Solidaritas #120
Voice of Baceprot become the first Indonesian band to play at Glastonbury 🤘🤘
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 was taken in Bangkok earlier this year.
If you like Solidaritas, I’d be thrilled if you chose to support this newsletter by becoming a paid subscriber for just US$5 a month (or even cheaper at US$40/year!):
In solidarity,
- Kate
Afghanistan
A UN meeting on Afghanistan held in Doha at the end of June failed to include any women, instead giving space only to the Taliban:
The Taliban have silenced women’s voices inside the country using violence and torture. And by excluding women’s participation at the Doha meeting, the UN and others in the international community have enabled the Taliban to try to silence our voices outside Afghanistan, too.
If the international community and the UN want to be useful, let the women of Afghanistan directly talk to the Taliban. This is something that the leaders of the gender-apartheid regime fear the most.
A video appears to show gang-rape of a female Afghan human rights activist in a Taliban jail. There have been mounting reports that sexual violence is being inflicted on women and girls being held in detention in Afghanistan, but this video is believed to be the first direct evidence of these crimes occurring. (no footage in the links, don’t worry!!)
As the Taliban keep pushing for official recognition, the one topic that could break the deadlock is the one they don’t want to address: education for girls.
Afghanistan’s women cricketers are in exile in Australia, unable to play. They have written an open letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC), petitioning them to fund the team.
Australia
A staggering two-thirds of females nationwide have encountered gender bias or discrimination in healthcare, with thousands of women coming forward to tell their stories after the federal government assembled a team of experts to tackle medical misogyny.
Teenage boys are being 'bombarded' with misogynist content online, and it’s making its way into the classroom.
Bangladesh
I missed this when it happened back in April: Bangladesh has opened a mosque for the transgender hijra community, built on land donated by the government.
Brunei
Brunei dropped nine places in the 2024 Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum, falling to 105th out of 146 countries. It sits below Singapore (48), Thailand (65), Vietnam (72), Timor-Leste (86), Laos (89), Indonesia (100), and Cambodia (102), but slightly above Malaysia (114).
India
Narendra Modi was sworn in for a third term as prime minister last month. Despite his emphasis on ‘women-led development’, his record on gender equality has been disappointing.
Multinational brands are shifting out of China and into India. What impact will this have on women’s work opportunities - and their lives as a whole - in India?
Before her husband died, leaving her to raise their 2-year-old daughter alone, Sarika Pawar had never imagined working a regular job. Like her own mother and most of the women she knew in rural India, she spent her days confined to her village. Her hours were consumed with looking after her toddler, boiling water to drink and fashioning an evening meal.
But with her husband gone, eliminating his wages as a server, she was forced to earn money. She took a job at a nearby factory run by a company called All Time Plastics…
Ms. Pawar earns about 12,000 rupees per month, or roughly $150, a meager sum by global standards. Yet those wages have allowed her to keep her daughter in high school while transforming their everyday lives.
She purchased a refrigerator. Suddenly, she could buy vegetables in larger quantities, limiting her trips to the market and giving her more power to bargain for better prices. She added a stove powered by propane — liberation from the wood fire that filled her home with smoke, and an escape from the tedious work of scouring the ground for branches to set alight.
Indonesia
A new broadcast bill aims to impose curbs on LGBTQIA content and other “negative” material in Indonesia.
Voice of Baceprot, Indonesia’s favourite hijab-wearing metalheads, played England’s Glastonbury festival on the weekend. They were the first Indonesian band to ever play at Glasto.
Japan
The race to become Tokyo’s next governor has kicked off, with two women in the lead to run the world’s most populous city – a rarity in a country where comparatively few women occupy high political office.
Malaysia
New research shows that if unpaid care work produced in Malaysian homes every day could be valued in GDP figures, it would create about RM379 billion, accounting for a fifth of the service sector.
Automation of work in oil palm plantations has opened up an avenue for women to join a traditionally male-dominated workforce.
Mongolia
Mongolia went the polls in late June, and for the first time in almost a decade, parties were required by law to ensure that 30 percent of their candidates were women. As a result, more women ran than ever before.
Myanmar
Myanmar’s junta has begun conscripting women into the military to help shore up troop losses, despite claims to the contrary, residents say.
New Zealand
Pay transparency would help close the gender gap - so why is progress so slow?
North Korea
How North Korea’s lucrative trade in human hair is helping it skirt the impact of sanctions.
Pakistan
A female leading politician and former minister, Zartaj Gul, has sparked controversy in the Assembly when she requested the speaker look her in the eyes while she was speaking. The speaker allegedly responded “I will listen, but I cannot make eye contact with a woman as it does not appear appropriate.”
Papua New Guinea
On the relationship between social media and violence, including gender-based violence, images of which are often widely shared.
The Philippines
Women-led sea patrols in the Philippines are protecting livelihoods and the ocean.
Regional
In a busy year of Pacific Island elections, a worrying gender gap is evident:
All the Pacific Islands countries going to the polls in 2024 have very low levels of women's political representation.
After January's elections, Tuvalu now has no women parliamentarians at all, and the Pacific Islands region has the lowest proportion of female politicians in the world.
There are only two women heads of state across the region: President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands and Fiamē Naomi Mata'afa, Prime Minister of Samoa.
Singapore
Three women, who were allegedly involved in organising a procession of about 70 people along the perimeter of the Istana, have been charged in court. The three rallied people online to send letters to the prime minister, urging him to cut ties with Israel.
South Korea
On the dark side of Korea’s beauty obsession.
Are South Korea’s heated debates over feminism a sign of what’s coming next in countries like America?
Taiwan
Midwives are urging for increased recognition and reintegration of their role into the maternal healthcare system in Taiwan, arguing they are a valuable alternative to doctors.
Thailand
Thailand has become the first country in Southeast Asia to legalise same-sex marriage! 🎉🎉
Vanuatu
Thousands of women have formed the Women Wetem Weta (WWW) network in Vanuatu, where they share disaster preparedness information and warnings and coordinate to distribute fresh food. It’s proven faster and more effective than waiting for government assessment and aid.
Thanks Kate - what an excellent round-up summary of regional news. There is a mountain of important reading here! Thank you. An outstanding job.