South Africa’s military has changed its dress policy to allow Muslim women to wear hijabs with their uniforms. It is a victory for Maj Fatima Isaacs, who led a three-year legal battle for her religious right to wear a headscarf beneath her military beret. The change of heart comes after the military dropped charges last week against Maj Isaacs for wearing one. She had faced dismissal for “wilful defiance and disobeying a lawful command” for refusing to remove it. Maj Isaacs, who works as a clinical forensic pathologist at a military hospital, told the Cape Times it was a victory not only for her, but all people who were “silently victimised” because of their religion.

A controversial near-total ban on abortion in Poland has taken effect, the government announced, with enforcement from midnight on Wednesday.  A court ruling allowing the prohibition prompted huge protests when it was issued in October. Abortion is now allowed only in cases of rape or incest or when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother. The majority of Poles oppose a stricter ban and demonstrations took place in Polish cities on Wednesday evening. Activists have called for large street protests on Thursday and Friday in the capital Warsaw.

The October ruling by the Constitutional Court found that a 1993 law allowing abortion in cases of severe and irreversible foetal abnormalities was unconstitutional. In 2019, 98% of abortions were carried out on those grounds, meaning that the ruling effectively banned the vast majority of pregnancy terminations. The ruling provoked outrage from supporters of the right to abortion. (BBC)…[+]