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ISLAMABAD: Nearly half of the world&rsquo;s 304 million international migrants are women, yet many face damaging stereotypes that expose them to violence, discrimination and reduced access to essential services, the UN warned Monday.&nbsp;A new UN Women policy brief, Migrant Women: Narratives and Perceptions, reports that migrant women are frequently depicted as &ldquo;promiscuous,&rdquo; &ldquo;a burden&rdquo; or &ldquo;a threat,&rdquo; shaping how societies and institutions treat them during crises. These narratives, the report noted, are emerging across regions, from Latin America to Eastern Europe and the Middle East.&nbsp;In Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, Oxfam surveys from 2019 and 2023 cited in the UN Women brief show that nearly half of respondents believed migrant women would eventually engage in sex work. Venezuelan women are widely accused of &ldquo;stealing husbands,&rdquo; a trope also echoed in T&uuml;rkiye with Russian women and in Poland with Ukrainian women.&nbsp;The report also highlights the deadly consequences of stigma. In Saudi Arabia, 37% of all documented suicides involve Ethiopian migrant domestic workers. According to the brief, &ldquo;narratives about migrant women that are rooted in stigma and discrimination can be potentially life threatening.&rdquo;&nbsp;In Ukraine, where the Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group has documented similar trends, only one in eight people enrolled in the national opioid substitution therapy program is a woman. Kateryna Hrytsayenko of the Hope and Trust Foundation said women often conceal drug use due to fear of public shaming. Many avoid reporting domestic violence because Ukrainian law allows children to be removed from parents with addiction.&nbsp;Despite nationwide workforce deficits of about 30%, displaced women and female-headed households in Ukraine continue to face pay gaps, poor job opportunities and greater unpaid care responsibilities, according to labor analysis presented at the same meeting.&nbsp;The UN brief situates these narratives within a broader global political shift. Over the past decade, it stated, &ldquo;the world has seen a dramatic rise in right-wing nationalism that deliberately weaponizes migration,&rdquo; with 2024 elections in more than 60 countries amplifying anti-immigrant rhetoric.&nbsp;To counter this, UN Women urged governments to &ldquo;conduct regular perception studies that include sex-disaggregated data on migration.&rdquo; It also called on media outlets to &ldquo;center migrant women&rsquo;s voices as storytellers, not just subjects,&rdquo; and to avoid framing migration with charged terms such as &ldquo;crisis&rdquo; or &ldquo;invasion.&rdquo;

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From Latin America to Eastern Europe and the Middle East, women caught in migration or war are being portrayed through harmful narratives that shape access to healthcare, employment and safety. 

UN warns toxic narratives endangering migrant women worldwide

PARIS:&nbsp;Thousands of protesters across France braved the cold on Saturday to express their anger over the persistence of violence against women and demand more public action and funds to combat the scourge. In Paris, crowds of demonstrators -- 50,000 according to organizers, 17,000 according to the police -- waved signs, chanted, danced and sang as they moved through the capital in the protests organized by the Greve feministe (Feminist Strike) collective of some 60 organizations. &ldquo;A man kills a woman every 2.5 days in France,&rdquo; read one placard distributed by the feminist collective NousToutes (All of us Women).<figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/d8643eab-513b-4cac-a05f-ce1f564629cc-France women protest1.jpg" alt="France women protest1.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">PARIS: Protesters take part in a demonstration called by the French collective NousToutes (Us all) to protest against violence against women, at Place de La Republique in Paris, on November 22, 2025. -- Photo by AFP</figcaption></figure> &ldquo;Nine out of 10 victims know their rapist,&rdquo; read another. &lsquo;Loved without being abused&rsquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;It&#39;s 2025, is it still normal to count our dead women?&rdquo; said Sylvaine Grevin, president of the national femicide victims&#39; federation, whose sister was killed in 2017, ahead of the start of the Paris demonstration. Hundreds of protesters also gathered in the cold in other cities, creating crowds awash in purple -- a color linked to feminism. &ldquo;We have the right to be loved without being abused,&rdquo; said 20-year-old student Juliette in Lille in northern France. Intimate partner femicidesThe associations behind the protests are calling for the adoption of a comprehensive framework law against violence, along with a three-billion-euro budget ($3.5-billion) to implement it. They are also calling for improved education and funding for groups that support victims of violence. According to official figures published Thursday by MIPROF, a government organization tasked with protecting women from violence and fighting human trafficking, the number of intimate partner femicides rose by 11% between 2023 and 2024, with 107 women killed by their partner or ex-partner. &lsquo;Every two minutes&rsquo;&nbsp;A woman is a victim of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault every two minutes, and every 23 seconds of sexual harassment, indecent exposure, or the unsolicited sending of sexual content, according to MIPROF. The Women&#39;s Foundation rights group estimates the minimum annual budget the government should allocate to protecting victims of domestic, gender-based and sexual violence in France is 2.6 billion euros -- equivalent to 0.5% of the state budget.

A woman is a victim of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault every two minutes, and every 23 seconds of sexual harassment, indecent exposure, or the unsolicited sending of sexual content, according to MIPROF.

Articles tagged with "Women rights"

UN warns toxic narratives endangering migrant women worldwide

Thousands march in France to demand action on violence against women