Thousands of women are killed in dowry disputes each year, despite the practice being banned in 1961
Dowry deaths in India no longer provoke the public anger they once did, despite thousands of women’s lives still being lost every year, according to new research.
The killings – women who are murdered or driven to suicide following dowry disputes between families – have also faded from political debate, despite an increase in cases.
Continue reading...Doctors say survey shows need for morning-after pill to be available at corner shops, petrol stations and supermarkets
Almost half of the UK population believe it would be difficult to access emergency contraception on a Sunday, while nearly two-thirds think they would struggle after 10pm, according to a survey.
The research, carried out by YouGov, found that only 7% of people believe it would be difficult to access emergency contraception during the daytime on a weekday.
Continue reading...Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome is underdiagnosed and inconsistenly managed, according to Nice
Up to 4 million women with irregular periods should be investigated for polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, according to new NHS guidance.
PMOS, previously known as polycystic ovarian syndrome, is believed to affect up to 13% of reproductive age women, the World Health Organization estimates.
Continue reading...CPS urges victims to go to police, saying they will be taken seriously and it ‘won’t hesitate’ to bring abusers to justice
Prosecutors in England and Wales are expecting incidents of domestic abuse to increase during the men’s World Cup, and have urged victims to come forward, saying those responsible “will be held accountable”.
“We often see more domestic abuse cases around major football tournaments like these,” the CPS national stalking lead, Olivia Rose, said. “The point that we want to get across is that those responsible will be held accountable, and that we won’t hesitate to bring them to justice.”
Continue reading...Rights campaigners and MEPs say meeting would normalise regime that erases women from public life
Rights campaigners and MEPs have warned that a meeting between EU officials and a Taliban delegation in Brussels risks normalising a regime that has banned girls from school beyond the sixth grade and sought to erase women from public life, while its ranks include two leaders accused of crimes against humanity.
A spokesperson for the Afghan foreign ministry confirmed that a delegation representing the Taliban had travelled to Brussels after the Belgian foreign ministry issued five single-day visas.
Continue reading...Campaigners welcome announcement cutting levies on menstrual health items, but say their work to end period poverty is ‘far from over’
Pakistan plans to abolish “period tax”, in a victory for young campaigners who had taken the government to court over the charges.
Finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb announced that sanitary towels and related items were “daily necessities that are indispensable for women’s health, dignity and full participation in social activities”, and said he intended to remove the sales tax.
Continue reading...General secretary of TUC calls Reform proposal ‘a smokescreen for slashing women’s rights’
A law proposed by Nigel Farage to “strengthen women’s rights” could cost female workers money by removing equal pay for work of equal value, unions have said.
A proposal, made by Reform UK days before the Makerfield byelection, to introduce a “women and motherhood protection act” that it says will restore equality before the law has been described as “shameless and deceptive”.
Continue reading...Marnie Lovejoy hopes to inspire other women to fish, protect England’s rivers and lift up the ‘beautiful’ grayling
With its iridescent pink scales and elegant dorsal fin, the grayling is known to anglers as the “lady of the stream”, yet the society fighting for its protection has never been led by a woman, until now.
Angling, and fly-fishing in particular, has always been a very male-dominated sport. The fly-fisher’s club in Mayfair, London, where anglers meet to lunch on dover sole and drink fine wine, did not allow women to cross the threshold even as guests until 2024.
Continue reading...Women coaches routinely overlooked, undermined and denied opportunities despite qualifications, say experts
Women are being shut out of careers in sport by entrenched sexism, discrimination and workplace bullying, MPs have been told.
Female coaches are routinely overlooked, undermined and denied opportunities despite their qualifications, experts told a parliamentary select committee on Thursday.
Continue reading...Country is shaken by the brutal murders of two girls, aged 14 and 17, whose bodies were discovered just days apart
Argentina has reacted with fury after the bodies of two murdered teenage girls were found just two days apart. The latest killings underscore the South American country’s enduring femicide crisis despite years of feminist campaigning, and have prompted alarm over the decision to cut support for victims of gender-based violence under the far-right administration of Javier Milei.
Police found the remains of Agostina Vega, 14, on Saturday, in a field on the outskirts of the city of Córdoba. She had been fatally strangled and her body had been dismembered, according to local media reports.
Continue reading...States with abortion bans are turning away from medications to a wait-and-see approach, with care falling below standards
Abortion restrictions in the US have made it more difficult to access care for miscarriages, a new study stays.
The new research found that since the June 2022 Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v Wade, pregnancy care has fractured along state lines; it’s getting increasingly harder to access healthcare for miscarriages in US states with abortion restrictions.
Continue reading...‘Robert’s answer is not Reform policy’, Yusuf said about an answer that Jenrick gave to journalists days earlier
Keir Starmer has said that SNP leaders need to explain why they did not realise that Peter Murrell was stealing more than £400,000 from the party.
Asked about yesterday’s court proceedings in Edinburgh, where Murrell admitting embezzling money from the party to spend on luxury goods, Starmer said:
I think anybody looking at what’s happening up in Scotland will be baffled that those at the top of the SNP say they didn’t know anything about what was going on, so clearly there are questions that need to be answered.
Continue reading...Joanna Howe says the image was sent to her by a woman ashamed of her abortion, and used it to support ‘rally for Emma and Ruth’ in favour of NSW bill
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An image posted by anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe claiming to show aborted twin girls called “Ruth and Emma” appears to be a picture of sugar gliders.
The two little pink bodies are displayed on a clean white background and experts say the image does not look at all like the product of an abortion.
Continue reading...Updated code of practice covering England, Wales and Scotland also relates to changing rooms and follows supreme court ruling
Single-sex toilets and changing rooms in England, Wales and Scotland must exclude transgender men and women, according to a new code of practice from the equalities watchdog.
But the long-awaited guidance also says that businesses and service providers have to offer practical alternatives such as gender-neutral toilets for people who do not wish to use services for their biological sex.
Continue reading...Sequel a rare example of female-skewing movie leading the North American summer offerings – and highest opening weekend yet for a Meryl Streep film
Gird your loins: The Devil Wears Prada 2 has had a huge opening weekend at the box office, making $233m (£171m, A$323m) worldwide from an overwhelmingly female audience.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 earned $77m at the North American box office, and $156.6m internationally. In the US and Canada, the sequel bumped Michael to second place, though the musical biopic held on in its second weekend to earn $54m, falling only 44%.
Continue reading...Results suggest radiotracer maraciclatide can ‘light up’ condition on scan and reduce need for investigative surgery
A non-invasive scan for endometriosis has shown promising results in a trial, boosting hopes for far quicker diagnosis.
The trial, which included 19 women with the condition, suggests that an experimental radiotracer, called maraciclatide, can “light up” endometriosis on a scan. The current need for a surgical investigation is seen as a major obstacle to timely diagnosis, with women in England typically waiting nearly a decade.
Continue reading...Critics hit out at ‘dire’ situation in the country which has the strictest laws around abortion in western Europe
Rights campaigners have affixed lockboxes containing abortion pills to sites across Malta, in a campaign designed to highlight the country’s near-total ban on abortion.
The 15 black boxes aim to provide practical help to women grappling with the EU’s strictest abortion laws; anyone who is less than nine weeks pregnant and in need of an abortion is invited to send an email to obtain the location and codes to access the pills.
Continue reading...Activists say clamp down on period products to target insurgents is gender-based violence and violates rights
Myanmar’s military regime is expanding its ban on the distribution of period products, claiming they are being used to treat wounded resistance fighters, according to local activists.
The south-east Asian country has been locked in civil war since 2021, when the military usurped the democratic government and launched a violent crackdown on dissidents. Artillery fire, the burning of townships and arbitrary arrests have become common in the years since then.
Continue reading...Poll projects major political earthquake across Britain with Labour losing Wales and England’s Red Wall
In the light of what George Robertson, who led the strategic defence review for Labour, said about defence spending in his speech last night, there’s a good chance Kemi Badenoch will choose to raise this at PMQs later.
She may well raise the Times’s splash, which says Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is proposing to raise defence spending by less than £10bn over the next four years.
The State of It political podcast from The Times and The Sunday Times has been told that Reeves is unwilling to break her fiscal rules or increase taxes to boost defence spending.
John Healey, the defence secretary, is pressing for a bigger increase as there are concerns that £10bn will not be enough, given the increasing likelihood that British forces will be deployed to Ukraine and the Middle East.
Lord Robertson produced his first SDR as Tony Blair’s defence secretary in 1998, and the historian David Edgerton noted then that Britain was committing itself “to acting primarily with the USA in a wide-ranging programme of global policing”. The structure of the armed forces is designed not for autonomous defence but because “the composition … is what allows Britain to be the USA’s principal partner”. Only 15% to 20% of spending, Prof Edgerton reckoned, related to purely national defence. In that sense, the model Lord Robertson now defends was never primarily about defending the UK at all. It was about plugging into a US system and piggybacking on its arms industry base.
The Treasury is right to question prioritising defence now. Cutting welfare would hit demand and weaken growth. As Khem Rogaly of the Common Wealth thinktank argues, defence spending provides a weak economic stimulus compared with public investment – and is even worse as a job creator. Moreover, the UK is not using higher defence spending to build its own independent military, but to reshape its armed forces around a US-style venture capital and tech ecosystem. With Mr Trump in office, there is no better time to ask: whose security are we funding – Britain’s or America’s?
Continue reading...Japan’s ban on married couples having different surnames has prompted an event to highlight people’s reluctance to change their name
At the very least, the three men and three women calming their nerves on a Friday evening at a venue in Tokyo know they have one thing in common.
Spaced out across booths, they will soon be placed in pairs and given 15 minutes to get to know one another.
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