Around The World In 5: Equal Pay, Protests and Roe v. Wade
Bolivia
In January, serial rapist and murderer Richard Choque was placed under house arrest, where he then continued to commit crimes. It led to the biggest feminist protest seen in El Alto which began outside Choque’s house and culminated at the courts of justice, where activists covered the walls with graffiti, red paint and the names of unpunished rapists and murderers.
“We wanted to redirect the discourse,” María Galindo, founder of Mujeres Creando, a feminist collective in La Paz, told The Guardian. “For it not to be a discourse of victimhood, nor a tabloid nor a police discourse. Because what Richard Choque shows is that the central problem is state corruption. This man was a prisoner, and yet he went free.”
There were at least 108 femicides in 2021 in Bolivia, among the highest rates in South America.
Read more here.
France
The French took to the streets of Paris to defend the right to abortion and its constitutionalization after the US Supreme Court recently challenged it. On Saturday, politicians representing a parliamentary majority voiced their support for a bill enshrining abortion rights in France's constitution.
Watch here.
United Kingdom
English and Welsh women who have suffered miscarriages or stillbirths have started being investigated by police on suspicion of having illegal abortions, with some forced to hand over their phones and laptops for invasive “digital strip searches”.
The police in England and Wales have recorded 67 cases of procuring illegal abortions between 2012 and April 2022.
The investigations follow the overturning of the reproductive rights decision in Roe v Wade, a landmark ruling that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion for women. The ruling has led to increased scrutiny of reproductive rights in Britain and demands for legislative changes to protect access to abortion.
Read more here.
Sierra Leone
This week, Sierra Leone passed the Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Act, approved by President Julius Maada Bio's cabinet and passed to parliament for approval. If passed, the new legislation will overturn a strict ban on abortions and may see a drop in maternal mortality numbers, which are currently the world's highest.
"Despite recent setbacks in the United States, feminist movements are stronger than ever and ready to persevere in the global struggle for democracy and reproductive justice." Mr Bio said.
Read more here.
African Women's Football
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has increased the prize money for the 12th Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in Morocco.
In a statement on Saturday, CAF said the increase is in line with its new policy to make women’s football in Africa globally competitive.
“The CAF President and the CAF Executive Committee have identified women’s football as amongst the confederation’s top priorities,” it said.
The prize money has been increased from $975,000 to $2.4 million – an increase of almost $1.5 million. The winners of this year’s edition of the 2022 WAFCON will pocket $500,000, an increase of $300,000, representing 150 per cent. Previous winners of this competition received $200,000.
Read more here.