In the south of Israel lies the Negev desert. Officially, part of the land is “unoccupied.” But in reality, half of the Negev’s 160,000 inhabitations of Palestinian Bedouin indigenous communities live in informal, unrecognized villages. Khadra Al Sanah has lived in the Negev all her life. Until recently, there was no electricity or running water…

When a little girl was sold to traffickers for $2,000; when a seven-year-old girl was raped by her stepfather; and when a woman was burned and abused by her husband over the course of 30 years, Leduvina Guill Zamora listened solemnly to their stories—then got to work immediately. She stepped in to advocate for girls…

The hardest thing about challenging civil rights violations in Papua is proving they exist. The Indonesian government has thrown a cloak of silence over past and current injustices, which makes speaking out and fighting back much more difficult—and dangerous. Magdalena (Magda) Kafiar, an indigenous Papuan and a church minister, has taken on the task of…

Soon after then-president Felipe Calderon declared the war on drugs in Mexico in late 2006, human rights organizations began noticing an alarming trend. Alongside the soaring homicide rates, people were disappearing. Sons were abducted from their homes; fathers vanished on the highways; daughters never made it home from school. The police—either complicit with the criminals,…

Marta Alanis has been an activist for abortion rights since 1991, when she started Catholics for Choice in her city, Cordoba, Argentina. Though she is now widely known for her work on abortion rights, the issue is highly stigmatized. “At first, it was hard to take on abortion publicly,” she says. “It was a personal…

“I was born across the road from the diamond fields.” Melania Chiponda has personally experienced what mining does to African women’s lives. She remembers a time when people came to the Marange area in Zimbabwe to buy cattle or to pick fruit from the majestic baobab trees. Today, the mines have displaced both the people…

For decades, Miriam Miranda has worked to reclaim community and defend the land and cultural rights of the indigenous Garifuna people of the Atlantic Coast of Honduras. Working in a country with one of the most violent and repressive governments toward activists, Miriam has become a target of death threats, imprisonment, and attacks. It’s also…

Tin Tin Nyo grew up in an activist household; her parents were involved in the All Burma Student Democratic Front, a group that has been fighting for democracy and human rights in Burma since it was established in 1988. When Tin Tin became an adult, she joined the Burmese Women’s Union to advocate for women’s…