Editor's note

Politics + Society is our mainstay here at The Conversation Global: just over half of our coverage focuses on international relations, inequalitygender equality, protest movements, modern slavery and other pressing political issues.

So, in case you missed a few stories along the way, today we're resurfacing some of the best political pieces that flew under the radar. 

Clea Chakraverty

Commissioning Editor

Amr Abdallah/Reuters

What's holding Arab women back from achieving equality?

Lina Abirafeh, Lebanese American University

Unless we’re addressing inequalities everywhere, we will achieve equality nowhere.

‘My body does not need your opinion’. Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters

Incest case attests that, in Costa Rica, abortion is legal in name only

Larissa Arroyo Navarrete, University of Costa Rica

The case of a 12-year-old Costa Rican girl, who was raped by her father and denied an abortion, is dividing a nation that prides itself on its human rights record.

War, Ford, fascism, Reaganomics, the pink tide, the EU, debt crises, rights-based activism, a fierce backlash… none of this is new. Wikimedia

The road to the great regression

César Renduels Menendez de Llano, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; Donatella Della Porta, Institute of Human and Social sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence

We may think of current reactionary politics as radical and new, but unchecked mercantilism has always elicited a fierce backlash from both left and right. Here's what history tells us about today.

Protesters march past the venue for the World Economic Forum on Africa 2017 meeting in Durban, South Africa. Rogan Ward/REUTERS

Protests in Colombia and South Africa reveal link between inequality and popular uprisings

Fabio Andres Diaz, International Institute of Social Studies

Popular protest is on the rise globally, particularly in places with deeply entrenched inequalities.

Lives of extreme poverty make Indonesian women and children easy prey for human traffickers. Beawiharta/Reuters

Indonesia is paying lip service to stopping human trafficking – it's time to do more

Karina Utami Dewi, Universitas Islam Indonesia

Human trafficking is a growing problem in Indonesia and, despite support from regional neighbours, the country isn't making much progress.

The Merkez mosque in the Kreuzberg neighbourhood of Berlin is run by Turkey’s Dinayet agency, like 900 other mosques in Germany. Christian Mang/Reuters

Does Turkey use 'spying imams' to assert its powers abroad?

Ahmet Erdi Öztürk, Université de Strasbourg

The religious arm of Turkey's government, Dinayet, has European authorities up in arms after leaked documents suggested the agency was engaged in international espionage.