Minister says women visiting the lakes of Band-e-Amir have not been wearing their hijabs properly
The Taliban have banned women from visiting one of Afghanistan’s most popular national parks, adding to a long list of restrictions aimed at shrinking women’s access to public places.
Thousands of people visit Band-e-Amir national park each year, taking in its stunning landscape of sapphire-blue lakes and towering cliffs in the country’s central Bamiyan province.
Continue reading...Governing body says it will take ‘necessary legal action’ against female players protesting over Luis Rubiales kiss scandal
The Spanish football federation has threatened to sue Jenni Hermoso, the player at the centre of a row over its president’s conduct, for lying and defamation.
It has also threatened to sue the 79 women’s football players who signed a letter in which they refused to play for their country as long as Luis Rubiales remained in his post.
Continue reading...Medical records from across the region show sexual violence continues to be used ‘to intimidate and terrorise communities’
Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers continue a widespread and systematic campaign of rape in Tigray despite the peace agreement signed in November last year, a new report reveals.
In the first report to document sexual violence – using hundreds of medical records from the start of the conflict in November 2020 through to June 2023 – healthcare professionals recount cases of gang-rape, sexual slavery and murder, including the killing of children.
Continue reading...Study of chronic fatigue syndrome also finds women are more likely to develop worse symptoms over time
Women with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) tend to have more symptoms than men and are more likely to develop increasingly severe symptoms over time, according to initial results from a major study.
It is already known that women are at higher risk of CFS, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), and the latest study, called DecodeME, provides new insights into how their experience differs from men. The study found that women who have ME/CFS for more than 10 years are more likely to experience increasingly severe symptoms as they age.
Continue reading...Two cases to be heard this month could serve as legal precedent to outlaw the holding of patients against their will for unpaid bills
Two women who were prevented from leaving hospital over unpaid medical bills are to have their case against Ugandan authorities heard this month in a case that lawyers hope will end the practice.
Akello Esther Susan, 23, and NS (known by her initials) are jointly suing the government, two district councils and church dioceses over their treatment after giving birth in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Continue reading...Singer Eva Amaral this week created headlines by baring her chest at a festival, joining a string of other artists asserting this freedom in the name of defending women’s rights
In the middle of her performance at the Sonorama festival in the northern Spanish town of Aranda de Duero on Saturday, Eva Amaral was about to lead her band Amaral into her song Revolución when she took off her red sequin top and threw it on the floor.
“This is for Rocío, for Rigoberta, for Zahara, for Miren, for Bebe, for all of us,” she said, listing the names of fellow artists before uncovering her breasts. “Because no one can take away the dignity of our nakedness. The dignity of our fragility, of our strength. Because there are too many of us.” In a concert marking the Spanish band’s 25-year career, going topless was a way of defending women’s dignity and freedom to go nude, and “a very important moment”, Amaral later told El País.
Continue reading...A successful Australian trial of a urine test to detect whether an abortion has worked will be welcomed by rural and remote patients, say clinicians
A home test that checks whether a drug-induced abortion has worked is not only safe but reduces rates of unnecessary follow-up surgery, an Australian-first study has found.
People who attend clinics to access medication to terminate a pregnancy, known as a medical abortion, usually need to see a doctor 14 days later and may undergo a blood test to examine levels of a hormone known as hCG, along with an ultrasound to rule out complications.
Continue reading...For the first time in decades, the products could get a significant update, which makers say better absorbs fluid
It’s been over 90 years since Tampax created the first modern tampons, and the product’s design remains mostly unchanged. But the FDA just approved a new design that could change the appearance of a product that’s looked the same for decades.
The design, patented by the independent startup Sequel, has diagonal grooves that spiral down the product. The brand’s founders say the product’s helical shape better absorbs fluid, which leads to less leakage and a more reliable experience.
Continue reading...The nearest abortion clinic – in Chicago – was too far away and too expensive for her mother to provide her with the procedure
A 13-year-old girl in Mississippi gave birth to a boy after she was raped as well as impregnated by a stranger – and then was unable to get an abortion, according to a Time magazine report published on Monday.
The mother of the girl, who uses the pseudonym Ashley in the report, was looking to get an abortion for her daughter but was told the closest abortion provider was in Chicago – a drive of more than nine hours from their home in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
Continue reading...Ex-PM urges UK and allies to impose sanctions on Afghan regime over its ‘brutalisation’ of women and girls
Gordon Brown has called for the Taliban to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity, as he urged the UK government and its allies to impose sanctions against the Afghan regime.
The former Labour prime minister appealed to the international criminal court to prosecute those responsible for the “systematic brutalisation of women and girls”.
Continue reading...Campaigners say absorbent alternative to tampons and sanitary towels should not be classed as garments
MPs, retailers and charities have written to the government urging it to axe the 20% VAT on period pants, the absorbent underwear designed to be worn as an alternative to tampons and sanitary towels.
Period pants are classed as garments but campaigners are asking Victoria Atkins, who as financial secretary to the Treasury is the minister responsible for VAT, to get them reclassified as period products in the chancellor’s autumn statement later this year.
Continue reading...State attorney general immediately appeals against ruling that says doctors must be allowed to end unsafe pregnancies
A judge in Texas has ruled that the state’s abortion ban is too restrictive for women with serious pregnancy complications and must allow exceptions without doctors fearing the threat of criminal charges.
The ruling in Austin was the first to undercut the law since it took effect in 2022 and delivers a major victory to abortion rights supporters, who see the case as a potential blueprint to weaken restrictions elsewhere that Republican-led states have rushed to implement.
Continue reading...Thousands more women will be forced into unsafe abortions and die in pregnancy and childbirth, ministers told
Hundreds of thousands more women will face unsafe abortions and thousands will die in pregnancy and childbirth as a result of UK aid cuts in 2023-24, Foreign Office ministers were warned in an internal assessment.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) published its programme allocations for the next two years last month, showing that official development assistance (ODA) spend is due to rise marginally in 2023-24 and then increase by 12% in 2024-25 to £8.3bn.
Continue reading...The landmark Maputo protocol has led to huge gains in women’s rights, from abortion access to equal pay. But to go further will require political will and action
Signed 20 years ago, in the Mozambique city that bears its name, the Maputo protocol was a landmark treaty in the progress towards gender equality across Africa.
It promises equality and non-discrimination to women and girls in civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
Continue reading...MP said she felt ostracised and accused male colleagues of shouting her down for opposing transgender reforms
A senior member of the Labour frontbench has offered an apology to a fellow MP, Rosie Duffield, who has said she felt ostracised by the party because of her views on gender reforms.
Duffield had also accused male party colleagues of trying to shout her down in the Commons earlier this year when she spoke to back the government’s move to block gender reforms proposed in Scotland.
Continue reading...Party chair says since act was passed by party in 2004, there is now a ‘much better understanding of the barriers trans people face’
Labour will overhaul an “outdated” law to make it easier for transgender people to transition while maintaining protections for single-sex spaces, the party’s chair and shadow equalities secretary has said.
Writing in the Guardian, Anneliese Dodds accused the Conservative party of seeking to stoke “culture wars” by pinning its hopes for electoral success on “demonising vulnerable LGBT+ people”.
Continue reading...Government blocks event after release of publicity featuring Susan Taslimi in 1982 film The Death of Yazdgerd
Iranian authorities have banned a film festival that issued a publicity poster featuring an actor who was not wearing a hijab, state media has reported.
The move came after the Iranian Short Film Association (ISFA) released a poster for its upcoming short-film festival featuring the Iranian actor Susan Taslimi in the 1982 film The Death of Yazdgerd.
Continue reading...Aid Access ships medication abortion to all 50 states under the protection provided to clinicians serving patients in banned states
Dr Linda Prine is providing abortion access to people in all 50 states, even those that have banned it. That might seem like an admission to be discreet about in post-Roe America, but Prine and her colleagues at Aid Access, a telemedicine abortion service, are doing it openly and in a way they believe is on firm legal ground.
On 14 July, Aid Access announced that over the past month, a team of seven doctors, midwives and nurse practitioners have mailed medication abortion to 3,500 people under the protection of “shield laws”, which protect clinicians who serve patients in states where providing abortion is illegal. As soon as she learned about shield laws, Prine knew it represented an opportunity to go on the offensive, for those bold enough to try it.
Continue reading...She represented her Cynon Valley constituency in South Wales for 35 years, eventually becoming the oldest woman to sit in the House of Commons
Labour leaders past and present have led the tributes to the long-standing former MP Ann Clwyd after it was announced that she had died at the age of 86.
Clwyd represented her Cynon Valley constituency in South Wales for 35 years, eventually becoming the oldest woman to sit in the House of Commons before she stood down at the 2019 election. Clwyd was first elected in a byelection in 1984 and had already served as an MEP for Mid and West Wales for five years in the European parliament.
Continue reading...From Suffolk to Sheffield, youngsters inspired by England’s Euros triumph sat down before big screens to enjoy the side’s World Cup campaign
Ninety minutes before the Lionesses took to the pitch for their World Cup opener, the under-11s Hadleigh United girls’ team kicked off their own tournament – a mini World Cup five-a-side organised by coach Matt French. More than two dozen girls, representing global national teams, showed off their skills to cheering families and friends.
After the final whistle, it was time to head to the clubhouse to watch the England women’s team play.
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