Hello. Apologies for the last of fortnightly wrap-up two weeks ago - life got away from me.
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
The finals of the Afghan Women’s Soccer Championships were held in Kabul recently:
It's even more remarkable that the women are playing in this Kabul stadium. This is where the Taliban once meted out punishments to men and women who violated their strict rules. The punishments were so gruesome that when the stadium was renovated in 2007, contractors removed about two feet of soil to ensure people didn't play on the remains of other Afghans.
A 33-year-old new female police officer, Khatera, was shot and blinded by three suspected Taliban fighters simply for having a job.
At least 11 women died in a crush at a football stadium as thousands of people tried to get visas to leave the country for Pakistan.
Australia
There is a domestic violence problem in the police force, and no-one wants to talk about it.
A new survey shows that young men do not recognise the signs of domestic violence. Four in ten young men do not consider punching and hitting as forms of DV.
Natasha Stott Despoja has been elected to the CEDAW Commission.
There were 86,000 fewer women studying at university in 2020 compared with 2019, following the gendered impact of COVID-19 and the recession on Australia.
A huge new exhibition of 170 women artists called Know Her Name has begun at the National Gallery of Australia. Can’t wait to see it.
Bangladesh
It is illegal for Bangladeshi women under 25 to go to Saudi Arabia to work, yet many still manage to do so through shady channels. Sadly, it often ends badly.
Burma
Girls and young women from Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh are undertaking dangerous journeys to Malaysia to marry men they’ve never met.
Cambodia
Garment workers are fighting for unpaid wages after their factories shut during the COVID-19 pandemic.
China
A young woman is bringing a lawsuit to try to get textbook publishers to stop describing homosexuality as a mental disorder.
Lhamo was told her husband’s abuse was a family matter, until she was murdered while livestreaming.
A feminist group has begun sharing free menstrual products in schools and universities across China to combat ‘period poverty’ and encourage more people to talk about menstruation.
More women are performing Western-style stand-up comedy, taking advantage of the platform to speak out about a wide range of controversial or taboo topics.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s female e-sports players are struggling to break into the sexist scene.
India
A network of more than 900 female beekeepers is improving incomes and independence.
Millions of young Indian women are rejecting marriage. Society, on the other hand, lags behind.
How female chess players fought the patriarchal competition system in the 1970s - and won.
The war against India’s women journalists.
What it’s really like to be a divorced woman in India.
The country’s first time use survey reveals disturbing patterns when it comes to women and daily paid work.
Indonesia
The women of Kendeng set their feet in cement to stop a mine in their lands. This is their story.
Will the ‘Industry 4.0’ revolution leave women behind? Looking at STEM data, in 2018, only 12% of graduates with STEM majors in Indonesia were women. This number is comparatively lower than in neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, such as Malaysia (26%), Philippines (18%), Thailand (15%) and Vietnam (15%).
Karina Soerjanatamihardja is putting structures in place for women’s rugby.
Japan
Male babysitters are trying hard to break stereotypes and beat the stigma.
Nepal
Even in 2020, Nepal’s Dalit women are still discriminated against from all sides.
Nepal recorded 1,673 cases of violence against women in the past six months. More than 90 percent of such cases were committed by family members or close relatives of the victims.
New Zealand
Re-elected PM Jacinda Ardern has named NZ’s most diverse cabinet yet. One of the most notable appointments is that of Maori woman Nanaia Mahuta as Foreign Minister. Ardern has also created a new ministerial position: Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence.
26-year-old Filipina-heritage Arielle Keil is the first trans women to win Miss New Zealand.
Pakistan
Meet the women who risk their lives to get Pakistanis vaccinated against polio:
Nasreen Bibi never saw the face of her killer. The 44-year-old had just finished work for the day, vaccinating children against polio in Chaman, Pakistan. As she and her co-worker, Rashida Bibi (no relation), stood waiting for a rickshaw home, a motorcycle skidded up in front of them carrying two masked men.
Papua New Guinea
How sorcery violence - which overwhelmingly affects women - spreads fear across PNG.
A police chief has raised concerns that officers may have raped women in police stations.
Amidst all this, the country held its first national GBV summit.
The Philippines
The Philippines’ fisheries space has traditionally been dominated by men, but an Indigenous community in the western province of Palawan is allowing women to manage critical marine habitats.
Accusing women’s rights group GABRIELA of ties to Communist rebels, a general told an actress she could be killed if she associated with the organization.
Regional
Pacific teams are leading the way in the development of women’s rugby league.
South Korea
Lee Hyo-jae, a champion of women’s rights in South Korea, has died at the age of 95. As well as fighting for the rights of World War II-era sex slaves, Lee helped abolish South Korea’s patriarchal naming system, allowing people to use two surnames to reflect their heritage from both parents. She also helped establish a quota requiring that half of a party’s candidates running for the National Assembly be women, and pushed for equal pay for equal work.
The struggle for gender equality in the Korean film industry.
I love this story about yoghurt ladies in South Korea, who roam the streets selling Yakult and other products (we had them in Jakarta, too - our local one was so sweet!):
“I deliver yogurt but also cheerfulness and energy,” said Ms. Kang, 47, a yakult ajumma since 2012, who knows her customers’ orders by heart. “People, especially the elderly, feel good to see a cheerful and hardworking woman, and some of them eventually start buying from me.”
Sri Lanka
Read the findings from Sri Lanka's first dedicated National Survey on Violence against Women and Girls.
Taiwan
Having beaten COVID-19, Taiwan’s Pride parade went ahead without a hitch.
Thailand
Almost 2,000 allegations of rape were reported to the police in 2019, yet nothing seems to be changing.
Women are using the pro-democracy protests to challenge sexism:
Before a cheering crowd of more than 2,000 people in the northern province of Chiang Mai, 18-year-old Napawn Somsak demanded to know why women are paid less than men and cannot be ordained into the influential Buddhist monkhood.
Tibet
Tibetan widows often struggle after the deaths of their husbands, facing social exclusion and discrimination.
What is intimate partner violence like in Tibetan communities?
Vanuatu
Vanuatu wants to become the first country in the world to ban plastic disposable nappies amid concern about their huge environmental impact.