Solidaritas #137
Exiled Myanmar women and remote adigital activist spaces
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 week’s header photo was taken on a trek in the Mustang area of Nepal, in 2011.
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In solidarity,
- Kate
Afghanistan
While the ICC has sought arrest warrants for Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani to hold them accountable for gender-based crimes in Afghanistan, women say this is a “far cry from on-the-ground justice”:
To counter the Taliban’s institutionalised gender persecution, political mobilisation is essential — mirroring the global response to the racial apartheid in South Africa. Then, the world came together through coordinated economic sanctions, cultural and sports boycotts and grassroots activism, providing tangible power to international law and political pressure. Equivalent collective action is urgently required today.
Governments, multilateral bodies, non-governmental organisations, civil society and influential sectors like the media, arts and academia must form a united front to isolate the Taliban. This pressure is essential to delegitimise the regime and amplify the forms of resistance that Afghan women have been organising over the past years.
Australia
Australia held a federal election on 3 May, and for the first time, the country will have reached gender parity across the two houses of parliament. Helen Dalley-Fisher calculates that 45.7% of seats in the House of Representatives and 58% of seats in the Senate will held by women. In the House of Representatives alone, the Labor Party - who were returned to government - will be 53% women.
Location-sharing apps are linked to an increased risk of digital coercive control, a new report from the eSafety Commission research finds.
Women living with HIV are no longer a priority group under the Ninth National HIV Strategy, despite higher risks of late diagnosis and lack of specialised support.
Bangladesh
Nearly 20,000 Islamists gathered in Dhaka to protest against the newly-instated Women’s Affairs Reform Commission, established by the interim government to ensure equal rights for women.
China
A private hospital in eastern China is under investigation for offering illegal in IVF services specifically for single women, allowing them to meet and choose sperm donors.
An interesting article on gender trolling in China, exploring the tension between feminist activism, digital platforms, and state ideologies
Fiji
Women’s NGOs are proposing a mandatory 30% quota for women in parliament, but the Minister for Education (who is also leader of the Social Democratic Liberal Party, SODELPA) doesn’t support the idea.
India
How conducting ‘draw a scientist’ experiments in numerous classrooms inspired a documentary project on girls in STEM.
Indonesia
A government cash transfer social assistance package in Indonesia has been found to successfully reduce child marriage rates among girls living in rural communities.
Japan
Japan’s decision to withdraw funding from CEDAW in January has renewed scrutiny of its fraught relationship with global gender equality norms.
Extreme heat has increased the risks of preterm births and other pregnancy complications in Japan, with the number of days that are harmfully hot for pregnant women nearly doubling in the past five years.
Marshall Islands
Meet six Marshallese women activists who are changing the world.
Myanmar
Unable to return to Myanmar, exiled women have built remote digital activism movements, exposing mass sexual violence against women, extrajudicial killings of young people, and violence towards other marginalised communities, such as LGBTQ+ groups.
Nepal
Nepal’s Supreme Court passed a verdict in mid-2023 allowing same-sex marriage. Yet a lesbian couple’s request to have their marriage register failed this month, after local officials claimed they didn’t know how to process it. The police then became involved, resulting in the forced separation of the women by their families.
Reusable cloth menstrual pads are becoming more popular in Nepal; this factory is dedicated to producing them.
Papua New Guinea
The maternity ward at Port Moresby General Hospital is struggling to cope with the number of patients, with women left to recover on the floor after giving birth:
Frustrated with the conditions, Dr Mola and his team began documenting the state of care in the maternity ward last year.
In 2024, they found more than 7,000 women — about one in four — who visited the hospital to give birth received at least some of their care on the floor.
Regional
A new survey shows half of women’s organizations aiding women in crises may shut down in six months due to global aid cuts.
Related: Can we imagine what sexual and reproductive health services around the world without US financial support?
What about women? An overlooked solution to Pacific labour shortages.
Samoa
Samoa NRL have invited an Indigenous women's rugby league team from Australia to visit the Pacific nation to play rugby league and exchange cultural ties. (audio)
South Korea
Gender equality has been largely absent from the policy proposals of Korea’s all-male presidential contenders, drawing criticism that the demands and interests of young women voters — who played a prominent role in the protests for the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol — are being overlooked.
Sri Lanka
Online violence against female political candidates in local government elections is rife in Sri Lanka.
Feminist activists are at the center of a decades-long battle to reform the country’s Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act.