On International Women's Day, observed on March 8, demonstrators across many countries took to the streets to protest against domestic violence and call for justice. Women in Central Asia and the Balkans shared harrowing stories of abuse, demanded that perpetrators be prosecuted, and spoke out for reproductive rights.
The United States has sanctioned two entities in Russia and the Central African Republic for what the Treasury Department on March 8 said were efforts to advance Moscow's "malign activities" in the African nation in part by enabling the Wagner mercenary group.
Demonstrators in Vilnius protested the treatment of political prisoners in Belarus, decrying at a March 8 rally the policy of holding them incommunicado for extended periods. Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya says brutal prison conditions are "not a political issue" and she urged the United Nations to demand changes. Her husband has been kept out of contact behind bars for the last year.
The Iranian government "bears responsibility" for the physical violence that led to the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman who died in police custody in 2022, and for the brutal crackdown on largely peaceful street protests that followed, a UN report says.
Fully one year after it was introduced in Kosovo's parliament, protesters claim religious interests have hijacked a debate over draft legislation to clear the way for wider access for women to in vitro fertilization.
Serbia's Interior Ministry has accepted an appeal by Russian citizen Yelena Koposova, saying she does not have to leave the country after she was earlier declared to be an "unacceptable security risk” and told to leave.
The Iranian government "bears responsibility" for the physical violence that led to the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman who died in police custody in 2022, and for the brutal crackdown on largely peaceful street protests that followed, a UN report says.
Police in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, on March 8 detained a friend of Seda Suleimanova, whose whereabouts have been unknown she was detained in August and sent her to her native Chechnya, where rights defenders believe she may have become the victim of an honor killing.
Afghan women on International Women's Day demanded the country's hard-line Islamist Taliban rulers end bans and restrictions that have turned their lives upside down since the militants seized power in August 2021 as international troops withdrew.
Rallies were held around the world on March 8 to mark International Women's Day. From Kosovo to Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan to Azerbaijan, rallies were held to celebrate accomplishments and also demand equality and an end to domestic violence.
Thousands of people rallied in Pakistan on March 8 on International Women's Day, calling for an end to violence against women in the home, workplace, and in politics. Known in Urdu as the Aurat March, the annual rallies were held in the capital, Islamabad, and other major Pakistani cities. The theme of this year's demonstration was Politics, Resistance, and Freedom.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya called on UN chief Antonio Guterres to intervene on behalf of political prisoners in her home country – including in the case of her imprisoned husband, Syarhey Tsikhanouski.
Feminist activists and domestic violence survivors marched in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, on March 8 to mark International Women's Day and to demand that women's rights be defended and respected.
Tajik media reports quoted the Supreme Court's press service on March 7 as saying that the prison term handed to businessman Abdukhalil Kholiqzoda last month over his autobiography has been extended from 6 1/2 years to nine years.
A former senior Taliban official has criticized the group’s ban on women’s education.
An Almaty court on March 7 sentenced six Kazakh activists to prison terms of between five and six years, while one activist received a suspended sentence of three years and four months, on a charge of plotting to overthrow the government.
In Pakistan, hundreds of women rallied across the country on March 8 to mark International Women's Day.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban will meet with Donald Trump at the former U.S. president's luxury Florida resort on March 8 after the Hungarian leader endorsed the bid of his "good friend" in the November presidential election.
Flags are being sewn and military training is being ramped up in Sweden as the Nordic country joins the NATO military alliance.
Dozens of Iranian activists at home and abroad have called on the international community to boycott the Islamic republic for committing "gender apartheid."
Two exiled Afghan women have told RFE/RL that the Taliban appears to be further tightening restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan. Speaking ahead of International Women's Day, activists Nargis Sadat and Fawzia Wahdat said that more women were being imprisoned amid a fresh clampdown on female activists. The Taliban has barred women and girls from secondary schools, universities, and many jobs since retaking control of the country in 2021.
Balkars in Russia's North Caucasus region of Kabardino-Balkaria are marking the 80th anniversary of their mass deportation to Central Asia by Josef Stalin.
A missing monument to martial arts star Bruce Lee has residents of Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, wondering: Who could have swiped the shiny tribute to this fighter for justice? The statue went up in a city park in 2005 in the spirit of uniting citizens on all sides of Balkan politics.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow warned Americans in a security alert posted on its website late on March 7 of an imminent threat of attacks on large gatherings in the Russian capital in the next two days.
Kathryn Stoner, a professor of political science at Stanford University and the director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, spoke with RFE/RL on March 7 about U.S. President Joe Biden's State of the Union address. Stoner noted that Biden emphasized his policy goals of confronting Russian aggression as a major factor setting him apart from his likely challenger for the presidency, Donald Trump.
