2022 was a bad year for women’s rights around the world (and we’ll have to remain vigilant in 2023)

Roe v Wade revoked

Love at first sight in a democracy in which it was thought – probably very naively – that this type of retreat was science fiction. On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned the Roe v Wade decision, which had guaranteed abortion rights for nearly 50 years.

A decision with major consequences outside the United States and whose effect on sexual and reproductive rights around the world has been felt. In Poland and Hungary, even conservative governments are undermining gains in the rights of women and LGBTQI+ people.

In France, we hope that the constitutionalisation of the right to abortion and contraception can protect us from such a setback in the coming months.

2022, crucial year for Iran

The name of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman killed by the Iranian morality police in September 2022, will forever remain etched as the one who sparked a great, and far from over, movement in Iran. For several months Iranian men and women have been in the streets, bearers of a mobilization to finally see their country emerge from a tyrannical and draconian regime. A revolt for democracy and to put an end to a system that suffocates, crushes, kills. More than ever, while executions have already taken place to undermine their momentum, it will be necessary to count on international solidarity to enable Iran to (re)make its revolution.

South Korean women rebel against misogyny

It is a war against feminists that is being orchestrated in South Korea. The recently elected president Yoon Suk Yeol has even decided to abolish the ministry dedicated to gender issues, in order, according to him, to protect women, arguing that sexism it’s just a problem of the past. This decision prompted South Korean women to take to the streets to demonstrate in October 2022.

Criticized when they speak publicly about harassment, violence or even wage inequality, women are also mobilizing online. Nonetheless, they face a very virulent masculinist movement, which spreads disinformation and threats.

An inconclusive COP27

Although taking place on the African continent, a part of the world particularly affected by climate change, COP27 was not the source of the commitments hoped for and requested by the countries of the South which were waiting for a solid financial agreement to help the most vulnerable. Leading the negotiations, several African and indigenous feminist organizations had nevertheless taken the floor to remind us that this change cannot and must not happen without them.

The Amber Heard/Johnny Depp affair, symptom of a post-MeToo backtracking

A case of domestic violence that has become a media circus and the symbol of a knockback Without precedents. Face to face in a Virginia court in the spring of 2022, Amber Heard and Johnny Depp opposed each other in a lawsuit scrutinized and ridiculed on social media, from which the actor emerged as a big winner, even though both were fined.

While Amber Heard has announced that she has decided not to continue her battle in court, what consequences will the case have on the perception of domestic violence by the media, on the strategy of the attackers with their victims, on the ability of the latter to speak knowing that do they expose themselves to opprobrium? In a few years we will certainly look at the Depp/Heard affair with a mixture of terror and amazement.

Afghanistan, still under the yoke of the Taliban

In power since August 2021, the Taliban government, which sought to gain international credibility, did not hesitate to initiate measures to limit women’s rights and freedoms. Last to date, the ban on access to higher education, a crucial issue in any case to allow emancipation and autonomy.

The war in Ukraine: women on the front line

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, women have paid dearly for this new war led by Vladimir Putin. Some have fled their country and make up a large part of the refugees who have found protection in other European states. Others have chosen to stay, sometimes to take up arms.

As in other armed conflicts, rape is used as a weapon of war against Ukrainian women. It is also other minorities such as LGBTQI+ people who have been particularly exposed to violence in this conflict.

2022, transphobia is spreading in France and the world

In France, he spreads the open mic on TV and wraps himself in a facade of intellectualism with grandstands and atmospheric tickets. Thanks to the controversy around the Family Planning poster featuring a pregnant man, a free and uninhibited transphobic voice is spreading in France, sometimes even under the guise of feminism or the protection of women’s rights.

The reflection of a global movement of hostility and violence against trans people, especially visible with the legislative setbacks in the United States.

Wind of progressivism in Latin America?

With the decriminalization of abortion in Colombia, the green sea continues in Latin America, partly confirmed by the arrival of leftist governments in much of the continent. In Chile, the right to abortion has not even been enshrined in the Constitution. Except that several countries remain far behind with laws that still prohibit abortion – and this, even in the event of danger to the mother – as in Bolivia or even Brazil.

The far right in power in Italy

She is a woman who has taken the lead of the Italian government, but we must not be mistaken: the arrival of Giorgia Meloni is in no way a positive sign for her country, nor for Europe. You are the head of the Brothers of Italy party, you intend to give the far right a more presentable appearance (hey, this almost reminds us of someone). Defender of the traditional family, he does not intend to reconsider the right to abortion, already unequally guaranteed in Italy, but will favor a pro-natalist policy, to which is added a reactionary policy towards LGBTQI + people and obviously the fight against “immigration .

Photo credit: Taymaz Valley / Alisdare Hickson / Matt Hrkac