Palak Gulia's golden aim, thorns at the Paris Fashion Week, a self-erasing burqa: Eye-catching photos of this week

Image: Stanley Cheah / Reuters
India's Palak Gulia (right) celebrates her gold-winning victory with her teammate Esha Singh, who won the silver in the Women's 10m Air Pistol Finals at the Asian Games in Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre, Hangzhou, China on September 29, 2023. 17-year-old Gulia first picked up a pistol four years ago at a mandatory morning sports practice at her school in Gurugram.

Image: Mohsen KARIMI / AFP
An Afghan tailor shows a burqa to a customer at his shop in Herat, Afghanistan, on October 1, 2023. Reinforcing Afghanistan's patriarchal system, where men decide for and on behalf of women, the Taliban rolled back Afghan women's rights by decreeing that women must be fully covered from head to toe—including their faces—to appear in public.

Image: Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
Japan supporters dressed as the Nintendo character Mario pose for a photograph in the stands ahead of the France 2023 Rugby World Cup Pool D match between Japan and Samoa at the Stadium de Toulouse in Toulouse, France on September 28, 2023. Japan's dedicated female rugby fans form groups and pool to travel to other nations, likening the experience of watching a rugby match to 'getting an encouraging pep talk'.

Image: Stephanie Lecocq / Reuters
A model presents a creation by designer Kevin Germanier as part of his Spring/Summer 2024 Women's ready-to-wear collection show for his label Germanier at Paris Fashion Week, France, September 26, 2023. Germanier's detailed headpieces are a fantastical element to his glam recycling, pairing his vibrant colour sense with materials made of found or upcycled materials.

Image: MARCO LONGARI / AFP
A voter casts her ballot during Eswatini's parliamentary elections at a voting station at the National High School in Lobamba on September 29, 2023. The kingdom of Eswatini is one of the world's last remaining absolute monarchies, where fifty-one men and eight women were elected to Eswatini's parliament in last week's election. Most married women in Eswatini have "the status of legal minors", according to Amnesty International.

Image: REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar
Young girls dressed as the living goddess are presented by their mothers at a  Kumari Puja in Kathmandu, Nepal, on September 27, 2023. In Kumari tradition, pre-pubescent girls are believed to be the human form of Shakti herself and are worshipped as living goddesses by the community in the belief that they bring peace and prosperity.

Image: Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP
Young Ukrainian cadets of Lyceum No. 23, a military boarding school dance after the graduation ceremony at the Monument to Prince Volodymyr in Kyiv on September 29, 2023, amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Image: SILVANA FLORES / AFP
Thousands of women and members of feminist organisations march to commemorate International Safe Abortion Day in favour of decriminalisation of abortion across Latin America on International Safe Abortion Day in Mexico City on September 28, 2023. In Mexico, marchers celebrated the recent decision by Mexico's Supreme Court to decriminalise abortions at the federal level.

Image: LUIS TATO / AFP
A polo fan poses with polo ponies during the Casino Cup at the Nairobi Polo Club in Nairobi, Kenya, on September 23, 2023. Founded in 1907, the Nairobi Polo Club is the oldest in East Africa and hosts several prominent tournaments every year. Polo is gaining immense popularity in Nairobi as more Kenyans become interested in the polo culture and its lifestyle.

Image: Sanna Irshad Mattoo / Reuters
Kashmiri Muslim women pray upon seeing a relic that's believed to be hair from the beard of the Prophet Mohammad, displayed during the festival of Eid-e-Milad-ul-Nabi, the birth anniversary of the Prophet at Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar, J&K, on September 29, 2023.

Image: Abhishek Chinnappa/Getty Images
Women tend to chrysanthemum flowers in a field on September 24, 2023, in Melukote, Karnataka. The market prices for the flower crop have plummeted, leaving many farmers in distress, attributed by experts to excess production of flowers and inflow of chrysanthemum from neighbouring states.