Global Roundup: Poland New Abortion Guidelines, Afghanistan Clandestine Beauticians, Illustration on Mass Incarceration, Canada Pride March, Senegal Women Wrestlers

Curated by FG Contributor Samiha Hossain

Women took to the streets in July after parliament failed to reform Poland's abortion law. Image: Piotr Lapinski/NurPhoto/picture alliance

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk resorted to stopgap measures to address demands from women's rights activists after failing to liberalize the restrictive abortion law and activists are not satisfied with the new guidelines. Anna Sikora, a mother of two from the central city of Sieradz, is a left-wing activist and local leader of women's protests that have swept Poland and mobilized women against the Catholic-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), which led the country from 2016 to 2023. Their hopes for changes to the abortion law made the party's electoral defeat possible in fall of 2023.

I remember when only 50 people came to my protests in defense of women's rights in 2016. After four years, almost 2,000 people took part in the protests. Most of them also took part in the last parliamentary elections as I called on them to do. And they, especially young women, have the right to be disappointed today. -Anna Sikora

Poland has had one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe since the 1990s. But the situation worsened under the PiS government. The PiS policy, repressive enforcement via the prosecutor's office and the deaths of women who were refused treatment in hospitals all triggered new protests by women concerned about their own safety during pregnancy.

Abortion was a key topic during the 2023 parliamentary election campaign, and Donald Tusk promised Polish women the possibility of legal abortion for pregnancies up to 12 weeks, despite it being a risky pledge which Tusk's future coalition partners distanced themselves from during the campaign. After the election, months of disputes in the new coalition culminated in the most conservative of four drafts to an amendment being put to a final vote in parliament. It provided for the abolition of penalties for abortion assistance. But in mid-July, the parliament rejected the amendment despite the majority of the governing coalition voting in favor. The right-wing opposition were against it, and the governing coalition was just four votes short.

Immediately after July's failed vote on the amendment in parliament, the National Public Prosecutor's Office announced that it would draw up guidelines for abortion investigations. These were published and put into force on August 9. The new guidelines remind investigators that rumors cannot be used as evidence in proceedings, nor can a woman be accused of terminating her own pregnancy. Most court cases involve the criminal aiding and abetting of abortion instead. But legal experts see little hope of real improvements as a result of the new directives – which fail to address many issues.

I am disappointed by the attitude of the Polish People's Party, which blocked the reform together with the opposition. And these guidelines from Minister Bodnar are a Band-Aid for a bullet wound. Should we thank them on our knees? Oh, no. -Anna Sikora

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A customer at a secret beauty salon in Kabul receives a manicure [Al Jazeera]

In Afghanistan, an army of clandestine beauticians in Kabul is keeping morale alive among women living in fear of the Taliban-led government.

In early July 2023, the Taliban announced the closure of all beauty salons across the country and proclaimed that a number of services, including eyebrow shaping, the use of other people’s hair and the application of makeup, interfered with pre-prayer ablutions required in Islam. No other Muslim-majority country in the world has banned salons, however, and critics say the Taliban’s treatment of women defy mainstream teachings of Islam. Salons were some of the last businesses open to women as customers and workers. In a country where more than 12,000 beauty salons had flourished, the ban has had a devastating economic impact on the 60,000 women who worked in the sector. Beyond economic empowerment, the salons provided Afghan women with a much-needed community. 

A client has her eyebrows tended to in secret [Al Jazeera]

Some younger entrants have chosen to set up new clandestine establishments. Among them are former schoolgirls who have been deprived of their right to education since secondary-school for girls was banned in September 2021 and have entered the underground beauty market: a gesture of resistance driven by the need to feed their families and regain some semblance of a social life and a future.

If the Taliban catch me, I would be taken to a special office. God knows what happens there. They would also fine me 50,000 afghanis [$704] and warn or even attack my mahram. If you are getting caught a second time, you’ll be sent to prison. -Anonymous 21-year-old makeup artist

Breshna was one of many young Afghan women who began working in the beauty sector after the Taliban came to power. It has been almost three years since she last set foot in a classroom. The first woman in her family to go to university, she dreamed at age 22 of becoming a diplomat. Given her success as a beautician, Breshna has had to take extra precautions. Her working hours are never the same, and she is very careful about her movements.

I spent almost two years learning the techniques. It was difficult at first, but I developed a passion for hairdressing. I got really good at it. I became a favourite among the salon’s clientele. They saved me from depression. -Breshna

Despite the fear and mass surveillance introduced by the Taliban to better track the movements of the population and hinder the presence of women in public spaces, these women say they are determined to continue.

We are left with no other choices. They banned us from university. We’ll continue to read. They banned beauty salons. We’ll continue to work. - Anonymous young beautician

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Vic Liu is the visual artist behind an illustrated three-part examination of mass incarceration in the U.S. The Warehouse: A Visual Primer on Mass Incarceration explores the economic and political conditions that created mass incarceration. The Warehouse contains hundreds of illustrations from Liu and incarcerated artists, each designed to help people on the outside understand a system predicated on disappearance. Co-authored with abolitionist James Kilgore, the text also offers strategies to imagine new forms of justice and care, detailing how accessible housing, free education, and improved health care could reduce harm in our societies. Liu notes that these interventions would be especially critical for LGBTQ+ people, who are incarcerated at three times the rate of the general population.

The difference between crime and harm is something that’s often discussed in abolitionist spaces. Crime is the breaking of a rule that the government has decided — parking in the wrong place, for example. Harm is when you deeply hurt someone. -Vic Liu

In addition to The Warehouse, Vic Liu is the creator of Bang! Masturbation for People of All Genders, an inclusive and revelatory visual guide to masturbation that has sold almost 50,000 copies. The 28-year-old is currently based in Brooklyn, New York, where they focus on projects that convey complicated topics with a focus on empathy and accessibility. Them spoke to Liu about mass incarceration, abolition, reform, and more.

Liu discusses how they believe that text is elitist because of how many people it excludes. That is why they make information visible through their illustrations. For BANG, their first book, it was important for Liu that the anatomy diagrams were race-diverse.

From the outside, books about mass incarceration and masturbation are not very related. But the intersection is bodily autonomy, and the fact that the state wants to make us afraid of our own bodies. -Vic Liu

Liu also explains how incarceration in the U.S. breaks people’s connections as people are incarcerated far away from their communities. The Warehouse tries to put the reader inside of what it’s like to live in a prison and to experience the carceral system. Liu also discuss the tension between reform versus abolition and how they tried to depict both in the book. They end with sharing how they believe queerness can help us imagine a world beyond the carceral state.

Being queer, at its heart, is about resistance…Queer people will continue to be at the forefront of abolishing mass incarceration. Queer people tend to be at the forefront of most activism, whether that’s free Palestine or masking for COVID. -Vic Liu

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Hundreds of people took part in a pride march in downtown Vernon to celebrate the queer community during Pride Week Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. Brendan Shykora/Morning Star

Last weekend, Vernon Pride's third annual Pride Week culminated in a celebratory march that swept through the Canadian City of Vernon in the province of British Columbia. Hundreds of people donned bright outfits and waved pride flags, with volunteers manning each intersection along the way, playing music to liven up the streets. Vernon Pride president Abbie Wilson said there were twice as many non-profit booths as there were in past years. The pride march was preceded by a land acknowledgement, an Indigenous welcome song, and a number of speeches in the park. 

Ella Fisher, a member of the queer community, stressed that despite the progress that has been made around queer acceptance, there is more work to do. Fisher said she was lucky to have a supportive family when she came out at age 14, but acknowledged that not everyone is so fortunate. 

Nobody should ever be the target of violence or oppression because of who we are or who we love, and we also know how many people still face this every day, even in our community. My dad — he's an incredibly wise man — he always told me when I was a kid that hatred and oppression are rooted in ignorance. One huge step towards equal rights and advocacy for queer people around the world is the simple act of education. -Ella Fisher

Wilson concluded the speech portion of the event with a meditation on "queer joy," a concept she said has roots in Black activism. 

Queer joy is an act of resistance. It is counter-cultural in a culture that tells us to bury our gaze. It is disruptive to the thread that runs through entire families, communities and belief systems, that queerness and trans-ness is less than, that it creates unhappy people and unhappy families. All of us here today know that that is not true. -Abbie Wilson

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Coach Isabelle Sambou, 43 , two-time Olympian and nine-time African wrestling champion, center, explains moves to young women during a wrestling training, in Mlomp, southern Senegal, July 10, 2024.

In Senegal wrestling is a national sport and wrestlers are celebrated like rock stars – but in most of the country, wrestling remains off-limits for women. There is one exception: in the Casamance region, home to the Jola ethnic group, women traditionally wrestle alongside men. At a recent training session in Mlomp, most teenagers on the sandy ground were girls. Coach Isabelle Sambou, 43, is a two-time Olympian and nine-time African wrestling champion.

It's in our blood. In our village, girls wrestle. My mum was a wrestler, my aunts were wrestlers. -Isabelle Sambou

But once Jola women marry, they are expected to stop practicing and devote themselves to family life, considered the main duty of Senegalese women regardless of ethnicity or religion. Sambou's aunt, Awa Sy, now in her 80s, was the village champion in her youth, and said she would even take down some men. That hasn't been the case for her niece, who, despite her humble demeanor and small size, exudes strength and determination. She defied many barriers to become a professional athlete.

Wrestling brought Sambou, who did not finish primary school, to the Olympic Games in London and Rio de Janeiro, where she placed outside the medal contenders. But being a successful professional female athlete in a conservative society comes with a price.

If you are a female wrestler, people are going to make fun of you. When I walked around in shorts, people were saying: 'Look, is it a woman or is it a boy?' -Isabelle Sambou

In 2016, facing her mid-30s, she decided to retire from professional sport and move back to her village. She began to focus on finding "future Isabelles." After not fulfilling her dream of winning an Olympic medal, she hopes a girl she coaches can achieve that. That mission has been complicated by the lack of resources. Female sport is often underfunded, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Around Sambou's village, for instance, there are no gyms where girls can do strength training. 

Sambou has received little in return. Senegal has no pension system for retired professional athletes. Her lack of formal education complicates her career as a coach. She helps to coach the national wrestling team, both men and women, but on a voluntary basis. To get by, she works in a small shop and cleans people's houses. But Sambou's 17-year-old niece, Mame Marie Sambou, recently won a gold medal at the youth championship in Dakar. Her dream is to become a professional wrestler and compete internationally. 

It's my aunt who encouraged me to start wrestling. When I started, many people were saying they have never seen a girl wrestle. But I never listened to them. I want to be like her. -Mame Marie Sambou

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Samiha Hossain (she/her) is an aspiring urban planner studying at Toronto Metropolitan University. Throughout the years, she has worked in nonprofits with survivors of sexual violence and youth. Samiha firmly believes in the power of connecting with people and listening to their stories to create solidarity and heal as a community. She loves learning about the diverse forms of feminist resistance around the world.