It’s International Women’s Day: How women’s rights fared in the past year
By Victoria Bisset, Adela Suliman, and Naomi Schanen
On March 8, 2024
LONDON — It’s International Women’s Day. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres has urged faster action to achieve gender equality, amid what he described as “a fierce backlash against women’s rights.”
“Billions of women and girls face marginalization, injustice and discrimination, while the persistent epidemic of violence against women disgraces humanity,” he said last week.
Here are some of the key events that affected women in different parts of the world over the past year.
1. Devastating impact on women in Israel-Gaza war
In the five months since the Israel-Gaza war began, more than 30,800 people in the enclave have been killed and over 72,298 injured, according to figures provided by the Health Ministry there, which do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. About 9,000 women were killed, according to the ministry.
Israel’s widespread bombing in densely populated Gaza has left most of its population displaced — including 1 million women and girls, according to U.N. Women. Almost half of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million are children. Thousands of pregnant women face the prospect of giving birth in tents or in the street, amid international warnings of famine, disease and the collapse of Gaza’s health system. The number of miscarriages and stillbirths has also increased, according to doctors and aid groups.
Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, said Thursday that displaced women in camps he visited in southern Gaza reported sexual harassment and gender-based violence there. Separately, U.N. human rights experts voiced concern about reports of “inhuman and degrading treatment” of Palestinian women and girls detained by Israeli forces in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
War in Gaza is making childbirth a nightmare
In Israel, the cross-border Hamas attack on Oct. 7 killed about 1,200 people and injured thousands more. Officials and analysts said the ambush on towns, homes and a music festival was meticulously planned to kill as many civilians as possible. Militants captured 253 hostages, according to figures from Israel, which includes in its count hostages who were killed with their bodies still held in Gaza. More than 112 hostages have been released or freed — most of them women and children. Some of the hostages believed to still be alive in Gaza are women.
A team of U.N. experts reported this week that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that some victims of the Oct. 7 attack were sexually assaulted, including by rape and gang rape. It found “clear and convincing information” that there was sexual violence and torture against some of those taken hostage and that the violence “may be ongoing.” Hostages who were freed reported limited rations, medical neglect and isolation during their captivity.
“I know what it is to be a girl there, to be ready that at any moment they will come and kill my soul. It is scarier than death itself,” Maya Regev, a former hostage, said Tuesday at an International Women’s Day event in Israel’s parliament, as she called for the release of the captives.
U.N. report: ‘Convincing’ information Hamas raped, tortured hostages
2. U.S. states continue to impose restrictions on abortion
Reproductive rights remain a polarizing voter issue in a presidential election year. Nearly two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — eliminating a constitutional right to abortion that had stood for 50 years — President Biden is trying to mobilize the Democratic base on preserving abortion access, while his Republican opponent, former president Donald Trump, has said he is “proud” to have contributed to overturning Roe by cementing a conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
The impact of the Supreme Court’s 2022 abortion ruling is still being felt. Nearly 1 in 3 women ages 15 to 44 live in states where abortion is banned or mostly banned. In April 2023, Florida passed a six-week ban, which would outlaw most abortions in the country’s third-most-populous state if the Florida Supreme Court allows it to take effect. On the other side of the spectrum, several states including California, Kansas and Michigan have taken steps to ensure that abortion rights are protected in their constitutions.States where abortion is legal, banned or under threat
In vitro fertilization is another hot-button issue in the United States after Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos are people and that individuals could be held liable for destroying them.
The unprecedented decision threw IVF treatment into turmoil there and ignited a wider debate on the definition of personhood. In response to the ruling, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed a bill late Wednesday to protect providers and patients doing IVF from legal liability if the embryos they create are damaged or destroyed. Like Ivey, many Republicans across the country have defended the treatment, distancing themselves from the Alabama ruling.
Alabama governor signs IVF bill giving patients, providers legal cover
3. France and Mexico move to protect abortion access
Some other nations, such as France and Mexico, are going the other way on abortion, taking steps to protect women’s rights. This month, French lawmakers voted to explicitly enshrine abortion rights in the country’s constitution. The amendment referred to abortion as a “guaranteed freedom,” with President Emmanuel Macron hailing the decision.
Thousands of people gathered in Paris to celebrate, waving French flags as the Eiffel Tower was illuminated with the words “My body, My choice.” France decriminalized abortion in 1975, making it legal for any reason through the 14th week of pregnancy — which is more restrictive than policies in nearly half of U.S. states, where abortion is protected well past 14 weeks.France becomes first country to explicitly enshrine abortion rights in constitution
In September, Mexico took steps to widen access to abortion, after its Supreme Court ruled to decriminalize the procedure in federal health facilities.
The ruling means that more than 70 percent of women in Mexico — including everyone who uses the federal health system — will have access to legal abortion, according to the Information Group on Reproductive Choice, the nonprofit that took the case to the Supreme Court. The group labeled the decision a “historic milestone,” with the ruling marking a growing acceptance of the procedure in majority-Catholic Latin America.
4. Spain’s World Cup kiss sparks outcry
Spanish players were celebrating their victory over England at the women’s World Cup in Sydney in late August when the president of the Spanish soccer federation kissed a player on the lips. The incident — which the player called out as nonconsensual — caused national and international outrage. It also highlighted ongoing issues with attitudes toward consent and harassment in Spain.
The Spanish soccer federation initially backed its president, Luis Rubiales, accusing midfielder Jenni Hermoso of lying when she said she was kissed against her will, and said it would take legal action. After a public outcry and support for Hermoso from dozens in the Spanish women’s soccer union — including World Cup players, who signed a statement refusing to play while the current leadership remained — there was a reckoning.
Rubiales stepped down in September. He was later banned for three years by FIFA, the international soccer federation. In January, a Spanish High Court judge recommended that Rubiales stand trial for sexual assault in the incident, and that the team’s former coach and two other officials face trial for allegedly pressuring Hermoso to support Rubiales. “I felt vulnerable and a victim of an impulse-driven, sexist, out-of-place act, without any consent on my part,” said Hermoso, who said she’d faced pressure from the federation to absolve Rubiales. “Simply put, I was not respected.”
Some hoped the moment would bring broader change. “We are ready for this to be the #MeToo of Spanish football, and for this to be a change,” Víctor Francos, secretary of state for sports and head of Spain’s Higher Council for Sports, reportedly said in August.
This piece was republished from MSN.