assistance, limit survivors’ recovery. This paper examines systemic gaps in addressing GBV among trafficked persons, analyzing legal frameworks, case studies, and policy inefficiencies. It highlights barriers to access, socio-economic drivers of trafficking, and the shortcomings of current interventions. A holistic, survivor-centered approach is essential, integrating interagency coordination, community-based strategies, and specialized training for law enforcement, judicial personnel, and service providers. By proposing targeted reforms, this paper advocates for a more effective justice and support system that prioritizes sensitivity, competence, and survivor empowerment. Strengthening institutional responses and fostering collaboration can disrupt cycles of exploitation, ensuring trafficked persons receive the justice and care required to rebuild their lives with dignity.

Over the past few decades, water programs have positioned women as primary beneficiaries, aiming to empower them through improved access and participation. In doing so, several gendered narratives have emerged, widely circulated but seldom interrogated, that continue to shape water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) policy and practice. Despite a growing body of literature on WASH and gender, there is a lack of critical investigation of such narratives and its underlying assumptions. A rigorous systematic review was conducted across five databases to identify peer-reviewed empirical studies published in English between 2015 and 2024 (SDG era). 48 studies from Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) were included to assess the assumptions underpinning three dominant water-gender narratives: that gender quotas enable women’s active participation in water committees, that lack of household water facilities puts women at violence risk, and that improved water access leads to time savings enabling economic empowerment. Using thematic analysis grounded in the Gender and Development (GAD) approach, this review takes a deep dive into the empirical basis of the included studies, complemented with wider discussions. Findings revealed a disjuncture between popular narratives and women’s lived realities. Gender quotas often increased nominal representation but rarely translated into active participation or efforts for power redistribution. Narratives that linked water to gender-based violence oversimplified complex issues, while reinforcing patriarchal controls, neglecting women’s right to public spaces and male accountability. Time savings from water fetching linked to economic opportunities rested on several flawed assumptions, ignoring intra-household dynamics and resource gaps. This review contributes to reframing that language by interrogating persistent gender myths and challenging oversimplified, instrumentalist narratives. By critically unpacking these narratives, it calls for more context-sensitive, intersectional, and transdisciplinary approaches to water and gender, reframing expectations from the WASH sector as well as recentering the focus on structural inequalities and lived experiences.

ABSTRACT Gender-based violence (GBV) remains a pervasive harm disproportionately affecting Indigenous women and marginalised communities in Australia and across the globe. Despite the centrality of GBV in criminological research, limited attention has been paid to how it is taught in higher education. This article reflects on our experiences teaching GBV within criminology in Australia and the UK, drawing on feminist, queer, intersectional and decolonial frameworks. We argue that teaching GBV requires more than trauma-informed approaches, and highlight the importance of critically examining the politics of naming GBV, foregrounding marginalised voices, and situating GBV within broader structures of colonialism, heteropatriarchy and racial capitalism. We explore strategies for fostering inclusive and reflexive classrooms, such as flipped classroom design and embedding decolonial perspectives into curricula. Attention is also paid to the challenges of teaching GBV within neoliberal academic institutions and the need for reflexivity, particularly for educators from privileged groups.

The article proposes the theoretical concept of “affective bridges” to describe “affective connection,” “solidarity practice,” or “political articulation” that elevates intersectionality within feminist and trans activisms in Turkey through its three elements: experience, movement, and discourse/action. It explores the emergence of affective bridges for&lt;em&gt; &lt;/em&gt;bodily autonomy, against femicides and gender-based violence, as well as against the specific anti-gender backlash conditions created by anti-gender networked authoritarianism in Turkey. Turkey was chosen for the case study to build, establish, and demonstrate this concept, but the concept is intended to be applicable transnationally, particularly in countries where global political events have local ramifications and where such forms of intersectional solidarity, coalitions, and collaboration are needed.

Providing sexual and reproductive (SRH) health education to youth can improve outcomes including knowledge of sexually transmitted infections and use of condoms. Programs integrating soccer and sexual health education have shown promise in improving HIV-related outcomes in African countries; however, little is known about programs in other regions of the world, using other sports, or focusing on other SRH outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this scoping review is to identify and compare a broader spectrum of integrated programs and their outcomes. Four databases were searched for articles mentioning SRH education, sports, adolescents, and synonyms of these concepts. References from articles selected for data extraction were also hand-searched. Articles were included in the review if they (1) reported on an intervention in which youth both play a sport and are explicitly taught a curriculum to improve any SRH outcome; (2) were published between 2000 and 2022; (3) reported quantitative outcome data; and (4) included participants between 10 and 24 years old. Two co-authors extracted data from the selected studies. Narrative synthesis and descriptive tables were used to summarize extracted data. Of 4,161 records identified by the search, 21 met the inclusion criteria. The majority of the programs were implemented in Africa (n = 13). Sports included football/soccer (n = 15), netball/basketball (n = 2), cricket (n = 2), and unspecified sports (n = 4). Most (n = 12) interventions were multi-session programs lasting up to 12 weeks. HIV/AIDS prevention (n = 16) and prevention of gender-based violence (n = 13) were the most common SRH topics. Seven studies included random assignment to treatment and control. Significant improvements were reported by most of the studies measuring HIV-related outcomes as well as all three studies reporting outcomes related to contraception or pregnancy. Less than half of the studies measuring gender roles, gender norms, or gender-based violence reported positive outcomes. Integrated sport and SRH interventions show promise as a way to attract and engage youth in SRH programming. Additional research is needed to better understand the specific content, context, and implementation strategies that are associated with positive outcomes.

Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in sub-Saharan Africa face socio-economic and gender-related factors that heighten risk of HIV infection. We examined HIV risks and vulnerabilities among AGYW enrolled in the Determined Resilient Empowered AIDS-free Mentored and Safe (DREAMS) program in Zambia. AGYW aged 10-24 years were screened at enrollment in DREAMS using a standardized tool assessing exposure to sexual and reproductive health risks, gender-based violence, and orphanhood. We analyzed 24 months of data (October 2020-September 2022) from six centers in Southern and Western Provinces. We characterized age-disaggregated risks and used multivariable logistic regression to examine associations with engagement in HIV-related clinical services. Among 63,118 AGYW screened, 34.9% were aged 10-14 years, 50.7% aged 15-19 years, and 14.4% aged 20-24 years. Emotional or physical violence (78.0%) and orphanhood (22.3%) were most common among girls aged 10-14 years. Among AGYW 15-19 years, top risks included no/irregular condom use (58.1%), orphanhood (29.2%), multiple partners (23.5%), and transactional sex (20.1%). In the 20-24 years group, 83.5% reported no/irregular condom use, with 29.9% reporting multiple partners and 23.0% transactional sex. Clinical service engagement was positively associated with being out of school, sexually active, using drugs/alcohol, and reporting prior pregnancy, STIs, or multiple sexual partners. Socio-economic vulnerabilities were common among younger AGYW in Zambia, while older AGYW reported high levels of behavioral HIV risk. DREAMS reached vulnerable and at-risk AGYW in Zambia, representing an opportunity to reduce HIV acquisition through targeted prevention services.

In the majority of African nations as well as other communities worldwide, domestic violence is not a recent issue. Based on a person's gender, violence against them is common and increasingly common. Sadly, marital violence that results in murder is also on the rise. In an effort to put a stop to the problem, numerous studies have been done on what causes and fosters gender violence. The analysis of domestic abuse in Amma Dark Beyond the Horizon is examined in this paper. This study examines how Darko depicts domestic abuse in her novel and how it impacts women. This study demonstrates that religion, culture, and tradition are significant factors in sex variation, gender identity conception, and energy sharing in the text selected by its theme of patriarchy and oppression of women. It also shows how socially constructed identities and roles in patriarchal countries fuel social and national conflict. The study used the feminist viewpoint and Radical Feminism theory to analyze themes and the symbolic portrayal of characters. This is because knowledge theories about a person's biological sex and gender identity and how they impact power sharing, as well as the role of religion, tradition, laws, and the prevailing ideology in the continuation of gender-based violence, must be considered in analyses of gender relations. The feminist voice must battle against gender radicalism because Darko's work strongly condemns domestic abuse and the portrayal of women as objects. Darko’s writing portrays a strong call against gender violence and the treatment of women as subjects, therefore calling for the feminist voice to fight against gender radicalism.