Women, 2024 should be ours.

The pendulum effect that has shaped the world's political arena over the past years is leaving no field untouched. Far-right governments are being replaced by populists, and populists are being replaced by the progressive left, and so on and so forth, not necessarily in that order. Apart from the expected instability of such a pendulum, its impact on? economic, diplomatic and security sectors of governments globally, it has proven to have heavy implications on the basic rights in many parts of our civic societies – and as usual, the first to suffer the blow are “women”.

The past few years have been devastating for many women around the globe, marking a significant setback on women's rights and social status, even in places which might be "surprising"; In Poland, for example, a near total ban of abortions came close to being approved in 2016, and a similar one was passed in 2020. In the United States, the historic Roe v Wade – which guaranteed women their right to seek an abortion – was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022. Additionally, severe measures against feminist organisations, feminist content and even linguistic terms are still being undertaken in China and South Korea; In 2021, Turkey has withdrawn from its own Istanbul Convention – a framework combating gender-based violence and ensuring survivors' rights in Europe.

On the other hand, some long, hard fought civic battles for women's rights have finally been bearing fruit;? Ireland, a Catholic majority country, in which the church had a strong historic hold over public affairs, has held a referendum over abortion rights, which resulted in its legalisation. The same was achieved in Argentina, another country with a significant religious presence (and a serving Pope at that!), has changed its constitution to make abortions completely legal and free. Poland, which is mentioned in the above paragraph, has managed to oust the ultra-conservative PiS government, and replace it with one promising to restore women's rights, including abortion rights.

What is in common in these won battles is that they were all led by local, grassroots women led organisations able to mobilise the community. It took a long time, in some cases even decades, and required great resilience and determination. They knew the community they were serving, and knew the necessary steps to achieve their goals.

These grassroots organisations did not wait nor rely on global organisations such as the UN Women, which has long been failing the world's women: In just recent years, it has failed to assist the women of Ukraine, who were being sexually abused and trafficked by Russian soldiers; The women of Afghanistan have been left alone to deal with a regime that allows child marriages and prohibits them from attending schools, taking up jobs, or leaving the house without a male guardian; the women of Nigeria were neglected in the fight against Boko Haram, who uses sexual violence as a war tactic; it took the UN Women 8 weeks to publicly address the sexual crimes committed against Israeli women by Hamas on October 7th. In Iran, women are still subjected to restricting Hijab laws, with women-led protests, following the death of Mahsa Amini,? brutally crushed by the regime.? Again, Iranian women are left to fend for themselves.

Further, while we cannot ignore the progress achieved in the field of women's health,? gaps are still huge. Menopause, Postpartum Depression and Endometriosis, just to name a few, are still either understudied, underdiagnosed, and still carry too many? social stigmas. In medicine, a profession still dominated by men, women's complaints over symptoms are often being ignored or downplayed, and diagnostic tests and treatments delayed. Yet, when? women are finally diagnosed and treated, the world around them still expects them to continue fulfilling their duties – often expected to continue to work, take care of their families as per usual, their pains and struggles stigmatised. To put it simply, women are facing difficulties 'proving' they are not physically or mentally well, and later struggle to obtain the time and space to heal.?

With New Years Eve being just a few days away, we will soon be welcoming 2024. Traditionally, it is a time of reflection, introspection and goal setting for the year to come. It is now perhaps more important than ever that “we” - women - set as our goal to take matters into our own hands, and fight for our rights, without outsourcing our work to foreign, global organisations that say much yet do so little. It is perhaps the time we should unite locally, work from the ground up to claim what is rightfully ours – and fight for our communities, from within our communities.

Let's make 2024 our year.?