| Answers 1. Gisele Pelicot faced all 51 men, including her husband Dominique, in court. On December 19, Dominique was given the maximum 20-year sentence while the others were sentenced to between three and 15 years. 2. Manu Bhaker won India’s first medal (a bronze) in the women’s air rifle 10m and then clinched a second bronze in the mixed team 10m. In doing so, the 22-year-old from Jhajjar became the first athlete in independent India to win two medals at a single Olympics. Inexplicably, her name was missing from the list of Khel Ratna awardees, considered the highest sporting honour in India. 3. After finishing fourth in the previous season, Royal Challengers Bangalore brought their first trophy home by beating Delhi Capitals by eight wickets. 4. All We Imagine As Light directed by Payal Kapadia is a beautifully told tale of the friendship between three women. Although it was not chosen by the Film Federation of India to represent the country in the Oscars for best international feature, it will now compete independently for all categories including best picture, director and original screenplay. 5. It’s (i). Hours before her gold medal match, Phogat weighed in at 100gm over the 50 kg weight restriction. She had spent the previous night, skipping, running, sweating it out in the sauna and even cutting off her hair but failed to make the cut. 6. The answer is (iii). Even though Imane is born female, listed as female on her passport and identified as female all her life, it didn’t stop an ugly controversy erupting over her gender. Later, Italian boxer Angela Carini who abandoned her bout after 46 seconds said she “wants to apologise” for how she handled her moments after the fight. 7. With earnings of $34.4 million in 2024, Coco Gauff at 20 is the year’s highest paid woman athlete, earning money not just $9.4 million from her wins but another $25 million from her brand endorsements. 8. Mackenzie Scott, the former wife of Jeff Bezos, has donated over $19 billion to more than 2,450 non-profits focused on issues such as racial equity, social justice and LGBTQ rights since 2019. Her net worth remains above $30 billion thanks to the Amazon stock she owns. At home 9. Set up under pressure from the Women in Cinema Collective following the sexual assault of an actress in 2017 in Kochi, a three-member committee takes its name from Justice K Hema, a former judge of the Kerala high court. 10. Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal stuck with its 2019 quota of 33% of seats earmarked for women. Unfortunately, not a single candidate, male or female, won. 11. That would be Baramati where seven women, including the sitting MP Supriya Sule contested against her sister-in-law, Ajit Pawar’s wife, Sunetra Pawar. At the other end of the spectrum, 150 constituencies (27.6%) had no women candidates at all, according to The Quantum Hub. 12. Sunita Kejriwal, the 58-year-old former Indian Revenue Service officer hit the street on behalf of Arvind Kejriwal while Kalpana Soren, wife of jailed former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren also contested the Gandey assembly bypoll. 13. In February, the Uttarakhand assembly passed a uniform law for all residents in matters concerning marriage, divorce (+ maintenance), adoption and inheritance. Goa already has a uniform civil code that predates Independence. 14. All are true, except for (i). From a dismal 23.3% in 2018, India’s female labour force participation, according to the latest government data, is 41.7%. Some economists, however, caution that this bump is being driven by rural distress where women are taking on extremely low-paying jobs (or even no-paying jobs at home). 15. Incredibly and catastrophically, it’s all of the above (v). 16. Bangladesh recently sent India a formal extradition request to bring back former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to face trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity amongst others. She fled to India in August this year following a mass uprising against her rule.  My body, my choice (Human Rights Watch) 17. In March this year, France became the first country to explicitly include the right to abortion in its constitution. 18. That’s scientist and academic Claudia Sheinbaum who was elected Mexico’s president in October this year. 19. Walt Disney agreed to settle a lawsuit that alleged that women employees in California earned $150 million less than their male counterparts over an eight-year period. 20. The Tortured Poets Department. | 
