From one continent to another, the year 2022 will sometimes have been a year of conquests for women, often of resistance.
But also a year of uprisings, in response to the decline in their rights.
We will remember the riots and demonstrations in Iran, provoked by the death in detention of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurd arrested for having worn a veil deemed to be illegal.
In Afghanistan, more than a year after the return to power of the Taliban, the situation of women remains increasingly worrying.
After several decades of social progress for Afghan women – and despite the promises of the Taliban, who had already imposed an ultra-rigorous application of Islam between 1996 and 2001 – the latter are again forced to wear the burqa, and the girls deprived of school again.
The right to abortion will also have been at the heart of debates and demonstrations, provoking political arm wrestling.
In particular in the United States, where the Supreme Court decided in June to overturn the Roe vs.
Wade, which guaranteed American women the right to terminate their pregnancies.
In other countries, the fight for women's rights has resulted in some victories which, if they sometimes seem small, are no less symbolic.
Between setbacks and advances, France 24 looks back on these events that marked the struggle of women for their rights around the world in 2022.
February 2022: Colombia decriminalizes abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy
Abortion rights activists celebrate the Colombian High Court's decision to decriminalize abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, in Bogota on February 21, 2022. © Raul Arboleda, AFP
In a context of liberalization of abortion in Latin America, the Constitutional Court of Colombia decriminalizes, Monday, February 21, abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Until now, this was punishable by a sentence ranging from 16 to 54 months in prison in this predominantly Catholic country.
This decision allows women to have an abortion for any reason up to the sixth month of gestation.
Previously, this was only allowed in cases of rape, if the mother's health was in danger or when the fetus had a malformation compromising its survival, according to a 2006 court ruling, which provided for conscientious objection. for doctors who did not want to perform an abortion.
By way of comparison, in France, abortion can only be performed until the end of the 14th week of pregnancy (i.e. three and a half months of gestation).
An extension of the deadline also obtained in 2022.
In France, the legal deadline for an abortion goes from 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy
A young woman patient in a health center in Paris on July 1, 2022. © AFP - Geoffroy Van der Hasselt, AFP
In the pipes since October 2020, the transpartisan bill aimed at extending the legal duration of abortion from 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy is voted on February 23.
By 135 votes for, 47 against and 9 abstentions, Parliament adopted this text "faithful to the fight for the emancipation of women", welcomed the former Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.
Presented by former LREM deputy Albane Gaillot, now an environmentalist, the proposal was pushed by the president of LREM deputies, Christophe Castaner.
>> To read - Abortion in France: extending the legal period, in the name of the most fragile women
The text was passed despite the reluctance displayed by some doctors, including the National Academy of Medicine, fearing "surgical maneuvers that could be dangerous for women".
March 2022: under the Taliban regime, the rights of Afghan women are reduced to a trickle
Afghan women walk past a banner placed by Taliban authorities asking women to wear the burqa, in Kandahar on June 16, 2022. © Javed Tanveer, AFP
Deprived of education, forced to wear the full veil, banned from politics and the media, women are gradually disappearing from public space in Afghanistan.
The Taliban regime has implemented a rigorous version of Islamic Sharia law that leaves no room for those who represent more than half of the population.
On March 23, the girls who were initially able to return to high school after the Taliban decided to reopen secondary school to them, were asked, a few hours later, to return home.
Afghanistan has thus become the only country in the world where secondary school is prohibited for girls.
In addition, since a decree came into force on May 7, Afghan women are again forced to wear the full veil.
"Women who are neither too young nor too old must veil their face, except for their eyes, according to the recommendations of the Sharia, in order to avoid any provocation when they meet a man [who is not a close member of their family],” reads the decree, announced by the voice of Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada.
>> To read - The Taliban impose the wearing of the burqa on female journalists
: "We are the last to resist"
In November, a new list of prohibitions is published by the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue.
Women are now denied access to gymnasiums, public baths, parks and gardens.
Until now, different hours and days had been introduced so that men and women did not meet there.
May 2022: in Spain, a bill to introduce menstrual leave
Spain's Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, speaks at a press conference after the Spanish government approved a bill providing for menstrual leave for women with painful periods.
© Borja Puig de la Bellacasa, AFP
This measure could make Spain the first country in Europe to offer state-funded paid leave for women with painful periods, like Japan, Indonesia or Zambia.
In this bill approved by the ruling left coalition, the right to abortion would also be strengthened, the government hoping to guarantee its access throughout the country and end the taboo of menstruation at work.
"Today we send an international message of support to all women who fight for their sexual and reproductive rights," Equality Minister Irene Montero, from the left-wing Podemos party, told reporters.
If passed, this new law will allow minors over the age of 16 to abort without parental consent and will remove the mandatory three-day cooling-off period before performing an abortion.
June 2022: in the United States, the Supreme Court revokes the right to abortion
Women demonstrate against Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs vs.
Jackson Women's Health, which overturns Roe vs.
Wade on June 24, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia.
© Elijah Nouvelage, AP
Historic day, June 24, 2022. The very conservative Supreme Court of the United States buries the Roe vs. Wade judgment which, for nearly half a century, guaranteed the right of American women to have an abortion.
This new decision does not make abortions illegal, but returns the United States to the situation in force before the emblematic decision taken in 1973: each state will now be free to authorize abortion or not.
Result: a handful of states – at least eight, according to the Washington Post – took the opportunity to ban abortions on their soil the same day.
Six months later, other states followed, despite attempts by pro-choice activists to guarantee this basic right.
A total of 26 states could ban access to abortion in the country, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which specializes in birth and abortion statistics in the United States and around the world.
>> To read - Faced with the decline in the right to abortion, American women are turning to sterilization
September 2022: Iran revolts after the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in custody
Iranians protest the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, after her arrest by vice police, in Tehran on October 1, 2022. AP
On September 16, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died in custody three days after her arrest by the vice squad for violating the strict dress code requiring women to wear the veil in public.
Iran is on fire.
Since then, the wave of demonstrations, first in the provinces and then in Tehran, has not weakened despite the repression by the police.
A slogan emerges: "Woman. Life. Freedom", and rallies in support of Iranian women multiply throughout the world.
In Iran, women demonstrators go bareheaded, burn their headscarves and start cutting their hair in protest.
Claims are repressed in blood.
Several hundred people have died since the start of the demonstrations, according to the authorities.
A dozen people are sentenced to death for their participation in the demonstrations, and a first execution – a young man of 23 years – took place on Thursday, December 8, provoking the indignation of the international community.
>> To read - Demonstrations in Iran: "The tipping point has not been reached but it is not far"
The Indian Supreme Court recognizes the right of unmarried women to abortion and the notion of marital rape
Marital rape victim Meera poses as she sits near her home in New Delhi.
India has long suffered from high levels of sexual violence, including in the home, but successive governments have been reluctant to criminalize marital rape.
© Chandan Khanna, AFP
Two advances applauded by feminist circles in India.
On September 29, the Supreme Court – India's highest court – declares that unmarried women also have the right to request the abortion of a pregnancy between 20 and 24 weeks.
A "revolutionary recognition" according to activists, because this judgment removes the artificial distinction between married and unmarried women.
Another distinction considered by the Supreme Court as obsolete: that between rape and marital rape.
In this same decision, the Court considers that under the law on medical termination of pregnancy, the definition of rape must include marital rape.
A very symbolic position in this patriarchal country where the law provides that a sexual relationship between a man and his wife cannot be considered rape if she is over 15 years old.
Since the beginning of January, the Delhi High Court has been examining a petition filed by two women's rights associations to have marital rape recognized and criminalized.
In March, a regional appeals court upheld the prosecution of a man for the rape of his wife.
The judge in Bangalore (capital of the state of Karnataka, in southern India) rejected his appeal, considering that the legal exception not punishing marital rape goes against the principle of equality between men and women guaranteed by the constitution.
November 2022: the National Assembly votes in favor of including the right to abortion in the French Constitution
Demonstration in front of the Eiffel Tower in favor of the inclusion of the right to abortion in the French Constitution, in Paris on July 2, 2022. © Christophe Archambault, AFP
The right to abortion, soon to be protected by the French Constitution?
It was in favor of this measure that the National Assembly voted on Thursday, November 24, by adopting (by 337 votes against 32) a proposal from La France insoumise (LFI) supported by the majority.
>> To read - The inclusion of the right to abortion in the French Constitution, a journey strewn with pitfalls
With this abortion protection text, included in the one-day program reserved for LFI in the hemicycle, it is a question of "preventing a regression" such as that which took place recently in the United States or elsewhere in Europe, pleaded the leader of the group, Mathilde Panot, who dedicated this "historic victory" to "American, Polish and Hungarian" women.
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