The hard-line Islamist group has told Afghan women to cover their faces in public — the latest backslide on promises to retain women's rights after the Taliban seized power last August.

The Taliban have further curbed women's rights with their latest veil compulsion decree. Afghanistan's civil society faces an uphill task to challenge the group without adequate support from the international community.

We look at reactions to Finland and Sweden's imminent bid to join NATO. Spanish lawmakers will soon discuss a proposal to offer period pain leave to women, which, if passed, would make Spain the first Western nation to do so. Also, the US wins hosting rights to the Rugby World Cups in 2031 and 2033. We then look at Friday the 13th and why there's even a word for people who fear the day. Finally, Indian parents sue their son... for not giving them grandchildren!

Ethiopia has agreed a reconstruction and recovery grant with the World Bank, to be used to rebuild basic services in conflict-hit regions of the country.

An entrepreneurship association made up mostly of young women from South Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, is manufacturing soap from coffee beans. The group’s coordinator, Mademoiselle Solange Kwinja, says the product is a great success since it is now being marketed in Bukavu, the provincial capital.

In 2021, sub-Saharan Africa counted the most internal movements, with more than five million displacements reported in Ethiopia alone, as the country grappled with the raging and expanding Tigray conflict and a devastating drought. That marks the highest figure ever registered for a single country.

The Taliban has made face veils mandatory for all Afghan women appearing in public, including those on television. This edict was ignored by presenters on Saturday, but they relented a day later.

Many women in Angola’s province of Bengo are now achieving places often occupied by men. For example: arbitration. Young female referees show the importance of cooperating with each other – no matter who, no matter where.

Many women in Angola’s province of Bengo are now achieving places often occupied by men. For example: arbitration. Young female referees show the importance of cooperating with each other – no matter who, no matter where.

Kabare prison is notorious for deaths in custody caused by hunger. Now, women are changing it with a food project.

Afghanistan is heading back to the pre-2001 dark days of the Taliban, and Western powers were naive if they ever thought this wouldn't be the case. That's the view of Heather Barr, associate women's rights director at Human Rights Watch. As women are told to cover their faces in public again and female television presenters are told to do the same, she spoke to us on Perspective about the how the Taliban are rolling back women's rights and what, if anything, the West can do about it. "Life has become a prison for most women and girls," she told us.

Human rights defenders won the case, and Turkey was asked to pay costs and damages for detaining the head of Amnesty International's chapter in the country.