The Gender Lens is a volunteer-run project teaching criminology, law, women's rights, international relations and politics — alongside free language and school-subject courses taught by our own volunteers, for anyone who wants in.
We started as a small channel writing about crime, consequence, and the rights people are still fighting for — and grew into a volunteer collective that teaches what it writes about. Every lesson and story carries the same thread: law and rights, looked at closely, from more than one side.
Anyone can change something about the site once it's live — copy, colors, sections, links — it's plain code, so future edits are just a conversation away.
Case studies, legal history and the reasoning behind the rules — explained, not just reported.
How rights were won, where they're still contested, and what the UN and international law say about it.
Global issues broken down for people without a political science degree.
We also run beginner-friendly lessons in school subjects — algebra and geometry included — for students who just need another explanation to make it click.
Every lesson here is run by someone from our own volunteer group — students, recent graduates, and young professionals teaching in the language or subject they know best. Nobody gets paid, nobody pays tuition; people just teach because they wanted to open a door for someone else. The group keeps growing every term as former students come back to teach the next group.
New Zealand let women vote in 1893. Switzerland didn't finish the job nationwide until 1971 — and one canton held out until a federal court forced its hand in 1990. The right we treat as obvious today was won country by country, decade by decade.
Read it on Telegram →Two women, two very different reactions from the people around them — depending on where they were, what they wore, who they trusted. Criminology studies more than the crime itself; it studies who society chooses to believe.
Read it on Telegram →For most of history, what happened inside a household stayed there by law as much as by custom. It took generations of activists and lawyers to get domestic violence recognized as what it is: a rights violation, not a private dispute.
Read it on Telegram →For centuries medicine was built around the male body, so women's symptoms were dismissed, misread, or blamed on "hysteria." This piece traces how that started to change — from the doctor who was mocked for suggesting handwashing to the 1993 rule that finally required U.S. drug trials to include women.
Continue reading on Medium →Born in wartime Beirut and raised as a refugee in Britain, Amal Clooney built one of the most respected careers in international law before most people knew her name — representing journalists, genocide survivors, and political prisoners in courts around the world.
Continue reading on Medium →Over 12 million girls are married before 18 every year — most often where poverty and tradition treat a daughter as a financial burden rather than a child to educate. The piece walks through where it happens most, why it persists, and what the UN's 2030 target actually depends on.
Continue reading on Medium →Short-form video built around one idea: women's power, women's energy, women's success, women's world. Expect quick criminology breakdowns, mini true-crime stories with a rights angle, and disciplined, motivational Shorts meant to be watched in under a minute and thought about a lot longer.
Watch the channelStarted The Gender Lens in late 2024, writing essays, articles and analysis, running surveys and researching global issues. Has spoken publicly to students on serious subjects — early marriage, women's rights, historical memory — and has won essay competitions along the way. Opened the project's first channel in 2025; a second channel became the main one by the end of that year.
On the team almost since the very beginning, helping grow the channel and support its women's rights initiatives. Together with Maryam, co-created and runs the project's free volunteer school, where anyone can learn more than five languages at no cost. Also a deputy coordinator for a key team at one of her city's three largest volunteer organizations, focused on ecology and human rights, and is starting a blog on environmental awareness.
