Solidaritas #150
New research: every type of crisis increases violence against women in Asia and the Pacific
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.
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 (excluding Australia and NZ) can receive the newsletter for free - just respond to this newsletter via email (click ‘reply’) and I’ll add you as a subscriber.
This is the last issue for 2025, so I will see you in mid-January 2026. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and Happy New Year to all!
In solidarity,
- Kate
Regional
Alarming new research on links between extreme heat and complications in pregnancy and childbirth.
New research shows that there is a clear pattern across the Indo-Pacific: every type of crisis increases violence against women, whether domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence or other forms of gender-based violence.
Improving sexual and reproductive health and rights means confronting problems that are inherently social and political, write representatives of the WHO in the BMJ.
Women work longer and per hour earn a third of what men are paid, in figures that have changed little in 35 years, a new UN report shows.
China’s bachelor crisis is meeting Nepal’s poverty in a trade that blurs the lines between arranged marriage and coercion: international marriage brokers.
When workers from the Pacific come to Australia to work on the PALM scheme, they are tied to their employers. When they leave those employers, they end up in visa limbo:
Many have travelled to Australia’s fruit picking hubs, where they have been attracted by an abundance of work and a welcoming community — and where local leaders say they are crucial in helping growers harvest their crops.
But advocates say the labourers remain vulnerable as they try to resolve their immigration status, and many of them — including those who become pregnant — lack Medicare coverage and health insurance after leaving their employers.
