2012 to 2013
The December 2012 protests
The gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in Delhi in December 2012 led to weeks of protests, many led by students and young women, demanding safety in public spaces and changes to the law.
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Short histories of 65 feminist movements, India and South Asia first. Each has a timeline, links to read more elsewhere, and books from our shelf where we have them. These are starting points, not the last word: tell us what is missing through the complaints box or a discussion thread.
9 movements2010 to today ×In the past ×
2012 to 2013
The gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in Delhi in December 2012 led to weeks of protests, many led by students and young women, demanding safety in public spaces and changes to the law.
December 2019 to March 2020
A sit-in led largely by Muslim women, many of them elderly, against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens. It held a Delhi road for over three months, inspired sit-ins across…
2017 to 2018
In December 2017 Vida Movahed stood on a utility box on Enghelab (Revolution) Street in Tehran, took off her white headscarf and held it up on a stick. Dozens of women copied the protest; many were arrested.
2019
After the killing of Israa Ghrayeb in Bethlehem in August 2019, Palestinian women called protests in cities across historic Palestine and the diaspora under the slogan 'No free homeland without free women', linking…
Timeline and booksThe killing of Israa Ghrayeb, on Wikipedia ↗ (opens in a new tab)
2018 to 2019
Women made up a large share of the protesters who brought down Omar al-Bashir. A photograph of Alaa Salah on a car, leading chants in a white tobe, became the emblem of the 'Kandakas', named after the queens of ancient…
Law and rightsBodies and choiceWar, peace and memory
TimelineThe 'Kandake' photograph, on Wikipedia ↗ (opens in a new tab)
2015
Five young activists were detained in March 2015, on the eve of International Women's Day, for planning to hand out stickers against sexual harassment on public transport. They were released after 37 days amid a global…
2019
Actor and writer Yumi Ishikawa started a petition against workplaces requiring women to wear high heels. The name plays on kutsu (shoes) and kutsū (pain).
2019
A performance by the Valparaíso collective LasTesis during Chile's 2019 protests. Its chant, 'the rapist is you', turned blame away from survivors and onto the state and police. Women performed it in streets around the…
2012 to 2018
The death of Savita Halappanavar in a Galway hospital in 2012, after she was refused an abortion during a miscarriage, galvanised the campaign to repeal the constitutional amendment that equated the life of the unborn…
Law and rightsBodies and choice
TimelineThe 2018 referendum, on Wikipedia ↗ (opens in a new tab)