With Afghanistan's Taliban rulers imposing what the United Nations has called a "gender apartheid" on women, Iran's repression of the Mahsa Amini protests, new US restrictions on abortion rights and the Ukraine war's impact on women, the protesters were fuelled by a growing sense that hard-won progress is being turned back around the globe. Abortion rights in focusThis week, the European Union imposed sanctions on those responsible for violence and rights abuses against women in Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, Russia, South Sudan and Syria, with the UK following suit on Wednesday in Iran, Syria, South Sudan and Central African Republic. Biden did not mention abortion in his statement on International Women's Day