Five Defining Crucial Incidents in the Attack on the Rights of Females in the Year 2025.
A year ago, women’s rights organisations were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The volume and speed of executive orders emanating from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to plug the hole left by a major funding freeze. But this merely marked the opening act.
The US administration has been the main instigator, supported by vigorous campaigning by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to strengthen global ties with ideological partners.
The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken forward movement on multiple topics. These include abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They pursue this agenda via lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We examine five instances that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In March, shortly after a major US aid agency is frozen, causing international chaos, a senior US official reveals that a vast majority of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, cautioning that fatalities will ensue. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in war zones. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among rights advocates. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.
