Good morning!
Somehow it’s suddenly November and the end of the year is rapidly approaching. I have no idea where 2021 has gone.
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Take care,
Kate
Afghanistan
Zahra Mirzaei pioneered groundbreaking maternity services in Kabul, but has been forced to flee overseas since the Taliban regained power.
Fostering girls’ education will be challenging under a Taliban regime, but Afghanistan can learn a lot from Indonesia.
Girls are logging on and learning to code ‘underground’.
The West needs to stop seeing Afghan women and girls as in need of ‘saving’.
Australia
Australia’s newest Indigenous senator, Dorinda Cox, on fighting for Aboriginal women and sacred sites.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh has ranked 152 out of 170 on the Women, Peace, and Security Index 2021.
Cambodia
Her name is Untac: meet some of the children left behind by UN peacekeepers.
China
China’s corporate leaders and government institutions are failing to meaningfully implement or enforce policies to reduce sexual assault and to increase gender equality, despite a recent surge in women coming forward to tell their stories.
Some academic programs still accept only men or cap the number of female applicants, who often must test higher than their male counterparts.
India
Tamil Nadu has enshrined retail workers’ ‘right to sit’ in law, citing health risks for the mostly women workers:
On her feet at work for 10 hours a day, Indian shop assistant S Lakshmi* walks painfully home at the end of her shift to nurse her aching legs and swollen ankles. But relief may be in sight.
Last month, Tamil Nadu became the second Indian state to enshrine retail staff’s “right to sit” in law, ordering store owners to provide seating and let employees take the weight off their feet whenever possible during the working day.
Also in Tamil Nadu: more women are become seaweed farmers, which is great for both the economy and the climate.
On safe queer spaces and accountability in India.
Indonesia
A new guideline for universities in preventing and handling cases of sexual violence has been introduced by the Education Minister. Disclaimer: friends were involved in its drafting.
Japan
Sexual harassment is becoming a fact of life for women who run for office in Japan, where female participation in politics is already among the lowest in the world. Despite the recent emergence of diversity and gender as topics of public debate, the country’s politics have been immune to change:
Mari Yasuda has come to dread checking her social media accounts. While a TV programme has tipped the candidate as “one to watch” in Japan’s general election this month, her anonymous correspondents make no secret of their belief that, as a woman, she should not be standing for parliament at all.
“They accuse me of sleeping with powerful men to get ahead or make abusive comments in calls to our office,” says Yasuda, who is contesting a seat in Hyogo prefecture for the opposition Constitutional Democratic party of Japan. “I receive emails from men remarking on my appearance or asking me for a date.”
On the burdens of being a woman in the Japanese royal family.
Malaysia
Transgender cosmetics businesswoman Sajat Nur has reportedly been granted asylum in Australia after she was charged with blasphemy for wearing women’s clothes.
Malaysia’s publicly traded firms must have at least one woman director on their boards from next year.
Mongolia
Fifa has been criticised over its handling of sexual harassment and physical assault in girls’ football after it emerged it had not publicly announced a worldwide ban given to a coach. Uchralsaikhan Buuveibaatar, a former coach of Mongolia’s under-15 girls’ team, received the sanction after an investigation found he had sexually harassed and physically assaulted youth team players in 2019.
Nepal
A Dalit girl from Pokhara, Belmaya Nepali’s life changed for ever when, at 14, she was given a camera. Now she’s making documentaries.
Papua New Guinea
The Delta variant of COVID-19 has reached the highlands of PNG, and with low vaccination rates, the risk is high, especially for pregnant women and in the face of vaccine fear.
What might the 2022 PNG elections hold for women candidates?
Samoa
The gender quota for Samoan parliament will need to be revised to avoid more constitutional crises like the one this year.
South Korea
A woman has taken a lead role in Confucian ceremonies, breaking a new path in South Korea.
Some South Korean feminists say ‘Squid Game’ reinforces misogyny and want the series director to know that women deserve better.
Vanuatu
In preparation for the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Vanuatu has held its first ever truly national women’s football competition.
Vietnam
The gender wage gap favoring men has persisted, according to the Vietnam Country Gender Equality Profile 2021. The gender earnings gap is now 29.5 percent - 21.5 percent in urban areas and 35.2 percent in rural areas.
Playing raucous American pop in 1960s Vietnam, Phuong Tâm became a sensation – but turned her back on singing after emigrating to the US. Now she’s 76 and her incredible music can finally be heard after her daughter tracked it down.