NICK TROY lauds the young staff at a hotel chain and cinema giant who are ready to take on the bosses for their rights
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Saudi Arabia to helm UN women’s forum: an irony lost on no-one
How has Saudi Arabia, notorious for human rights abuses, been appointed to lead the UN commission on gender equality despite continuing to imprison women activists advocating for basic rights, asks MARYAM ALDOSSARI
RESTRICTED FREEDOMS: Hessah al-Ajaji drives her car after midnight for the first time in Riyadh, June 2018
DYLAN MURPHY reports that far from helping people back into work, the sanctions regime is inflicting unnecessary trauma on working-class families
As Saudi Arabia is hailed abroad for its ‘reforms,’ the reality for women inside the kingdom grows ever more repressive. On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, MARYAM ALDOSSARI argues it is time to stop applauding the illusion – and start listening to the women the state works hardest to silence
With Petro, Colombia has been making huge strides towards peace — but is all that at risk with the elections next year? MARK ROWE reports back after joining a delegation to the Latin American country
With violence against women and girls reaching unprecedented levels – particularly in the north of England – Unison North West is driving a union-wide push for education, prevention and trauma-informed support, writes JOANNE MOORCROFT
Amid national economic decay and with a lack of coherent left-wing responses, far-right narratives on women’s safety and immigration have taken root in former Labour heartlands. The WOMEN’S LIBERATION ALLIANCE warns that only a renewed politics rooted in an understanding of class, race and sex can stem the rise of authoritarianism
THE appointment of Saudi Arabia to lead the UN commission on gender equality and women’s empowerment isn’t just a slap in the face of the long struggle against women’s rights violations in the kingdom; it’s a mockery of the global fight for gender equality.
Hardly surprising, considering Saudi Arabia’s knack for getting what it wants, even if it means getting away with murder, as the case of Jamal Khashoggi grimly demonstrates. Now, the kingdom is on a mission to sell itself to the Western world as a beacon of women’s empowerment — what better way to do this than by heading the UN’s gender equality initiative?
Since rolling out Vision 2030 in 2016, Saudi Arabia has masterfully orchestrated performances for the Western gaze, delivering well-crafted gestures that often earn applause from the West for their supposed strides in modernising the conservative kingdom — all part of the grand narrative championed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
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As Saudi Arabia is hailed abroad for its ‘reforms,’ the reality for women inside the kingdom grows ever more repressive. On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, MARYAM ALDOSSARI argues it is time to stop applauding the illusion – and start listening to the women the state works hardest to silence
From golf and football to Formula One, the kingdom uses unprecedented investments in global sport to divert attention from its persecution of journalists, dissidents and women, write BELLA KATZ and ROGER McKENZIE
The failure of international institutions, from the UN to the ICC, to hold the Taliban accountable for the brutal repression of women creates a climate of tolerance for daily crimes by the patriarchal regime, writes SHUKRIA RAHIMI
With its track record of leveraging cultural power for US gain and barely concealed promotion of coup attempts, the US Agency for International Development will not be mourned among the US’s southern neighbours, write JOHN PERRY and ROGER D HARRIS