Good afternoon!
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.
Apologies for the lack of email last fortnight; I went to Singapore to meet some of my closest friends from Indonesia (shout-out to Vivi, who also took this week’s header image)!) and eat my weight in char siu. 😋
Some personal news: my first authored publication for the Asian Development Bank is out! It’s about addressing menstrual health and hygiene in urban development and WASH in the Pacific. You can download it here.
If you like Solidaritas, I’d be thrilled if you chose to support the newsletter by becoming a paid subscriber:
Love and solidarity,
- Kate
Afghanistan
The Taliban’s hatred of women is central to their hold on power. Of course, the Taliban reject this, saying that they have made life more comfortable for Afghan women since taking power.
Australia
Independent Aboriginal senator Lidia Thorpe has said she was “demonised” after raising allegations of sexual assault in the parliament and was only taken seriously when a white woman shared her own allegations.
COVID-19 apparently precipitated something of a baby boom in Australia: according to a new report, a record 315,705 babies were born in 2021, while the birthrate itself was up to 61 per 1,000 women of reproductive age from 56 per 1,000 the year before.
On Australia’s gender pay gap:
The good news from the latest taxation statistics is that the gender pay gap is getting better. The bad news is it is happening so slowly that most people working today will be long retired by the time the gap is closed.
Cambodia
Around 80% of Cambodia’s 700,000 garment factory workers are women, and many lost their jobs or faced reduced income during the pandemic. Meet some of the workers fighting for safer working conditions and fairer wages.
China
China bans unmarried women from accessing reproductive health services such as egg freezing, so more and more women are now travelling overseas to do so.
Fiji
Known as a symbol of change for generations of Fijians, the country's first female deputy prime minister, Taufa Vakatale, has died at age 85. (audio)
India
Indian businesswomen face unequal access to capital, with female entrepreneurs who do approach potential investors more likely to be rejected.
Karnataka state government has launched free bus travel for women in an attempt to boost employment, and the reaction from women has been incredibly moving:
“Before, I had to take permission and money from my family to travel. Now I don’t have to depend on them.”
Bollywood star Sonam Kapoor has spoken out against the gender pay gap that exists in the industry, in which male Bollywood stars are typically paid much more than their female counterparts.
Thousands of Indian women have been deceived after marrying non-resident Indian men (Indian heritage men who live abroad). Now, some are hoping to get justice through the legal system. Though official statistics are hard to come by, a 2018 petition by eight such women in India’s Supreme Court said there are more than 40,000 wives who have been deceived into marrying NRI men.
The Madras high court has delivered a verdict that significantly expands the rights of homemakers over their husband's property, in a domestic dispute case that gave an equal share to the wife.
Indonesia
How some female Afghan refugees and asylum seekers are finding new roles as teachers at migrant schools in Indonesia.
Japan
Two legal developments this week: First, Japan has passed legislation aimed at “promoting the understanding” of members of the LGBTQ community, but advocates say this is a watered-down bill that will achieve little.
Second, the country passed laws that redefine rape and raise the age of consent in a landmark overhaul of sex crime laws. The definition of rape was broadened to "non-consensual sexual intercourse" from "forcible sexual intercourse".
In other news, the Japanese government sent a man to represent the country at a G7 meeting on women’s empowerment. He was the only male representative in attendance. Even worse, as the meeting was held in Japan, he acted as the chair.
North Korea
Kim Jong Un may be prepping his daughter as his successor because he wants a woman in charge to modernize North Korea's image, experts say. His daughter is believed to be about 10 or 11 years old.
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea
Although kidnapping is not a new development in the Southern Highlands, Western and Hela provinces, women in the region say the rape of underage girls is increasingly being used to terrorise their communities.
A lovely piece exploring the importance of bilum bags, which are handwoven exclusively by women.
The Philippines
Employment agencies and money-lending companies in the Philippines are cheating women applying for jobs abroad out of large amounts of money by charging illegal fees paid with high-interest loans, a new investigation finds.
Regional
Bias against women is as entrenched as it was a decade ago and gender equality progress has gone into reverse, according to the new UN Gender Social Norms Index. Nine out of 10 people of all genders have a bias against women, a figure unchanged from data collected more than a decade ago.
Cervical cancer is a major cause of death for women in the Pacific, but a new screening program being rolled out across the region is offering fresh hope:
Women can get test results and treatment on the same day — a vast improvement, particularly in the Solomon Islands, where old pap smear tests had to be sent to Australia to be analysed.
In Papua New Guinea, Mt Hagen nurse Gloria Munnull said she had women coming from all over the region to get tested, and that the new program was an "answer to prayer".
A new women’s soccer league, the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) Women's Champions League, has been established to fill a gap in the region. In its first year, this league has the top club from five countries — PNG, Fiji, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Samoa — competing for glory.
Singapore
The 2016 death of Piang Ngaih Don, a Myanmar domestic worker in Singapore, sparked both outrage and reform, but advocates argue that major gaps continue to exist.
Singapore has jailed an Indonesian citizen and permanent resident of Singapore who filmed himself having sex with 76 women without their consent. Most of the women he met through dating apps.
South Korea
Geoje Island’s remarkable haenyeo (women free divers) believed their traditions were dying out. But then came the new recruits – refugees from the cities’ exhausting rat race:
On Geoje Island, the community realised that if freediving culture was to survive, potential recruits needed a place to learn. And so the Geoje Haenyeo academy was born, making it possible for women who weren’t born into the practice to access the haenyeo community and learn its skills.
Shin Ho-jin was one of them. Four years ago, the Seoul native with a BA in literature and advertising was working as a project manager in a high-rise office building in the capital, spending every evening in front of the computer. “Korean work culture is very tough. There is no mercy!” she recalled. “But in this community, it’s different.”
Taiwan
Taiwan has granted full adoption rights to same-sex couples.
Meanwhile, a wave of #MeToo allegations has raced to the very top of the nation’s political, judicial and arts scenes:
Nearly every day, fresh allegations emerge, setting off discussions on talk shows and on social media, with newspaper commentaries and activist groups calling for stronger protections for victims…
The outpouring of complaints was set off by a popular Netflix drama about Taiwanese politics called “Wave Makers,” which featured a subplot about a female member of a political party telling her boss that she had been sexually harassed by a party member. Her boss promises to help her report the harassment, and in an indication of how often such politically inconvenient complaints are ignored, says, “Let’s not just let this go this time.”
As a result, President Tsai Ing-wen has apologised twice in a week following sexual harassment accusations directed at members of her political party.
Thailand
Many women have been newly elected to the Thai parliament in this month’s election: let’s meet some of them.