Hello, it’s Thursday and officially October.
I’ve been working on a story about bushfires, smoke exposure, and health impacts on pregnant women over the last fortnight, and had been hoping it’d be published by now so I could include it here, but alas. Next issue, hopefully.
As always, if you’re enjoying Solidaritas, paid subscriptions are available for US$5/month or much cheaper at US$40/year. Thank you so much for your support!
-Kate
Afghanistan
Afghan mothers’ names will finally be allowed to appear on children’s birth certificates for the first time.
For the first time, Afghanistan will have a seat on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
How a coal miner’s daughter topped the nation’s university entrance exams.
Australia
Australia’s fa’afafine community is growing!
Susan Ryan, the first woman to serve in a Labor federal cabinet and who later became the first Age Discrimination Commissioner, has died aged 77.
Around half of all domestic violence victims in need of support are being turned away by service providers, who are struggling to keep up with demand during COVID-19.
1990s recession was mostly all about manual labour and manufacturing. This time round it is mostly about services, with women and people without university degrees being hit hardest.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh has recorded 632 rapes between April and August this year. It means on average, four women have been raped every day in the country over the last five months.
More than 300 Rohingya refugees allege they are being held against their will in jail-like conditions and subjected to rape and sexual assault on a Bangladeshi island.
Burma
Three soldiers have been court-martialed after confessing to the rape of Rakhine women.
China
A huge drop in the Xinjiang birth rate has been confirmed by the government, but even first person reports of forced sterilisation from Uighur women are still being denied.
Even in cases of serious domestic violence, it can be incredibly hard for women to get divorced from their husbands in China.
A Chinese TV drama about the coronavirus pandemic has erased women’s important contributions and viewers are angry.
Hong Kong
The rule requiring foreign domestic workers in live in their employers’ houses has been upheld despite its sexist and racist undertones.
Hong Kong’s women journalists are still pushing ahead despite the new national security law.
India
Widespread protests continue over the gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh.
Meet the transwomen running their own dairy farm in Tamil Nadu.
A wonderful photo essay on women doing nothing and why this is so revolutionary for India.
Fifty years ago, a very determined group of six young women set out on a big adventure to climb a peak in the Lahoul Himalayas. Most were in their early twenties. Not all of them made it back.
Hyderabadi woman Suraiya Hasan Bose is single-handedly responsible for the revival of many forgotten textile weaves in India.
Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead by apparent suicide at his Mumbai residence, and his death has now turned into a media frenzy centred on his girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty. Rajput’s family have accused Chakraborty of abetment to suicide, theft, cheating, conspiracy and wrongful confinement, despite the post-mortem ruling out foul play.
Indonesia
Poor women are experiencing the worst health and economic outcomes of COVID-19 in Indonesia.
Safe abortion remains largely impossible for reproductive health service providers.
Indonesia’s gender pay gap has now reached 23%, new data shows.
Japan
Kane Tanaka is the world’s oldest living person and Japan’s oldest ever-living person! She is 117 and says her favourite drink is Coca Cola.
Malaysia
Women’s groups have called for the removal of husbands’ immunity from rape charges.
Nepal
Nepal’s nation women’s cricket team will finally get core contracts, although of course they won’t be paid anything like as much as the men receive.
On the downside, PM Suga’s new cabinet includes only two women.
New Zealand
Both major political parties are focusing on male-dominated industries to bring economic growth back to NZ. So what does this mean for women?
In 1912 , a six-month-long miners’ strike paved the way for large general strikes the following year. But it couldn’t have lasted so long without the working-class women who organized to defend their community — the “Scarlet Runners” who fought the strikebreakers.
North Korea
The rise of female leaders in North Korea.
Pakistan
The gang rape of a woman in front of her children after her car broke down on a motorway has prompted protests in Pakistan. Police have blamed the woman for travelling alone.
A colleague of mine told me to never return to Pakistan. “I am glad you are not here. Just never return here,” she said. “This country is not safe for women.”
I could not think of a reply. Yes, I feel safe outside Pakistan, but that is my country where I want to return and live. If I do so will I be safe, or am I the next victim?
Papua New Guinea
Trailblazing PNG politician Nahau Rooney has died aged 75. She was just one of three women elected in 1977 to PNG’s first post-independence parliament.
Solomon Islands
How is women’s political participation viewed in the Solomons?
Sri Lanka
From tea fields to university: tea plantation workers are taking up more education opportunities.
How come women only make up 5% of Sri Lankan legislators, despite being 56% of the population?
Thailand
Women continue to lead Thailand’s anti-monarchy, anti-regime, anti-monkhood protests.
Tibet
Meet Tenzin Mariko, the first openly transgender Tibetan woman.
Vietnam
A woman has been arrested for her role in the recycling of 300,000 used condoms.