Solidaritas #145
Pakistan rolls out its first mass HPV vaccine campaign
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.
As mentioned in the last three newsletters, Solidaritas is now a paid-subscriber only newsletter. This means you will only be able to read the full newsletter if you subscribe. It’s just AU$5 a month or even cheaper at AU$50 a year:
However, citizens of Asian and Pacific nations can receive the newsletter for free - just respond to this newsletter via email (just click ‘reply’) and I’ll add you as a subscriber.
In solidarity,
- Kate
Regional
Rates of gender-based violence in the Pacific are among the highest in the world. In this special video report by ABC Australia’s The Pacific, a team of all-female reporters embarked on a multi-country investigation and met with survivors, perpetrators, frontline workers, lawmakers and villagers to understand the causes and solutions:
Afghanistan
The Taliban’s latest edict bans all books authored by women from Afghanistan’s educational system, stripping them from classrooms, universities, and libraries:
A panel of Taliban clerics decreed that women’s writings are “anti-sharia and against Taliban policies.” This decision is not just another act of censorship or restriction on Afghan women and girls. It is a calculated act of cultural and gender annihilation, designed to erase women’s intellectual presence from the nation’s memory. It is also part of a broader pattern of cultural genocide that we have seen in other ethnic and religious conflicts.
In addition, after forcing women out of mainstream education institutions, the Taliban are now establishing a network of religious schools for women. Parents report feeling pressured to send their daughters to these schools, especially as the ‘teachers’ are mullahs who are paid extra for additional student enrolment.
Did the lack of women humanitarians and first responders impact the response to August 30’s 6.0 magnitude earthquake?
