The year 2025 would have been far better if we could have sent a few billionaires and world leaders into intergalactic exile. Instead, we had to make do with Katy Perry spending 11 minutes on the edge of space as part of Blue Origin’s all-female crewed mission. Perry promised us all that, in service of women’s empowerment, the crew would “put the ‘ass’ in astronaut” and “make space and science glam”. Truly, one giant leap for womankind!
Space may have got glam, but it was another glum year for many on Earth. The war in Ukraine continued, with increasing numbers of women volunteering to fight. The civil war in Sudan raged on, with the UN urging the world not to ignore harrowing details of targeted sexual violence, torture, and abductions from the region. The slaughter in Sudan is so extreme that the blood can even be seen from space. Although I’m not sure the billionaires and celebs doing celestial joyrides in their expensive rockets are particularly bothered by that view.
Meanwhile, a ceasefire was supposedly brokered in Gaza in October. But, as the past few months have made clear, it is effectively a ceasefire in name only: the genocide, media blackout and aid blockade continue. Malnutrition remains rampant, particularly among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women. Babies who aren’t starving are freezing to death.
Over in the US, a year of Trump 2.0 has had a devastating impact on human rights protections at home and around the world. One of Donald Trump’s first acts as president was to reinstate the Global Gag Rule, which restricts aid from going to any groups that provide abortion services or advocate for abortion rights. The year also saw sustained attacks on access to birth control and abortion pills in the US. Even a woman’s right to vote is now being questioned by some prominent Maga members.
In fluffier news, Taylor Swift got engaged to football star Travis Kelce, a man who once joked he needed to find “a breeder”. Kim Kardashian released a pubic hair thong and failed the bar exam. (Or rather, the Washington Post opined, the bar exam failed her.) Sydney Sweeney got everyone talking about her “great genes” – but failed to get fans to show up for her mediocre Christy Martin biopic. Sabrina Carpenter sparked a debate on sex-positive feminism. And an awful lot of Maga women have a podcast now, as well as exactly the same Mar-a-Lago face.
And that’s just a snippet of a very exhausting 2025. To wrap things up, here are six-seven memorable moments from the year in patriarchy. And six-seven is my brainrot, slightly rage bait way of saying 12.
1. A brain-dead woman in Georgia was used as a human incubator
Adriana Smith was almost nine weeks pregnant when she fell ill and was declared medically brain dead. Under Georgia’s strict laws, abortion is banned after about six weeks of pregnancy and Smith was kept alive to carry on the pregnancy, without any regard for what her family wanted and despite doctors noting the chances of her delivering a healthy newborn were very small. The newborn, called Chance, was delivered prematurely in June. As of early December, Chance was still in a hospital Nicu, unable to breathe on his own.
2. The Trump administration let tens of millions worth of contraceptives go to waste
After the Trump administration brought in new laws that prohibit sending US aid to organizations associated with abortion services, the state department decided to let contraceptives valued at between $10m and $40m expire rather than send them abroad to women in need. The Center for Reproductive Rights has said the loss of these contraceptives “could result in more than a million unintended pregnancies and thousands of maternal deaths”.
3. Italy recognized the crime of femicide
In November, Italy’s parliament approved a law, backed by the conservative government of Giorgia Meloni, that made femicide a crime. It is one of very few countries in the world to specifically classify every murder of a woman that is motivated by her gender as femicide.
4. French parliament voted to add consent to rape law
This historic move was prompted by outrage over the mass rape of Gisèle Pelicot.
5. Sanae Takaichi became Japan’s first female prime minister
Not exactly progress considering the ultra-conservative politician, who cites Margaret Thatcher as an influence, then appointed just two women to her 19-member cabinet.
6. Thailand and Liechtenstein recognized same-sex marriage
After a very long struggle by activists, Thailand became the first country in south-east Asia to recognize equal marriage. In Europe, Liechtenstein’s marriage equality bill (passed in 2024) took effect.
7. The REDACTED REDACTED Epstein files got released
While running for president in 2024, Trump promised to declassify the Epstein files. Funnily enough, he didn’t quite make good on that. For most of the year, the president tried, unsuccessfully, to get people to stop talking about what he termed a “Democratic hoax”. Finally, in December, a bipartisan push forced him to release a tranche of documents. The only problem was the “most transparent” administration in history redacted most of it. While we have learned a few new things about how Jeffrey Epstein operated and who he associated with, justice still has not been even remotely served. Trump massively over-promising and under-delivering? Who would have guessed it!
8. The Andrew formerly known as Prince had a very bad year
In November, after a lot of Epstein-related embarrassment, King Charles finally took away the former Duke of York’s royal titles. He is now just Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – and the butt of a lot of jokes.
9. Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was sentenced to more than four years in prison
Over the summer, the disgraced music mogul was acquitted of the most serious charges against him, but found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. His team have asked Trump for a pardon, but it hasn’t been forthcoming so far.
10. Meta shut down global accounts linked to abortion advice and queer content
Meta has denied escalating censorship, but campaigners say the company is taking its do-whatever-Trump wants approach to women’s health issues global. And Meta isn’t alone: a lot of companies seem eager to do whatever it takes to ingratiate themselves with the Trump administration.
11. Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau went Instagram official
Very cool that the former Canadian prime minister is dating an astronaut.
12. A raccoon couldn’t take it any more, got wasted and passed out drunk in a Virginia liquor store
That raccoon is the perfect embodiment of how many of us are feeling after the end of a very long year.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist and the author of Strong Female Lead
