Laura Mannering

There is a lack of comprehensive data measuring obstetric violence in Europe, but advocacy groups say women are routinely denied informed consent, subjected to rude and degrading behaviour by medical staff and, in some cases, dangerous practices.

When Tom and Mary decided to leave Hong Kong for Britain, they hoped to buy a home using their hard-earned savings. But they have been unable to retrieve the HKD500,000 they spent decades building up in HSBC pension funds, and accuse the finance giant of playing politics with their money.

Julian Borja Hernandez studied hard to avoid the struggle his father faced, making ends meet as a market trader. Now he tends the same stall and says his career prospects were stymied as a member of Spain's marginalised Roma minority.

At 63, Coby is decades older than many of the Hongkongers fleeing to the UK. But the energetic grandmother, who bursts into hearty cackles as she talks, is stoic about leaving the city behind. What matters now is supporting her family as they start again in England, she says.

As she struggled through painful labour contractions, Spanish nurse Teresa pleaded with doctors not to perform a caesarean section on her. But offering no explanation, they did it anyway. The COVID crisis has exacerbated long-standing problems with the treatment of women during childbirth in Spain.

Spain ’s desperate battle with the coronavirus pandemic has revived memories of a historic campaign to combat smallpox and the fate of a group of orphans that were used to carry the vaccine.

Filmmaker Lei Cheok Mei creates deeply personal movie vignettes of her family’s life in Macau. While there is nothing overtly political about her award-winning work, it nevertheless takes a quiet stand in a city where the space for dissent is shrinking rapidly.

Sam and his toddler daughter often leaf through a storybook together at home. Sometimes the little girl listens intently as her dad reads, but she also likes to chip in with her own interpretations of the pictures on each page. Her current favourite is the tale of a baby tiger learning kung fu. These calm, joyful moments provide a temporary respite from the overwhelming sense of anxiety Sam feels about his only child’s future in Hong Kong.

Spain’s right-wing politicians are blaming a series of feminist rallies for spreading the coronavirus. While any mass gatherings in early March—from protests to soccer matches—could have served as vectors for the spread of COVID-19, Spanish conservatives have focused their criticism on the International Women’s Day protests. It is a political point-scoring strategy that could further polarize Spain’s gender equality debate.

Spanish teenagers Ari and Kalus may still be in school but they are already part of a young feminist collective, organising talks, performances and protests to fight for gender equality. At 17, they are among a growing number of teenagers at the forefront of Spain's new wave of feminism.

It was after one of the many pro-democracy protests here this year that the filmmaker Jevons Au, having been engulfed in tear gas, beaten with a police truncheon, and run for safety, began thinking, If Hong Kong is like this before 2047, what will it be like after 2047? It is a question—and a date—that has hung over this city and its demonstrations these past several months.