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Analyses of women's rights and gender equality in Afghanistan have historically depicted a clear binary: patriarchal and conservative men resisting aspirational women. However, such analyses have failed to account for the significant number of men in Afghanistan who have been vocal advocates for women's rights and have worked tirelessly towards building a gender-just society. To challenge stereotypical representations, this report draws on primary interview data to explore the views of Afghan male allies who are working for gender equality and feminist peace in the country. The report discusses the allies' perspectives on gender relations and their commitment towards feminist peace. The report also offers an analysis of the current situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime and its implications for our male allies and their work. Through their stories, the report hopes to shed light on the challenges faced by men who support women's rights in Afghanistan and challenge the narrow portrayal of Afghan men as culturally and religiously conservative and opposed to gender equality.

In spite of tremendous progress toward including gender equality as a global goal—included in numerous UN conventions and the Millennium Development Goals—much progress remains to be made. Men's violence against women remains a pervasive feature of life in every country in the world. Increasing attention is being paid to engaging men and boys to end men's violence. Programs and policies have been successfully piloted by nongovernmental organizations across the world and shown to promote important and positive change in men's gender-related attitudes and practices, including in reducing men's use of violence against women. Since the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, national governments and UN agencies have steadily adopted and implemented policies and community-based interventions intended to change social norms about gender and masculinities. As cross-pollination happens across countries and regions, work with men and boys for gender equality has become more complex, ambitious, and visible, generating important synergies and successes, and some resistance. This article examines the rationale for that work; describes key findings from multicountry studies about the relationship between notions of masculinities and men's gender-related practices; documents key principles guiding much gender equality work with men and boys; identifies emerging strategies and proposes key next steps to increase the scale, impact, and sustainability of gender transformative work with men and boys.

Sociologist Shari L. Dworkin interviews Dean Peacock, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Sonke Gender Justice (a South-African NGO). This interview attempts to flesh out the ways in which men are critical points of engagement and active agents in reducing violence and minimizing the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The ways in which social science thinking has inspired Sonke's "One Man Can Campaign" is explored, along with the program and policy impact of Sonke's numerous innovative "gender-transformative" projects.

IssuesThe recently launched "Global Plan towards the Elimination of New HIV Infections among Children by 2015 and Keeping their Mothers Alive" sets forth ambitious targets that will require more widespread implementation of comprehensive prevention of vertical HIV transmission (PMTCT) programmes. As PMTCT policymakers and implementers work toward these new goals, increased attention must be paid to the role that gender inequality plays in limiting PMTCT programmatic progress.DescriptionA growing body of evidence suggests that gender inequality, including gender‐based violence, is a key obstacle to better outcomes related to all four components of a comprehensive PMTCT programme. Gender inequality affects the ability of women and girls to protect themselves from HIV, prevent unintended pregnancies and access and continue to use HIV prevention, care and treatment services.Lessons LearnedIn light of this evidence, global health donors and international bodies increasingly recognize that it is critical to address the gender disparities that put women and children at increased risk of HIV and impede their access to care. The current policy environment provides unprecedented opportunities for PMTCT implementers to integrate efforts to address gender inequality with efforts to expand access to clinical interventions for preventing vertical HIV transmission. Effective community‐ and facility‐based strategies to transform harmful gender norms and mitigate the impacts of gender inequality on HIV‐related outcomes are emerging. PMTCT programmes must embrace these strategies and expand beyond the traditional focus of delivering ARV prophylaxis to pregnant women living with HIV. Without greater implementation of comprehensive, gender transformative PMTCT programmes, elimination of vertical transmission of HIV will remain elusive.

Gender has long been recognized as being key to understanding and addressing HIV and AIDS. Gender roles and relations that structure and legitimate women's subordination and simultaneously foster models of masculinity that justify and reproduce men's dominance over women exacerbate the spread and impact of the epidemic. Notions of masculinity prevalent in many parts of the world that equate being a man with dominance over women, sexual conquest and risk-taking are associated with less condom use, more sexually transmitted infections, more partners, including more casual partners, more frequent sex, more abuse of alcohol and more transactional sex. They also contribute to men accessing treatment later than women and at greater cost to public health systems. The imperative of addressing the gender dimensions of AIDS has been clearly and repeatedly articulated. Many interventions have been shown to be effective in addressing gender-related risks and vulnerabilities including programmes designed to reach and engage men, improve women's legal and economic position, integrate gender-based violence prevention into HIV services, and increase girls' access to secondary and tertiary education. Despite this, the political will to act has been sorely lacking and not nearly enough has been done to hold governments and multilateral institutions to account. This paper argues that we can no longer simply pay lip service to the urgent need to act on what we know about gender and AIDS. Simply put, it is time to act.

Emerging out of increased attention to gender equality within violence and HIV prevention efforts in South African society has been an intensified focus on masculinities. Garnering a deeper understanding of how men respond to shifting gender relations and rights on the ground is of urgent importance, particularly since social constructions of gender are implicated in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As social scientists collaborating on a rights-based HIV and antiviolence program, we sought to understand masculinities, rights, and gender norms across six high HIV/AIDS seroprevalence provinces in South Africa. Drawing on focus group research, we explore the ways that men who are engaged in HIV and antiviolence programming can often be simultaneously resistant to and embracing of changes in masculinities, women's rights, and gender relations. We use our findings on men's responses to changing gender relations to make suggestions for how to better engage men in HIV and antiviolence programs.

"One Man Can" (OMC) is a rights-based gender equality and health program implemented by Sonke Gender Justice Network (Sonke) in South Africa. The program seeks to reduce the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS and reduce violence against women and men. To understand how OMC workshops impact masculinities, gender norms, and perceptions of women's rights, an academic/non-governmental organization (NGO) partnership was carried out with the University of Cape Town, the University of California at San Francisco, and Sonke. Sixty qualitative, in-depth interviews were carried out with men who had completed OMC workshops and who were recruited from Sonke's partner organizations that were focused on gender and/or health-related services. Men were recruited who were over age 18 and who participated in OMC workshops in Limpopo and Eastern Cape Provinces, South Africa. Results reveal how men reconfigured notions of hegemonic masculinity both in terms of beliefs and practices in relationships, households, and in terms of women's rights. In the conclusions, we consider the ways in which the OMC program extends public health research focused on masculinities, violence, and HIV/AIDS. We then critically assess the ways in which health researchers and practitioners can bolster men's engagement within programs focused on gender equality and health.

As the HIV/AIDS epidemic has progressed, the role of gender inequality in its transmission has become increasingly apparent. Nearly half of those living with the virus worldwide are women, and women's subordination to men increases their risk of infection and makes it harder for them to access treatment once infected. Men, too, suffer from harmful gender norms-the expectation that they will behave in ways that heighten their risk of HIV infection and that they will be cavalier about seeking health care increases their vulnerability to the disease. In the Middle East and North Africa, HIV infection rates are low, but changing gender norms have the potential to accelerate the spread of the disease if gender inequality is not addressed. Improving women's education, workforce participation, and social and political opportunities is crucial to strengthening health in the region. Work with men to shift gender imbalances is a further important task for the region's policymakers and civil society groups.