Saudi Arabia to send its first female astronaut into space
Rayyanah Barnawi will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission, Axiom Space’s second all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station in the second quarter of 2023.
Women's rights & well-being
This archive covers documented progress on women’s rights and well-being worldwide — from legal reforms and health advances to economic gains and shifts in policy. Stories here focus on what’s working, who’s driving change, and where meaningful progress is taking hold.
Crystalyne Curley becomes first female speaker of the Navajo Nation Council
Council Delegate Crystalyne Curley, 37, who represents Tachíí/Blue Gap, Many Farms, Nazlini, Tsélání/Cottonwood, Low Mountain, has become the first woman to head the Navajo Nation Council.
Sierra Leone enacts law to keep 30% posts for women in power
The Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act calls for a 30% minimum quota of women in parliament and cabinet and requires companies to set aside 30% of senior-level jobs for women.
Saudi Arabia hosts its first international football tournament for women
Saudi Arabia launched it’s national women’s football team last year. Last week, Anoud Al Asmari made history by becoming the first Saudi female referee to be accredited by Fifa.
The U.S. FDA will now allow abortion pills to be sold at normal pharmacies
Although patients will still need prescriptions to get the pills, this change will drastically widen their access.
Top British universities offer Afghan women free courses until Taliban lift learning ban
Afghan girls and women with internet access will be able to study more than 1,200 courses from 20 top British institutions at no cost to themselves.
Stéphanie Frappart makes history as first-ever female World Cup referee
Stéphanie Frappart made history on December 1, 2022, when she blew the opening whistle for Costa Rica vs. Germany — the first woman ever to referee a men’s FIFA World Cup match. She led an all-female team that day, joined by Brazil’s Neuza Back and Mexico’s Karen Díaz Medina, and called the game so cleanly that her performance drew no controversy at all. That quiet competence was the whole point: she earned the spot through the same FIFA assessment process as everyone else, building on a decade of firsts in Ligue 1, the UEFA Super Cup, and the Champions League. Her story is a reminder that real equality often arrives not with fanfare, but with someone simply doing the job well.
India’s maternal mortality ratio declines 25% between 2016 and 2020
The country’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) witnessed a decline by 6 points at 97 per lakh live births in 2018-2020, from 130 in 2014-16.
Germany to take in 1,000 at-risk Afghans every month
Germany’s new program will support Afghans suffering persecution at the hands of the Taliban, including women’s and human rights advocates and people who have persecuted because of their religion, gender, or sexual orientation.
India’s top court legalizes abortion regardless of marital status
A law dating from 1971 had limited the procedure to married women, divorcees, widows, minors, “disabled and mentally ill women” and survivors of sexual assault or rape.