Good morning! It’s Friday at last.
Solidaritas is a fortnightly newsletter about women’s rights, feminism, and gender in Asia and the Pacific, covering the entirety of this huge region: from Afghanistan and Pakistan in the west to Kiribati and Cook Islands in the east.
If you like Solidaritas, it would be wonderful if you chose to support the newsletter by becoming a paid subscriber. It’s just US$5/month or even cheaper at US$40/year:
Love and solidarity,
- Kate
Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s last remaining female reporters are working for free. A great post by Zan Times for
Western countries have risked causing further harm to Afghan women by withdrawing funding and suspending operations in protest against Taliban policies that adversely affect women, argue the International Crisis Group.
Australia
Staff shortgaes and ward closures exacerbated by COVID-19 are forcing women to travel hundreds of kilometres to give birth.
Brunei
Brunei will reportedly release its first ever National Plan of Action on Women this year.
China
Tens of millions of women in rural China do not have their names on land contracts, putting them in a vulnerable position that can set up a struggle to obtain economic independence and social security. Is the government about the change policy to improve the situation?
Meanwhile, a member of China's top political advisory body has said she would propose allowing unmarried women to access egg freezing as a measure to preserve their fertility after the country's population fell last year for the first time in six decades.
Fiji
A new report from the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement highlights stark disparities between men and women in Fiji, finding that women make up only 34% of the Fiji labour force and do 72% of domestic work.
Hong Kong
The ex-husband and two former in-laws of Abby Choi have been charged with her murder, after police revealed they had found more body parts during a weekend search.
Indonesia
Jamu, a herbal tincture that originated in Java's royal courts more than 1,300 years ago, is historically seen as a woman’s domain, but it’s being given a new twist by young Indonesians.
Al Jazeera’s 101 East meets female stunt bikers in Indonesia. (video)
Japan
Money is not enough to convince more Japanese women to have children.
Laos
A recent string of “wife wanted” ads on social media – offering payments of thousands of dollars per month – have sparked concern that they will lure young women into human trafficking operations.
Maldives
As one of the smallest countries in South Asia, the Maldives has gained many achievements when it comes to gender equality, yet society continues to hold on firmly to practices that discriminate against women and girls, especially the harmful practice of female genital mutilation (FGM).
Malaysia
The founder of the Asmaul Husna group pleaded not guilty in the Shariah High Court yesterday to a charge of spreading deviant teachings to Muslims.
Sisters in Islam (SIS) has criticised the Terengganu government for deciding to punish women who wear ‘revealing’ clothes.
Myanmar
Doxxing of anti-military voices is rife in Myanmar:
In the summer of 2021, Chomden was abroad, thousands of miles away from her home in Myanmar, when a friend sent her an urgent message informing her that an intimate video of her was being shared online.
When she saw the message, the 25-year-old said she froze "like a statue," her phone falling from her hand. She had just been doxxed.
A video of a naked Chomden -- whose name has been changed to protect her identity -- having sex with a former boyfriend, along with her name and Facebook profile picture, was circulating on a public channel on the messaging platform Telegram, and many of the group's approximately 10,000 followers had begun sending her abusive messages.
Pakistan
A recent rape case in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, sparked massive protests but the uproar soon hushed down:
On February 2, a 24-year-old woman, with her male colleague, was walking in F-9 park, stretching about 750 acres, which is a central feature of the capital. Two armed men attacked them. The colleague was chased away, and the woman was raped at gunpoint.
When the woman tried to resist, her pleas were muzzled by the threat that if she protested, the men would bring “six to seven more people” to assault her.
The attackers then went on to warn her never to come to the park at night, that she shouldn’t have been in the park at that time. They gave her a 1,000 rupee note to not report the attack.
The Philippines:
Reports of child sexual exploitation skyrocketed during COVID-19. Sadly, many cases involved the facilitation of the children’s mothers.
Regional:
On two Asian women lawyers jailed for going against the powers-that-be:
One is a former senator who valiantly criticized the drug war of a populist president. The other is a civil society activist who brought attention to a myriad of human rights violations committed by an autocratic regime. One tried to change the system from within; the other one opted to stay outside. Both ended up behind bars for fighting for what is right.
They are Leila de Lima of the Philippines and Theary Seng of Cambodia. On February 24 of this year, de Lima will mark her sixth year of detention. Seng, on the other hand, was sentenced to six-year imprisonment in June last year. The charges against both of them are clearly politically motivated.
Singapore
Paternity leave in Singapore will be doubled to four weeks as part of the government's commitment to support parents in their work-life balance.
South Korea
A new study revealed that only 4% of unmarried Korean women think marriage and childbearing are essential.
A lawmaker who led an activist group for victims of Japanese wartime sexual exploitation has been convicted for embezzling group funds.