This week, women around the world continue to fight for their rights to education, body autonomy and reproductive health and expression.

The ongoing series highlights noteworthy news related to women. This week’s post covers September 17 to September 23.

San Marino

Last year, citizens of San Marino voted to overturn the 150-year-old law which criminalized abortion. This week, the country’s parliament officially voted to legalize abortion.

The micronation was one of the last countries in Europe which criminalized abortion under all circumstances.

Abortion procedures after 12 weeks will be legal in circumstances where the woman’s life is at risk, but no person can be denied an abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The cost of the procedure will be covered by the public health system.

Read more here.

Iran

Protests have carried on in Iran, from the funeral of a woman who died after being arrested by Iran’s morality police. Some women at the ceremony reportedly removed their headscarves in protest at the compulsory wearing of hijabs.

The government has curtailed internet and social media access and deployed security forces in response. Countless protestors have been detained, injured, and killed.

On Thursday, the United States imposed sanctions against the morality police and seven other senior Iranian leaders “for abuse and violence against Iranian women and the violation of the rights of peaceful Iranian protestors.”

Mahsa Amini, 22, died in police custody after she was arrested by the morality police for allegedly not complying with the strict dress code on head coverings.

The state has deployed facial recognition technology to control its citizens. The government’s plan to use surveillance technology to identify women breaking the strict Islamic dress code will lead to more rights violations, human rights activists said.

Read more here.

Global

From Kenya and Lebanon to Sri Lanka and Britain, rising living costs triggered by the Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic are widening gender inequalities.

Women are being forced to neglect their own health to meet family needs as inflation squeezes household budgets, they say, with the situation set to worsen further as many countries impose austerity measures.

Wangari Kinoti, global women’s rights lead at the international charity ActionAid, said all aspects of women’s health were at risk.

“What we see happening is women end up reducing the number and quality of meals they eat each day, and foregoing essential healthcare – such as maternal healthcare and period products – in order to buy food,” said Kinoti.

Read more here

Afghanistan

On the one-year anniversary of a Taliban ban barring female students from secondary education, the United Nations has called on the Taliban to allow girls to go back to school.

Markus Potzel, acting head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, called the anniversary “tragic, shameful, and entirely avoidable,” and said that the prohibition is “profoundly damaging to a generation of girls and to the future of Afghanistan itself.”

UNICEF estimates that some three million Afghan girls are currently unable to complete their secondary education because of the ban.

Read more here.

Ethiopia

This week, the United Nations released a report warning of widespread human rights violations and potential war crimes and crimes against humanity in the ongoing civil war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.

The Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia found that rape and sexual violence are being used on a “staggering scale” by parties to the conflict. Ethiopian and Eritrean forces, along with regional militias, have targeted Tigrayan girls and women with “particular violence.”

Tigrayan forces have also committed rape and other forms of sexual violence against Amhara and Eritrean women and girls.

Read more here.