- Detained women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia are being tortured, raped, and forced to watch pornography according to a report released by human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy, who is calling for a boycott to the G20 summit scheduled to be hosted in the country this weekend.
- Argentina’s president introduced a bill that would legalize abortion. Currently, Argentina has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world, allowing the procedure only in cases of rape or when the pregnancy poses a risk to the mother’s life. Almost 40,000 women end up hospitalized each year after illegal abortions go wrong.
- Transgender people in Bangldaesh will soon be able to inherit property from their families, but only if they were born male. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced that new laws were being drafted for the hijra, a third gender category that refers to those born male.
- A study of the matrilineal Mosuo culture revealed that women’s health fares better as compared with patrilineal societies. Women in matrilineal societies have fewer markers of chronic disease.
- Bangladeshi police have launched an all-female police unit to tackle a surge in digital sex abuse, including revenge porn, stalking, and blackmail.