Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (b. June 24, 1962) became the first woman President of Mexico and the first Jewish person to hold the office on October 1, 2024. She recently met the common people in front of the National Palace in Mexico City. A widely circulated video shows a man leaning in for a kiss and touching the President during the event held on November 4, 2025. The man, who appeared to be intoxicated, approached President Sheinbaum from behind, put an arm around her, touched her inappropriately and tried to kiss her neck. Although the incident momentarily stunned the President, she maintained her composure and moved away, saying: “Don’t worry.” Later, a staff member intervened and the man was arrested.

Next day, President Sheinbaum announced that she filed a formal complaint against the man mainly to highlight the pervasive issue of sexual harassment faced by women across Mexico. She told the press: “If I don’t file a complaint, what happens to other Mexican women? I decided to press charges because this is something that I experienced as a woman, but that we as women experience in our country. I have experienced it before, when I was not President, when I was a student. A line must be drawn.“

Although the 47th US Presidential Election featured three women – Kamala Harris, Nikki Haley and Marianne Williamson, two of them withdrew their candidature before the election. Harris contested the 2024 Presidential Polls, but she consistently received sexually explicit messages, rape threats and racist narratives during her electoral campaigns. A survey carried out at that time showed that the general public in the US did not believe that Donald John Trump could lose to any female candidate, especially after his win over Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton in the 2016 Presidential Election.

Supriya Shrinate (also spelled Supriya Srinet), an Indian politician and former journalist, Italian politician and former UN official Laura Boldrini, former minister of Sweden Anna-Karin Hatt, Annie Marie Therése Lööf, a former Swedish politician and lawyer, and several other women politicians across the globe, too, have received sexist remarks and threats of rape, as well as murder. Hatt, the standard-bearer for liberal centrism in Swedish politics, announced her resignation as the leader of the Centre Party in the second week of November 2025, citing an unbearable number of threats and harassment. She told the media: “The hatred and threats I have faced since becoming party leader have been worse than I could have imagined. It gets under your skin. You feel that you have to constantly look over your shoulder and cannot even feel safe in your own home. I had not been able to understand in advance all that was going to be directed at me.” It may be noted that her predecessor Annie Lööf had resigned for the same reason three years ago.

Marielle Franco (born Marielle Francisco da Silva; July 27, 1979 – March 14, 2018), a Brazilian politician, sociologist, feminist, socialist and Human Rights activist known for defending the rights of LGBTQ+, Black communities and the poor, was a vocal critic of police brutality in Rio’s favelas. She served as a member of the City Council in Rio de Janeiro until her assassination in March 2018. She was threatened in various ways for her outspoken activism and political work, which challenged powerful and dangerous groups. While in a car after delivering a speech in the north of Rio de Janeiro on March 14, 2018, Franco and her driver were shot multiple times by two former Police officers who were travelling in another vehicle.

Bolivian Councillor Juana Quispe Apaza (1969 – March 13, 2012), too, was assassinated in 2012. She had to pay a heavy price for backing a law against harassment and political violence against women. Quispe won the City Council seat in a rural municipality. However, the men did not let her take charge as a councillor, prompting Quispe to move the court. She also obtained legal protection. Later, she was found strangled to death in a ravine of the Orckojahuira River. The case was closed without charges, but was reopened later. In January 2024, a guilty verdict was issued for her femicide against former Mayor Félix Huanca and two councillors.

William Randal Cremer (March 18, 1828 – July 22, 1908) of Great Britain and Frédéric Passy (May 20, 1822 – June 12, 1912) of France founded the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Paris in 1889 mainly to promote world peace through parliamentary dialogue and arbitration. The IPU conducted a survey in 2016. Based on confidential interviews with 55 women parliamentarians from 39 countries, the survey found that sexism, harassment and violence against women MPs were widespread and systematic global problems that impede gender equality and undermine democracy. It also found that 82% of female parliamentarians experienced psychological violence, including sexist remarks, threats and harassment, at least once in a lifetime. Zeina Hilal, the Manager of the IPU Gender Partnership Programme, believes that violence and harassment against women in politics is a manifestation of resistance to women entering spaces historically dominated by men. She has highlighted that the abuse is not random, but a way to “reinforce patriarchal boundaries” and make women question their presence in politics.

Because of the minimum presence of women at various levels of politics, the real responsibility of positions reserved for them is being handled by the male members of their family, especially in Developing Nations. As women are denied to play the leadership role, there are quite a few women in top leadership positions across the globe. It seems that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will resolve this issue soon!

Albania appointed an AI-generated minister, named Diella, in September 2025 in order to fight corruption in public procurement. Diella is not a human, but an AI system that appears as a woman in traditional Albanian attire and was created to make government contracts and tenders more transparent, as well as impartial. Edvin ‘Edi’ Kristaq Rama, the Prime Minister of Albania, recently claimed that Diella was “pregnant with 83 children“, which represents 83 new AI assistants for the 83 members of the ruling Socialist Party in the Parliament. These digital assistants would record proceedings, summarise debates and assist lawmakers.

This is probably what we call the progress of civilisation.

Meanwhile,

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das