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 a view of south Canberra from a hill I hiked the other day.
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In solidarity,
- Kate
Afghanistan
Australia is being urged to speed up visas for Afghan women who fear being sent back to Afghanistan. The Australian government has received more than 215,000 humanitarian visa requests from Afghan nationals since the fall of Kabul in August 2021, but has granted just over 15,000.
The UN mission in Afghanistan is “deeply concerned” about Taliban authorities arbitrarily arresting and detaining women and girls it accuses of violating dress codes. But Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says the UN’s preoccupation with Afghan women is unwarranted.
Australia
To find out what male politicians think of the domestic violence crisis, the ABC reached out to all 92 male MPs in the House of Representatives. Four out of five did not respond.
Australian women are about to discover just how wide the gender pay gap is. From 27 February, when you’ll be able to find out the difference between how much the median man and the median woman get paid at any large company in Australia.
Living Free is a Melbourne-based program run by a non-profit that works to free girls and young women from cycles of exploitation and abuse. It has been so successful that there are now calls for it to be expanded state-wide.
The Matildas’ 20-year-old Mary Fowler on her newfound popularity following a monumental year for women’s soccer in Australia.
Bangladesh
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has secured her fourth straight term in a controversial election:
Ms Hasina will serve another five years in office after her party the Awami League and its allies won 225 of 300 parliamentary seats contested.
With the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party boycotting the poll, Ms Hasina's party and allies are expected to win the remaining seats as well. The BNP alleged the poll was a sham. Sunday's result comes after mass arrests of BNP leaders and supporters.
Official figures suggested a low voter turnout of about 40%, though critics say even those numbers may be inflated. In comparison, the last election in 2018 had a voter turnout of more than 80%.
But overall, women remain underrepresented in Bangladeshi politics.
Cambodia
On women becoming “strong like men” as tuk-tuk drivers.
India
The death of a 14-year-old girl with leukaemia highlights the weaknesses of India’s health system and how it is failing the poor and marginalised:
From the day Fayza Ansari, 14, was diagnosed with leukaemia, her life followed a tragic arc – turned away by hospitals, her sobbing pleas ignored, her parents desperately trying to find a bed for her.
“If beds aren’t available, what must poor patients do? Die?” These were Fayza’s last words, captured on a video taken by her father to gain some attention. The images of the frail and wild-eyed teenager, who by now was bleeding from her nose and ears, finally reached the top government hospital in the Indian capital, Delhi, where she was belatedly admitted on 5 December. Fayza died a few hours later.
Reserving a number of parliament seats for women must be more than a gimmick: the changes that are needed go deeper than simply placing women in political positions.
The Indian women’s test cricket team have made history, beating Australia for the first time.
Indonesia
Women are leading the struggle against nickel mining on Wawonii Island, Southeast Sulawesi.
Japan
The level of dissatisfaction among Japanese women over daily chores put in by their husbands is the highest ever, a new study shows. 15% say their male partners don’t do any chores at all.
Malaysia
A shaman has been accused of sexually assaulting two women while ‘eliminating’ bad spirits.
How are the elderly to be cared for in Malaysia?:
Earlier this year, the Malaysian government floated an idea for an upcoming Senior Citizens’ Bill. Among its various provisions, the bill would enact financial penalties for people who place their elderly parents into formal care institutions. The fact that such a move was even considered not only highlights the outsized role of filial piety in Malaysian society but, by enforcing a statutory duty legally requiring adult children to provide for parents in old age, simultaneously reinforces the responsibility of care as one that should be shouldered by younger generations.
But this move also masks an implicit gender bias. With women often performing the lion’s share of care work in the home, filial support laws like those in the proposed Senior Citizens’ Bill threaten to disproportionately affect women.
Myanmar
Photo essay: the women soldiers of Myanmar's resistance.
New Zealand
New Zealand’s new right-learning coalition government has announced plans to scrap gender and sexuality education from the curriculum, saying they want to “refocus the curriculum on academic achievement and not ideology”.
Pakistan
Pakistan’s election regulator has asked political parties to submit their lists of nominated male and female candidates for February’s election, reminding them that they are required by law to ensure at least five percent of their candidates on general seats are women.
Papua New Guinea
The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) conducted its second Violence Against Women in Elections (VAWE) Papua New Guinea (PNG) Assessment in 2022 following the national general elections:
IFES conducted the first VAWE assessment—the first of its kind in PNG—in 2018, following the 2017 elections (the report was published in 2019). This report assesses VAWE in PNG, drawing on fieldwork, research, and IFES’s experience operating in PNG. It presents recommendations for mitigating and preventing VAWE in the future. These recommendations are not substantially different from those included in the 2019 report. What does this tell us? Patriarchal social norms, gender inequality, gender-based violence (GBV), and patron-client politics continue to be pervasive, resulting in family and bloc voting, bribery, and intimidation that effectively disenfranchise women, people with disabilities, and the elderly.
Regional
Both China and Taiwan are increasingly important donors of aid in the Pacific, but how do they rate on spending for gender equality? The summary: not great, with less than 0.01% of China’s and 0.07% of Taiwan’s investments in the Pacific going towards gender equality initiatives.
Having a son is preferred in many countries, but researchers find living with daughters can bring greater happiness.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s recent restructuring - implemented due to the country’s mounting sovereign-debt crisis - threatens to erode retirement savings further, pushing even more older women into poverty.
Barriers are set to be removed that currently prevent women from senior roles in the Sri Lankan military. At present, women can only reach the rank of major, and are required to retire by the age of 45.
Taiwan
Taiwan's Me Too movement has put powerful men in the spotlight, but women are bearing the cost of speaking out.
Meanwhile, the country’s falling birth rate has become a national security issue.
Vietnam
Veitnam’s gender imbalance at birth remained higher than natural last year, with 112 boys born for every 100 girls. The natural ratio is around 105 boys to 100 girls.