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In the biggest reform to British abortion laws in nearly 60 years, members of Parliament have voted to decriminalize some late-term abortions — at a time when many of their U.S. counterparts are moving in the other direction, to limit the procedure.

In a landslide vote late Tuesday, lawmakers in the lower house of British parliament, the House of Commons, endorsed new legislation that bars women in England and Wales from ever being investigated, arrested, prosecuted or imprisoned for terminating their own pregnancies — no matter what term or trimester they're in. The vote was 379 to 137.

Abortion is allowed up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, and beyond that in certain cases, if the woman's life is in danger. But abortions have to be approved by two doctors, except for those that are terminated at home within 10 weeks.

Women who've ended their pregnancies outside those rules — for example by buying pills online and taking them at home, during the third trimester — have in some cases been prosecuted.

The new law changes that.

One of the most famous cases of women who've been prosecuted is that of Nicola Parker, who delivered a stillborn baby at home, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, after taking abortion medicine prescribed by a doctor over the phone when she was about 26 weeks pregnant. At trial, she told jurors she thought she was only six weeks along. She was arrested, jailed — and ultimately acquitted last month.

"The new [law] is about recognizing that these women need care and support, and not criminalization," the author of an amendment to the new law, MP Tonia Antoniazzi, told Parliament, calling the old law "outdated" and "Victorian."

Others say the new law doesn't go far enough.

It does not change rules governing abortions in a clinical setting, and it leaves open the possibility of prosecutions of anyone who assists a woman in getting a late-term abortion, including medical professionals.

Another MP, Stella Creasy, proposed an amendment that would have fully decriminalized abortion and enshrined access to it as a human right. But it was not allowed to be brought for a vote. In an op-ed Wednesday, Creasy called it a "missed opportunity."

Yet another amendment, on which lawmakers also weren't allowed to vote, would have prevented the sale of mail order abortion pills.

The new law still needs approval in the upper house of Parliament, the House of Lords, before taking effect — but backers have the votes there, and that is all but guaranteed.

Because of the United Kingdom's devolved system of government, this law covers only England and Wales. The other two countries in the U.K., Scotland and Northern Ireland, have their own, similar sets of rules governing abortion and other matters.

This is nevertheless the biggest change to British abortion laws since the Abortion Act of 1967, which legalized abortion in England, Wales and Scotland. Initially that law allowed the procedure up to 28 weeks of pregnancy, but it was later reduced to 24 weeks.

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Antonella Rubens in front of her portraits at the opening reception.Photo Courtesy of Museo de Arte Transfemenino

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Four months after opening the Museo de Arte Transfemenino (MAT) in Mexico City, a groundbreaking museum dedicated to showcasing the ongoing artistic and cultural legacies of trans women, curators Sofía Moreno and Rojo Génesis have vaulted their project into new territory. They took over El Museo del Chopo with Plasticidades Encarnadas, a landmark exhibition tracing five decades of trans women’s art and cultural production in México.

Featuring 140 works by 39 trans artists, the show spans 1975-2025 with contemporary art, sculpture, high fashion, nightlife ephemera, textiles, and personal archives — a deliberately incomplete genealogy. As the curators see it, they hope it sparks trans women’s interest in uncovering more of the untold stories: reactivating memory and personal archives, as well as birthing new works into the world.

That 50 year-span reveals a history marked by both violence and worldmaking. During the 1970s and ’80s, police raids would force artists like Gabriela Elliot, Emma Yessica Duvali, and Antonella Rubens into underground torture cells at Tlaxcoaque for “moral misconduct.” These same women, alongside Francis, Terry Holiday and countless other vestidas, an umbrella term for transfeminine identities, transformed México’s nightlife scenes with spectacular travesti shows full of glamor, pleasure, and most importantly, sisterhood.

Their generation paved the way for today’s dolls, but even still, Mexico remains the second-deadliest country for transgender people. While 22 of 32 Mexican states now allow gender‑marker changes and the 2023 Paola Buenrostro Law makes transfemicide punishable by up to 70 years, these symptomatic patches are yet to see real shifts in the material lives of trans women in Mexico.

In an interview with curators Sofía Moreno and Rojo Génesis, them.us asked how Plasticidades Encarnadas emerged after decades of indifference, violence, and cultural erasure that have weighed on so many trans women.

One thing: the first edition of Plasticidades Encarnadas didn’t have a documentary approach. You couldn’t find photos with that nostalgic archival vibe that I hate. I hate exhibitions that are about trans women and focus on how they used to live. I think that anthropological gaze is completely outdated now. So in the first edition, instead of focusing on how trans women lived, we focused on what trans people do, their materiality and what they produce. -Rojo Génesis

Looking ahead, the curators grapple with MAT’s work and ways to ensure it and the archive continue to live on.

This weekend someone asked me, “In ten years, how do you imagine MAT?” And I was like, “Ten years? Girl, please.” It’s wild that two trans women try to sustain a physical space when we don’t even own a space for ourselves … How am I supposed to think about sustaining this space when I don’t have my own home, when I don’t know where I will age? … Now I see myself growing old with this project. If I want a physical space, when will I secure one for myself? If tomorrow the museum closes, where will we take refuge as adults? That’s a challenge in trans culture: We think collectively and sometimes forget our individual needs -Rojo Génesis

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Indigenous women from the Achi group participate in a Mayan blessing ceremony in front of the Supreme Court building ahead of the trial of former Guatemalan paramilitaries accused of raping 36 Achi women between 1981 and 1985, during Guatemala's decades-long civil war. REUTERS/Cristina Chiquin

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A top Guatemalan court has sentenced three former paramilitaries to 40 years each in prison after they were found guilty of raping six Indigenous women between 1981 and 1983, one of the bloodiest periods of the Central American nation’s civil war.

The conviction and sentencing on Friday mark another significant step towards attaining justice for the Maya Achi Indigenous women, who were sexually abused by pro-government armed groups, during a period of extreme bloodshed between the military and left-wing rebels that left as many as 200,000 dead or missing.

Former Civil Self-Defence Patrol members Pedro Sanchez, Simeon Enriquez and Felix Tum were found guilty of crimes against humanity for sexually assaulting six members of the Maya Achi group, Judge Maria Eugenia Castellanos said. The judge praised the women’s bravery in coming to court to testify on repeated occasions.

The women recognised the perpetrators, they recognised the places where the events took place. They were victims of crimes against humanity. They are crimes of solitude that stigmatise the woman. It is not easy to speak of them. -Judge Maria Eugenia Castellanos

Indigenous lawyer Haydee Valey, who represented the women, said the sentence was “historic” because it finally recognised the struggle of civil war survivors who had demanded justice for decades.

Several Maya Achi women in the courtroom applauded at the end of the trial, where some dressed in traditional attire and others listened to the verdict through an interpreter.

One of the victims, a 62-year-old woman, told the AFP news agency she was “very happy” with the verdict.

Judge Marling Mayela Gonzalez Arrivillaga, another member of the all-women, three-panel court, said there was no doubt about the women’s testimony against the suspects.

The convictions were second in the Maya Achi women’s case against former military personnel and paramilitaries. The first trial, which took place in January 2022, saw five former paramilitaries sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Advocacy group Impunity Watch said the case “highlights how the Guatemalan army used sexual violence as a weapon of war against Indigenous women” during the civil conflict.

In 2016, a Guatemalan court sentenced two former military officers for holding 15 women from the Q’eqchi community, who are also of Maya origin, as sex slaves. Both officers were sentenced to a combined 360 years in prison.

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Senator Naseema Ehsan via The Guardian

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During a tense debate last week over whether the Pakistan senate should pass a bill banning child marriage, Naseema Ehsan, a 50-year-old senator stood up to speak.

I got married at 13 years old and I want child marriage to be banned. I was lucky to have good and affluent in-laws but most Pakistani women are not so lucky. Not every child has a supportive husband like me. -Senator Naseema Ehsan

When she finished talking, there was applause in the chamber.

Despite fierce opposition, later that day the bill banning child marriage in Pakistan’s capital city, Islamabad, was passed. It will be signed into law by the president in the coming days and replace legislation introduced under British colonial rule.

The landmark parliamentary vote comes more than a decade after a similar bill was passed in Sindh province. Senators, civil society organisations and activists hope that because this latest bill was passed by both houses of Pakistan’s legislature, other regions will follow suit, eventually outlawing child marriage throughout the country.

Politician Sherry Rehman tabled the bill in the senate after Sharmila Farooqi introduced it in Pakistan’s lower house, the national assembly.

This bill sends a powerful message. It’s a very important signal to the country, to our development partners, and to women that their rights are protected at the top. -Senator Sherry Rehman

Under the new legislation, the minimum age for marriage is 18 for both males and females in the capital, with underage marriage now a criminal offence. Previously, it was 16 for girls but 18 for boys.

Strict punishments, including up to seven years in prison, have been introduced for people – including family members, clerics and registrars – who facilitate or coerce children into early marriage. Any sexual relations within a marriage involving a minor – with or without consent – will be deemed statutory rape, while an adult man found to have married a girl could face up to three years in prison.

It is a moment of hope in an increasingly gloomy landscape for women’s rights globally, according to Jamshed Kazi, Pakistan’s representative for UN Women.

This particular passage [of the bill] is even more significant because it’s happening in the wake of counter-currents. We are seeing a global pushback on women’s rights and even a renegotiation of issues that were settled maybe 30 years ago. Countries are challenging the use of gender-responsive language, and even sexual and reproductive health and rights. -Jamshed Kazi

In Pakistan, 29% of girls are married by 18 , according to a 2018 demographic survey, and that 4% marry before the age of 15 compared with 5% for boys, according to Girls Not Brides, a global coalition aiming to end child marriage. The country is among the top 10 worldwide with the highest absolute number of women who were married or in a union before the age of 18.

Ehsan knows only too well the dangers facing girls who are married early. She had her first child at 15. Her in-laws could afford medical care and she had three more children in consecutive years. She dropped out of school but her husband allowed her to continue her studies privately.

I had complications during pregnancy. Doctors told me I was weak because I was very young – a child. My health, and my daughter’s health, were affected. At 20, I came to the realisation that I should have finished my studies and waited till 19, at least, to become a mother. I would have been able to take care of my children more. -Senator Naseema Ehsan

Since then, she has seen many cases of child brides dying in childbirth in her home province of Balochistan, where girls can get married at 16. A woman dies due to pregnancy complications in Pakistan every 50 minutes.

I’ve never been so content to vote for a bill as the child marriage restraint bill. The world has changed and developed. We have progressed and we must embrace the progress … It was a very much needed bill. -Senator Naseema Ehsan

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Photo: The New Arab

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When fighting first gripped the Sudanese capital in April 2023, quickly overwhelming Khartoum's hospitals, Dr Safaa Ali faced an impossible choice: her family or her patients.

She said she stayed up all night before deciding not to follow her husband to Egypt with her four children.

I was torn. I could either be with my children, or I could stay and do my duty. -Dr. Safaa Ali

She has not seen her family since.

Nearly two years into the war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, she is one of the last remaining obstetricians in the capital, risking her life to give Sudanese women a shot at safe births.

In the nearly two years since, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million, including more than half of the pre-war population of greater Khartoum.

Dr Safaa is one of a cohort of doctors, nurses, technicians and janitorial staff in the last hospitals standing in Omdurman, Khartoum's sister city just across the Nile.

“We find strength in our love of our country, our passion for our work and the oath we swore," Dr Safaa said in a war-damaged delivery room.

The operating theatres have been turned into battlegrounds, hospitals have been bombed and their colleagues have been killed. Yet through bombs and bullets, they turned up for their patients every day.

Bothaina Abdelrahman has been a janitor at Omdurman's Al-Nao hospital for 27 years.

She sheltered with her family in a neighbouring district for the first 48 hours of the war but has not missed a day of work since.

“I would walk two hours to the hospital, and walk two hours back," she said from the hospital, mop in hand.

For months, medical personnel have been subjected to routine accusations from combatants that they have been collaborating with the enemy or failing to treat their comrades.

Health professionals were attacked, kidnapped, killed and taken hostage for ransom. -Dr Khalid Abdelsalam, Khartoum project coordinator for medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

Nationwide, up to 90 percent of hospitals in conflict zones have been forced shut, according to Sudan's doctors' union, which says at least 78 health workers have been killed since the war began.

By October, the World Health Organization had recorded 119 attacks on health facilities.

"At one point, there wasn't a single working MRI machine in the country" for medical scans, Dr Khalid added.

Khansa al-Moatasem heads the 180-person nursing team at Al-Nao, Omdurman's only hospital to remain functioning throughout the war, despite repeated attacks.

It's an honour to give the hospital everything I have and everything I've learnt. -Khansa al-Moatasem

According to MSF, which supports the complex of two-storey buildings, Al-Nao has suffered three direct hits since the war began.

At the hospital gates, a sign reads: "No weapons allowed," but it frequently goes unheeded.

After the RSF stormed the nearby Saudi maternity hospital early in the war, Dr Ali, who serves as the hospital's director, steeled her nerves and went to the paramilitaries herself.

I met their field commander and I told him this was a women's hospital, only for them to storm it again the next day with even more fighters. -Dr. Safaa Ali

In July 2023, she watched one of her colleagues die when the hospital was bombed.

Eventually, the hospital was forced to close its doors after its ceilings collapsed, its equipment was looted and the walls of its delivery rooms were left riddled with bullets.

Dr Ali set up mobile clinics and a temporary maternity ward at Al-Nao until the Saudi hospital partially reopened this month.

Since army forces recaptured much of Omdurman in early 2024, a semblance of normality has slowly returned, but hospitals have continued to come under attack.

As recently as February, Al-Nao was rocked by RSF shelling as its exhausted doctors raced to treat dozens of casualties from RSF artillery fire on a crowded market.

Those hospitals which still function have been forced to rely increasingly on the help of volunteers from the local Emergency Response Rooms.

The neighbourhood groups are part of a grassroots aid network delivering frontline aid across Sudan but are mainly comprised of young Sudanese with few resources.

With no senior physicians left, Dr Fathia Abdelmajed, a paediatrician for 40 years, has become the "mother" of Al-Buluk Hospital.

For years, she treated patients at home in the Bant neighbourhood of Omdurman.

But since November 2023, she has been training teams at the small, overwhelmed hospital, "where hardworking young people were struggling since the start of the war," Dr Fathia said.

She said the work was often harrowing but the honour of serving alongside such dedicated volunteers "has made this the highlight of my career."

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Hundreds of nurses were joined by other health care workers and members of the public in Jamaica on Monday as they called for an end to violence against women and girls.

The peaceful protests follow the physical assault of a nurse in a road rage incident in Mount Friendship, St. Andrew last Tuesday.

St Andrew businessman Robert 'Andy' Bell, 65, has been charged with assault occasioning bodily harm, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and assault at common law. He is also facing firearm charges. The incident, which was reportedly caught on video, and shows the nurse being stomped in the head, has sparked islandwide demonstrations calling for justice and an end to violence against women. The message was spoken through talker phones and on placards - "We are tired. We are fed up. Enough is enough!"

President of the Jamaica Enrolled Nurses Association, Claudette Clarke-Waugh, didn't mince words as she stood at the start of the protest.

We're hoping that justice will be served, but also for the others out there who are hiding under the shadows, who we don't know about -- we are letting them know that it is not okay. We want to let them know that we are tired [and] fed up. Enough is enough! -Claudette Clarke-Waugh

Dawn Marie Richards, president of the Nurses Association of Jamaica, said the protests go beyond one incident.

We are trying our best to create continued awareness regarding violence against women and children in our country. We are hoping that we can impact the policymakers to ensure that when persons are caught, they are given the full brunt of the law. -Dawn Marie Richards

She stressed the need for education and prevention just as much as punishment.

We also want to help our women and our children to learn how to identify signs of domestic abuse, signs that they can speak about, and find safe spaces. As we speak there are other activities taking place across the island, Port Antonio, St James, Westmoreland, St Ann, [and] some parts of St Mary. So it's islandwide. The nurses have been mobilised islandwide. -Dawn Marie Richards

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Several dozen people, notably women and children, have demonstrated in the central Malian village of Diafarabé following allegations that the Malian army killed more than 20 people.

The protest happened last Wednesday, two days after the alleged massacre. Although allegations of Malian army killings are frequent in this part of West Africa, demonstrations have been rare since military rule and restrictions on freedom of expression were installed in Mali.

The women are demonstrating their anger to denounce the alleged murder of 27 people by the Malian army last Monday…The army arrested 28 men who were at the Diafrabé market to sell their animals. The soldiers crossed the river behind the village with the prisoners, but one escaped and returned to the village to report that the army had executed the others. -Diowro Diallo, president of the Fulani association Dental Wuwardé

Diafarabé, a predominantly Fulani ethnic village located in central Mali, is an area where JNIM, an Al Qaida-linked group, is active and regularly targets the Malian army with attacks.

The army said it has launched an inquiry.

Last December, Human Rights Watch published a report accusing the Malian army and the Wagner Group of deliberately killing dozens of civilians and setting fire to at least 100 houses during military operations in central and northern Mali.

Human rights associations have regularly accused the Malian army of human rights violations since the beginning of the country’s security and political crisis in 2012. In 2020, a group of military officers took advantage of the widespread discontent against democratically elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta to stage a coup and seize power.

Mali's military government cut military cooperation with France and the European Union, which had troops in Mali as part of the fight against extremism, and forged new security ties with Russia instead. However, analysts say that the security situation has worsened.

Credit:Ross Macdougal

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Transgender women held a topless protest outside of Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Saturday, May 17, in a show against the recent supreme court ruling on the legal definition of a woman.

Around 200 protestors took part in the demonstration at Holyrood as they set out to "confront the Scottish government's failure to respond with strength and solidarity."

The transgender woman stood outside parliament, topless, with red painted right arms as a show of solidarity with anti-fascist feminists in Europe, tape over their mouths to represent the censorship of trans voices in this ruling and a white rose to represent the death of transgender rights in the UK.

Sophie Molly, who took part in the demonstration and helped organise the event alongside a group of transgender women across Scotland said she felt the Supreme Court Ruling and the EHRC Interim Guidance is "a real setback for bodily autonomy" and that this ruling wouldn't just hurt transgender women, but all women.

It went really well. Lots of support for trans and non-binary people. A good turn out of around 200 people. A joyous atmosphere of resilience and determination. We were joined by pro-Palestine campaigners. A good show of solidarity. -Sophie Molly

It comes after Pride Edinburgh suspended political parties from participating in this year's pride march in response to the ruling.

This year, political parties won't be invited to give the traditional pre-march speeches, political parties will not be able to have stalls at the community fair and they will not be permitted to partake in the march.

Sharing this decision on social media, organisers wrote:

It is clear those in power and the combined voices of political parties across the UK, by their silence and inaction, are not hearing the voices of our community, and it would be wrong for Pride Edinburgh 2025 to give political parties a platform at our event…Therefore, the first time in our history, Pride Edinburgh is suspending the participation of all political parties from our 2025 event. -Pride Edinburgh

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(L-R) Kani Kusruti, Chhaya Kadam, Payal Kapadia and Divya Prabha at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024. Sameer Al-Doumy

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India's giant movie industry is known for its macho, men-centric storylines, but a wave of women filmmakers is helping to break the mould.

"More and more women are writing their stories, turning them into films," said writer-director Reema Kagti, who believes the trend brings a more "real and healthy perspective" to movies, with complex, outspoken women characters who are masters of their own story.

The world's most populous nation churns out 1,800 to 2,000 films in more than 20 languages annually -- and Hindi-language Bollywood is one of the largest segments, with more than 300 productions.

Yet the films have often failed to portray women authentically, choosing instead to box them into being passive housewives or mothers who bow to societal pressure.

A 2023 study by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) found that female characters in most chart-topping Indian films play the role of a romantic interest -- and are "fair skinned with a thin body type and a small screen time".

But industry insiders point to a slate of women-directed movies earning international acclaim that have also scored well at the tough domestic box office.

Malayalam-language film "All We Imagine as Light", a poetic tale about two nurses forging an intergenerational friendship, was the first Indian production to win the Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Director Payal Kapadia shunned the one-dimensional portrayal of women on Indian screens which tends to mimic "unrealistic standards set by society", she said, in favour of one that allows women to "just be ourselves, authentic and true to how we are in everyday life".

India's official entry for the 2025 Oscars was Kiran Rao's "Lost Ladies" -- "Laapataa Ladies" in Hindi -- a comedy which challenges convictions surrounding marriage and womanhood, a sign of a shift -- even if it missed the final shortlist.

It is not only arthouse films that are winning hearts.

Mainstream movies with strong women co-leads are filling up theatres as well.

"Stree 2", a horror comedy featuring Bollywood star Shraddha Kapoor, smashed box office records last year, beating earnings by superstar Shah Rukh Khan's action flick "Jawan".

And "Crew", a heist comedy about flight attendants, was widely seen as a win for women-centric movies.

Women still face challenges in telling stories from their perspective. However, the increasing presence of female directors, producers and writers is paving the way for more inclusive narratives. -Dia Mirza, said actor-producer

Movies can also tackle the way regressive traditions manifest in the daily lives of Indian families.

"Mrs.", a Hindi-language film released in February, dives into the unseen labour of a newlywed housewife, her silenced aspirations and the societal conditioning she struggles with.

Lakshmi Lingam, a Mumbai-based sociologist, points out that there was no backlash to the film.

Across social media, you can see people posting -- that the majority of women in India go through this turmoil….The voices of women saying, 'Yes, this is true and I can see myself there' is very high. So, there is that kind of ecosystem of women resonating with many of the ideas these women filmmakers are making. -Lakshmi Lingam

Industry figures suggest progress is being made, albeit slowly.

Last year, 15 percent of Indian movies surveyed hired women for key production positions, up from 10 percent in 2022, according to a report by Ormax Media and Film Companion Studios.

Konkona Sen Sharma, an actor-director who is a champion of women-oriented cinema, is cautiously optimistic about the role women will play in the future.

Women are increasingly present in the film industry, but "we still don't have enough women in positions of power," she said.

Mona Eltahawy is a feminist author, commentator and disruptor of patriarchy. Her new book, an anthology on menopause called Bloody Hell!: Adventures in Menopause from Around the World, has just been published. Her first book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution (2015) targeted patriarchy in the Middle East and North Africa and her second The Seven Necessary Sins For Women and Girls (2019) took her disruption worldwide. It is now available in Ireland and the UK. Her commentary has appeared in media around the world and she makes video essays and writes a newsletter as FEMINIST GIANT.

I appreciate your support. If you like this piece and you want to further support my writing, you can like/comment below, forward this article to others, or send a gift subscription to someone else today.

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Anjana Kumal (left) and Maya Devi Sunar putting final touches on reusable cloth pad at the Miteri Jaibik Pad Udhyog factory in Chitwan. Photo: Bibek Bhandari

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A factory in Nepal is challenging traditional views on menstruation. A small women-run factory in southern Nepal is driving a growing movement to replace conventional menstrual pads with biodegradable alternatives – part of grass roots efforts to protect women’s health and the environment while dismantling entrenched taboos around menstruation.

The Miteri Jaibik Pad Udhyog (Miteri eco-friendly pad factory) in Chitwan district’s Gunjanagar has been manufacturing single-use biodegradable pads and reusable cloth pads since 2017, dispelling perceptions that such products are either costly or unhygienic.

Called Miteri – or “chosen kinship” in Nepali – the pads offer women healthier choices while raising awareness about the high environmental footprint of disposable non-biodegradable pads and encouraging what some advocates call “green menstruation”.

Radha Paudel, a nurse turned advocate for dignified menstruation, started the pad factory along with Chitwan-based Active Women’s Forum for Justice. She is also the founder of Global South Coalition for Dignified Menstruation.

I grew up seeing women use unhygienic cloths during menstruation. I always wanted to start a social enterprise that upheld a menstruator’s dignity, that is good for the planet and also affordable. -Radha Paudel

That philosophy is put into practice inside a tin-roof factory, where a single machine produces about 8,000 pads daily. They are made using pinewood pulp sheet and cotton, with bioplastic packaging, ensuring the entire product is biodegradable.

Calls to promote eco-friendly pads in Nepal come at a time amid growing concerns globally over the safe disposal of menstrual products. Several studies show that tampons and pads are made up of up to 90 per cent plastic and usually take 500 to 800 years to decompose.

In Nepal, an estimated 140 million pads are used annually, adding to a significant menstrual waste load in the country, according to research by Kathmandu-based Health Environment and Climate Action Foundation, or HECAF360.

Anjana Kumal, a 32-year-old employee at Miteri’s facility, said her work had enabled her to speak out against a taboo topic. She even set an example by celebrating her 11-year-old daughter’s first menstruation last year while working at the factory instead of confining her as would have been the case under local tradition.

Miteri provides not just entrepreneurial skills to marginalised communities, but turns women from victims and survivors of menstrual discrimination to community leaders. - Radha Paudel

Menstrual practices are deeply rooted in religion and culture in Nepal, with women referred to as “untouchable” during their monthly cycle. They are barred from entering kitchens, taking part in religious rituals and in extreme cases banished to menstrual huts, where women have been raped or died of snakebites and suffocation.

Nepal criminalised the practice of banishing women to huts in 2017, stipulating a three-month imprisonment or a 3,000 rupees (US$22) fine for violating the law. However, the practice has not been entirely eradicated. In the absence of effective enforcement, schools and teachers are playing a crucial role in raising awareness about the issue.

The Shree Secondary School in Sashinagar, about 15 minutes away from the Miteri factory, has declared itself a “dignified menstruation-friendly” school. The school has a separate toilet for menstruating students, and its walls display poems challenging menstrual discrimination.

Female teachers who once discussed menstruation with girls behind closed classroom doors now openly show how to use pads to both girls and boys. They also educate students on the health and environmental aspects of menstrual products.

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Mexican singer Vivir Quintana, center, and band members join hands before the introduction of her new album “Cosas que Sorprenden a la Audiencia” or Things that Surprise the Audience, in Mexico City, Thursday, April 24, 2025. Quintana’s first “corridos” album tells the stories of women who were incarcerated for killing their abusers while defending themselves. (AP Photo/Aurea Del Rosario)

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Two days before her new album was launched, musical icon Vivir Quintana was behind barbed wire at a women’s prison in Mexico. The singer had spent the past 10 years visiting women incarcerated after defending themselves and, in doing so, killing their abusers.

Their stories became part of “Cosas que Sorprenden a la Audiencia” (Things that Surprise the Audience), Quintana’s latest album.

It tells the story of 10 such women but in a first, Quintana does it through “corridos,” a typically male-dominated and controversial Mexican music genre that’s soared into the spotlight in recent years.

The album, Quintana explained, was born out of her desire to dive into the more complicated aspects of gender-based violence.

This album has a different heart. This album wasn’t made to sell, it’s to change minds. -Vivir Quintana

The songs are meant to raise awareness about soaring levels of violence against women across Latin America — human rights groups estimate that an average of 10 women are killed in Mexico every day — and a justice system that many believe protects abusers and silences women’s voices.

In many cases, women like the ones in Quintana’s corridos are charged with “excessive legitimate self-defense,” charges that have fueled outrage among many in Mexico.

“So many times I feared for my life. So many times I didn’t defend myself,” Quintana crooned, cradling her guitar as her booming voice echoed through the halls of her record label building. “Now I live locked up in a prison, and I feel more free than I did in my own home.”

Amplifying women’s voices has been a hallmark of Quintana’s career, and rocketed her to fame in Mexico and beyond.

In 2020, her “Canción Sin Miedo” (Song Without Fear) became an anthem for Mexico’s Women’s Day march and the feminist movement in Latin America.

In 2022, she co-wrote a melancholy hymn about healing and freedom for the album of the Black Panther sequel. And last year, she was recognized at the Latin Grammys as one of four Leading Ladies of Entertainment.

Quintana’s new music goes further. She uses “corridos,” a type of northern Mexican ballads that has seen both an international renaissance and a backlash, with critics claiming that “narco corridos” — songs that glorify cartel violence and use misogynistic lyrics – have dominated the form.

Instead of banning the corridos as a growing number of Mexican states have done, the country’s first woman president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has proposed that the government promote a new style of corridos that avoid glorifying violence and discrimination against women.

We’re not banning a musical genre; that would be absurd. What we’re proposing is that the lyrics not glorify drugs, violence, violence against women or viewing women as a sexual object. -Claudia Sheinbaum

Quintana’s corridos turn the genre on its head, paying tribute not to violence or criminals, but to women who have been criminalized for defending themselves.

With each song, Quintana would follow local news reports, interview the women in prisons and spend time with their families, hoping to capture their personalities — and not just the violent act that transformed their lives.

It’s something painful that the state tells you that if you defend yourself, we’re going to punish you,” Quintana said. “It’s like up until what point do we care about women’s life? -Vivir Quintana

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Dr Asil Al Jallad pictured in Gaza [Photo courtesy of Asil Al Jallad]

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Dr. Asil Al Jallad, an obstetrician and gynecologist, was the first Arab woman physician to join voluntary emergency medical missions in Gaza since October 2023, where.nearly 70% of the over 52,000 people killed amid Israel’s genocide are women and children.

The New Arab met her recently in Amman at the Women’s Collective Power to Lead Peace and Security event, organised by the Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD) NGO. The event brought together Nobel Peace Prize laureates, women leaders and human rights defenders exploring the vital role of women in peacebuilding, human rights, and resilience, Dr Asil shared her experience after she returned from her second mission in Gaza.

In a situation where people are deprived of everything, where over 90% of the population in Gaza is malnourished, imagine being a woman Add to that being pregnant, giving birth, the burden on your shoulders to raise a displaced family on canned food, while struggling with every single basic hygiene and health condition -Dr. Asil Al Jallad

During her missions in Gaza, Dr. Al Jallad served at the emergency camp hospitals in Khan Younis and Rafah.

We had hundreds of patients every day, we helped many women deliver in a situation where there is a persistent lack of any vital medical equipment or help. On average, a woman would stay just one hour after delivering, given the scale of the emergency we were facing. -Dr. Asil Al Jallad

The worst, in this case, was to let women take this decision against medical advice, consent and against their will due to a lack of capacity.

Imagine a new mother, who has just delivered, doing this with no choice while fearing unexpected situations that might prevent them from reaching their homes. -Dr. Asil Al Jallad

Originally from Palestine but born and raised in Jordan, like over 60% of the Jordanian population, Dr. Al Jallad describe herself as “doctor by passion, mother with a mission, a woman after a cause.”

Through her Instagram and YouTube channels, one can see how passionate she is about her job, having often participated in TV, radio shows and public events to challenge the community’s perspective towards sexual and reproductive health.

The first time she travelled to the besieged enclave was in February 2024, when she had to fight to convince the Jordan Medical Association that obstetricians and gynaecologists were needed. The second time she travelled there was in March 2025.

Israel's violation of the ceasefire last March during Dr Asil's second mission and its complete halt to the access of aid imposed made her work even more difficult.

This time we thought we could work on reproductive health, with a focus on awareness as well as looking to improve hygiene conditions…But there was absolutely nothing standing. Now, there is a dire need for basic medication, and the capacity to assist is minimal. To assess and calculate pregnancies, we had to use our assumptions because there are no means of diagnosing. -Dr. Asil Al Jallad

Dr Asil reiterates doctor and writer Haya Ahmed's words about how women's health is facing a war of its own, and gynaecological illnesses continue to worsen by the hour amid Israel's genocide.

Her family, originally from Tulkarem, had come to Jordan as refugees and had not seen or visited Palestine since then.

Each night, I felt guilty putting my children to bed safely. Guilty for having the privilege to do so while, just a few kilometres away, other women and children were being killed. Many people told me I should not have left my two young kids (10 and 8) to risk my life. But I look at things differently: I needed to leave for them, to be an example. Because if you seek change in the world, it should start from within. Dr. Asil Al Jallad

Dr Asil makes clear that what she has done is the bare minimum compared to the immense needs of over two million Gazans who have lost everything.

Instead, she says she has found inspiration through Gazans who have given her hope again in humanity and inspired her to do more.

Palestinian doctors and nurses have been fighting for generations, for humanity and justice. Palestinians in Gaza, especially women, have given me a power I never thought I had. They keep bringing life to the world amid death and destruction. What better act of resistance is that? -Dr. Asil Al Jallad

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Bissau, capital city of Guinea-Bissau. Photo: Shutterstock (This replaces an earlier photograph of a protest at a mine which was not from Guinea-Bissau)

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Women protesters in Guinea-Bissau on Sunday attacked a Chinese-run site in the northwest of the country mining zircon, setting fire to equipment, the interior minister and witnesses said.

One protester said they had acted after the authorities failed to respond to their complaints that the activity was damaging their farms and ruining the local environment.

Several women and a village leader were arrested following the protest at Nhiquin, near the resort town of Valera not far from the border with Senegal, witnesses said.

We told them we didn’t want sand extracted without our consent. All our rice fields are destroyed. There are no more fish in the small river near the site. -Aissato Cadjaf, protestor.

But no one had listened, despite their protests, she said.

Zircon is used in ceramics and the building industry.

“All the facilities have been burned down,” Interior Minister Botche Cande told reporters after visiting the site, without specifying what exactly had been destroyed.

“When the state makes an effort to find partners, nobody has the right to destroy their property,” he added, visibly irritated.

Cande said he would be sending more guards to the site to guarantee its security while it was rebuilt.

The women responsible had all fled and taken shelter in the forest, he added. “They must be tracked down and arrested.”

Edmundo Infanda, sub-prefect of Suzana, which takes in Nhiquin, said a lot of women had taken part in the protest and the local police could not stop their demonstration.

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cw: rape, sexual violence

Members of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been subjecting women and girls to “horrific” sexual violence and gang rape, as part of their strategy in the country’s civil war, according to Amnesty International, a global rights group.

In a 30-page report published on Thursday, Amnesty accused the RSF of inflicting “widespread sexual violence … to humiliate, assert control and displace communities across the country”.

Since April 15, 2023, the RSF has been battling the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of the country, resulting in an armed conflict that has also given rise to what the United Nations described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

While the military reclaimed the capital, Khartoum, last month, the country remains essentially divided into two.

Both forces led the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Two years later, in 2021, they joined forces again to remove a transitional government. They split in April 2023, igniting the current civil war.

The RSF’s atrocities, including rape, gang-rape and sexual slavery, amount to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. The RSF’s assaults on Sudanese women and girls are sickening, depraved and aimed at inflicting maximum humiliation. -Amnesty

Deprose Muchena, a senior Amnesty official for regional human rights impact, said that the RSF targeted civilians, particularly women and girls, “with unimaginable cruelty during this war”.

Amnesty documented at least 36 cases of women and girls as young as 15 being subjected by RSF forces to rape, gang rape and other forms of sexual violence.

The attacks were committed in four Sudanese states from April 2023 to October 2024.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people and, according to the UN, displaced about 12 million more.

Amnesty has urged the international community “to stop the RSF’s atrocities by stemming the flow of weapons into Sudan, pressuring the leadership to end sexual violence, and holding perpetrators including top commanders to account”.

Survivors said anyone who resisted rape risked beatings, torture and other ill-treatment, or murder, including an 11-year-old boy who an RSF soldier beat to death as he tried to help his mother.

The horror of the RSF’s sexual violence is overwhelming, but the cases documented among refugees represent a small fraction of the violations the RSF has likely committed. The RSF’s attacks on civilians are shameful and cowardly, and any countries supporting the RSF, including by supplying them with weapons, shares in their shame. -Deprose Muchena

Amensty International said that victims and survivors lack both health care and justice.

No survivors accessed timely post-rape care or reported attacks to Sudanese authorities due to ongoing fighting or fear of stigma and reprisals. Some suffer kidney pains, irregular periods, walking difficulties or long-term psychological trauma. Children who saw relatives raped suffer nightmares.

As refugees, all survivors said their priority was to get medical treatment for injuries and diseases inflicted by the RSF or for health conditions developed in their captivity. However, cuts to vital USAID-funded programmes have diminished prospects for accessing comprehensive sexual health care.

Survivors also demanded justice and accountability.

Women are not leading or participating in this war, but it is women who are suffering the most. I want the whole world to know about the suffering of Sudanese women and girls and ensure that all the bad men who raped us are punished. -A woman raped in Omdurman

As Neha Wadekar writes in her report, The Long Road to Justice for Sexual War Crimes, sexual violence in Sudan is common. accountability isn’t.

The international response to the suffering of Sudanese women and girls has been reprehensible. The world has failed to protect civilians, provide sufficient humanitarian aid or hold perpetrators accountable for these crimes. It’s time for people and governments around the world to establish the truth of what has happened in Sudan, bring suspected perpetrators to justice and provide reparations and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care to survivors. -Deprose Muchena

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With the U.S. Capitol in the background, Kali wears a trans equality flag in her hair while attending a rally for the Trans Day of Visibility, on the National Mall, Monday, March 31, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

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People across the globe gathered on the International Transgender Day of Visibility, March 31, to support transgender rights amid a backdrop of political and legal challenges.

In the U.S., protesters rallied in Washington and New York.

Donald Trump on his first day back in the White House directed the federal government to recognize only two, biologically distinct sexes - male and female - and directed federal agencies to ensure grant funds do not promote "gender ideology."

In India, where same-sex relationships remain largely taboo, hundreds of participants danced to the beats of drums and chanted slogans demanding representation and equal rights.

In 2018, India's Supreme Court decriminalized homosexuality but, in 2023, disappointed the LGBTQ+ community by declining to legalize same-sex marriage, leaving the decision to Parliament.

In Mexico, a sea of transgender flags and banners flowed from the Monument to the Revolution to the Zocalo square, as participants shared their experiences as members of the community.

According to a 2021 survey by Mexico's statistics agency, INEGI, there are some 909,000 people in the transgender, transsexual, or other gender identity population that does not match the sex assigned at birth. That represents 0.9% of people in Mexico aged 15 and over.

Watch a video report from Mexico on Transgender Day of Visibility this year.

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Srija, (L) who fought to have her marriage to Arun (C) legally recognised, says everything she's achieved has been made possible by her mother, Valli (R)

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In 2019 Srija became the first transgender woman to legally marry in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu after a historic court ruling. Now a new documentary, Amma's Pride, chronicles Srija's battle for state recognition of her marriage and the unwavering support of her mother, Valli.

"Srija is a gift," Valli, 45, tells the BBC as she and her daughter embrace.

Srija, 25, is from the port city of Thoothukudi.

I know that not all trans people have what I have…My education, my job, my marriage - everything was possible because of my mother's support. -Srija

She and her mother are sharing their story for the first time in Amma's Pride (Mother's Pride), which follows Srija's unique experience.

Srija met her future husband, Arun, at a temple in 2017. After learning they shared mutual friends they soon began texting each other regularly. She was already out as transgender and had begun her transition.

"We talked a lot. She confided in me about her experiences as a trans woman," Arun tells the BBC.

Within months, they fell in love and decided they wanted to spend their lives together.

We wanted legal recognition because we want a normal life like every other couple. We want all the protections that come from a legal recognition of marriage. -Srija

That incudes securities, such as the transfer of money or property if one spouse dies.

In 2014, the Indian Supreme Court established certain protections for transgender people, granting them equal rights to education, employment, healthcare and marriage - although India still does not allow same-sex marriages.

It's not known how many trans couples have married in India, or who was the first. Activists say there was at least one trans wedding legally registered before Srija and Arun's - in 2018 a couple married in Bangalore.

“Of course there are queer couples, or transgender couples, all over India," says the director of Amma's Pride, Shiva Krish, but because of continuing discrimination "several are secretive about their relationship. Srija and Arun, and Valli, are unique in choosing to live their everyday life out in the open."

Srija and Arun's attempt to register their 2018 wedding was rejected, with the registrar arguing that the 1955 Hindu Marriage Act defined marriage as a union between a "bride" and a "groom", which therefore excluded trans women.

But the couple, backed by LGBT activists, pushed back, taking their relationship into the public domain. The effort was worth it.

They received global attention in 2019 when the Madras High Court in Chennai upheld their right to marry, stating that transgender people should be recognised as either a "bride" or "groom" as defined by the 1955 Hindu Marriage Act.

The ruling was seen by LGBT activists as a pivotal step in the acceptance of transgender people in India, with Srija and Arun both becoming well known locally for challenging cultural norms.

But media coverage also invited negative scrutiny.

"The day after local news coverage, I was fired from my job," says Arun, who worked as a manual labourer in the transport sector. He believes it was due to transphobia.

Online trolling followed.

"People sent abusive messages criticising me for being married to a transgender woman," he says.

The couple briefly separated under the strain.

Despite this, Srija excelled at her education, frequently coming first in class at high school.

She went on to complete a degree in English literature from a university in Tamil Nadu, becoming one of the only people in her family to receive higher education.

It's a source of pride for Valli, who left school aged 14.

Even before battling to have her marriage recognised by the state, Srija and her family faced hostility and mistreatment.

After Srija came out as a transgender woman at the age of 17, she and her mother and younger brother, China, were evicted from their home by their landlord.

Several family members stopped speaking to them.

But Srija's mother and brother were steadfast in their support.

I will always stand by my daughter. All trans people should be supported by their family. -Valli

Valli, who became a single parent when her husband died when Srija was just six, works in a kitchen at a school.

But despite earning a modest income, she helped pay for her daughter's gender reassignment, in part by selling some of her jewellery, and cared for her afterwards.

"She takes good care of me," Srija says.

There are thought to be about two million transgender people in India, the world's most populous country, although activists say the number is higher.

While the country has passed trans-inclusive legislation and recognised in law a "third gender", stigma and discrimination remain.

Not a lot of trans people in India, or even the world, have the support of their families. Srija and Valli's story is unique. -Shiva Krish, filmmkaer

Srija says she hopes the film will help challenge stereotypes about trans people and the types of stories that are often promoted in the media about the group - especially those that focus on trauma and abuse.

This documentary shows that we can be leaders. I am a manager, a productive member of the workforce. When people see new kinds of stories on trans people, hopefully their mindsets will also change. -Srija

After premiering at international film festivals, Amma's Pride was shown at a special screening in Chennai, for members of the LGBT community and allies, to mark International Trans Day of Visibility on Monday 31 March.

Following the Chennai screening, a workshop was held where participants in small groups discussed family acceptance and community support for trans individuals.

We hope our screening events will foster connections between trans individuals, their families, and local communities. -Chithra Jeyaram, filmmaker

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Noor started working in the field of beauty four years ago, while studying it at a vocational school in Gaza City [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

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Noor al-Ghamari set up a tent in the rubble to create a haven for Palestinian women in Gaza needing a bit of self-care. Her salon is a dream project for the young woman who quit nursing college to pursue her love of hair and makeup.

She set it up in February on a destroyed pavement, the only option available when she and her family returned to the north from their displacement to the south. The salon is a small blue tent with a single table inside topped with a damaged mirror, depilation tools, moisturisers, and some makeup.

Outside the tent in al-Shujaeya east of Gaza City, a white handwritten sign reading: “Noor’s Salon” hangs near the curtained entrance.

Amani Dweima came to the salon with her 16-year-old daughter, Aya.

The 39-year-old wants her eyebrows shaped, and Aya wants a full face of makeup; there’s a wedding planned for that evening.

Since I opened, so many women have come to me with heartbreaking stories … about losing their families and loved ones. They arrive exhausted, their faces drained of light. -Noor al-Ghamari

The idea of a beauty salon in the midst of war may seem odd, Amani and Noor agree, but the act of self-care can help women.

Women come to me from tents, overcrowded schools, or the ruins of their destroyed homes. I try to offer them a moment of comfort, a small escape. My main goal is for them to leave feeling even just a little lighter, a little happier. -Noor al-Ghamari

Amani, who was displaced to Deir el-Balah and has recently returned to the north, as well, didn’t think about going to a beautician at all in the early days of the genocide.

Eventually, she came across a similar salon in Deir el-Balah and started to go as regularly as she could.

Looking after myself changes my mood, especially when I see my reflection in the mirror. I always want to look presentable…The tragedies around us never end. Visiting a beauty salon is … a small escape from all the hardships around us. -Amani Dweima

Back in the north, she was “thrilled” when she saw Noor’s Salon and immediately spread the good news to her neighbours and relatives.

Noor stands in front of her tent salon, on a destroyed street in Shujaeya [Abdelhakim Abu Riash, Al Jazeera]

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Noor believes the war has been particularly cruel to women in Gaza – stripping them of their homes and security and of their capacity for self-care as they poured their energy into survival.

I saw many women whose skin was completely burned by the sun from living in tents, constantly cooking over wood fires, washing clothes by hand, and carrying heavy water containers…On top of that, they have no privacy in the overcrowded displacement camps, not to mention the fear, bombings, and all the horrors of war. -Noor al-Ghamari

And yet, she says, she has had clients of all ages who feel that self-care is essential for them.

I met many women who couldn’t stand a single stray hair on their face or eyebrows. Some came to me every week, others regularly or occasionally. -Noor al-Ghamari

She recalls a client she got once, a woman in her early 30s who had been through a huge trauma when her parents and all her siblings were killed in an Israeli air raid.

Coping with her loss meant the woman lost all desire to do anything.

I felt so deeply for her. I gave her a full treatment – threading, eyebrow shaping, a haircut, even a free face massage and masque. When she looked in the mirror, her eyes filled with happy tears. -Noor al-Ghamari

Israel’s war on Gaza began right as Noor was dreaming, laying out the plans for her own – bricks-and-mortar – salon.

Like everyone in Gaza, her life and plans were turned upside down as she, her parents and her eight siblings were forced to flee south after Israeli evacuation orders.

For the first two months, her only thoughts were of survival and helping her family, she says.

But after the initial months, when we settled in a displacement camp in the south, I heard women say things like: ‘If only there were a hairdresser or a salon nearby so we could take care of ourselves a little.’ I would respond: ‘I’m a beautician!’The women would grab me like they had just found a treasure, and I would start working immediately. -Noor al-Ghamari

Some women came to her, while she went to others in their tents – depending on their needs.

Now, her work has become an essential source of income for her and her family during the war, even though she can’t charge her five to eight customers a day much.

“I live here, I understand the reality,” she says, explaining why she keeps her prices low.

I brought my daughter today so she could take care of herself a little – as a way to lift her spirits, I want her to grow up knowing that she should always take care of herself, no matter what. I also want to bring her some joy. What we’ve seen during this war has been beyond devastating. -Amani Dweima

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Teams from across Africa and beyond competed at the Grannies International Football Tournament. © Phill Magakoe, AFP

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Dozens of older women from countries across the globe gathered to compete this week at the Grannies International Football Tournament in South Africa's northern Limpopo province. The idea for the tournament arose in 2007 as a way to improve the health of local women and create a sense of community.

Mbele Nonhlanhla laced up her silver cleats as her coach shouted encouragement to the creaky knees, stiff backs and laboured breathing in a dressing room in South Africa's far north.

At 63, wearing jersey number 10 and sporting brown-dyed hair, the grandmother of seven was far from your typical footballer when she stepped onto the field for her first international tournament.

I feel like a superstar, They call me the goal machine. -Mbele Nonhlanhla

Her team, Vuka Soweto, hails from the renowned township of Soweto outside Johannesburg.

It had joined more than a dozen others from across Africa and beyond to compete this week at the Grannies International Football Tournament in the northern province of Limpopo.

The four-day "Grannies World Cup" was held in a stadium with sweeping mountain views.

The 30-minute games were played in two halves at a slow but purposeful pace, between teams from as far as the United States, France and Togo.

It is all about active ageing. Whether we win, lose or what, it is all about coming here and staying fit. -Devika Ramesar

Ramesar, a 62-year-old South African a mother of two and grandmother of five, is a Liverpool fan who until this week had never stepped onto a football pitch.

Kenyan striker Edna Cheruiyot only had two months to learn the "long list" of football rules before Friday, when she scored her only goal.

She took selfies to remember her first ever trip abroad and send to her grandchildren.

I feel nimble. This is the lightest I have been since my first child in 1987. -Edna Cheruiyot

At 52, she is a youngster within her team, whose oldest player is 87.

The idea for the tournament arose in 2007 as a way to improve the health of local women, said founder Rebecca Ntsanwisi, 57, who is fondly called Mama Beka.

It came out of her sense of personal challenge following a cancer diagnosis that once bound her to a wheelchair.

The older women need to come together and enjoy. We are neglected. -Rebecca Ntsanwisi

She hopes to host the next tournament in Kenya.

Watch a BBC video report on the tournament.

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Photocollage by Daniela Hritcu.

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Native American artists, especially women, have only recently gained a spotlight within the mainstream art world. For centuries, Native art was siloed on reservations, at trading posts, and in Indian markets, with no dedicated Indigenous commercial galleries either in urban Indian centers like New York City, San Francisco, Tulsa, or Phoenix or in other areas with significant Native populations. But lately they are finding their way into major galleries and institutions from Miami to New York to Venice.

ARTNews delved into art from 15 Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian women. While not an exhaustive list, these artists represent a broad spectrum of artistic innovation spanning multiple generations and mediums, from foundational pottery to contemporary Ravenstail weaving. Shattering conventional ideas about fine art while honoring historical techniques and cultural knowledge, they underscore the vitality of Indigenous women’s contributions to contemporary art and the ongoing need to ensure that their voices and visions are centered in mainstream art discourse.

Here are three of the featured artists:

Rachel Martin

Rachel Martin, Bending the Rules, 2024. Photo:Courtesy of the artist.

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Rachel Martin is a Tlingít artist and enrolled member of the Tsaagweideí, Killer Whale Clan, of the Yellow Cedar House (X̱aai Hit´) Eagle Moiety. She grew up in California and Montana and now resides in New York City. Working primarily in sculpture and drawing, Martin is an inheritor of the Pacific Northwest line drawing tradition, whose cosmological symbols—like bears, fish, and frogs—she melds with contemporary cultural references and places in cheeky and feminist tableaux.

Rose B. Simpson

Rose B. Simpson, Seed, 2024, installation view, Madison Square Park Conservancy, New York Photo:Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery. Photo: Elisabeth Bernstein.

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Rose B. Simpson (b. 1983) is a multimedia artist known for her ceramic and metal sculptures, installations, and performance pieces. Her seven sentinel-like figures in Madison Square Park and two in Inwood Park, both in New York, echo the city skyline and invite viewers to self-reflect and consider place and time amidst the frenetic urban landscape.

Sydney Akagi

Sydney Akagi, Ceremonial Woven Tunic, Ravenstail and Chilkat, 2024. Photo:Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Pat Barry.

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Tlingit weaver Sydney Akagi (born 1989) preserves traditional Alaska Native Ravenstail and Chilkat techniques in her labor-intensive masks and mantles. Born in Southeast Alaska and an enrolled member of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, she wove her first wall hanging in 2018 under the guidance of her mentor, weaver Lily Hope. Akagi employs historical motifs declaring a person’s secular and social standing within the tribe, as in Ceremonial Woven Tunic, Ravenstail and Chilkat, a sleeveless ceremonial tunic that she created for the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation.

Mona Eltahawy is a feminist author, commentator and disruptor of patriarchy. Her new book, an anthology on menopause called Bloody Hell!: Adventures in Menopause from Around the World, has just been published. Her first book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution (2015) targeted patriarchy in the Middle East and North Africa and her second The Seven Necessary Sins For Women and Girls (2019) took her disruption worldwide. It is now available in Ireland and the UK. Her commentary has appeared in media around the world and she makes video essays and writes a newsletter as FEMINIST GIANT.

I appreciate your support. If you like this piece and you want to further support my writing, you can like/comment below, forward this article to others, or send a gift subscription to someone else today.

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Schoolgirls walk home past a mural from women’s organization “Plan International” reading “My Body, My Choice, My Rights,” in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Thusday March 3, 2025 (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly)

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cw: abortion-related trauma and death

Fatou Esther, 21, is a nursing student who is mobilizing others in support of a bill that would decriminalize abortion in Sierra Leone.

When she got pregnant at 16, Fatou Esther Jusu was terrified that it would derail her future.

Abortion is illegal in Sierra Leone. Fearing judgment from her family, she took friends’ advice and bought misoprostol, a drug whose uses include abortion, from a local pharmacy. It didn’t work. Desperate, she tried again and miscarried.

“I went to the toilet… and the baby came out,” she said. She fainted and was taken to a hospital, where she pleaded with doctors not to tell her parents.

Now 21, Jusu considers herself lucky. One friend died after taking an expired version of the medication.

Even though I made a mistake, this mistake is saving other people. -Fatou Jusu

Sierra Leone could become the second country in West Africa to decriminalize abortion, which health workers say would significantly improve the safety of pregnant women, decrease the number of preventable deaths and bring an end to the current colonial-era law.

Tens of thousands of women and girls attempt to self-terminate their pregnancies every year in Sierra Leone, where abortion is illegal in all circumstances.

Supporters of the bill say unsafe abortions account for around 10% of maternal deaths. Healthcare workers are known to perform terminating procedures when the situation is “incompatible with life” of the woman, usually in the case of “incomplete” abortions. Because abortion is illegal, they cite other reasons for the termination.

Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio pointedly introduced the Safe Motherhood Bill after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, stripping away women’s constitutional protections for abortion.

At a time when sexual and reproductive health rights for women are either being overturned or threatened, we are proud that Sierra Leone can once again lead with progressive reforms. -President Julius Maada Bio

If approved, the bill would have been West Africa’s most progressive legislation on abortion, allowing the procedure for up to 14 weeks.

But Sierra Leone since then has been torn apart by debate. Following opposition from religious leaders, the bill has been amended and now limits abortion to cases of life-threatening risk, fatal fetal abnormalities, rape or incest.

The government says it expects a vote in parliament in the coming weeks. It is not clear whether it will be approved.

An estimated 90,000 abortions are performed annually in Sierra Leone, a country of more than 8 million people, according to research by the African Population and Health Research Center. About 10% of the country’s maternal deaths — affecting 717 of every 100,000 births — are due to unsafe abortions, the center said.

Health workers say the true number is likely much higher.

Due to cost and stigma, many women and girls resort to unsafe methods like expired medication, laundry detergent, hangers or sharp instruments.

Officials say the bill is needed to strengthen gender reforms in Sierra Leone, which include last year’s ban on child marriage.

The bill also would allow wider access to family planning and reproductive health services. Activists fear those will be lost if the bill fails.

Both sides in the debate have accused each other of being sponsored by foreign governments.

Many healthcare practitioners say they want the bill to pass so they can save lives without fear.

Nurse Hawanatu Samura recalled a mother who had traveled for hours in agony to the capital after drinking a concoction given to her by a traditional healer. Samura accompanied the patient to a hospital to seek treatment for a distended abdomen, severe septicemia and anemia.

The mother of six died in the waiting room.

Right there on the couch …. everybody was crying. Anytime I think of her, I wish the bill had been long passed. -Hawanatu Samura.

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Women sit on their three wheeler tri-cycles waiting for clients at a market place in Hwedza, Zimbabwe, Thursday, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

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Anna Bhobho, 31, was a stay-at-home mother of three. She is now also a driver of change in her village in Zimbabwe, thanks to an electric tricycle she now owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from financial and family decision-making in deeply patriarchal societies.

However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance.

Bhobho delivers crops for farmers to a market in Wedza district, about 150 kilometers (nearly 100 miles) from Harare.

My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses, including buying furniture and other assets…I used to depend on my husband for everything, even money for bread -Anna Bhobho

Called “Hamba,” meaning “go” in Ndebele, the tricycles are powered by solar-charged lithium-ion batteries. Mobility for Africa, a local startup, piloted the project in 2019 by leasing the vehicles to groups of women for $15 a month. Today, individual women like Bhobho can own them through a lease-to-purchase program.

Bhobho now owns land, has opened a small grocery store, is paying off a car and has moved her children from an underfunded rural public school to a better-equipped private institution. She earns up to $300 a month, comparable to government workers like schoolteachers.

Beyond material gains, she has gained self-esteem.

Even my husband and in-laws have more respect for me now. No one used to listen to me, but now I have a seat when important decisions are being made. -Anna Bhobho

According to Carlin Thandi Ngandu, the community engagement coordinator for Mobility for Africa, 300 women across Zimbabwe are part of the program, with a goal of ensuring that 70% of the beneficiaries are women.

In Wedza, only women own and operate the tricycles. They receive training in safe driving skills, and swapping a lithium battery for a fully recharged one after about 100 kilometers (about 70 miles) costs $1.

However, women face challenges such as rough terrain and resistance from men who struggle with seeing women lead in traditionally male-dominated spaces.

Some men don’t like seeing women in charge, but we are proving that we can contribute just as much, if not more, to our families and communities. -Anna Bhobho

Beyond business, the tricycles are revolutionizing health care access, particularly for women and children. Josephine Nyevhe, a volunteer community health worker, uses her tricycle to bring medical services closer to rural families.

On a recent afternoon, a group of mothers with children waited at a roadside. Nyevhe arrived on her tricycle, hung a weighing scale on a tree branch and began measuring the children’s growth. She recorded details in her notebook, offered nutrition advice and referred severe cases to the local clinic.

Many times, her tricycle has served as a village ambulance.

I am on 24-hour standby. I get calls during odd hours and have to rush people to the hospital. Sometimes it’s a pregnant woman who would have otherwise given birth at home in unsafe conditions. -Josephine Nyevhe

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La Marea Verde (green wave), a gathering of feminist and pro-choice collectives, demonstrates in front of congress in Mexico City to support a proposal aimed at decriminalising abortion, in November 2024. Abortion has not been a federal crime in Mexico since 2021, but the criminal law varies by state. Photograph and words: Mahé Elipe

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Photographer Mahé Elipe has been taking pictures of women across Mexico since 2018 as part of her project Sembrando Luchas (Those Who Sow the Seeds of Struggle), which aims to highlight the lives and challenges of women young and old.

The need to delve deeper arises from the desire to account for the commitment of Mexican women in all social struggles, those that generate an impact and become a source of inspiration for all others. -Mahé Elipe

Here are some of her photographs and accompanying commentary.

Marcelina Espinoza Palma is part of the Mendoza artisanal group, a collective of women who weave and spin their family stories using embroidery. Here, she holds corn, a plant essential to the Hñähñu-Otomí culture, in Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo. The group fights against cultural appropriation and works to preserve their people’s traditions Photograph and words: Mahé Elipe

Crystal and Mynerva are abortion companions in Tijuana on the Mexico-US border. They are part of the Colectiva Bloodys, which helps women through the processes of pregnancy termination. Photograph and words: Mahé Elipe

On 7 March 2021, a large metal fence was built around the national palace, Mexico’s seat of power, to protect it from demonstrators. This was seen as a provocation by feminists, who responded by painting the names of all the women who had been victims of violence that year. Photograph and words: Mahé Elipe

Mariana, 13, carries a pink cross, symbolic of femicides, in Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua. Mariana accompanies her mother in her activities for the Red Messa, which supports the families of victims of femicide and female victims of violence. Her ambition is to become a lawyer to defend women’s rights. Photograph and words: Mahé Elipe

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Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. Photograph: Natasha Akpoti/ facebook

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A lawmaker in Nigeria has been suspended from her office after she complained of sexual harassment by the senate president, sparking protests and condemnation from feminist groups. Senator Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan said the legislative body's president, Godswill Akpabio, had made unwanted advances toward her and filed a petition against him.

She was then suspended for six months, a move that was justified over an earlier argument that erupted in the senate chambers about a change in her seating arrangement.

Separately, the sexual harassment petition was rejected on procedural grounds.

Akpoti-Uduaghan said she was being punished for speaking out against the system and that she now feared for her and her two-year-old's safety as her security detail had been stripped. In the first TV interview since her suspension, she told the BBC tht the Senate operates like a "cult".

The Nigerian Senate operates like a cult. The Senate president runs the Senate like a dictator, not a democrat. There is no freedom of speech, there is no freedom of expression and anyone who dares to go against him gets cut to size. -Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan

Those who have come to the senator's defense say the row has highlighted long-standing women's rights issues in the socially conservative west African country.

Mabel Adinya Ade, the founder of a women's rights group, said the suspension had "exposed the deeply entrenched gender-based violence (GBV) and the systemic marginalization of women in Nigerian politics."

Calling the suspension a "stunning display of patriarchal impunity," Ade, in an article published in Law and Society magazine, said "the message is chilling: speak out, and you will be punished."

By stifling women's leadership, Nigeria is sabotaging its own progress. -Mabel Adinya Ade

Of the Nigerian Senate's 109 members, only four are women. Akpoti-Uduaghanis is also the first female senator in her state.

Civil society groups in the country have expressed concerns over Akpoti-Uduaghan's treatment, calling for a transparent investigation into her allegations.

While rights groups and some social media users have expressed their support for Akpoti-Uduaghan, she also has detractors.

After she was suspended, two groups of protesters gathered near parliament in the capital, Abuja chanting ''Akpabio must go''.

Akpoti-Uduaghan had also been subjected to an onslaught of misogynist abuse on social media since making the allegations,

After Akpoti-Uduaghan’s suspension, other senators coalesced around Akpabio, a powerful ally of the country’s president, Bola Tinubu.

One male senator said Akpoti-Uduaghan had fabricated the claims because she was angered by her removal as chair of a coveted senate committee in February. Current female senators dismissed her claims on national TV, while one former senator said Akpoti-Uduaghan’s claims were “a sign of weakness” and that sexual harassment happened only in schools.

Her suspension and the process that led to it was a shambolic show of shame…Male senators do not surprise me. They mansplain even the basic of black and white to justify their selfishness. As for the female senators, disappointed is an understatement [but] like all hegemonic structures, patriarchy also has gatekeepers. -Ireti Bakare-Yusuf, radio broadcaster and founder of the non-profit Purple Women Foundation

Some opposition senators have visited Akpoti-Uduaghan to show support. She also said she had received supportive emails from women across Nigeria, including some who were afraid to speak up about their own experiences.

In Nigeria, most women who are sexually harassed in workplaces don’t even tell their husbands because they are afraid of being judged. -Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan

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People walk in the Pudong financial district after Lunar New Year holiday in Shanghai, China, February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/ File Photo

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Several Chinese labour unions, including in central Hunan province and the southern hub of Shenzhen, issued official notices to companies to stop requiring prospective female employees to disclose their marital and childbearing status.

The notices, posted on the Shenzhen, Hunan and Qinghai state-backed unions' official Wechat pages in the past week, were among the most widely circulated items on social media on Monday with many netizens saying it was a step in the right direction to address widespread gender inequality.

It has become increasingly common in China for companies to quiz female job seekers about their marriage or childbearing plans during job interviews.

Fear of having to give up their career or be side lined if they start a family has been a growing concern for many young Chinese women who opt not to give birth as a result.

Chinese authorities, worried about the country's declining population growth, have pledged a series of measures to try to incentivise births, including subsidies, but have not successfully addressed entrenched gender stereotypes where women are seen as the chief care givers.

During the recruitment process, employers should not give priority to men, said the notice from the Hunan Federation of Trade Unions.

Employers shall not further inquire or investigate the marital and childbearing status of female job seekers" while contracts should "not stipulate restrictions on marriage and childbearing of female employees. -Hunan Federation of Trade Union

Female employees cannot be dismissed or see their salaries cut due to marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, it said.

Many netizens welcomed the move while some were sceptical and said it may make employers stop hiring women altogether.

Discrimination still exists and they will still refuse to hire you because of concerns about your marriage and childbearing. -Netizen.

Another pointed out the societal ironies.

In the workplace, women are required not to have children but society requires women to have more children. After having children, women are required to take care of children and the family while earning money in society. Isn't this contradictory? -Netizen

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Women chant slogans during a protest marking International Women’s Day in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, March 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

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Women took to the streets of cities across Europe, Africa, South America and elsewhere to mark International Women’s Day with demands for ending inequality and gender-based violence.

On the Asian side of Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city, a rally in Kadikoy saw members of dozens of women’s groups listen to speeches, dance and sing in the spring sunshine. The colorful protest was overseen by a large police presence, including officers in riot gear and a water cannon truck.

The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared 2025 the Year of the Family. Protesters pushed back against the idea of women’s role being confined to marriage and motherhood, carrying banners reading “Family will not bind us to life” and “We will not be sacrificed to the family.”

Critics have accused the government of overseeing restrictions on women’s rights and not doing enough to tackle violence against women.

Erdogan in 2021 withdrew Turkey from a European treaty, dubbed the Istanbul Convention, that protects women from domestic violence. Turkish rights group We Will Stop Femicides Platform says that 394 women were killed by men in 2024.

There is bullying at work, pressure from husbands and fathers at home and pressure from patriarchal society. We demand that this pressure be reduced even further. -Yaz Gulgun

In many other European countries, women also protested against violence, for better access to gender-specific health care, equal pay and other issues in which they don’t get the same treatment as men.

In Poland, activists opened a center across from the parliament building in Warsaw where women can go to have abortions with pills, either alone or with other women.

Opening the center on International Women’s Day across from the legislature was a symbolic challenge to authorities in the traditionally Roman Catholic nation, which has one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws.

From Athens to Madrid, Paris, Munich, Zurich and Belgrade and in many more cities across the continent, women marched to demand an end to treatment as second-class citizens in society, politics, family and at work.

In Madrid, protesters held up big hand-drawn pictures depicting Gisele Pélicot, the woman who was drugged by her now ex-husband in France over the course of a decade so that she could be raped by dozens of men while unconscious. Pélicot has become a symbol for women all over Europe in the fight against sexual violence.

Thousands of women marched in the capital Skopje and several other cities in North Macedonia to raise their voices for economic, political and social equality for women.

In Nigeria’s capital, Lagos, thousands of women gathered at the Mobolaji Johnson Stadium, dancing and signing and celebrating their womanhood. Many were dressed in purple — the traditional color of the women’s liberation movement.

In Russia, the women’s day celebrations had a more official tone, with honor guard soldiers presenting yellow tulips to girls and women during a celebration in St. Petersburg.

In South America, some of the marches were organized by groups protesting the killings of women known as femicides.

Hundreds of women in Ecuador marched through the streets of Quito to steady drumbeats and held signs that opposed violence and the “patriarchal system.”

“Justice for our daughters!” some demonstrators yelled in support of women slain in recent years.

In Bolivia, thousands of women began marching late Friday, with some scrawling graffiti on the walls of courthouses demanding that their rights be respected and denouncing impunity in femicides, with less than half of those cases reaching a sentencing.

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Transgender woman Negriny Venture, of the Paraiso de Tuiuti samba school, prepares to rehearse for the Carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

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A Carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro will present the story of a trans woman nearly burned at the stake in the 16th century, highlighting the ongoing violence against transgender people in Brazil, which has the world’s highest reported trans homicide rate.

Born as Francisco Manicongo in what was then known as the Kingdom of Kongo, Xica Manicongo was captured and enslaved in Brazil’s northeastern Bahia state. Authorities from the Portuguese Inquisition threatened her with execution for cross-dressing and having same-sex relations, both practices the Catholic Church deemed heretical.

The parade, scheduled for Tuesday, March 4 night, four days after Carnival officially kicks off, is the creation of Paraiso do Tuiuti, one of Rio’s 12 top-flight samba schools competing in the iconic Sambadrome. Tuiuti hopes the tale of Manicongo will dazzle millions of spectators watching from the bleachers and their homes, and serve as a wake-up call.

Jack Vasconcelos, Tuiuti’s Carnival director who created its theme, said he wanted to give younger generations of trans women a sense of belonging to history.

They deserve to appear on television, to appear to the whole world, not just in the murder statistics. They are women who produce. They’re lawmakers, they’re teachers, they’re artists,” said Vasconcelos. “They’re not people on the margins of what has happened in the world and what is happening now. -Jack Vasconcelos

Since Tuiuti embraced Vasconcelos’ proposal, the school’s hundreds of members have been preparing for their performance. Like other parades, the show will feature sequined costumes and elaborate floats. One of its innovations is a section exclusively comprised of trans women.

It’s a historical reparation. Paraiso do Tuiuti is giving us an opportunity to be stars in front of the cameras. This is very special for us and will really go down in history. -Alessandra Salazary

The parade will feature other notable figures, including Brazil’s first trans lawmakers, Duda Salabert and Erika Hilton; Rio state lawmaker Dani Balbi and Bruna Benevides, who heads Brazil’s trans rights group Antra. Benevides identifies as “travesti,” a term referring to a specific Latin American identity that activists say is claimed by people assigned the male gender at birth, but who experience the female gender and should be treated as such. She and Tuiuti say Manicongo was likewise a travesti.

The specter of violence Manicongo faced five centuries ago hasn’t vanished.

Brazil remains the world’s deadliest country for transgender people, with 106 murders last year, according to Transgender Europe, a network of global nonprofit organizations that tracks the data. It marked the 17th consecutive year Brazil claimed this grim distinction. Such statistics are at least partially driven by poor reporting elsewhere and Brazil’s active network of advocates, but experts agree transphobia is ubiquitous.

Samba schools’ parades often make political statements. Tuiuti last year told the story of João Cândido, who led a revolt in 1910 against the use of whips in the Brazilian navy. He was tortured and kicked out of the navy. Vasconcelos said at the time that he chose the theme because violence reminiscent of slavery continues to this day.

One month after last year’s Carnival, Brazil’s federal public prosecutor’s office reinforced its demands for financial reparations to Cândido’s family.

Trans rights are increasingly under attack globally, with the government reversing trans-affirming policies in neighboring Argentina and U.S. President Donald Trump issuing an executive order in January recognizing only two sexes—male and female—and declaring they can’t be changed.

Dani Balbi is one of around 30 trans public figures who have been invited to sit atop a towering float in Tuiuti’s parade.

International leaders are painting a target on trans people’s backs. It’s very important that we highlight our resistance, our presence, in these symbolic places. -Dani Balbi

For Eloá Rodrigues, who has performed in samba parades for a decade, Carnival is exactly the place to underscore the history of Brazil’s trans community. Rodrigues, who danced with Tuiuti for the first time after transitioning in 2015, is returning this year as part of a larger group of trans dancers.

Carnival is built by Black people, by the LGBTQ community, and trans people in particular, so it’s very symbolic to have a parade that talks about our experiences. -Eloá Rodrigues

Brazil’s trans rights movement has successfully advocated for a specific healthcare protocol in the public health system for trans people and for the right to change their name and gender on official documents without having gone through gender-affirming surgery.

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When Vicki Bloom became a doula in 2009, hiring one was far from top of mind for most families, especially queer ones. But as their popularity grew, so, too, did interest from pregnant people. Queer doulas like Bloom began offering services across the country, which meant queer parents could have someone on their birth team who deeply understood their identities.

A doula can offer support at any point in a pregnancy journey. Some people may want one by their side from the time of a positive pregnancy test, while others don’t bring one into the fold until the last trimester.

Unlike medical staff, a doula’s main purpose is to offer support and advocacy for the pregnant person and anyone else who is part of their birthing experience. A doula could attend doctors’ appointments, help pick out the items for a registry, and dispense advice about the various issues that come up throughout pregnancy.

During labor, they are often a pregnant person’s first phone call. They can help determine when to come to the hospital, offer a back massage during a contraction, help you find comfortable and helpful positions, and advocate for your birth plan. For queer people, they can also make sure the obstetrician or nurses at the hospital don’t deadname or assume same-sex partners are siblings.

Research has shown that folks who use doula are less likely to have c-sections, les likely to need Pitocin (which helps move the labor process along), and more likely to rate their childbirth experience positively.

Bloom’s major objective as a doula is to remind the birthing parent that pregnancy doesn’t change who they are as a person in the world. The industries associated with pregnancy and birth are still deeply heteronormative. It can be tough for queer parents to navigate that alone. A doula who knows how to work with queer families makes it easier to shut out some of the noise and make having a child an enjoyable experience.

A lot of what ended up being appropriate for me as a private practice was working with marginalized people who shared identities with me as a queer person myself. So I ended up working with a lot of queer folks: a lot of lesbian couples, triads, nonbinary people, or other nontraditional families who were giving birth. I connect with all different kinds of people, but I found that was a group of clients that was drawn to me and that I was drawn to work with. I don’t feel myself as a specialty practice per se, but I am very open about who I am, what my life looks like, and what my family looks like. -Vicki Bloom

Bloom told LGBTQ Nation that queer and other marginalized people know how they interact with the medical system, so they know where they may have trouble communicating, and that’s where Bloom’s work comes in.

Some of it is helping find resources like a childbirth class that’s gender fluid or an OB that’s not going to misgender you all the time. And sometimes that’s possible and sometimes it’s not because of the realities of the medical situation. One big thing is people don’t want to do a 101 with all of their medical professionals…I’ll ask my clients sometimes if they want to code switch when someone’s in the room or do they want me to step in every time and be like, “Hey, no, their pronouns are they/them.” -Vicki Bloom

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Hundreds of people turned out for the Women's Memorial March in Vancouver on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

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Thousands marched through the streets of Vancouver on Friday in the annual Women's Memorial March commemorating missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

The march was first held in 1992 after an Indigenous woman, Cheryl Ann Joe, was found murdered on Powell Street at the age of 26.

Since then, thousands of people have taken to the streets in memory of Indigenous women and girls who have suffered similar fates or have gone missing, as well as to show support for their families.

Carol Martin, who is on the memorial march committee, was at the meeting where the idea to create a memorial march was pitched. Thirty-four years later, she is still marching and spreading awareness.

Martin says that the march was chosen to be on Valentine's Day because it is a worldwide day of love.

The march is to honour and commemorate the lives of women and all who identify as women . . . we are not about division here. -Carol Martin

The yellow and lilac pin on the march poster and physical pins that are given to participants at the march represent hope and healing, said Martin.

Participants stop during the march to place traditional medicines, such as tobacco and cedar, down onto the places where women were found to honour their memory and to bless the places where they were found.

Some of those in the procession have travelled from as far as Saskatchewan to participate.

Chief Lee-Anne Kehler from Kawacatoose First Nation in Saskatchewan attended the march with Diamond Poorman, Chelsea Poorman's sister.

Chelsea Poorman went missing one month after moving to Vancouver in 2020. Her remains were found in 2022 outside a vacant mansion in the Shaughnessy neighbourhood, a year and a half after she was reported missing.

We love our people. We love our family members. Everybody no matter what walk of life they come from, they're loved by somebody. I think that's important to emphasize on Valentine's Day. -Chief Lee-Anne Kehler

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Jay Walker, center, an organizer of a protest at the Stonewall National Monument site. Credit...Brittainy Newman for The New York Times

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A day after the National Park Service (NPS) deleted the word “transgender” and removed all mentions of transgender and queer people from the webpage for the monument commemorating the 1969 Stonewall Riots, hundreds of people rallied at the monument site to protest the move and what they feared might come next there.

The NPS did this to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order prohibiting any official recognition of transgender people within U.S. departments, agencies and workforces.

Chloe Elentári, a transgender woman who lives in Manhattan’s East Village, was among the protesters at the Stonewall site. She said the move was a reminder that the city might be less of a haven than some residents think.

People say that you know you’re in a safe state, you’re in a blue state, but we’re not…We can’t live under the illusion of thinking that we’re safe just because we’re in New York. -Chloe Elentári

The Stonewall Inn, a bar on Christopher Street, has been seen as a cradle of the L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement since a police raid in June 1969 set off three days of protests and riots on the surrounding Greenwich Village streets.

Today, the riots are commemorated with Pride marches in New York City and around the world, and many gay rights organizations and venues in other countries use “Stonewall” in their names.

In recent weeks, transgender New Yorkers and health care professionals in the city have faced executive orders that seek to bar hospitals from providing certain kinds of care for transgender youth. The orders have caused fear among transgender people and their families, at least one lawsuit and protests outside hospitals.

Erik Bottcher, the City Council member who represents the neighborhood that includes the monument, said the removal of some words and letters but not others was an attempt to divide and weaken the community.

We are here to send a message to Donald Trump…We will not let you erase the existence of our trans siblings. -Erik Bottcher

Many social media commenters were baffled when the NPS Service removed all mention of the initialism LGBTQ+ and replaced it with LGB, and removed all references to the transgender figures like Zazu Nova who is now being described on the website simply as a “black woman” instead of her previous designation as a “black transgender woman.”

The Stonewall Inn and The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative are outraged and appalled by the recent removal of the word ‘transgender’ from the Stonewall National Monument page on the National Park Service website. This blatant act of erasure not only distorts the truth of our history, but it also dishonors the immense contributions of transgender individuals — especially transgender women of color — who were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots and the broader fight for LGBTQ+ rights. -The Stonewall Inn

The Stonewall Riots were a series of protests in New York City from June 28 to July 3, 1969. At the time, homosexuality and gender nonconformity was illegal throughout the nation, and locations where LGBTQ+ people congregated were subjected to police raids.

One such meeting place was the Stonewall Inn, a gay tavern in Greenwich Village. During one of these raids, patrons decided they had enough of being harassed and criminalized by law enforcement and began to fight back sparking a six-day riot that became a turning point for LGBTQ+ rights and marked the start of the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.

It is widely believed that the two main participants of these riots were Marsha P. Johnson and Silvia Rivera, along with Zazu Nova who is believed by many to have thrown the legendary “first brick” — all three individuals are transgender women.

The first people that threw the brick at Stonewall, that led the charge at Stonewall, were women of color, trans women of color. Are we seriously trying to erase, like, entire history? -Eli Shirk, a 19-year-old transgender student at Pace University

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Numerous people, including participants of the organization "Omas gegen Rechts", demonstrate against right-wing extremism at the Domshof in Bremen. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Hauke-Christian Dittrich

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Tens of thousands of people joined a demonstration against cooperation with the far right in Berlin on Sunday, after US Vice-President JD Vance called for Germany to drop the longstanding taboo. Among the protesters are senior women holding slogans reading "Omas gegen Rechts" or "Grannies against far right". For these women, who grew up in post-war Germany, the prospect of the far right returning to power is inconceivable.

True veterans of German anti-fascist protests: the "Grannies Against The Right", are known to sport colourful knitted hats on their mission to safeguard democracy for future generations.

Ahead of Germany's February 23 election, the "Omas Gegen Rechts" have amped up their campaign against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is polling at a record 20 percent or higher.

Most of the group's members either have early-childhood memories of Nazi Germany or grew up amid the rubble of the devastated and shamed country, now determined to warn younger generations of the dangers of political extremism.

"Whenever there's anti-democratic behaviour, we can't stay quiet," said Uta Saenger, one of the organisers of a nationwide day of action earlier this month that drew 24,000 people in the northern city of Hannover alone.

"In the past year we have held or participated in over 80 protests," Maja, a 72-year-old member in Berlin, told AFP, saying many rallies were shows of solidarity at synagogues against antisemitism.

She said her Jewish background made the issue deeply personal, as "my grandmother had to leave Germany with my father".

At another recent rally, held in the city of Nuremberg, the Omas were out in force again, some of them holding up a knitted banner in the form of a "firewall".

That is a reference to the long-established agreement between Germany's mainstream parties not to cooperate with extremists in any form.

Many accuse the conservative CDU, which is leading the polls at around 30 percent, of blowing a hole in the firewall last month by teaming up with the AfD to push a motion curbing immigration through parliament.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz has insisted he is not seeking any further cooperation with the far-right and argues that action is needed after a spate of deadly attacks blamed on migrants and asylum seekers.

Gabi Heller, 58 and one of the founders of the Nuremberg chapter of the Omas, told AFP that "it's an easy solution to blame migration for everything, but this is just total nonsense".

Speaking during a demonstration held on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by the Red Army, she said she wanted to "preserve democracy" for her three grandchildren.

The Omas movement started in 2017 in Austria, where the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) has long been a more established part of the political scene than Germany's AfD.

In Austria, too, the Omas have been regulars at demonstrations against the FPOe, sometimes even regaling the crowds with a song or two.

But despite their efforts, the FPOe came first in a general election for the first time last year.

Eva-Maria Singer, 73, who has been a member of the Omas in Nuremberg for three years, said her generation who came of age in the protests of the 1960s were "too naive".

On the far right, she said "we thought we had eradicated it, but that's not true, now it's growing again".

Nevertheless, Singer stressed that "we are fighting against it and we believe we can win".

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Manchester City’s Khadija Shaw gestures as she celebrates scoring their side’s second goal during the English women’s Super League match between Manchester City and Liverpool, at the Manchester City Joie Stadium, Manchester, England, Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)

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Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw bowed her head and raised a gloved fist after scoring a goal on her first start for Manchester City Women since pulling out of the team because of racist abuse directed at her on social media.

The Jamaica international, one of the world’s best strikers, performed the Black Power salute during City’s 4-0 win over Liverpool in the Women’s Super League on Sunday, when she scored two goals.

It’s powerful, obviously…Bunny’s a proud Black woman and where she’s come from means a lot to her. -City manager Gareth Taylor

Shaw was targeted by online abuse after a league game against Arsenal on Feb. 2. She withdrew from the League Cup semifinal match against the same opponent four days later, before returning — as a substitute — for an FA Cup match on Feb. 9.

Sunday’s match against Liverpool marked Shaw’s return to the starting lineup and she said it was “definitely good to get back on the scoresheet after a difficult couple of days.”

Taylor said Shaw’s teammates “were there for her” during the game.

It’s nice for her to be able to feel the love from the supporters and the club. -Gareth Taylor

The Black Power salute was a gesture famously performed by 200-meter U.S. medalists John Carlos and Tommie Smith on the victory stand at the Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968 to protest racial injustice.

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Photo via El Paso Times

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Paquita la del Barrio, the ranchera and bolero singer who took aim at machismo as if it were a piñata, has died at her home in Veracruz, Mexico. She was 77 years old. Her team shared the news on her official Instagram page. No cause of death was provided.

[She] left an indelible mark with her unmistakable voice and unique style, [her music] transcended generations and became anthems of female empowerment and social criticism. -Mexico City's Department of Culture

In the 1980s, Paquita la del Barrio — which translates informally to Paquita from the block — became a household name in Mexico, where she was embraced for the disdain with which she wrote and sang about the men who broke her heart. In one of her biggest hits, "Rata de dos patas," she famously compared an ex-lover to a two-legged rat, a cursed leech and a poisonous snake.

Paquita's biting — sometimes bitter — lyricism grew out of what she described as personal experience. Born Francisca Viveros Barradas in 1947, she was still a teenager when she eloped with a man more than 20 years her senior. After giving birth to two of his sons, Barradas said she learned her husband had been hiding a second wife and family.

I've suffered a lot. It's difficult because the heart goes where it wants…Those feelings are what guide people to my music. -Paquita la del Barrio

She began performing in cantinas around Mexico City in the 1970s. Initially, she sang with her sister in the duo Las Golondrinas, and later debuted as a solo artist under a new artistic name: Paquita la del Barrio. She went on to record more than 30 albums and tour extensively across South America, Spain and the United States.

We Mexicans have this machismo situation. Women are always hurt by what men do to them. I don't sing what others sing. I sing the truth, even if the gentlemen don't like it.' -Paquita la del Barrio

During her career, Paquita la del Barrio received two Latin Grammy nominations, five entries on Billboard's Top Latin Albums chart and a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2021 Billboard Latin Music Awards.

In feminist anthems like "Tres veces te engañé," Paquita powerfully transformed her pain into lyrics of full-bodied rage. Empowerment, too. In the chorus, she sang, "three times I cheated on you. The first time out of anger. The second time on a whim. The third time for my pleasure."

The unapologetic nature of her music and public image was cemented by another line from the same song, "Me estás oyendo, inútil?" It would become Paquita la del Barrio's catchphrase. In English, it means "Are you listening to me, you good-for-nothing?"

Mona Eltahawy is a feminist author, commentator and disruptor of patriarchy. She is editing an anthology on menopause called Bloody Hell!: Adventures in Menopause from Around the World. Her first book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution (2015) targeted patriarchy in the Middle East and North Africa and her second The Seven Necessary Sins For Women and Girls (2019) took her disruption worldwide. It is now available in Ireland and the UK. Her commentary has appeared in media around the world and she makes video essays and writes a newsletter as FEMINIST GIANT.

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