(written by Amy Braunschweiger)

Women’s rights are human rights and should be protected, period.

And while today, on International Women’s Day, we celebrate the achievements of women around the world, we also need to acknowledge we’ve seen disturbing rollbacks to women’s rights in many countries.

The Taliban banned most women from secondary and university education, even restricting women from moving freely outside the home. China’s government silenced feminists, imposing strict censorship policies against content they see as “inciting conflict between the genders.” 

Courts in both the United States and Poland rolled back women’s reproductive rights.

But women’s rights are essential for everyone.

Here’s why: When governments protect free speech, women can speak out against rights abuses. When courts are impartial, women are more likely to seek justice. Strong labor and education laws protecting everyone also help level the playing field for women.

Not to mention our ability to vote and elect rights-respecting officials.

But when these checks and balances start failing, recognition of women’s rights slip. And when governments can repress women using unfair laws, they can do this to anyone.

Just look at Iran, where stifling women’s rights and arresting and beating protesters are signatures of authoritarianism.

Yet even in Iran, women are finding ways to be heard.

Pendar (not her real name) and two other women have staged a quiet protest by walking Tehran’s crowded streets without wearing a headscarf, despite their fear of arrest under Iran’s compulsory hijab laws.

They have done this for six months, walking for four hours every Wednesday and Saturday. As their confidence grew, they stopped wearing hijab completely.

“At first, the police would shout at us, telling us to put on our scarves, but slowly they got used to it and now they don’t even say anything,” she told HRW.

Like Pendar, women around the world – from the US to Poland to Afghanistan – are supporting the rights of other women. And by lifting each other up, they help protect everyone.

(written by Lisa Maier)

While International Women’s Day is intended to celebrate women’s struggles all over the world, it also reminds us we are not there just yet.

On this day last year Saudi Arabia’s government issued a new law enshrining discrimination against women into the country’s legal code.

When the so-called Personal Status Law then came into effect last June, it was touted as “progressive” by Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman and other (male) government officials. It was anything but.

The law contains discriminatory provisions against women concerning marriage, divorce, and decisions about their children. On top of that, it formalizes a longstanding practice: women are now officially required to obtain a male guardian’s permission to marry.

The new law also facilitates domestic violence and sexual abuse within marriage. A husband’s financial support is contingent on a wife’s “obedience” and “legitimate excuses” to refuse sex.

It is practically impossible for a woman to file for divorce or get custody for children. While a husband can unilaterally divorce his wife, a woman can only petition a court to dissolve their marriage contract on limited grounds.

Saudi women’s rights activists long campaigned for a Personal Status Law that would end discrimination against women. The government’s response has been arbitrary arrests, detention, torture, and travel bans.

Until Saudi women can fight for their rights without fear and until equal rights are guaranteed, the officials’ talk of “progress” will ring hollow.

(written by Emily Palomo)

Climate change is real, and heatwaves are projected to intensify and become more frequent in many parts of the world.

But one aspect of this that’s been getting very little attention is that heatwaves have a grave impact on reproductive health.

If you’re pregnant, you are more at risk of heat-related illnesses, such as higher rates of premature birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth.

There are also links between heat and poorer maternal health, as well as dangerous complications like gestational diabetes, or preeclampsia, which, if left untreated, can lead to serious complications or even death.

Around the world, the climate crisis is worsening inequities, including who gets to have a healthy pregnancy. In the US, for example, Black and brown people face increased risk of heat stress as pregnant workers.

Climate change is a reproductive health and equality crisis, and governments need to include reproductive justice in any action against it.

(compiled by Lisa Maier)

• South Korea: Dire state of women’s rights (HRW) 
• US: Texas women denied abortions sue state (DW) 
• Egypt: Harsh sentences against rights activists (HRW) 
• Germany: Low-income households struggle; single mothers particularly affected (HRW) 

On International Women's Day, Birgit Schwarz’s weekly Twitter Space audio conversation examines the global food crisis and how it affects women and girls. Listen live at 14h00 CET (08h00 ET) or recorded afterward.