Hundreds of under-age Egyptian girls enter temporary marriages with rich tourists from the Persian Gulf during the summer in return for money for their families. These unions – dubbed summer marriages – are not legally binding and end when the foreigners return to their own countries.

Slavery may be banned worldwide, but the practice continues to this day. In Germany, instances of forced prostitution and labor exploitation have fueled debate about what contributes to slavery and how it can be stopped.

Asian maids reveal the details of human trafficking in Morocco. They came to work but were exploited and abused.

An Indian woman carries stones on her head at a rock processing area in Assam © Anuwar Hazarika/AFP/Getty Images

The belief in witchcraft, sorcery and the occult often times causes people to be wrongly accused of being a witch. In the last couple of months this has led to several killings in India’s eastern state of Assam. Read this story and other news about women here!

© picture-alliance/dpa/EPA/R. Yongrit

Even though female genital mutilation (FGM) is internationally recognized as a violation of human right it is still practiced on babies and young girls in many countries because the misconceptions surrounding FGM are deeply rooted in traditions reaching back many generations. But the fight against FGM continues and some of the campaigns against it have begun to bear fruit if only slowly. Read more news about FGM and other topics about women here!

Copyright: picture-alliance/Erik Schottstaedt

“Often trafficking victims don’t even know that there is a label to describe what happened to them,” says Luis CdeBaca Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons from the US State Department.