Good afternoon!
Solidaritas is a fortnightly newsletter about women’s rights, feminism, and gender in Asia and the Pacific, covering the entirety of this huge region: from Afghanistan and Pakistan in the west to Kiribati and Cook Islands in the east.
This issue’s header image is of unroasted coffee beans from Toraja in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, from back in 2016.
In case you missed it last time: my first authored publication for the Asian Development Bank is out! It’s about addressing menstrual health and hygiene in urban development and WASH programs in the Pacific. You can download it here.
If you like Solidaritas, I’d be thrilled if you chose to support the newsletter by becoming a paid subscriber:
And finally: GO THE MATILDAS! 🙌🙌
Love and solidarity,
- Kate
Afghanistan
Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV has been ordered to close by the Taliban, after they held a training workshop attended by both men and women.
Ignored by Fifa, the Afghan women’s soccer team play on in Australia while they await official recognition.
How to deal with the Taliban: Afghan women share their opinions on why the Taliban should not be recognised as the legal government.
Women who served in the military and police force under the elected government are still in hiding, fearing for their lives.
Australia
Medical abortions will become easier to access under rules that allow doctors and pharmacists without specialist certification to prescribe termination pills. The medication was previously only allowed to be prescribed by a doctor with specialist certification and then provided by a pharmacist registered to dispense the product.
A Senate inquiry into consent laws was held in Australia at the end of July. Different states and territories all have different laws relating to sexual consent, so there is an interest in harmonising them.
Australia will require both climate and gender objectives in much of its foreign aid spending. Under the new rules, all new international development projects worth more than $3 million will have to include a gender equality objective, and from mid-2025, half of new investments over $3 million will need to have a climate change objective.
Australian journalist Cheng Lei has been held in detention in China for three years and has publicly spoken out for the first time through an open letter dictated to diplomats:
"I miss the sun. In my cell, the sunlight shines through the window, but I can stand in it for only 10 hours a year… I haven't seen a tree in three years.”
Midwives across the country say workforce shortages are taking a heavy toll on staff and the families they care for.
Bangladesh
Thousands of children born to victims of rape during Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971 were adopted by foreign families. Now, many want to discover their roots:
Bangladesh was declared an independent state in December 1971, nine months after Pakistan launched a brutal crackdown on Bengalis seeking self-rule in what was then East Pakistan. It was a period of widespread violence: estimates range from 300,000 to 500,000 killed through to the Bangladesh government’s figure of 3 million.
Despite the scale, Bangladesh’s war is little known outside the region. One inglorious fact is that it gave one of the first documented examples of rape as a weapon of war – between 200,000 and 400,000 women are said to have been victims.
The result was thousands of babies; again estimates vary, but 25,000 pregnancies are thought to have resulted. Women who had been captured by Pakistani troops, raped and tortured, emerged traumatised, in desperate need of medical care and, in many cases, pregnant.
China
Why Chinese women continue to be denied land rights.
A secondary school in Guangdong has sparked controversy for telling female students not to be “flirtatious” or wear “revealing” clothes, claiming women’s behaviour is the cause of sexual harassment.
India
India is to finally get a new criminal code, more than 160 years after a penal code was developed for what was then a colony of the British empire:
The government has introduced three bills in parliament that it says will provide a special focus on crimes against women and address the intolerable delays in the system which can leave people waiting 15-30 years for a verdict.
But some lawyers have called the new focus on crimes against women “old wine in new bottles” in that the provisions remain broadly similar. Gang rape will attract a 20-year jail sentence or life in jail which is what the current law provides for.
The act of obtaining sex by promising marriage to a woman will be treated as a crime for the first time and will carry a 10-year sentence. The new law also specifically defines the notion of consent. However, marital rape has not been recognised as a crime.
Scripted videos, apparently created for entertainment, are increasingly being shared on social media as true events in India. Often accompanying the videos are false claims that stoke religious hatred and misogyny.
Eleven sanitation workers, who pooled money to buy a lottery ticket, have won a US$1.2m jackpot. They say the win will change their lives: six of them are Dalit women and the others are from underprivileged castes. Many were living in debt and poor health before their win.
Indonesia
A horrific case of abuse against a domestic worker is helping bring the draft Bill on Domestic Workers’ Protection to public attention, as protests led by domestic workers enter a new stage, beginning a hunger strike:
Beaten, forced to eat animal faeces and chained to a dog cage – the abuse of an Indonesian maid highlights the government’s failure to protect domestic workers at home even as it moves to help those abroad, critics say.
Siti Khotimah left her Central Java hometown for capital Jakarta last year when she found a maid job on Facebook to help her parents with debt.
After months of torture by her employer, the 24-year-old now walks with a limp and has visible burn scars along her legs.
“My head hurts every time I think about what happened to me,” she said, sobbing.
Siti’s case is not unique in Indonesia, the largest democracy without a bill to protect domestic workers, leaving more than four million people – mostly women – vulnerable to abuse.
Her wealthy 70-year-old employer in south Jakarta was jailed for four years for physical abuse last month, while the woman’s husband, daughter and six other maids were all handed three-and-a-half years.
Authorities Aceh province have ordered men and women not immediately related or married to stay apart in vehicles and public places, as the local government seeks to tighten Islamic law.
Six contestants in the Miss Universe Indonesia pageant have filed complaints with police, accusing organisers of sexual harassment after they alleged they were subjected to topless checks. The international Miss Universe Organisation has now cut ties with the Indonesian branch in response.
Japan
In June, Japan made the long-awaited decision to trial making emergency contraceptives available over-the-counter at some pharmacies. But there are several catches: the pills will only be available at pharmacies that meet strict requirements, such as having a private consulting room and being open on weekends, after-hours and during public holidays. Pharmacists also need to be trained to give out the pills and coordinate with nearby obstetrics and gynaecology clinics. Just over 335 out of the country's 60,000 pharmacies are thought to meet the criteria.
Malaysia
A man accused of stalking a woman over eight years across multiple continents has become the first person to be charged under Malaysia’s new anti-stalking law, after the victim pleaded over social media for action.
The Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands is the second country in the world to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of "clean water for all". An all-volunteer women's organisation in the country has been credited for spearheading the project, providing simple water filtration systems for over 8000 households.
Nepal
A 16-year-old girl from Nepal has died as a result of the illegal practice of chhaupadi, where menstruating women are forced to stay in huts outside their homes. Anita Chand, from Baitadi district in the west of the country, died from a snake bite while she was sleeping. Her death is the first reported fatality from chhaupadi since 2019 and campaigners fear progress to eliminate the practice is being eroded.
Papua New Guinea
Australian Matildas star Mary Fowler, whose mum hails from Port Moresby, has become a hometown hero in her mum’s village of Kira Kira.
The Philippines
Despite groping, catcalling, and endless traffic, these Filipina women are determined to keep cycling.
Regional
Right now, the Women’s World Cup is kicking goals for the advancement of women right across the region:
In the Pacific, putting on a national jersey is not only a matter of pride for women, but also a symbolic moment in often male-dominated societies. It reminds people that – in the words of Khalida Popal from the Afghan women’s team – women belong everywhere. Pacific women’s sport is a challenging space, but participating in it can lift women’s status by visibly demonstrating that women can lead too.
Solomon Islands
A new program is introducing women in Malaita to beekeeping.
Taiwan
Taiwan will make period products available in all schools starting 1 August and provide additional subsidies for low-income students to purchase supplies they need independently.