Harassment moves offline to schools and campuses

A new one Report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) has found that digital hate and harassment against women increased rapidly after the US presidential election. Sexist phrases like “repeal the 19th (amendment)” and “get back in the kitchen” surged on platforms like X, TikTok, Facebook and Reddit following President Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. Many of the most common comments are about demands for reduced women’s rights, while others have explicitly threatened women with sexual assault and harassment. Mentions of the statement “Your body, my choice” — a direct response to the reproductive justice movement’s slogan, “my body, my choice” — grew by over 4,600 percent on X. The phrase also appears to have grown in popularity offline, with parents and students reporting about groups of boys chanting it to girls in schools. One parent commented online: “Today my daughter was told 3 different times on campus ‘your body, MY choice.'” The third group of boys told her to “sleep with one eye open tonight.”

Colombia passes law to ban child marriage

This week, Colombia passed a law called “They are girls, not wives”, which effectively prohibits all marriage for children under the age of eighteen. The victory came after seventeen years of hard work by advocacy groups and eight failed attempts to pass the legislation through the House and Senate. The new law will close a loophole in the country’s civil code, which allowed children under the age of eighteen to marry with parental consent. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, one in four – or 4.5 million girls and women in Colombia – were married before the age of eighteen, and one million were married before the age of fifteen. The bill will also address structural issues that often contribute to child marriage with a particular focus on policies that address education. Sandra Ramirez, Latin America adviser for the advocacy group Equality Now, said that efforts must be directed towards effective implementation of the law: “Public policy now will be crucial, because a change in legislation does not mean much without effective implementation and ensuring that the voices of girls and young people are at the center.” Colombia joins twelve of thirty-three other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that have banned child marriage.

Libya announces plans to crack down on women’s personal freedom

Last week, the Acting Interior Minister of Libya’s Government of National Unity (GNU), Emad Trabelsi, announced that several restrictions target women’s personal freedoms would be implemented across the country. Libya currently has two competing governments – the GNU and the Government of National Stability. The GNU, which announced these restrictions, is recognized by the United Nations and much of the international community. The GNU’s plan includes reviving the “morality police” to enforce a requirement that women and girls wear the hijab from the age of nine and monitor public interactions between unrelated couples. Male guardianship laws would prevent women from traveling without the permission of their father, brother or husband, and women would be banned from public spaces with men. Advocacy groups, including Human Rights Watch, said such draconian initiatives would violate the country’s interim constitution, as well as human rights treaties to which it is a party, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and its Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women. “It’s already a very patriarchal society, and women have no rights in Libya,” Naro, a makeup artist in Tripoli, told More to her story. “This decision will affect all women negatively and make society go backwards instead of forwards. They have ignored all major problems like political conflicts, inflation and civil wars and focused on women’s hijab instead.”

Floods in Myanmar affect women and girls in a unique way, new UN Women report shows

This week, the United Nations released a new one Report highlights the disproportionate impact of the recent floods in Myanmar on women and girls. Since September, floods and mudslides caused by an intense monsoon season and the effects of Typhoon Yagi have affected over one million people in more than 20 percent of Myanmar’s townships. Women and girls have had to bear the brunt of this climate disaster. Ensuring access to adequate hygiene items, maternal and reproductive care and medical services remains a challenge. In the long term, experts fear the floods could lead to more girls dropping out of school and displaced women could have fewer economic opportunities. The threat of gender-based violence is also widespread. Currently, over 67 percent of displacement camps and shelters report safety concerns for women and girls. “Extreme weather events like Typhoon Yagi are increasing in frequency and severity,” said Ramesh Singh, Asia Regional Director of CARE International. “In Southeast Asia, where climate-related disasters are intensifying, prioritizing gender equality in disaster planning and response is critical to building a resilient society.”