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 a woman selling pecel (noodles, vegetables, and fritters with peanut sauce) in Jakarta. One of my favourites.
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In solidarity,
- Kate
Afghanistan
How displaced Afghan female athletes are defying the Taliban to compete in the Asian Games.
Australia
Queenslanders will be able to get a range of medicines, including the contraceptive pill, without having to visit a doctor under an Australia-first statewide trial.
Skyrocketing rental prices are pushing more older women into sharing homes.
China
Not long after Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai accused a Communist Party grandee of sexual assault in 2021, her sport’s governing body, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), halted all tournaments in China. The WTA called for Ms Peng’s allegation to be investigated “fully, fairly, transparently and without censorship”. That has not happened. Nevertheless, the WTA has returned: the China Open began in late September.
On the explosion of feminist podcasts in China.
India
The tragic death of an Indian schoolgirl has laid bare the consequences of "Eve-teasing" - a popular South Asian euphemism which many say trivialises the street harassment and assault of women:
The short CCTV video of two Indian girls riding bicycles starts off quite innocuously. Dressed in their school uniform - tunics, salwar bottoms and scarves - the teenagers are riding side by side on a near-empty road.
But within seconds, the calm of the scene is shattered.
Two men on a motorbike overtake them and one of them pulls away the scarf of one of the girls. Immediately she loses her balance and her cycle moves right and collides with a second motorbike coming from behind. As she and the riders fall on the road, the 17-year-old is run over by a third motorbike coming from the opposite direction.
"The moment I saw my daughter, I knew she was dead," says her father Sabhajit Varma, who arrived at the scene within minutes after receiving a call from his niece - the other girl in the CCTV footage.
A bill outlining quotas for women in the Lok Sabha (lower house) and regional assemblies has passed both houses of India’s parliament. Now, 33% of seats must be reserved for women.
But amid the good news of the women’s reservation bill, the digital divide remains. In a society where women, especially unmarried girls, still have to fight to own a smartphone, would men — and institutional patriarchy — really be willing to share political power?
Indonesia
A Muslim woman has been sentenced to two years in jail for posting a viral TikTok video where she said ‘bismillah’ before eating pork while on holiday in Bali. Lina Luftiawati, 33, was found guilty of "inciting hatred" against religious individuals and groups.
On Jakarta’s northern coastline, child marriage is common in fishing communities responding to inflationary pressures and declining stocks of fish in near-shore waters.
Japan
Japan’s new cabinet has a record five female ministers. But is this ‘record’ really something to celebrate, when most of them come from political dynasties?:
The inclusion of women in politics should be about gender equality, political accountability, and basic human rights rather than a political slogan. In Japan, female political appointments seem to be more about garnering praise, goodwill, and votes.
Japan is the only G7 country not to fully recognise same-sex couples or offer them clear legal protection, and although a new law targets LGBTIQ+ discrimination, it stops short of marriage.
Laos
Lao authorities have arrested two Chinese men for alleged human trafficking after they were found to have hired underage girls to perform in provocative videos on their TikTok channel.
Mongolia
In search of Mongolia’s eagle huntresses:
In 2013, Kazakh women in Mongolia captured global attention when a young eagle huntress, Aisholpan Nurgaiv, became the subject of a viral photograph taken by Israeli photographer Asher Svidensky. He returned to the country in 2014 with British director Otto Bell, who made a documentary about the teenager.
The storyline focused on her being an outlier in Kazakh culture in what Bell described as an “isolated” community with “a certain kind of ignorance about what woman can do”. These remarks were made during a press interview on CBS's Mountain Morning Show in January 2016, where he also said she was the “first woman to eagle hunt in the 2,000-year-old male-dominated history”.
But Kazakhs and historians say this is not true.
New Zealand
The last time New Zealanders voted in a general election, they were choosing between two women who were self-professed feminists. Three years later, in a sign of how sharply the pendulum has swung, they will pick between two men named Chris. Former PM Jacinda Ardern’s biographer describes it as “a scary time for women”.
Related: On 19 September, 130 years ago, New Zealand made history by becoming the first self-governing country in the world to give women the right to vote. Stuff.co.nz looks at this groundbreaking history.
Pakistan
The first-ever women’s cricket game in Swat!
Just 5% of journalists in Pakistan are women. This year, the country ranks 150 out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index, and attacks and censorship targeting women reporters are among the key contributors to the country’s declining press freedom.
Regional
Health experts are calling for a “feminist approach” to cancer to eliminate inequalities, as research reveals 800,000 women worldwide are dying needlessly every year because they are denied optimal care.
A new survey shows more than half of women who deal with heavy periods have not spoken to a health professional about it:
It found that close to 70 per cent of women have experienced heavy menstrual bleeding at some point in their lives; almost one in four women frequently have heavy periods; and 55 per cent have not talked to a doctor about treatment options for heavy periods. The research also found that for many women, "embarrassment and shame" could stop them talking about heavy periods and seeking help.
Singapore
Singapore's first female president Halimah Yacob changed perceptions of what Asian leaders should look like, but her path wasn't always smooth.