Policy bans aid going to foreign groups that support abortion rights as secretary of state Pompeo says: ‘This is decent and right’
The Trump administration has expanded its ban on funding for groups that conduct abortions or advocate abortion rights, known as the global gag rule, and has also cut funding to the Organisation of American States for that reason.
Related: How Trump signed a global death warrant for women | Sarah Boseley
Continue reading...Space agency blames shortage of outerwear after first-of-its-kind mission falls through
Nasa’s plans for an all-female spacewalk have fallen through – at least in part because the agency doesn’t have enough spacesuits that fit the astronauts.
Early this month, Nasa announced that Christina Koch and Anne McClain would take part in the first-of-its kind mission on 29 March, walking outside the international space station (ISS) to install new batteries. In the past, missions have been all-male or male-female.
Continue reading...Women from Kachin minority are allowed to go home only if they leave baby behind, says HRW report
Burmese and Chinese authorities are turning a blind eye to a growing trade in women from Myanmar’s Kachin minority, who are taken across the border, sold as wives to Chinese men and raped until they become pregnant, a report claims.
Some of the women are allowed to return home after they have given birth, but are forced to leave their children, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch, titled Give Us a Baby and We’ll Let You Go.
Continue reading...Draft documents suggest US will refuse to reaffirm commitment to international declaration on women’s rights at New York forum
US officials in New York are attempting to water down language and remove the word “gender” from documents being negotiated at the UN, in what is being seen as a threat to international agreements on women’s rights.
In negotiations at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which resume at UN headquarters this week, the US wants to replace “gender” in the forum’s outcome document with references only to women and girls.
Continue reading...The Democratic presidential hopeful said: ‘Man, I’m just born to be in it.’ He is, after all, a rich kid from a well-connected family
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Continue reading...Young unmarried mothers are often forced to live in poverty, unable to find work and shunned by their families and communities
Photographs: Carol Allen-Storey/Hope for Rwanda
Gender-specific “Frauenticket” will be 21% cheaper than usual and available on 18 March in stunt to flag German pay gap
Women travelling on Berlin’s metro, buses or trams will pay 21% less than men next Monday in a stunt to boost the visibility of Germany’s gaping gender pay gap.
The city’s public transport operator, BVG, said its “Frauenticket” will be available on 18 March only, to mark Equal Pay Day in Germany. Under the slogan “Mind the pay gap”, it said its cut-price ticket was intended to flag the 21% difference between men and women’s average earnings, one of the biggest gender pay gaps in Europe.
Continue reading...Health minister calls protest about lack of medical insurance ‘taking women hostage’
A French gynaecologists’ union has threatened to halt pregnancy terminations in an attempt to force the country’s health minister to meet disgruntled doctors.
The Syngof union wrote to its 1,600 members calling them to be prepared to stop carrying out abortions to “make ourselves heard” and force the government’s hand.
Continue reading...Prejudice faced by Afghan women with a disability has proved no barrier to its national wheelchair basketball team
Nilofar Bayat played her first game of wheelchair basketball in an open court in the middle of Kabul, surrounded by mainly male onlookers who shouted insults and called her names.
She decided to keep playing anyway.
Continue reading...Protesters call for an end to domestic violence, sexual attacks and pay discrimination – except in Russia
Protests and celebrations were staged across the world to mark International Women’s Day as issues of gender equality and gender violence were highlighted in myriad ways.
In Spain, an estimated six million – reportedly including nuns – took part in a mass two-hour walkout to demand equal pay and rights for women, according to UGT, one of the country’s largest unions. Thousands of women flooded the streets and squares of Madrid carrying placards saying, “Liberty, Equality, Friendship” and “The way I dress does not change the respect I deserve.”
Continue reading...A selection of images from protests and events marking International Women’s Day around the world
Continue reading...As the 10-year anniversary of the Sri Lankan civil war approaches, de-mining continues across the north of the country. At the Halo Trust, 50% of the deminers are women, many of them war widows with children to support
Continue reading...A visit to the world’s fifth poorest country has shown me that battling early and forced marriage begins with communities
Islam, for me, is a way of life and the core of my world. As a Muslim woman I have always been encouraged to be who I want to be.
I get frustrated when people say: “Why do you wear a hijab? Isn’t that a sign of women’s oppression?” I choose to wear a hijab; I choose to be an educated and liberated woman and I choose to follow Islam.
Continue reading...On Saturday 6 March 1971, women from across the UK gathered in central London to join the first national demonstration by the newly formed Women’s Liberation Movement. Observer photographers Jane Bown and Tony McGrath documented the event for the following day’s paper.
Continue reading...Scores of high-profile signatories mark International Women’s Day by signing letter calling for stronger global political support
• Letter: Women worldwide must be heard and respected
Emma Watson, Keira Knightley, and Dame Emma Thompson are among 76 actors, writers, business leaders and campaigners calling on governments to increase support and protection of women fighting for their rights around the world.
The letter, published in the Guardian to mark International Women’s Day on Friday, says women risk “backlash, censorship and violence” whenever they defend their rights or speak out over injustice.
Continue reading...Campaigners will march on International Women’s Day to protest against harassment, child marriage and ‘honour killings’
During Jalwat Ali’s school days in Lahore, there were limited spaces to gather with other women, never mind flood the streets with punchy placards.
Public spaces often feel constricted in Pakistan, as though under critical male scrutiny. But over the past few days, Ali has been recruiting dozens of women, from garment workers to domestic helpers who barely get a day off. “To solve any problem, we need to make a collective effort,” she says.
Continue reading...Follow all the news and developments as people mark International Women’s Day around the world
Vietnamese media has taken the celebration of International Women’s Day several strides backwards with a piece in Tuoi Tre newspaper asking expat men what they think life is like for Vietnamese women.
The insightful verdict from the men, who hail from Australia, France, the UK and Japan, is that “it must be tough to be a woman in Vietnam”.
El Salvador’s Supreme Court has commuted the 30-year sentences of three women imprisoned for abortion convictions, lessening their punishment to time served and ordering them to be released immediately.
Continue reading...Supreme Court commutes 30-year sentences of trio who have each served 10 years in prison
El Salvador’s Supreme Court has commuted the 30-year sentences of three women imprisoned for abortion convictions, lessening their punishment to time served and ordering them to be released immediately.
The three women had spent about 10 years in prison on aggravated homicide charges for allegedly having abortions. All claimed that they had miscarriages. The court found that the women were victims of social and economic circumstances and ruled that the original sentences were unreasonable.
Continue reading...Female ministers and opposition condemn leaflet from League members in southern Italy on the ‘natural role’ of women
Representatives of the far-right League in southern Italy have provoked fury after producing an explicitly sexist leaflet to mark International Women’s Day.
It was intended to be a dedication to women, but the pamphlet instead takes aim at those who “offend women’s dignity” by impeding their “natural role” of “supporting life and the family”.
Continue reading...The opposition’s plan to allow open up sexual health services to more women raises key questions about access, cost and state laws
Labor has announced a national sexual and reproductive health strategy to improve access to contraception and abortion. A major plank of this policy is to “support all women to access termination services in public hospitals”, raising a number of crucial questions:
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