What do we decide to learn from what today is already part of history?
When recounting the different events that shaped 2022, multiple valuable areas of analysis emerge. However, today I stop only on the protection of women’s rights worldwide.
The feminist struggle has managed to open the debate on gender equality and has achieved various achievements against patriarchy. However, 2022 reminds us that the battles won are not irrevocable conquests; and that the top of substantive equality is still far away and sometimes uphill.
In terms of femicides, as soon as the first quarter of the year ended, we went from 10 to 11 daily deaths of women in Mexican territory. This year our country was an example of how local prosecutors do not investigate adequately and that, far from supporting the affected families, they re-victimize them and push them to do official work. Just to mention a few cases, let’s remember Debani, Ariadna, Rosa Isela, Martha Aurora and Ana Lilia.
In legal termination of pregnancy, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on June 24, the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and thereby reversed its Roe v. Wade who recognized that abortion is an individual decision framed in the right to privacy and, therefore, should not be subject to government interference. The new decision of the Court maintains that the constitutional text does not recognize the right to abortion and that its regulation corresponds to each local congress, thus opening the door for States with a conservative majority to approve restrictive and even prohibitionist laws.
Meanwhile, in the framework of the Iranian protests that had been rising sporadically for years against the official repression, on September 14, Mahsa Amini died at the age of 22 after being detained and beaten by the police in the Tehran’s morality for not following the rules on the correct use of the hijab. As a consequence, the protests intensified and the uprisings were noted in various cities of the country. According to Human Rights Watch data, clashes between police and protesters have led to the death of at least 479 people (including 68 boys and girls) and the arrest of more than 18,000 people, the execution of two people on government orders, and the issuance of of 11 death sentences.
Regarding the right to education for women as the basis and pillar of gender equality, the Taliban government determined only on December 20 that Afghan women are prohibited from attending universities; this, in line with the previous prohibition for girls to receive secondary education. Afghanistan is a territory in which the access of women and girls to public and political life is increasingly restricted; Not without merit, it ranks 156 out of 156 countries in gender inequality according to the 2021 Global Gender Gap Report (UN Women, 2022).
