Good morning!
Has spring finally sprung for south-eastern Australia? It looks increasingly likely. Cherry blossoms abound.
If you enjoy Solidaritas, you can choose to support the newsletter through a paid subscription. It’s just US$5/month or US$40/year! Click below to subscribe.
Take care,
Kate
Afghanistan
On the US’s ‘civilising’ mission in Afghanistan:
The plight of Afghan women at the hands of the Taliban has from the get-go offered a handy pretext for US military devastation…
…The US’s transparently Orientalist civilising mission in Afghanistan – of a piece with age-old colonial rhetoric in the Middle East and beyond – becomes even more nauseating when one recalls the US track record of transparently uncivilised treatment of women worldwide.
Despite the Taliban’s protestations that women will still be able to participate in public life, women are already being told not to go to work.
How tens of Afghanistan’s female athletes were evacuated to be resettled in Australia.
Australia
A petition calling for an inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women has been formally tabled in Western Australia's Parliament.
Cam Nguyen set up the Australian Vietnamese Women's Association (AVWA) in 1983 after arriving in Australia as a refugee. Now, AVWA receives more than $15 million in grants each year for the wide array of services offered to the elderly, vulnerable and disadvantaged, and to employ more than 200 workers.
Why are so many older Australian women suddenly finding themselves facing homelessness?
Darwin’s notorious ‘Laksa Queen’ Amye Un is a local personality with a cult following. Buoyed by her popularity, Timor Leste-born Amye decided to run as an independent in the Northern Territory 2020 elections. (video)
Women are at risk of being left behind in Australia’s COVID-19 recovery, as the nation's gender pay gap widens.
Cambodia
Gender-based violence is continuing to increase in Cambodia during the pandemic.
China
Hunan TV host Qian Feng has been suspended after a woman alleged he sexually abused her two years ago.
The latest fashion trend among Chinese men is women’s wear:
Jeremy Yang is an emerging blogger on Little Red Book, and he is not shy about adding womenswear to his day-to-day fashion.
“It is much easier to find well-designed and interesting pieces in womenswear than menswear,” he said. “The cut is better, details are more well-thought-out, and there are just more choices overall.”
Fiji
“No one wanted to come near us”. What it’s like being pregnant amid Fiji’s Covid outbreak.
Women who male-dominated sport in the Pacific struggle to be seen and often face significant criticism. In Fiji, it took an Olympic bronze medal to change how most people view women in rugby.
India
In India, it is not a crime for a man to rape his wife. But in recent weeks, courts have given conflicting rulings, leading to renewed calls from campaigners to criminalise rape within marriage.
A 24-year-old woman has committed suicide after a lack of progress on a 2019 sexual harassment complaint she made against an MP.
During the summers, women in Maharashtra’s Nashik rappel down 20m-deep wells and spend hours waiting for water to seep into ditches at the bottom.
Indonesia
Military and police women speak out about the ‘virginity tests’ they underwent as part of the recruitment process. The process is finally about to be banned after years of advocacy.
Japan
Only 6 percent of board seats at Japanese companies are held by women. After years of unkept promises, these businesses are now facing pressure to diversify.
Malaysia
Former minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin said she would be willing to visit Afghanistan to guide the Taliban on women’s rights and empowerment:
“As a modernising Islamic country, there are many things we can share with them, especially on how to optimize the role of women in administration, politics, education, economics and social, which are in line with the true teachings of Islam.”
Mongolia
On the move with Mongolia’s reindeer herder nomads.
New Zealand
16 months after New Zealand and Kiribati closed their international borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all of the 286 I-Kiribati workers then in New Zealand, a third (97) of whom are women, remain in the country under the Recognised Seasonal Employer RSE) scheme. There has been no pathway home for any of these workers.
Pakistan
Police have opened cases against hundreds of unidentified men after a young woman was sexually assaulted and groped by a crowd of more than 400 men in a park in Lahore as she made a TikTok video.
Hundreds of Pakistani women who married former Kashmiri rebels have suddenly found themselves stateless.
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea’s national elections are coming up in 2022, and the national women’s political empowerment movement is gaining momentum again:
The late Nahau Rooney’s haus krai illustrates the leadership that women in PNG exercise to advocate for women’s political representation. Haus krai, in the contemporary PNG context, refers to the attendance to the social and cultural obligation of burying loved ones. Haus krai is more than just paying respects to the deceased…; it is the expression of the collective love and obligation to bury someone.
Nahau’s haus krai was a highly gendered affair. Everyone grieved. Men dominated the public decision-making process, but women also claimed their space in this process.
Regional
Women in India, the Middle East and North Africa have likely been targeted for surveillance by governments using Pegasus spyware, and are now at a heightened risk of being blackmailed or harassed:
“A woman being targeted for surveillance is different from a man being targeted because any information can always be used to blackmail or discredit her,” said Anushka Jain at the Internet Freedom Foundation in New Delhi.
“Women already face harassment online. If they think they can be surveilled, they may self censor even more and will simply be afraid to speak up.”
Environmental conservation efforts need more women.
How the pandemic has set back women’s progress in the global workforce.
Samoa’s former PM has accused NZ PM Jacinda Ardern of a plot to replace him with a woman.
Thailand
Anchana Heemmina wants justice for victims of torture in Thailand’s south.