Solidaritas #148
Vanuatu province bans women from selling food during menstruation
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.
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In solidarity,
- Kate
Regional
The theme of this year’s Women By Women photography exhibition, Rooted in Resistance, showcases images of women defending their land and communities from destruction – by powerful people and corporations or the climate crisis.
A serial rapist thought to be “one of the most prolific sex offenders of all time” who drugged, raped and secretly filmed his victims has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 14 years. Chao Xu, a Chinese national, pleaded guilty to 24 sexual offences against six women in the UK between November 2021 and June 2025.
Afghanistan
Taliban authorities have reportedly ordered female patients, caretakers and staff to wear a burqa if they want to enter public health facilities in the city of Herat.
How the Afghan Women United soccer team is helping refugees cope with trauma. The team is made up of players forced to flee their homeland following the Taliban takeover in 2021, players scattered across the world in Portugal, Australia, England and Italy.
