This weekend, as the world marks International Women¡¯s Day, the Hong Kong human-rights barrister Chow Hang-tung is preparing to return to court on March 9 to defend herself against a regime with the world¡¯s highest proportion of women in its prison population ¡ª about three times the global average.
Chow is a protagonist in another Hong Kong show trial, just weeks after British publisher Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison for printing truths that displeased the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She is charged with ¡°incitement to subversion¡± and faces up to 10 years in prison for her role in commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre through peaceful candlelit vigils.
Denied bail, she continues to challenge Hong Kong¡¯s authorities even from prison, most recently by bringing a judicial review against a dress code that forces female inmates to wear long trousers even in brutal summer heat, while men can wear shorts. In January 2026, a male judge dismissed her legal challenge as baseless and ordered Chow to pay all costs.
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