5 h. ago Netanyahu is using Muslim women’s 'rights’ to justify his war. What hideous, hollow hypocrisy | Mona Eltahawy

As his troops slaughter civilians in Gaza, he claims to be standing up for Iranian women’s autonomy. He is far from the first warmonger to do soThe Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has invoked the Iranian regime’s heinous women’s rights record to justify his heinous war on Iran. This is the man whose genocide of Palestinians in Gaza killed more women and children in its first year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades.“They’ve impoverished you, they’ve given you misery, they’ve given you death, they’ve given you terror, they shoot down your women, leaving this brave, unbelievable woman, Mahsa Amini, to bleed on the sidewalk for not covering her hair,” he told Iranians in an interview with Iran International.Mona Eltahawy writes the Feminist Giant newsletter. She is the author of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls and Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual RevolutionDo you have an opinion on the issues rais...

Events

31 h. ago What the change in the abortion law actually means for women in Wales

MPs have voted to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales - here's what the huge change in reproductive rights means for women in Wales

Politics

48 h. ago Is this Trump’s WMD moment? President overrules intelligence agencies on Iran to justify war

ANALYSIS: Donald Trump rose to power criticizing Bush-era politicians for lying about weapons of mass destruction. Now he is accused of doing the same, Richard Hall writes.

Politics

3 d. ago The Guardian view on violence against women and girls: the grooming gangs inquiry should be part of a wider strategy | Editorial

It is right to confront child sexual exploitation, but this week’s announcement comes against a backdrop of failureThe government’s renewed focus on child sexual exploitation (CSE) gangs is overdue, and the new national inquiry recommended by Louise Casey must deliver justice, not just headlines. All child sexual abuse is horrifying. But the extreme sexual violence and financial incentives involved in gang-based offending demand special scrutiny. So do the institutional failures by police and councils, particularly in northern England, where numerous gangs operated.Past inquiries have exposed these institutional breakdowns. They have also shown that a reluctance to inflame racial tensions played a role in the way that some complaints were mishandled. That doesn’t excuse the inaction – nor justify turning a public safety issue into a culture war. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago British women are being jailed under archaic abortion laws. MPs can act to end that this week | Frances Ryan

Women will really have the right to choose if politicians vote to revoke this Victorian-era legislation Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago Republicans use LA protests to push holdouts to pass Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

House Speaker Mike Johnson says ‘it's those men and women, the federal law enforcement officers who deserve our support right now’

Politics

9 d. ago Once again, British politicians want to ‘ban the burqa’. But this time, I’ve never felt so afraid | Nadeine Asbali

Since the riots last summer British Muslims have felt a deep unease in our own countryHere we are again, debating the right of Muslim women to wear what they want. Last week, the Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin asked the prime minister, Keir Starmer, if he planned to follow other European countries and prohibit burqas.Then the leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, called for bosses to be able to ban the burqa in the workplace. Following the example of the former Labour minister Jack Straw, who in 2006 sparked the first burqa debate by asking constituents at his surgeries to remove their face coverings, she stated that she does not see constituents at her surgeries if they have their faces covered, “whether it’s a burqa or a balaclava”.Nadeine Asbali is a secondary school teacher in London and the author of Veiled Threat: On Being Visibly Muslim in Britain Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Women and men diverge more than ever on support for abortion rights, poll shows

Gallup poll found 61% of women identify as pro-choice, while only 41% of men do so, in three years after fall of RoeThree years after the fall of Roe v Wade and months after an election that heavily focused on the fight over abortion rights, men and women have never diverged more on their support for access to the procedure, according to new polling from Gallup released Monday.Sixty-one percent of women now identify as “pro-choice”, but only 41% of men say the same, Gallup found. The same percentage of women identified as “pro-choice” in 2022, just after the decision to overturn Roe was leaked, but at the time, 48% of men also did so. Prior to Roe’s collapse, men and women were never more than 10 points apart from one another on the issue, according to decades of Gallup polling. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Voices: As a former judge, I used to defend Britain’s rights – mine are now at risk

Since the Supreme Court’s decision in April, trans women like me have had their rights systematically taken away, writes Victoria McCloud – who appears on The Independent’s Pride List 2025

Events

1 week ago Spanish police’s plea for respect backfires over photo of old women alfresco

Andalucían police used shot of women sitting on chairs on pavement in request to keep public right of way clearSomewhere towards the very top of the long list of unspoken Spanish rules – gin and tonic should not be drunk before a meal, chorizo has no place in the vicinity of a paella and children’s bedtimes cease to apply in the summer – is the silent injunction that forbids any attempts to alter the habits of the country’s cherished older people.It was unfortunate, then, that police in the small Andalucían town of Santa Fe chose the photo they did to accompany a request for people not to disturb their neighbours by sitting around the streets late at night. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Women’s rights advocate awaiting visa ‘devastated’ by Trump’s travel ban

Between 10,000 and 15,000 Afghans were waiting in Pakistan for their U.S. visas to be processed

Politics

2 w. ago Why is there such a generational divide in views on sex and gender in Britain? | Susanna Rustin

A majority of my age group agreed with a recent supreme court ruling – among 18- to 24-year-olds, the reverse was true. I believe the key lies in our respective life stagesDiffering attitudes to women’s and transgender rights activism are often said to be generational. One poll, published a month on from the supreme court ruling that the legal definition of “woman” in the Equality Act is based on biological sex, found 63% supportive of the ruling and 18% opposed. But younger people were far more likely to be in the latter camp, with 53% of 18- to 24-year-olds disagreeing with the judgment. In my age group, 50-64, the figure was just 13%. Such results echo earlier polls.As with any attempt to link a demographic with a point of view, there are plenty of exceptions. Last month Lady Hale, the octogenarian former president of the supreme court, became one of them when she argued that the ruling had been misinterpreted, telling a literary festival she had met doctors “who said there is no...

Politics

2 w. ago Abortion rights activists say 'decriminalisation isn't enough' ahead of Westminster vote

As MPs gather to debate an e-petition calling for the decriminalisation of abortion on June 2, abortion rights campaigners explain why decriminalisation isn't enough to protect women

Politics

2 w. ago CBS Sports acquires the rights to air Women's Champions League matches

CBS Sports has acquired the U.S. broadcast rights for the UEFA Women’s Champions League through the 2029-30 season

Sport

2 w. ago Saudi police filmed beating females in secret prisons families banish them to for years

WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Videos and photos taken from outside a prison in Saudi Arabia paint a picture of hellhole conditions for women, who haven't even broken the law, according to human right activists

Events

3 w. ago Argentina used as a ‘testing ground’ for eroding abortion rights, warns Amnesty

Alarm as Javier Milei’s government curbs state supply of abortion pills and seeks to reverse landmark legalisationArgentina is being used as a “testing ground” for stripping back abortion rights internationally as it cuts funding for contraceptives and ends the distribution of abortion pills, Amnesty International warned on Wednesday.Before the inauguration of President Javier Milei in December 2023, the state bought abortion pills, which were then distributed for free through the public health system. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Feminist professor loses job after Islamist group demands her removal

Nadira Yeasmin says she was transferred to an administrative post 300km from the capital after writing articles calling for women to have equal property rights

Society

3 w. ago Pakistan sends ‘important signal’ of hope in a gloomy world of pushbacks on women’s rights

The city of Islamabad has moved to ban child marriage which politicians say is a mark of the country bucking global trends to stand behind its womenDuring last week’s tense debate over whether the Pakistan senate should pass a bill banning child marriage, Naseema Ehsan stood up to speak. “I got married at 13 years old and I want child marriage to be banned,” said the 50-year-old senator.“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.” Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago FBI to reinvestigate 2023 White House cocaine find and leak of supreme court Dobbs draft

Agency also announced new inquiry into pipe bombs found outside Democratic and Republican offices in 2021The FBI will launch new investigations into the 2023 discovery of a bag of cocaine at the White House during Joe Biden’s term, as well as into pipe bombs discovered at Democratic and Republican party headquarters before the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot by supporters of Donald Trump, and the leak of the supreme court’s draft opinion before the historic overturning of national abortion rights with the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.Dan Bongino, a rightwing podcaster turned deputy director of the FBI, made the announcement on X, where he said he had requested weekly briefings on any progress in looking into the old cases. The incidents have been popular talking points on America’s political right wing and among conspiracy theorists. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago BBC Woman's Hour presenter Anita Rani accused of being 'biased and bigoted' by gender rights campaigner

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at Sex Matters - a women's rights group - said her views had been 'misrepresented' on the show by Anita Rani (pictured).

Politics