Solidaritas #102
Afghan women banned from national park: "Going sightseeing is not a must for women," say Taliban.
Good morning!
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 the mountains in Jiwaka Province, in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, from when I visited for work in October last year.
In case you missed it: 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:
Love and solidarity,
- Kate
Afghanistan
The Taliban have banned women from visiting Band-e-Amir national park, one of Afghanistan’s most popular:
The ban was announced after the acting minister of vice and virtue complained that women visiting the park had not been adhering to the proper way of wearing the hijab.
“Going sightseeing is not a must for women,” said Mohammad Khalid Hanafi as he asked security forces to begin stopping women from entering into the park.
While in Australia, Malala Yousafzai has met with Afghanistan’s exiled women’s soccer team.
Since the Taliban took control, there has been a disturbing surge in the number of women taking their own lives or attempting to do so, according to data from public hospitals and mental health clinics across a third of Afghanistan’s provinces.
Australia
The gender pay gap down under has fallen to its lowest level yet: it’s now only 13%, with women earning around 87 cents for every $1 men earn.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics interviewed 12,000 Australians about their experiences of sexual and physical violence and harassment to track national trends and estimate rates of assaults. It found that more than 35 per cent of women aged between 18 and 24 had been sexually harassed across a 12-month period.
Where does gender equality fit into Australia’s new international development policy?
The Australian government has released several new long-awaited plans to handle gender-based violence: the First Action Plan 2023-2027 and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032. But will they work? In the first 32 weeks of 2023 alone, 44 women have been killed allegedly by violence.
Female scientists are almost entirely omitted from the Australian school curriculum:
The study… analysed the curriculum of the four year 11 and year 12 Stem subjects taught in Australian schools – biology, chemistry, physics and environmental science.
It found only one female scientist, British chemist Rosalind Franklin, was named in high school curriculums in Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
China
The ‘Barbie’ film has generated heated discussion on feminism and patriarchy in China:
“If a man is willing to watch ‘Barbie,’ understands half of the themes and thinks the movie is good and interesting after leaving the theater, then he is a normal guy with normal values and stable emotions,” Yu Yutian, 30, wrote on Weibo. Any man who “hates” and “slanders” the movie, she wrote, is “narrow-minded” and in thrall to “male chauvinism.”
Cook Islands
How the Cook Islands fought off the shackles of colonialism and freed its LGBTQ+ community.
Fiji
Fiji recently lost Dr Meraia Taufa Vakatale, an anti-nuclear activist and a woman of many firsts:
Dr Vakatale was Fiji’s first woman deputy prime minister, the first woman to be elected as a cabinet minister, the first female to be appointed as a deputy high commissioner, and the first Fijian woman principal of a secondary school in Fiji.
Minister of Women, Lyndah Tabuya, recently published a social media post saying she's not threatened by people stalking her home. Her post raised concern among women's groups who are calling for better protection, with the head of the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre, Shamima Ali, explaining this scenario is common for a lot of women in Fiji. (audio)
India
India's Supreme Court released a glossary this week of gender-unjust terms it wants the legal community to avoid when preparing pleas, orders and judgments, and suggested some alternatives:
The handbook advises use of phrases such as "street sexual harassment" instead of "eve-teasing", a term that is prevalent in India, despite having fallen out of use elsewhere.
It suggests "mother" to replace "unwed mother", and "sexually harassed, assaulted or raped" instead of "violated".
The arrest of a group of trans women in India, accused of pretending to be transgender, has prompted criticism from LGBTQ+ activists. At least 19 trans women were arrested on charges of extortion and begging in Hyderabad; police claim that only two of the 19 are ‘actually’ transgender.
Sport is playing an influential role in promoting gender equality. Take a look at some ‘sport for development’ (S4D) programs being run in India.
Indonesia
Nearly every Indonesian political party has failed to reserve at least 30 per cent of the contested seats for women candidates in the upcoming 2024 election.
How shifting social norms might help unlock women’s economic participation.
A group of women farmers from Sumatra are celebrating a court win that orders the cancellation of a China-backed zinc and lead mine.
Japan
About a third of 18-year-old women in Japan may never have children, according to new government predictions. The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research (IPSS) estimated in a report that 33.4% of women born in 2005 will be childless; the most optimistic scenario had that number at 24.6% and the worst at 42%.
Nepal
The Supreme Court of Nepal recently held that an adult man who had married a minor female and engaged in sexual intercourse was not guilty of rape or kidnapping, but only of child marriage. The court overturned a high court verdict that had imposed an 11-year jail term on the man, and Court reduced his prison term to six months with a fine of just 10,000 Nepali rupees (US$75). Al Jazeera looks at why this is the wrong approach to take.
Meanwhile, a regulation permitting transgender and same-sex couples to marry has been held up. In June, the Supreme Court issued an interim order to allow all same-sex and transgender couples to register their marriages, but two months on, none have been able to do so.
An experiment providing temporary basic income to 3,500 economically poor and vulnerable women is proving the method is effective in helping women secure essentials for their families.
Samoa
PM Fiame Naomi Mata'afa has raised deep concerns about the exodus of Pacific workers to Australia and New Zealand, arguing that countries like hers should not been seen merely as "outposts" which "grow" labourers for developed nations.
Tonga
Tongan woman Afuha'amango Tuipulotu is now the most senior nurse in the world: she became the chief nursing officer of the World Health Organisation in late 2022.
Vanuatu
Listen to Vanuatu MP Gloria Julia King on women, sport, and politics. King was elected to Vanuatu’s parliament in 2022, becoming the first woman elected to the chamber in 14 years. She’s also a former national football player and businesswoman. (podcast)
Vietnam
What’s behind Vietnam’s worsening sex ratio?
Although Vietnam demonstrated its serious commitment to addressing inequities when it adopted the national strategy for gender equality for 2021–2030, Vietnam still needs to tackle a gender-biased informal economy and deep-rooted stereotypes by challenging structural barriers and societal norms.