Looking back at 2022, rights groups, experts and advocates agree that "it's not a very bright picture" for many women around the world.
"We've had some real challenges and, with a lot of indicators, we're actually going backwards both globally and in Australia," Simone Clarke, chief executive of UN Women Australia, told the ABC.
"In terms of big events and big challenges, it's certainly been a year of those."
In March, on International Women’s Day, Amnesty International released a statement warning that events in 2021 and in the early months of 2022 had conspired "to crush the rights and dignity of millions of women and girls".
And that was before the Taliban's further crackdowns on the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, the escalation of the brutal suppression of women in Iran, and the US overturning the longstanding constitutional right to abortion.
Australian National University lecturer at the Crawford school of public policy Annabel Dulhunty said the roll-backs were alarming.
"I think it's a bit sad, in many ways, when we look back at 2022 and see that women have [fewer] rights than their mothers did in many places," Dr Dulhunty said.
However, in the face of major challenges, there has been a massive swell of feminist solidarity around the world, which is giving women hope.
Young people, in particular, have been coming together and risking their lives to voice "enough is enough", Ms Clarke said.
And, in some countries, there have been significant gains.
Here are some of the highs, lows and surprises from a tumultuous year for women's rights.
Thirty years of gains gone 'almost overnight'
Since the Taliban's takeover in August 2021, women who grew up in an era of relative opportunity in Afghanistan have had their lives turned upside down.
Implementing a strict interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, the Taliban has been increasingly cracking down on women's rights and freedoms.
Girls have been banned from middle school and high school, and just in the last weeks of the year, women were also barred from attending universities or working for non-government organisations.
Now, sixth grade is the highest level of education available for girls in Afghanistan.
Women are also restricted from most employment, must wear head-to-toe clothing in public and are banned from parks and gyms.
"We had almost 30 years of gains for women's rights in Afghanistan eradicated almost overnight with the change in power in Afghanistan," Ms Clarke said.
Iranian women in the spotlight
Although it has taken 43 years, Nos Hosseini has been overwhelmed by the scale of uprising and international attention Iranian women's rights have gained in recent months.
"It's wonderful that the community all across the world is showing a strong level of support for the people's movement for regime change in a way that they haven't before," Ms Hosseini, a spokesperson for the Iranian Women's Association, said.
"And I think it's because it's been ongoing and it's growing from strength to strength."
Protests erupted in the country in September after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in the custody of morality police who had arrested her for "inappropriate attire".
Four months on, the protests have turned into a national movement against the government's brutal enforcement of Islamic law, drawing global attention to decades of women's repression.
Iranians of all ages and genders have joined in, but it's mainly younger generations that have taken to the streets.
And, despite the government's bloody crackdown, the uprising is showing no signs of slowing down.
"It does give me a lot of hope and it's very inspiring that protesters are risking their lives and paying the ultimate price in pursuit of freedom. It's just remarkable," Ms Hosseini said.
Demonstrations have spread to all corners of the globe, with women from the streets of Paris to the beaches of Bondi cutting off their hair in solidarity.
Lucy Kenny, associate campaigner at Amnesty International Australia, said Iran had shown that more people are finding their voice and speaking out against what they will and won't tolerate.
"The positive in all of this is that we have seen people standing up and fighting, which has really highlighted the importance of people power and also the right to protest in changing repression," she said.
"I think we're seeing a growth in the strength between women."
US winds back reproductive rights
In June, a US Supreme Court ruling ended a constitutional right to abortion after nearly 50 years.
The fallout from the decision to overturn Roe v Wade was immediate and far-reaching, with several states moving swiftly to enact laws restricting or banning abortions completely.
Abortion is currently considered illegal at all stages of pregnancy, with various exceptions, in 13 states.
"When you think of something as fundamental as having control over what happens to your own body, I don't think it gets much closer to the core for women individually than their sexual reproductive health," Ms Clarke said.
Now more than 1.2 billion women and girls of reproductive age live in countries and areas with some restrictions on access to safe abortion, according to UN Women.
Ms Kenny said the Roe v Wade decision was one of the most-concerning setbacks for women's rights in 2022.
However, there were also "major steps forward" on sexual and reproductive rights in other parts of the world.
In Latin America, Colombia decriminalised abortion during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, following 2021 rulings in Mexico and Argentina that improved access to abortion.
India made a landmark move and ruled that a woman's lack of marital status cannot deny her the choice to abort a pregnancy at any time up to 24 weeks.
Finland passed reforms that eased the strictest abortion laws in the Nordic region.
Meanwhile, this month, Spain passed a pioneering sexual and reproductive health law that allows girls aged 16 and 17 to undergo abortions without parental consent.
It also became the first European country to offer state-funded paid leave for women who suffer from painful periods.
Worldwide increase in gender violence
Initial reports indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in violence against women worldwide in recent years.
And the issue continued to worsen in 2022 with the intersecting crises of climate change, global conflicts and economic instability.
"There's been a whole accumulation of factors that have impacted women in the past year," Dr Dulhunty said.
The UN has estimated that one-in-three women experience gender-based violence during their lifetime.
In Australia, Ms Clarke said, she continued to get "shocked and outraged to the point of getting outrage fatigue" at the statistics surrounding violence against women.
During the UN's recent 16 Days of Activism campaign, at least five women were killed in Australia during that time, she said.
"We talk about human rights in these big buckets, but the reality is there are individual women who are under threat every day," Ms Clarke said.
Despite the grim statistics, Ms Clarke is hopeful that Australia's recent progress towards greater women's representation in politics will bode well for more-inclusive policies.
Already the government has made changes to paid parental leave and has launched a 10-year strategy on ending violence against women.
"There's been some really significant gains, particularly in Australia, if we look at women in leadership and women in power," she said.
"We're already starting to see positives with the national taskforce for a strategy on gender equality and the economic taskforce for women that's been established."
The 2022 surprises
Dr Dulhunty was surprised to see continued discrimination against women in the media and digital spaces in 2022.
Two weeks ago, UK newspaper The Sun ran a column by Television presenter Jeremy Clarkson which hurled vitriolic abuse at Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex.
The media has repeatedly taken aim at Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who last month also faced sexist questioning at a press conference alongside her New Zealand counterpart, Jacinda Ardern.
And, in Australia, Dr Dulhunty was shocked by the backlash against Brittany Higgins and other women who speak out.
"How Brittany Higgins was treated kind of served as a warning to women: 'Don't speak out. Don't say anything, because this will be the result'," she said.
"I can't remember any other years when I felt that so much."
However, on a more positive note, Dr Dulhunty was pleased by the progresses in feminist foreign policy.
"In the foreign policy space, that's where 2022 has been good," she said.
"There's been a much-more-marked increase in feminist foreign policies in different countries."
While Ms Clarke was saddened by the plight of many women around the world, she was struck by the strength and defiance of young people.
"There was a greater proliferation of young, strident and outspoken women who are simply saying, 'Enough is enough'," she said.
"While it's been shocking on one hand, I think 2022 is really a year of drawing a line."
She said, for next year, it would be important to keep making sure those voices are heard.
"I sit in Australia, saddened by what is happening to young women in Iran, Afghanistan, Ukraine and around the globe," Ms Clarke said.
"So what can we do about it? We can shine a light on it. We can share the stories. We can say, 'Enough is enough' and, hopefully, someone will listen."
