Good morning!
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Take care,
Kate
Afghanistan
Women have been banned from appearing in television dramas in Afghanistan under new rules imposed by the Taliban government. Meanwhile, teenage girls have still not been allowed to go back to high school.
Female MPs in exile discuss what comes next.
Women’s activists are being targeted and killed, often receiving suspicious calls and WhatsApp messages beforehand.
Australia
A taskforce investigating the experience of women in the justice system has been told sexual assault victims are being forced to wait days for forensic tests in Queensland hospitals and the criminal code "fails to uphold the human rights" of survivors.
One in three people working in parliament have experienced some kind of sexual harassment there, according to a review of workplace culture.
Plus: One in 10 employees in the federal government department responsible for implementing gender equality laws and protections against sexual harassment say they have experienced some form of sexual harassment in the workplace.
Major sexual consent reforms have passed through the New South Wales parliament this week and have also been proposed in Victoria. The affirmative consent reforms will change the laws around sexual consent to better deliver justice to victims and survivors of sexual assault.
A blistering editorial from The Saturday Paper called ‘The Nauru Rapes’.
Almost 60% of job losses in Australia between June and September 2021 impacted young women.
Bangladesh
As another 16 Days rolls around, the Dhaka Tribune asks: What have we done about addressing violence against women in Bangadesh?
China
What has happened to rising tennis star Peng Shuai?
As in other countries, international support for China’s LGBTQ+ communities both helps and hinders progress.
A man in southwestern China urged authorities to arrest his own father on International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, four months after his mother died of burn injuries caused by his father. The young man took to social media calling for his father to be punished.
Fiji
COVID-19 restrictions contributed to an increase in women calling for counselling during the lockdown, says the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, primarily because women were not able to move out of their houses and were controlled by their husbands.
India
India now has more women than men for the first time in its recorded history and is no longer experiencing a population boom.
Gender-based violence seems to be an intractable problem in India - should men and boys be doing more to stand up against GBV?
Falguni Nayar made a rare decision to give up her career as an investment banker to build a beauty start-up a few months shy of turning 50 in 2012. Almost 10 years on, Ms Nayar is now a billionaire worth over US$7 billion, following the public listing of her beauty brand Nykaa, India’s first woman-led unicorn.
Indonesia
Indigenous Papuan women and their struggle for land.
Indonesia aims to send more women overseas in peacekeeping roles.
Women are currently dominating growth in new Indonesian businesses, especially in the food and beverage industry.
Japan
Japan's first ever trans march was held in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward with about 400 participants.
Attempts to appoint female leaders in Japan meet with resistance from men and women who see them as running counter to traditional values, according to the new head of the country’s biggest federation of labor unions:
“The perception that roles should be divided by gender remains strong,” said Tomoko Yoshino, the first woman to become president of the 7-million-member Japanese Trade Union Confederation. “Even if women are capable, they lack confidence. Men are able to pass as capable, even if they’re not. I sense that disparity very strongly.”
Malaysia
Single parents are hoping the government will recognise unmarried individuals with children so that they can benefit from the recently-announced Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia financial aid.
Transgender woman Nur Sajat reflects on being forced out of Malaysia and seeking asylum in Australia.
Myanmar
More and more women are joining the armed resistance against the military junta in Myanmar. One reason is the high levels of sexual violence perpetrated by soldiers, as a rape survivor explains.
Nepal
How clay wall murals called mithila continue to empower Nepali women.
Although the number of reported cases of dowry-related violence in Nepal has been declining, the reality is underreported. The dowry system has been outlawed for a long time, but activists claim it remains rampant across the country.
In leftist insurgencies, such as Nepal’s (which ended 15 years ago ), women are often offered critical roles. When female militants take up arms, it challenges gender roles for both ex-combatants and non-combatant women. Despite this, they experience social and political setbacks during the transition to peace.
Pakistan
Pakistani women who left abusive relationships share what inspired them to leave.
Only 11% of employees in Pakistan are women, and it’s even more rare to find women in charge.
The Philippines
The founder of a Philippines church trafficked girls and young women and forced them to have sex with him on pain of eternal damnation, the US Justice Department has charged. Cash raised for a bogus California-based charity was used to recruit victims who would be brought to the United States from the Philippines to work in a church called the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name (KOJC).
Regional
Why did the Japan-South Korea agreement on World War II-era sex slaves fall apart?
Fascinating research into women migrants. This research team interviewed 150 female migrants to find out what their journeys were like.
Women across Asia and beyond have faced increased domestic violence as well as sexual and gender-based abuse amid the coronavirus pandemic. A report released this week by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent said this was due to multiple issues, including increased socioeconomic stress on families and lockdowns forcing women to stay at home.
In the Pacific, women make up less than a quarter of the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce. Barriers include lack of support, societal pressures, and finding a secure job.
Singapore
Through makeup tutorials and satire, Preeti Nair has restarted difficult conversations about racism and prejudice in Singapore.
South Korea
One in six Korean women quit their jobs after marrying.
Meet the haenyeo, female underwater free divers from Jeju Island:
Since the 17th century, they have made a living from free diving along Jeju’s winding coastline.
Regarded as South Korea’s first working mothers, it’s speculated these women began diving at a time when the men of the island were away gathering food or at war. …
At its peak, it’s believed about 23,000 haenyeo were working the waters around the island. The number of haenyeo has dwindled over the years, and currently stands at about 3,500.
Many members are at an age where workers would be considering retirement. Less than 100 are aged under 50.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s first national survey on women and girls has found that 20% of women have experienced intimate partner violence.
Meanwhile in workplaces, sexual harassment is keeping women out of the workforce.
Thailand
VICE takes a look at sexual abuse in Thai schools (video).
Tonga
In 2021, no women were elected to the Tongan parliament. Nor were they in 2014, 2010, or 2008.. what’s going on?
Vanuatu
New research on menstruation and disability in Vanuatu found that menstruators with disabilities were five times more likely to use different bathing facilities to others in the household, nearly twice as likely to miss social activities, and three times more likely to eat alone during menstruation.
Vietnam
The UN has urged Vietnam and Saudi Arabia to cease the trafficking and exploitation of women migrant workers. A 2018 report by the Vietnamese National Committee on Crime Prevention and Control identified about 7,500 victims of human trafficking between 2012 and 2017, more than 90 percent of whom were female and 80 percent of whom came from remote ethnic communities.
