Afghan women demonstrate in the center of Kabul, Afghanistan, August 13, 2022. © 2022 Oriane Zerah/Abaca/Sipa USA via AP Photo |
On Wednesday, International Women’s Day, women around the world gathered in solidarity and to protest attacks on their rights – to education, well-being, livelihood, and bodily autonomy. Women demand to be treated like equals.
Here are some of the themes we highlighted this International Women’s Day. |
There has been no shortage of setbacks to women’s rights this past year. The Iranian government cracked down on women and girls protesting restrictions on how they dress and act. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is denying women and girls’ basic rights, including to education, jobs, and freedom of movement.
But it’s not just authoritarian governments that violate women’s rights. Women face restrictions in democracies, too. In the US, many states are restricting access to abortion. The United Kingdom has excluded some migrants from a convention protecting women from violence. And Poland’s politically compromised court has effectively banned abortion, while its government prosecutes women’s rights defenders.
But in other places, women are using international law to push for local change. And advances in abortion access across Latin America and countries such as Ireland let us know that change is possible. |
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This is the story of one Iranian woman who stopped wearing a headscarf in public as an act of protest. |
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An elderly Iranian woman walks along a street-side in Tehran without wearing her headscarf, October 2, 2022. © 2022 Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via AP Photo |
Despite Iran’s compulsory hijab laws and fear of arrest, Pendar (not her real name), 51, together with two other women, has walked for hours each week through Tehran’s crowded streets.
Their quiet act of resistance began after Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa (Jina) Amini died while in custody of Iran’s “morality” police, a tragedy that ignited massive protests across the country.
Pendar told HRW of her experiences joining the protests, and what standing up for their rights means to her and other women in Iran. “The change in society is very visible, especially in women,” she told us. “This is partially because it’s beneficial for them, after 40 years of repression, that finally there might be a change and hope.” |
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For women in South Korea, this International Women’s Day marked a year of increasing adversity. Access to safe abortions remains impeded, an attempt to broaden the legal definition of rape was blocked, and there was another uptick in digital sex crimes.
The government’s seeming lack of concern for issues related to women’s bodily autonomy and safety have only compounded the divisive and politically charged nature of any discussion related to women or feminism. |
Last year on International Women’s Day, the Saudi government touted its new ‘progressive’ Personal Status Law. But in reality, the law enshrined into the legal code Saudi’s abusive guardianship system, which requires a male family member to make critical decisions on a woman’s behalf, as well as discrimination against women.
The law also contains discriminatory provisions against women concerning marriage, divorce, and decisions about their children. |
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Along with our partners, HRW is working toward the realization of women’s empowerment and gender equality, to protect the rights and improve the lives of women and girls around the world. Because we know: women’s rights are human rights, and they are nonnegotiable.
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| Lebanon is literally leaving people in the dark and dramatically reducing people’s access to critical rights such as food, water, education, and health care. |
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| | The law the United Kingdom government proposed this week to ban people from claiming asylum if they cross the English Channel by boat – or arrive by other so-called irregular means – won’t work. |
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| A criminal court in Thailand sentenced a man to three years in prison for selling satirical calendars that authorities allege defamed the monarchy. |
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In celebration of International Women’s Day, we asked some of our colleagues in HRW’s Women’s Rights Division what the day means to them. Watch this video to hear their answers. |
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