As the sound of anti-abortion pro-life campaigners raging against women accessing health care quietens down thanks to new buffer zones being introduced to protect women making difficult choices, so too do the voices of women in Afghanistan who are no longer able to talk to each other due to new laws being introduced which are literally silencing women.

Women here looked on aghast as the US voted emphatically for a man and a campaign that denigrated women. Notwithstanding the crimes of which he has been accused and convicted, Trump has a heinous track record of disrespecting women. He is a man who has already been instrumental in the rollback of women’s rights, with the forfeiting of Roe v Wade. Women in the US are so scared that they are being advised to stock up on birth control and file for divorce immediately if they are in an unhappy or abusive marriage. This shows the level of fear about what could come to pass.

In Iraq, the proposal to lower the age of marriage to nine years old is yet another huge blow – not just for feminism and women’s autonomy but for children’s rights. Women are being assaulted in Iran for protesting against ‘modesty measures’; women in America are being told ’your body; my choice’; the dearth of women leaders at the COP 29 summit (when women are proven to be instrumental in affecting positive change in this existential crisis) – it all feels like the clock is turning backwards.

“Women’s voices change history… we need them in politics now more than ever”