The federal government’s ambassador for gender equity in STEM is being wound up, with existing functions to be slotted into other programs. The Pathway to Diversity in STEM review, published in February, said the Women in STEM Ambassador should be replaced by a new advisory council with diverse representation across industries and social groups that…
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Myanmar’s junta has killed more than 900 women and arrested nearly 5,000 others in just over three years since the military seized power in a coup d’etat, a political prisoner watchdog group said Tuesday.
Shortly after the Feb. 1, 2021, coup, tens of thousands of civilians took to the streets of Myanmar to protest – many of whom were women. The junta responded with violent and sometimes deadly force, before launching a scorched earth offensive against rebel groups around the country.
On Tuesday, Thailand’s Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (Burma), or AAPP, said in a statement that it had documented the junta’s killing of at least 929 women between the coup and May 6, 2024, accounting for nearly one in five of the 4,973 people killed since the takeover.
The AAPP said that the junta arrested at least 4,778 women over the same period, making up 18% of the total 26,631 people arrested since the coup.
Of the women arrested, at least 781 have been sentenced to prison, Naw Khin San Htwe, the secretary general of the Burmese Women’s Union, told RFA Burmese.
In March last year, Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government said that the junta had killed 483 women in the 25 months since the coup and detained 3,125 others.
The AAPP said Tuesday that the number of those killed and arrested is “likely much higher,” noting that it only tallied the deaths and arrests it had been able to verify.
One woman’s case
In one of the latest examples of women arrested and sentenced since the coup, a junta court last month found Lwin Cho Myint, the former general secretary of the Student Union of the University of Technology in Sagaing region, guilty of violating the country’s anti-terrorism law and ordered that she spend 17 years in prison.
A family member called her arrest and imprisonment “arbitrary” in an interview with RFA.
“The junta is unjustly detaining and imprisoning anyone who dissents against them, fabricating charges to justify their actions,” said the family member, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
“Such imprisonment under false pretenses amounts to oppression,” the family member said. “The more repression, the stronger the revolution. If the repression increases, there will be uprisings all over the country.”
In a more high profile case, on Jan. 10, a court in Yangon region’s notorious Insein Prison sentenced documentary filmmaker Shin Daewe to life in prison after finding her guilty on two counts of terrorism.
Heavy punishments for dissenters
Zu Zu May Yoon, the founder of the AAPP, told RFA that the junta regularly imposes heavy punishments on anyone who opposes its rule.
“Following the coup, there were instances of political prisoners being condemned to death without anything made public,” she said, noting that even minor infractions under martial law incur a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
“During my time there [in prison], people sentenced to death, life imprisonment, or lengthy terms were all confined within the same penitentiary,” she said. “They were isolated from contact with anyone else and endured severe living conditions.”
AAPP said it had documented several young women who were shot dead during peaceful protests in the aftermath of the coup or died under suspicious circumstances while in custody.
Among those killed during peaceful protests were Kyal Sin and Mya Thwet Thwet Khaing, aged between 19 and 20, who were shot dead by junta police at demonstrations in Mandalay and Naypyidaw in February 2021.
Nobel Aye, a former political prisoner who was arrested and held at a detention center in eastern Bago region, was shot and killed by junta soldiers on the pretext that she had escaped from the courthouse in Waw township on Feb. 8, 2024.
Nobel Aye’s brother Chan Myae said that he wanted justice for the killing.
“We want to regain our lost human rights and get justice for the torture and killings,” he said. “I strongly protest the widespread violation of women’s rights in Myanmar, encompassing not only my sister but all women, by the [junta] forces that have seized power.”
Violent deaths on the rise for women
The Burmese Women’s Union’s Naw Khin San Htwe, told RFA that since the coup, women in Myanmar have been killed in increasingly violent ways.
“If you look at the circumstances of the deaths, most of them died due to airstrikes, landmines, and heavy weaponry,” she said. “In addition, some were raped and murdered. Moreover, women have succumbed during interrogations, while others have been fatally shot in wartime conflicts.”
RFA has documented several cases of women taking up arms alongside men on the frontlines of the war against the junta, saying they could no longer tolerate the unlawful killings and arrests of their gender.
One former nurse who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement of civil servants boycotting the junta now provides medical aid to injured rebels on the frontline.
The former nurse, who also declined to be named citing fear of reprisal, told RFA that women are regularly subjected to sexual violence in detention, even if it does not escalate to rape.
“They [the junta] transgress numerous human rights against women, perpetrating relentless violence,” she said. “Thus, I am compelled to persevere until the very end, aspiring to be the final torchbearer of resistance for my generation. My commitment remains steadfast to eradicate this scourge from our midst.”
Translated by Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
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By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk
A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics.
The peaceful demonstration was held on Nouméa’s Place des Cocotiers to protest against violent messages posted by critics against Waia on social networks — and also against public comments made by local politicians, mostly pro-France.
Political leaders and social networks have criticised Waia for her coverage of the pro-independence protests on April 13 in the capital.
“We are here to sound the alarm bell and to remind our leaders not to cross the line regarding freedom of expression and freedom to exercise the profession of journalism in New Caledonia,” president Sonia Togna New Caledonia’s Union of Francophone Women in Oceania (UFFO-NC).
“We’re going to go through very difficult months [about the political future of New Caledonia] and we hope this kind of incident will not happen again, whatever the political party,” she said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Paris-based World Press Freedom Index
Pacific Media Watch reports that yesterday was World Press Freedom Day worldwide and France rose three places to 21st in the Paris-based RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index rankings made public yesterday.
This is higher than any other other country in the region except New Zealand (which dropped six places to 19th, but still two places higher than France).
New Zealand is closely followed in the Index by one of the world’s newer nations, Timor-Leste (20th) — among the top 10 last year — and Samoa (22nd).
Fiji was 44th, one place above Tonga, and Papua New Guinea had dropped 32 places to 91st. Other Pacific countries were not listed in the survey which is based on media freedom performance through 2023.
New Zealand is 20 places above Australia, which dropped 12 places and is ranked 39th.
Rivals in the Indo-Pacific geopolitical struggle for influence are the United States (dropped 15 places to 55th) and China (rose seven places to 172nd).
Pacific Media Watch
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
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This content originally appeared on Amnesty International and was authored by Amnesty International.
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Her family have been threatened and her team faces increasing risks in Afghanistan, but Zahra Joya knows she must keep reporting from exile
On the nights that she manages to fall asleep, Zahra Joya always returns to Afghanistan in her dreams. On good nights she travels back to Bamyan, her home province, with its green mountains and bright blue lakes, or to her parents as they looked when she was a little girl.
Increasingly though, her dreams are full of roadside bombs or men with guns. Some nights, memories of her last hours in Afghanistan play over and over on a loop: the panicked crowds outside Kabul airport, people being whipped and beaten, the sound of her sisters crying.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
This content originally appeared on Amnesty International and was authored by Amnesty International.
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A video depicting a man riding a bike with three burqa-clad women has gone viral on social media. The words “ঈদ মোবারক” (Eid Mubarak) have been superimposed on the video. Several Indian users have shared the clip claiming that such are the consequences of unemployment in India.
A parody page of BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi, @Sudanshutrivedi, shared the clip on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption, “An unemployed man”. The tweet has received over 185,700 views, 10,000 likes and 4,300 retweets. (Archive)
एक बेरोज़गार बंदा
pic.twitter.com/kyjvCMez6t
— Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi Satire (@Sudanshutrivedi) April 15, 2024
A user, @MaheshM58845164, commented under the above tweet, stating that “Modi ji has increased the number of taxpayers, now about eight crore are paying taxes, so let the other fifteen crore enjoy. India is a very tolerant country. Make lotus bloom and be happy.”
Other X users like @Surya_Maithil and @AarMhatre also amplified the video. (Archive 1 and 2)
Click to view slideshow.The video also went viral on Instagram and Facebook.
Click to view slideshow.A closer look at the viral video reveals that the poster depicted in the clip features Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and a text written in Bengali, ‘চেয়ারম্যান’ (Chairman).
We broke down the viral video into key-frames using Invid software and then reverse-searched one of the images on Google. This led us to the original video posted on Facebook by SI Jahangir Alam, who is in-charge of Dhanbari police station of Tangail District in Bangladesh. In the clip, Alam talks about the importance of responsible driving and cautions his viewers about the increasing number of bike accidents in Bangladesh.
এভাবে কি মেনে নেওয়া যায়, আপনি হলে কি করতেন ? Jahangir Alam
এভাবে কি মেনে নেওয়া যায়, আপনি হলে কি করতেন ? Jahangir Alam
Posted by Jahangir Alam on Friday 12 April 2024
The poster in the background is clearly visible at the 0:32 mark of the extended video. The poster also features Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina’s name and the image of Alhaj Anwar Hossain, the chairman candidate from Awami League who will be contesting the upcoming Upazila elections in Bangladesh, which shall commence from May 29, 2024.
Click to view slideshow.The extended video also depicts a police officer talking to the man who was driving the bike. A closer look at the police uniform reveals that the uniform logo is the official logo of the Bangladesh Police. This shows that the incident happened in Bangladesh and not in India.
Click to view slideshow.Alt News reached out to SI Jahangir Alam for a comment. He confirmed that the video was from Bangladesh.
To sum up, social media users have shared a viral video depicting a man riding a bike with three women, claiming that the incident happened in India. Our fact-check revealed that the video is from Bangladesh.
Abira das is an intern at Alt News.
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Mandarin song lyrics written, performed by and aimed at Chinese women have seen a dramatic shift in recent years, focusing far less on romantic love and much more on personal freedom and fulfillment, recent research has shown.
According to researchers at Hong Kong’s University of Science and Technology, the classic Mandarin pop ballad, often accompanied with videos in which a fragile-looking young woman wanders along a seashore or looks tearfully out of a window, sighing or weeping over an unsuccessful love affair, may soon be a thing of the past.
A team led by business school assistant professor Wenbo Wang found that songs in which love is the ultimate goal have been replaced in recent years by songs about freedom, self-determination and self-confidence — a world in which love definitely isn’t the crowning achievement of a woman’s life, and may just be the icing on the cake.
Take the 1990s hit “Rain Butterfly,” penned in the 1990s by Taiwanese songwriters Hsu Chang-te and Chiung Yao, recorded by singer E-jun Lee and used in the hit TV show “My Fair Princess.”
“I fly to you, falling gently as the rain, though there have been tears and pain along the way, I pursue you tirelessly, no matter how far,” run the lyrics. “As long as you have no complaints, I have no regrets … I’m intoxicated by the feeling of being loved.”
In “Jailbird,” a hit from the same era with lyrics by Taiwanese writer Tracy Hsiao, the singer describes being “a bird caged by you who has forgotten how high the sky is.”
“If I leave this small castle you have given me, who else could I rely on?”
Well — according to this generation of Mandopop stars — maybe herself.
‘Miss Similar’
She could explore her individuality, rather than slavishly following the latest advertising and beauty trends, according to Hong Kong artist G.E.M. Tang’s “Miss Similar,” which dropped in 2019.
“Similar girls, chasing similar looks, wanting similar things, being led by the nose,” she raps. “On similar streets, striking similar poses, following similar trends, getting similar noses. Life really shouldn’t be like this.”
Or she could get comfortable with being on her own, according to a 2024 track titled “Today, We” by lyricist Icy Cao and Chinese singer Yuan Quan.
“Not going anywhere today … people who know how to be happy can embrace beauty in the unknown,” Yuan sings. “Today, I’m not gonna give myself a hard time. Gonna give myself a break.”
The study comes as young people in China are far less likely to marry and have kids than they were a decade ago, pushing back amid economic woes, a competitive culture and parental pressure to tick off traditional milestones like a career, marriage, a mortgage and children.
Both young women and young men have told Radio Free Asia in recent interviews that they are refusing marriage, mortgages and kids as a form of silent protest, or simply because they have enough trouble meeting their own needs in today’s flagging economy.
Young women in China, meanwhile, have told RFA they are unimpressed by the ruling Communist Party’s bid to get them to have more babies to shore up a shrinking population, citing huge inequalities and patriarchal attitudes that still run through family life, not to mention the sheer economic cost of raising a family.
‘They just want to make money’
According to study author Wang, whose team trawled song lyrics using ChatGPT to gauge what resonates with young women in the Chinese-speaking world today, “there are fewer and fewer songs about love.”
“Nowadays, people don’t want to fall in love, they just want to make money and build a career,” assistant professor and study author Wenbo Wang was quoted by Chinese digital media outlet The Paper as saying.
“Women today are more likely to pursue ideals of freedom, independence, rationality and courage,” Wang said.
The changes in pop-song lyrics were also reflected in the most popular characters in TV dramas in recent years, Wang’s team found, with female characters described as “strong and confident” more likely to gain popularity. Back in the 1990s, the most popular fictional women were far more likely to be described as “filial” or “virtuous.”
Millennial Ellie Li, born in Beijing and now based in Washington, says change was already afoot when she was growing up listening to songs by the band Mayday.
She said both she and most of her female friends would agree with the apparent shift in sentiment.
“Firstly, better yourself, do well for yourself, then maybe meet the right person,” Li told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “If it happens, great, if not, no pressure.”
“There’s no requirement to have a partner or start a family by a certain age — it’s more about going with the flow,” she said, citing G.E.M. Tang’s “Miss Similar” as a kind of cautionary tale.
Earlier signs
Lyricist Fred Chen, who has penned hit songs for top artists including Aaron Kwok, Chiang Yu-Heng, and Jimmy Lin, said that signs of the shift were already visible in some lyrics from the 1990s.
“You can’t measure the influence or cultural significance of a pop song by averages,” Chen said in a written reply to RFA. “It’s more about looking at what is revealed or evoked by certain songs that got extremely popular, the special, unforgettable songs.”
He cited Sarah Chen’s “Dream to Awakening” from 1989 as an example of a “manifesto for urban women” who can take or leave romantic love.
“You knew heartbreak was inevitable, so why did you love so deeply?” the song goes. “Every time you wake from a dream, there are things you know now, people you don’t need to wait for forever.”
And “Run Without Care” by Sally Yeh from 1991 inspires people generally to live life to the fullest, embodying a sense of carefree energy, according to Chen.
“I’m betting my youth on tomorrow, while you exchange a whole lifetime for true life,” Yeh sings. “Why not run free?”
Chen said social media has given a much broader platform for songs of all kinds to get an airing, saying there are still many other qualities that make a song popular other than the lyrics.
“People tend to prefer melody, rhythm, the arrangement and visual packaging over lyrics,” he said.
Changing platforms
But lyricist Chien Yao said the rise of short video platforms like TikTok and Douyin could actually boost content that is more focused on self-determination than heartache and romantic love, although that is still very much there.
“Those needs have never actually gone away,” Chien said. “I don’t think they are a lower priority than the desire for money, material possessions or making one’s mark.”
But he has noticed that young women in China are far more likely to think deeply about art and literature, feeling and philosophy than their counterparts in Taiwan.
Chien said he was recently stopped by a member of the public in Beijing, after Icy Cao and Yuan Quan’s hit “Today We” was released.
She wanted to know when he was going to collaborate on a new song with Yuan, who has made a comeback 15 years after leaving the Mandopop scene, where she had gained a reputation for being deep-thinking and “literary” in style.
“I miss that era — when can you work with her again?” the woman wanted to know.
“So that demand is there, and it’s especially strong among young women,” Chien said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lucie Lo for RFA Mandarin.
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The man behind the phone chuckles as he calls out in the Hmong language to villagers sitting around a raised wooden home in rural Laos.
A young man in a yellow hooded sweatshirt offers a slightly embarrassed smile, while other men gathered around a motorbike appear to pay him no mind.
The camera zooms in on two young women who look shocked or turn away, as others laugh, before it settles on a girl barely in her teens, sitting atop a bike between two other children.
This 30-second video, shot in an undisclosed location in Laos, went viral late last month after it was posted to Facebook, along with dialogue warning of ethnic Hmong middlemen working as interpreters for Chinese nationals seeking Hmong women and girls as wives.
While the offer of marriage can be a financial leg up for largely poor Hmong villagers in rural Laos, many women who accept end up victims of human trafficking, according to a Lao official, who is calling on authorities to take action against the middlemen.
Some of the women end up as forced laborers and sometimes face physical punishment, the official said.
“In the video, the middleman goes to a village and says that there are some Chinese men looking for Lao Hmong girls and women to be their wives,” a speaker of the Hmong language told Radio Free Asia.
“The video doesn’t mention the province, district, or village,” he said. “It’s only clear that Chinese men are looking for Lao Hmong wives.”
The women and girls typically live in remote hill areas and are usually uneducated, according to an official from the Lao People’s Revolutionary Youth Union, the ruling party’s youth wing.
“As I observe, some of the men cannot marry Chinese women because they are poor,” the youth official said. “But when they come to Laos, they’re in a better position in terms of wealth.”
Loopholes in Laos’ laws
The Chinese men offer the parents large amounts of money or promise to build a modern cement house, he said.
And they mostly target the Lao women in their early 20s, with fair skin and a small body, a source in Vientiane province’s Thoulakhom district told RFA.
The influx of Chinese people into Laos in the last few years has presented new challenges to the Lao government’s anti-human trafficking efforts, according to several government officials.
Many of the Chinese men obtain all of the required Lao government documents before marrying Hmong women, one Vientiane-based official told RFA. That can make it more difficult for provincial authorities to gauge whether the women will face an abusive situation once they move to China, the official said.
“There are some loopholes in Lao regulations and laws for the Chinese men to take advantage to bring Lao girls and women to China,” the official said. “We only know their whereabouts once they face problems and are in a situation where they need help. But we can’t stop them from going to China with their new husbands.”
It was unclear how many Hmong women have moved to China to marry Chinese men in recent years. But Lao government officials and one person who works for an NGO said the practice has become commonplace in the country’s north, particularly in Luang Prabang and Oudomxay provinces.
“I just saw this happen earlier this year,” a resident of Xayabury province’s Hongsa district told RFA. “A middleman who works for Chinese men came here to negotiate with parents of Hmong women. When the parents said yes, he did all the paperwork according to regulations and laws on marriage.”
In every instance, the Hmong women and the Chinese men didn’t meet each other until after the paperwork was completed, he said. Because of that, the village doesn’t hold an engagement ceremony, like with other marriages.
Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Matt Reed.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.
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Repealing ban would mean return of ‘one of the most pernicious forms of violence committed against women and children’
A team of UN experts has urged Gambian lawmakers not to repeal a ban on female genital mutilation, saying such a move would set a dangerous global precedent.
In a letter dated 8 April and made public on Thursday, the experts, led by Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said allowing the unchecked return of “one of the most pernicious forms of violence committed against women and children” would violate their right to freedom from torture.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
Authorities in Thailand have arrested eight Lao women, seven of whom entered the country illegally to work as prostitutes, and one who worked as their madam, Radio Free Asia has learned.
According to the Anti-Trafficking in Person Unit of the Thai Department of Special Investigation, the seven women were aged 21 to 36, and they were arrested at a karaoke bar in Bang Pakong district in the southern province of Chachoengsao. The eighth woman is the wife of the bar’s owner.
A police officer in Bang Pakong district confirmed Monday that the seven women, who were arrested on April 4, are still in custody and are awaiting trial and will be deported to Laos later.
The sex trade is technically illegal in Thailand, but laws against it are rarely enforced. Authorities do, however, more strictly enforce immigration laws.
“Usually, people from Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar are allowed to work in Thailand in only certain types of work like construction, but not in entertainment venues or karaoke bars,” Col. Pattanapong Sripinproh of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Unit told RFA Lao.
“They are not allowed to work as bar girls or drink girls,” he said. “If they do, they’ll be arrested.”
Sripinproh explained that police were able to catch the eight women by going undercover and posing as johns.
“One of our police officers disguised as a customer at the karaoke bar and agreed to pay 2,000 baht ($54) for sex with one of the women,” he said, explaining that the bar owner and a hotel get their cut of the money and the woman would get about 1,300 baht ($36).
Following this lead, the police officers inspected the bar and found that seven women were working illegally.
“Based on the law on foreign workers … the violators will be fined up to 10,000 baht (US$272) and/or jailed for two months,” he said, but acknowledged that in most cases there is no fine or jail time. Instead the women are usually deported and blacklisted for two years.
He also said that if the husband and wife were found guilty of human trafficking they could face up to 20 years in prison.
“But in these cases we found out that those seven women are older than 20 and none of them were forced to prostitution,” said Sripinproh. “So, the husband and wife won’t be charged with human trafficking. But they will be charged with doing illegal business by providing sexual services.”
RFA reported in March that four Lao women were arrested in Ban Bueng district in nearby Chonburi province for entering the country illegally and working as prostitutes. They told Thai police that they entered Thailand as tourists, rented rooms in a hotel and then sold sex.
Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Eugene Whong.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.
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Iran’s parliamentary elections on March 1 witnessed a historically low turnout, in a blow to the legitimacy of the clerical establishment.
The official turnout of 41 percent was the lowest for legislative elections since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Critics claim the real turnout was likely even lower.
Hard-liners dominated the elections for the parliament and the Assembly of Experts, a body that picks the country’s supreme leader, consolidating their grip on power. Many reformists and moderates were barred from contesting the polls.
Experts said the declining turnout signifies the growing chasm between the ruling clerics and Iran’s young population, many of whom are demanding greater social and political freedoms in the Middle Eastern nation of some 88 million.
“These elections proved that the overriding imperative for the Islamic republic is strengthening ideological conformity at the top, even at the cost of losing even more of its legitimacy from below,” said Ali Vaez, the director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group.
‘Widening Divide’
Observers said disillusionment with the state has been building up for years and is reflected in the declining voter turnout in recent elections.
Turnout in presidential and parliamentary elections were consistently above 50 percent for decades. But the numbers have declined since 2020, when around 42 percent of voters cast ballots in the parliamentary elections that year. In the 2021 presidential vote, turnout was below 49 percent.
Ali Ansari, a history professor at the University of St. Andrews, puts that down to growing “despondency” in the country.
This is “the clearest indication of the widening divide between state and society, which has been growing over the years,” said Ansari.
“It is quite clear that the despondency is extending even to those who are generally sympathetic to the regime,” he added, referring to reformist former President Mohammad Khatami choosing not to vote in the March 1 elections.
Voter apathy was particularly evident in the capital, Tehran, which has the most representatives in the 290-seat parliament. In Tehran, only 1.8 million of the 7.7 million eligible voters — or some 24 percent — cast their votes on March 1, according to official figures.
Up to 400,000 invalid ballots — many believed to be blank — were cast in Tehran alone, a sign of voter discontent.
Ahead of the elections, nearly 300 activists in Iran had called on the public to boycott the “engineered” elections.
Beyond Boycott
The March 1 elections were the first since the unprecedented anti-establishment protests that rocked the country in 2022.
The monthslong demonstrations, triggered by the death in custody of a young woman arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s hijab law, snowballed into one of the most sustained demonstrations against Iran’s theocracy. At least 500 protesters were killed and thousands were detained in the state’s brutal crackdown on the protests.
Iran has been the scene of several bursts of deadly anti-establishment protests since the disputed presidential election in 2009. Many of the demonstrations have been over state repression and economic mismanagement.
But experts said that the 2022 protests alone did not result in the record-low turnout in the recent elections.
“This is a reflection of a deeper malaise that extends back to 2009 and traverses through 2017, 2019, and 2022,” Ansari said. “It has been building for some time.”
Despite the historically low turnout, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised the “epic” participation of the public. State-run media, meanwhile, spun the elections as a victory over those who called for a boycott.
By claiming victory, the clerical establishment “overlooks the growing absence of support from 60 percent of its population,” said Vaez.
“Such self-approbation [mirrors] the regime’s previous dismissal of the 2022 protests as the result of foreign intrigue rather than reflection of deep discontent,” he said, adding that it represents the Islamic republic’s “continuation of ignoring simmering public discontent.”
Hard-Line Dominance
Around 40 moderates won seats in the new parliament. But the legislature will remain dominated by hard-liners.
The elections were largely seen as a contest between conservatives and ultraconservatives.
“We can say that a more hotheaded and previously marginal wing of the hard-liners scored a victory against more established conservatives,” said Arash Azizi, a senior lecturer in history and political science at Clemson University in South Carolina.
“This is because the former had a more fired-up base and in the absence of popular participation were able to shape the results,” he added.
A more hard-line parliament could have more bark but “certainly” not more bite than its predecessors, according to Vaez.
“The parliament is subservient to the supreme leader and rubber stamps the deep state’s strategic decisions, even if grudgingly,” he added.
Since the ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi, a close ally of Khamenei, was elected as president in 2021, Iran’s hard-liners have dominated all three branches of the government, including the parliament and judiciary.
Other key institutions like the Assembly of Experts and the powerful Guardians Council, which vets all election candidates, are also dominated by hard-liners.
“There is not much left of the system’s republican features,” Vaez said. “The Islamic republic is now a minority-ruled unconstitutional theocracy.”
This content originally appeared on News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.
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The Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) – or Quê Me – marked Friday’s international women’s day with a call for the release of all the country’s female prisoners of conscience.
More than 30 of Vietnam’s 200-plus political prisoners are women, the group said.
While the government claims these women threatened national security or caused harm to the nation, VCHR said the reality is that they were simply fighting for basic rights, social justice and a clean environment.
It said their arrests violated the Vietnamese constitution, national legislation and international human rights law.
“By stifling these essential voices, Vietnam is not only violating its binding international commitments, but also jeopardizing its own future,” VCHR Vice-President Võ Trần Nhật said.
“A clean environment cannot be built without environmentalists, a society respectful of human rights cannot exist without human rights defenders.”
VCHR cited the cases of eight women prisoners, including Nguyễn Thúy Hạnh who is being treated for cancer while in detention.
Hanh, who in 2016 ran for a seat in Vietnam’s National Assembly, was arrested in April 2021 on charges of “anti-state propaganda,” for allegedly disseminating materials against the state.
After a year of incarceration in a Hanoi prison, she was forced into treatment for depression at the Central Mental Institute in Hanoi. In January, her husband wrote on Facebook that her harsh treatment had made her condition much worse.
VCHR said that as a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council and a signatory of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Vietnam should respect its binding international commitments to respect human rights, including environmental and workers’ rights and end the arbitrary detention of activists.
The organization called on all U.N. member states to participate in Vietnam’s fourth Universal Periodic Review in Geneva on May 7, 2024, to pressure Hanoi to release all human rights defenders, bloggers and environmental rights defenders from Vietnam’s prisons.
It said the international community needed to urge Vietnam to immediately abolish the provisions in the National Security chapter of the criminal law, especially articles 109, 117 and 331 used to arrest and detain individuals who assert their rights to freedom of speech, association, assembly and expression, and religion and belief.
Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn and Elaine Chan.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Argentinian women from all walks of life will take to the streets nationwide on 8 March, International Women’s Day, as part of a feminist strike calling for an end to the country’s growing poverty, which already affects 57% of the population of 46 million. The protesters’ “most important demand” is a solution to Argentina’s “food emergency”, said María Claudia Albornoz, an activist from La…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Berlin, March 8, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists and more than 100 journalists and media leaders sent an open letter to senior British police officers and lawmakers on Friday, International Women’s Day, calling on them to break the cycle of online violence and abuse against women working in journalism, which risks sidelining them from the profession, and to secure a safer future for women in the media.
In the letter, the signatories made four recommendations to the police:
Read the letter below:
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
As International Women’s Day coincides with the annual meeting of China’s National People’s Congress, moves are afoot to look at ways to boost flagging birth rates and kick-start the shrinking population.
But young women in today’s China are increasingly choosing not to marry or have kids, citing huge inequalities and patriarchal attitudes that still run through family life, not to mention the sheer economic cost of raising a family.
Since ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping called on women to focus on raising families last October, delegates to the National People’s Congress have been working a slew of possible policy measures to encourage them to have more babies, including making it easier for women to freeze their eggs and delay motherhood, flexible working policies, insurance coverage for fertility treatment and extended maternity leave.
But for many Chinese women, who grew up influenced by a feminist movement that has changed the character of social media debate despite ongoing censorship and persecution, the government’s attempts at “encouragement” are having little effect, according to leading feminists who spoke to RFA Mandarin recently.
Feng Yuan, a veteran women’s rights activist who took part in the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, said the state has always sought to control women’s bodies, citing the forced sterilizations and late-term abortions of the decades-long “one-child policy,” which ended in 2016 amid concerns over a rapidly aging and shrinking population.
“The one child policy was also about being under the control of the state,” she said. “Prior to the one-child policy, the state was encouraging child-bearing, and even praised women as heroic mothers if they had five or six kids.”
Fertility is ‘a battlefield’
Since the Communist Party took power in 1949, Chinese women have rarely had a sense of their bodily autonomy — their fertility “has always been a battlefield,” Feng said.
Now, the government wants more babies again, but this time around, women are far more aware of their bodily autonomy.
“We definitely have more autonomy than we used to, and we can see a lot of people choosing not to marry,” Feng said. “Voluntary infertility is also on the rise, which is another result of growing bodily autonomy.”
Sociologist Xu Fang, who lectures at the University of California, Berkeley, said women are also much more highly focused on achieving their personal goals than they once were.
“A lot of young women who have just graduated from college and who have gotten all kinds of recognition along the way must be thinking more about getting a good career … because this is what they know how to do,” Xu said.
“[For them], marriage and children are too complicated.”
The figures seem to support this analysis.
The number of Chinese couples tying the knot for the first time has plummeted by nearly 56% over the past nine years, with such marriages numbering less than 11 million in 2022.
A November 2023 poll on the social media platform Weibo found that while most of the 44,000 respondents said 25 to 28 are the best ages to marry, nearly 60% said they were delaying marriage due to work pressures, education or the need to buy property.
And attitudes are strongly skewed by gender, too. A survey of 18-26 year-olds in October 2021 found that more than 40% of women were either choosing not to marry or unsure whether to marry, compared with just over 19% of men in the same age group.
Out of touch
The women surveyed cited lack of time, high financial costs and discrimination against working mothers, amid a broader background of rampant ageism in the workplace.
Xu said China’s exclusively male senior leadership is also out of touch with the things that matter to women.
“You can imagine that these men aren’t doing much housework, have no childcare experience, so their mentality doesn’t take the actual needs of women into account,” she said. “That’s why I don’t think the fertility rate will go up.”
But even if women do exercise their bodily autonomy and resist the state’s attempts to turn them into “baby machines,” as some online comments have complained, that doesn’t mean they won’t face growing social pressure to conform, especially if the government is stepping up propaganda to force them into “traditional” roles, Feng said.
“Pressure from family members, their husbands and their family, their own parents will all be supported by government policy and encouragement measures, which will increase the pressure on women,” Feng said.
Currently, the government is paying out childcare subsidies worth between 300-1,200 yuan (US$42-167) a month to families with two or three kids. Yet birth rates fell from 13.57% in 2016, the year that the one-child policy ended, to just 6.39% in 2023.
According to Feng, such measures aren’t enough to change the minds of young women concerned about getting trapped with an overwhelming workload — both inside and outside the home — that isn’t shared evenly with their husband.
Many women are citing gender inequality within families as a key reason not to get involved, she said, adding that flexible working hours and egg-freezing are unlikely to do much to change that.
Xu Fang said that Chinese families used to be much bigger, allowing people to share the burden of childcare across more family members.
Now, everyone of child-bearing age today was likely an only child, leaving two parents alone in caring for two or three kids, she said.
She said the only way to encourage women to have more children would be to reduce the unequal burden that motherhood places on them.
‘Government policy was wrong’
Veteran feminist and New York-based writer Lu Pin said the flip-flop from a hugely repressive one-child policy in 2016 to today’s demand for more babies has damaged the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s credibility.
“This is tantamount to admitting that this flagship government policy was wrong,” she said. “The government … have had to pay a price in terms of their credibility for this.”
She said a eugenicist policy allowing widespread abortions of any fetus not conceived in a heterosexual marriage, or with birth defects, has also contributed to the widespread use of abortion, which also runs counter to the government’s attempts to boost births.
Figures on abortion are hard to find, but were estimated by a health and family planning researcher in 2015 at around 13 million a year, more than half of which were repeat abortions. The abortion rate was estimated at 62%, compared with around 11% in Western Europe.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Stacy Hsu for RFA Mandarin.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Large businesses that miss gender equality targets will soon be barred from winning government work, as the Albanese government seeks to improve the equity of its suppliers and emerging industries in a new national gender equality strategy. The ‘Working for Women’ strategy was released by Minister for Women and for Finance Katy Gallagher at the…
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On Monday, 4 March 2024, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and First Lady Jill Biden hosted the annual International Women of Courage (IWOC) Awards ceremony at the White House. See: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/A386E593-5BB7-12E8-0528-AAF11BE46695
Now in its 18th year, the Secretary of State’s IWOC Award recognizes women from around the globe who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality, and the empowerment of women and girls, in all their diversity – often at great personal risk and sacrifice. The 2024 awardees and many earlier laureates can be found via the Digest link above.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power had the following to say: It has always taken bravery and stubbornness to stand up for human rights. But today the threats that human rights activists and defenders face – from threats to their families to legal retribution to imprisonment and outright violence at the hands of those who would prefer to see them silenced – those threats are grave, and sadly they are growing. In 2022, more than 400 human rights defenders were murdered, the highest number ever recorded in a single year. I am in awe of the women we are honouring today for their courage.
They refuse to back down because of a shared conviction captured by Fatima Corazon, one of the women we are recognizing today. As she puts it, courage, even in the face of danger and fear is the driving force to achieve positive change. The women we are honoring live this conviction every minute of every day. They have been unjustly imprisoned, they have been driven from their homes or trapped inside their homes, they have seen their families and their colleagues attacked, or they have received death threats and been assaulted themselves.
But they do not relent. They go on fighting, they fight for the rights of political prisoners, they organize movements to bring services to marginalized communities, they publish articles, they host rallies, and they call out injustice wherever they can. Even in the most dangerous places against all odds, they are continuing their work demonstrating incredible, inspiring courage and putting their lives on the line to defend human rights.
Benafsha Yaqoobi has dedicated her life to defending the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. A former attorney and member of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, she has helped women escape violence and visually impaired children attend school. Today, she continues to fight for the future of Afghanistan – one that respects human rights and human dignity.
Born in Isla Luis Vargas Torres, one of the most violent enclaves within Esmeraldas, Ecuador, Fátima Corozo has put her life on the line to draw hundreds of young people away from rising gang violence and help them get the education and job opportunities they need to build the futures they want for themselves.
Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello was the only woman amongst 75 people imprisoned during the black spring, Cuba’s crackdown on dissidents two decades ago, Martha was jailed for her activism. After her release, she continued to fight for the rights of political prisoners documenting fraudulent court hearings and supporting activists and their families. Unfortunately, as the Secretary relayed, the Cuban government is preventing Ms. Roque Cabello from leaving the country. So she is not here to accept the award, but let us give her a heartfelt round of applause.
As a result of Fariba Balouch’s outspoken activism for the rights of women and systematically oppressed ethnic minorities in Iran’s poorest province of Sistan and Baluchestan, Iranian authorities have threatened her life. And after she escaped to London, they detained her son and brother in a further attempt to intimidate her. Yet, Ms. Balouch believes the only way forward is resistance, and she continues to advocate for marginalized communities in Iran refusing to be silenced.
https://www.miragenews.com/2024-intl-women-of-courage-awardees-unveiled-1185728
This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.
Women working in STEM fields face gender pay gaps worth tens of thousands of dollars a year, some of the highest across the economy, according to newly released data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. But there are some bright spots in the sector, with Gilmour Space Technologies and Facebook among the one third of…
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A hotel official apologized for a ring-toss game captured on video in which Chinese guests tossed hoops around Lao female hotel employees, sparking public outrage.
The short video of the Feb. 14 Lunar New Year activity at the Chinese-owned Vientiane Mekong Hotel went viral after it was posted on Facebook, prompting thousands of angry comments saying the women were treated as animals or toys.
On Feb. 22, the hotel’s deputy manager, identified only as A. Li, apologized in writing in Vientiane Mai, a state-controlled newspaper.
“I, the deputy manager of the hotel, am issuing this statement taking responsibility for the degrading offense and would like to apologize to the Lao people and promise that our hotel will comply with all the rules and laws of the Lao P.D.R.,” he wrote.
The deputy manager went on to say that the hotel would not allow such games to be played again and that it would not do anything that would insult Lao culture.
“If the hotel [engages in] any activity degrading Lao culture again, the hotel management will be ready to be punished, such as the hotel being permanently shut down,” the apology read. “Once again, the hotel is begging for your forgiveness.”
The video obtained by Radio Free Asia shows a dozen young Lao women in short uniforms standing on steps outside the hotel as a group of Chinese men take turns tossing hoops at them, hoping to ring their bodies for the prizes they held — cans and bottles of beer, wine or spirits.
The video was posted on the Facebook page of Joseph Akaravong, whose online profile says he is from Luang Prabang, Laos, but lives in Paris.
A former hotel employee, who like other sources in this report requested anonymity to speak freely about the incident without retribution, told Radio Free Asia on Monday that the hotel initially believed the game would attract more customers.
“The hotel conducted this activity only once and for entertaining customers during the Chinese New Year only,” the former worker said.
But a tourism expert said Lao authorities should take strict measures against the wrongdoers.
“I’ve seen the apology, but the hotel hasn’t done anything to compensate the victims,” the person said. “This kind of act disparaged women, made our hotels in Laos look bad, degraded the female employees and violated Lao culture.”
An operator of another hotel in Vientiane said all hotels, especially Chinese-owned ones, should learn from the incident.
“Although the hotel thought that this was just for fun, it was actually a severe violation of our culture,” the person said. “To prevent this incident from happening again, the authorities should take strict measures against the person [responsible].”
Though the activity may have offended Lao culture, those responsible for it did not break any laws, said a Lao lawyer.
“If one of the employees complains to the police, then the police should legally take action,” the lawyer said. “This is just an act of throwing hoops on the women, not an act of abusing them. Yes, abusing women is against the law.”
Translated by Phouvong for RFA Lao. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Phouvong for RFA Lao.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Even before the court ruled in favor of this vulgar fiction, state authorities relied on the concept to intimidate and jail women
Something that’s important to remember about last week’s ruling by the Alabama supreme court, which held that frozen embryos were persons under state law, is that the very absurdity of the claim is itself a demonstration of power. That a frozen embryo – a microscopic bit of biological information that can’t even be called tissue, a flick laden with the hopes of aspiring parents but fulfilling none of them – is equivalent in any way to a child is the sort of thing you can only say if no one has the power to laugh at you. The Alabama supreme court is the final court of review in that state. It cannot be appealed. For the foreseeable future, frozen cells in Alabama have the same legal status there as you or I do. Is this an absurd elevation of the status of an embryo, or an obscene degradation of human beings? The answer, of course, is both.
The decision immediately halted almost all IVF procedures in Alabama. Aspiring patents there – including women who had undergone rounds of injected hormone treatments and the invasive, gruelingly painful egg retrieval process in order to create the embryos – will now be unable to have the material implanted in an attempt to create a pregnancy. Hundreds of other frozen embryos – those that are not viable, or not needed by families that are already complete – can now not be destroyed as is typical IVF practice. They need to be continually stored in freezers, or what the Alabama supreme court refers to, in Orwellian style, as “cryogenic nurseries”, a term you almost have to admire for the sheer audacity of its creepiness.
Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
This content originally appeared on VICE News and was authored by VICE News.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
February 6 marks International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
On this day, we rise up and declare clearly: we stand against FGM and those that practice, endorse and promote it.
A harmful longstanding practice, FGM involves the cutting off and/or sewing up of a female’s genitalia (known as infibulation) in a bid to control her sexuality.
Practiced in various forms (there are 4 types of FGM), it’s mostly carried out on young girls – from the age of infancy to 15.
Why? Well, a girl is “cut” in a bid to retain her virginity, deny her right to sexual pleasure (e.g. in the removal of the clitoris) and to “prevent infidelity” in marriage.
Today, over 200 million women and girls alive today have been subjected to FGM in 30 countries worldwide, across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, where FGM is practiced.
More information of this abusive practice can be found in our previous blog, debunking the myths around this cruel practice – which varies globally.
Different traditions and varying practices prevail between communities and countries.
However, over the years, one thing we have witnessed is a positive change in both outlawing and challenging FGM on a wider social-cultural level, with religious leaders also denouncing the practice.
For example, a well-known case is Egypt, where 86% of women and girls aged 15-49 have undergone FGM.
Religious leaders and medical professionals denounced the practice and called for reform. The practice was then later criminalised in 2008 with subsequent legal reforms.
Likewise, in another country of practice, Kenya, FGM also in decline.
Research estimates that around 15% of women and girls aged 15 to 49 have been affected (as of 2022). This shows a decline in practice – comparing to 21% in 2014 and 38% in 1998.
Legal reform from 2011 onwards has outlawed FGM, with the law carrying various penalties, including minimal imprisonment sentences for those performing FGM on Kenyan women and girls.
Under the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act, offenses include: aiding and abetting, possession of tools used in carrying out FGM, death, medicalisation of FGM among others (Men End FGM, 2024).
Following the changes, since 2018, law enforcement has seen:
What’s more, at the Generation Equality Forum in 2021, the President of Kenya (a global co-leader of the Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence), made “12 commitments to end all forms of GBV and FGM by 2026”.
So, the government is pledging action and legal mechanisms are taking shape.
But, the practice still exists. And that’s why grassroots activists and community-based professionals are so important.
They play a key role in ensuring socio-cultural attitudes shift to support necessary legal changes.
Legal mechanisms are of course critical to prevent FGM and prosecute those practising FGM with the thread of imprisonment.
However, the only way we can really stop FGM is by challenging and changing the attitudes that promote this practice in the first place.
And so, with that in mind, we’d like to share the incredible stories of three inspiring anti-FGM activists in Kenya.
Mary, Leah and Tony are working on the ground to tackle FGM in their local communities.
They’re striving to create a brighter future for women and girls, and ensure safer, fairer and more egalitarian communities for all.
Here are their stories.
Mary is community activist belonging to the Maasai community.
Based in Kijaido County, Mary is married to a local Christian pastor. The couple have two children.
Aged 27 years old, Mary was cut when she 14. She’s since dedicated her life to preventing FGM through community education.
As a survivor of FGM, I work to combat FGM in my local community to protect women and girls from this harmful practice.
I typically reach out to community leaders, teachers, young people (including school-age girls) and local medical practitioners, educating them about the risks and consequences of FGM.
The practice of FGM has no health benefits for girls and women.
It causes severe bleeding and problems urinating, with those affected later developing cysts and infections, as well as complications with childbirth and sexual relationships.
Infants of mothers who have undergone more extensive forms of FGM are at an increased risk of dying at birth.
Women who have undergone infibulation are more likely to suffer from prolonged and obstructed labour which his sometimes results in foetal death and obstetric fistula.
Where I’m based, we are far from health services and do not have easy access to transport. This means that a women’s labour will be even more lengthy.
What’s more, a woman affected by FGM faces further complications regarding sexual relations. There are challenges regarding fitting the penis through the small infibulated vaginal opening.
Husbands attempt to expand this small opening in order to achieve vaginal intercourse either by using their penis or a small tool to cut the sealed tissue open. This acute pain then develops into chronic sexual pain.
In my community, people believe that FGM can control girls and women sexuality, to ensure a girl remains a virgin until she married and stays faithful to her husband.
FGM is a cultural issue. Some people believe the practice is religiously justified, although no religious scripture prescribes the practice.
In Kenya, FGM is still prevalent among Maasai communities [around 1.2 million Maasai are based in Kenya – comprising around 20% of the Kenyan population].
In the Maasai community, around 21% of girls are directly affected by FGM.
Legally, FGM is outlawed. And as the law has changed, so has social attitudes.
Today, most people I’ve encountered consider the practice to be backward and no longer “useful”. They recognise it has no tangible benefits and promotes misogynistic narratives.
This indicates a shift in attitudes towards FGM. Women and girls are therefore benefitting from these positive socio-cultural shifts.
But, FGM is still happening. And that’s why I continue my activism.
As a survivor of FGM, I wanted to protect girls from being cut because I didn’t want them to undergo what I went through. However, these changes traditions are signs of positive change.
In my work, I visit schools and churches from village to village to educate local girls on this issue of FGM. I work alongside the local chief leader and pastors in their various churches in the area.
We usually meet twice a week to focus on FGM and its effects.
When we identify that a child is at risk, we contact the children protection agencies for their safety. We deal with a lot of cases.
Young girls will usually report to me directly. I then present their cases to our area chief or to the child protection agencies directly.
Many times, our pastors have also reported to the village chief who then contacts the county social services department.
Medical practitioners also help us to support girls who’ve already been cut.
Rescuing girls at risk is not easy. We’re now accompanied by security officers for our safety as we’ve sometimes been attacked by those performing the cut.
There are many challenges in this field. A lack of reliable data, resources and funding are the main obstacles. It’s not easy work.
Sometimes, I’m forced to walk long distances to rescue girls at risk of FGM. I’ve had to walk through the bushes even in the night because the women who carry out this practice on young girls, usually cut them at night to avoid being caught.
Of course, I’ve also faced rejection and aggression, as well as isolation, from members of my community for my work. Some even curse me thinking that I am “misleading their girls”.
A very small segment of the community knows the reality of FGM. Those that do are now helping us prevent cases of FGM being performed in the middle of the night.
Thankfully, I’ve been able to stop many girls from being cut.
My greatest achievement is rescuing ten girls, preventing them facing FGM. These girls are now all enrolled to school.
What drives me in this work is seeing the girls that I’ve rescued and knowing that they’re safe.
As an FGM survivor, I don’t blame my family for making me go through this inhuman act. They were following social norms. Norms that need to be challenged.
In my culture, when FGM was more prevalent, a girl was considered “unclean” if she wasn’t cut. And so, I’m writing this to say to the girls who faced FGM to still trust in life and to face the future with pride:
A brighter future lies ahead. You still have a future. Please stand up and let your voice be heard. Talk about how you feel.
I urge you to protect the young girls who may be facing the wrath of the knife as you and I did.
FGM is recognised internationally as a harmful practice which violates the rights of women and girls.
I urge everyone reading this, wherever you are, to stand up and speak out.
Let’s protect girls and women from this harmful practice and support those in the ground advocating for an end to FGM.
Leah is from Narok County and in her early teens.
She is a child rights advocate and avid anti-FGM champion in her community.
Determined to safeguard the rights of children in her community, Leah is committed to sensitising children on their rights to help end FGM, child marriage and other forms of violence against children.
A child protection champion, Leah was empowered by World Vision Kenya to learn about children’s rights and how to effectively advocate for them after entering a mentorship programme called the Alternative Rights of Passage (ARP), organised by World Vision, along with the County Government of Narok.
The ARP taught Leah important lessons about transitioning to womanhood through alternative methods – one that did not involve female genital mutilation before marriage, as is traditional with the Maasai community.
Working to protect women and girls in Kenya, World Vision launched the Kenya Big Dream III project in 2022, worth USD 14 million (around £11 million), aimed at tackling FGM and child marriage.
The Kenya Big Dream changes social norms which harm children, strengthens household income and reduces financial incentives for child marriage, promoting education and life skills training for girls.
Sometimes children feel like they are helpless, yet they also have the power to fight for their rights.
I always make them know that if they are facing threats like FGM and other types of child abuse, they can report the matter to the [area] chief or our teachers.
This has been of help to many children.
When you are educated, you are empowered.
You can get a good job or start businesses that will help you to live in a good house, take your children to good schools and to be able to buy clothes and have enough food at home.
You will not be poor and suffer constantly. To be a good adult, you also need to be honest, hardworking, caring, confident and ready to help other people.
These are some of the values that will make you succeed in life, as a child or adult.
Tony is the founder and executive director of Men End FGM Foundation (MEF), a global award-winning movement rallying men and boys to join the quest to end female genital mutilation (FGM), child marriage and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence affecting women and girls.
MEF works affected communities across Kenya and are currently in the process of expanding the movement to Sierra Leone and Somalia.
Tony previously spoke with Voice of Salam on his work tackling FGM back in 2018.
I joined the quest to end FGM by chance. My turning point was after listening to the experiences of refugee men whose spouses had undergone FGM.
This led me to join X (previously Twitter) and start the online campaign #MenEndFGM back in 2013.
My aim was to challenge government agencies, NGOs and everyone working on ending FGM to include men and boys in their interventions.
Since starting as an online campaign, we’ve become an organisation that directly supports around 50,000 people every year.
Our interventions involve community dialogue, training male champions, engaging in campus dialogues, working with in-school and out-of-school children and running online campaigns via our social media channels and radio talk-shows.
With our online and media campaigns, we’ve indirectly reached over 12 million people.
We believe that FGM and other harmful practices are everyone’s business and that there is no single solution to fix the issue.
Our work is influenced by our methodology “Jamii Stawi” – a four-part participatory process that engages community/target groups in building consensus on issues affecting them.
To end the practice, we have to collaborate and work together with both state and non-state actors.
This is particularly true as we know that there many factors that contribute to the prevalence of FGM in our communities.
These factors are unique in every community, hence the need for context specific and community led solutions in addressing FGM.
FGM is as a harmful practice and deep-rooted cultural norm that has been passed from generation to generation.
However, we also have some communities in Kenya where it is shrouded in religious myths and misconceptions, especially among the Muslim population.
It’s not easy work. There many challenges that we face on a daily basis, including insufficient funding opportunities.
Though this is common to many NGOs, ours is exacerbated by the fact that we are a male-led organisation, which locks us out from many funding opportunities.
There also threats of physical attacks and lots of shaming, as many communities consider FGM as a taboo topic for men.
Being a man, I know all too well about the misconceptions and mistrust in dealing with this issue, as the majority of offenders are men.
The lived experiences of those affected mean that many women feel uncomfortable and reluctant to talk about the issue, trust and engage with men.
However, being accountable is key in building trust within the movement.
My community members are yet to accept that, as a man I’m speaking out against FGM – a topic which relates to women’s private parts.
Yet, with time, it is slowly sinking into their minds that I am here to stay!
Likewise, there are women out there who feel that I am invading their space due to their lived experiences and my gender.
However, I’ve found that over time, we get along well after building relationships with each other.
MEF is proud of the difference we’re making in different communities in Kenya.
My biggest motivation so far is seeing the impact we’re having in the communities we work in.
Listening to following the stories of the people we’ve supported ultimately drives me to continue this work.
If you’d like to help us in the fight against FGM, please consider donating towards our work.
Thank you.
A big thank you to Mary, Leah and Tony for sharing your stories and for your all of your incredible work in fighting this critical abuse.
You’re inspiring and we hope to keep up-to-date with your success in the future!
To readers, we hope you’ve been inspired by this blog to take action!
If you’re looking for ways to get involved and support the work of activists like Mary, Leah and Tony, here are a few ways to get started:
1. Speak out
Denounce FGM for what it is – a harmful cultural practice that violates the human rights of women and girls worldwide. No “if”s, no “but”s
2. Keep alert and engaged
If you suspect someone in your community is at risk of being cut in your area (or taken abroad to be cut), please contact child social services/the police ASAP
3. Support professionals
Helping activists and organisations on the ground in their work is a great way to join the fight against FGM.
By joining their campaigns, donating to fund their work or volunteering your skills and time, you an make a real difference!
4. Share the message
Share this blog and get the message out there!
If you’re a survivor or believe you’re at risk of being forced to undergo FGM, please know that you’re not alone and there is help out there.
Please reach out to get critical support via:
Your story is one of survival – but remember it’s your story to share when and only if you wish to.
Your emotional, sexual and physical wellbeing is the most important.
Please reach out to a trusted loved one, teacher, doctor or social worker and remember: it’s your body. No one else’s.
Here at Voice of Salam, we’re waiting for the day when FGM is a thing of the past and gender equality a reality.
So, this anti-FGM day, please join us in putting this disgusting practice “to bed”.
For good.
Disclaimer:
The views in this blog are those of the featured activists and external organisations. They do not necessarily represent those of Voice of Salam and its team members. Voice of Salam does not fund, endorse or otherwise support their work/organisations.
Voice of Salam unequivocally stands against FGM in all its forms and works for the rights of women and girls worldwide in the aim for wider gender equality across the board – against all harmful practices (social, cultural, religious et al.).
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Nearly 400 women in Myanmar have been sentenced to prison, some for more than 20 years – or even death – for political offenses in the three years since the coup, a report by the Burmese Women’s Union said.
The report included high-profile women including ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and documentary filmmaker Shin Daewe among the 398 women sentenced by the junta, which took control of the country on Feb. 1, 2021.
The most recent high profile sentencing occurred on Jan. 10, when journalist and film director Shin Daewe, 50, got life in prison for ordering a drone online. When she went to pick up the drone on Oct. 15, junta soldiers arrested her on terrorism charges.
“She is a filmmaker, and she makes films. She bought the things she needed. I can’t understand how it was connected to terrorism,” Myint Thu, told RFA Burmese.
Being shut up in prison will keep her from family and from making more films. “It will be a loss for her, the family and the community,” he said. “I just want my sister to come back home.”
Most of the women were convicted under two laws: Section 50 (j), a counter-terrorism law, and Section 505 (a), a Burmese Woman’s Union, or BWU, official told RFA. The latter law was added to the penal code to the junta after the coup, and it can be used to punish comments or implications that the coup or the military is illegitimate, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.
“Some were sentenced to 40 years in prison for contacting and donating to the resistance forces,” the official said, asking not to to be identified for fear of reprisal.
The junta also used Section 121 on high treason, the most popular legal provision being used to charge politicians; and section 124 on incitement to riot to charge the 398 women.
The junta also outlawed bail after taking charge and has arrested more than 20,000 people, including more than 5,000 women since, mostly for political offenses.
According to the records compiled by the BWU, of those arrested women, 39 were sentenced to life in prison and 16 face the death penalty.
Additionally, two received sentences between 45 to 65 years, seven between 30 and 45 years, 27 between 20 and 30 years, 105 between 10 and 20 years, 205 between five to 10 years, 315 between one and five years, and two under one year.
Martial law
The junta has imposed a number of martial law areas throughout the country, and most of those arrested were tried and sentenced in military courts.
According to martial law, political offenses can be given the death penalty, indefinite imprisonment with hard labor, or maximum punishment under the respective charges.
An official from the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, or AAPP, commented that the military council has purposely cracked down on women who had been participating in anti-regime peaceful protests that have been ongoing since just after the coup.
“Why are political prisoners sentenced to long-term prison terms? The main reason is hatred,” the official said. “It’s quite clear about the junta. To be frank, they want to kill the people who are against them.”
Though many of the people arrested and unfairly sentenced are men, women are participating in anti-junta movements at a very high rate, he said.
“We see women side-by-side with men and against the regime in all ways. The regime hates it very much,” the official said. “They crack down on women unjustly because they hate them so much. It seems like they are taking revenge.”
He added that the junta filed charges as they pleased, and when imposing sentences, the judges themselves were only making orders according to the instructions from the junta.
But the junta’s spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told RFA in 2022 that only those who are guilty are punished in accordance with law.
However, he also said that a person who just donated a single kyat to any anti-junta cause could face imprisonment of at least 10 years or even the death penalty under the counter-terrorism laws.
According to Aung Myo Min, the human rights minister for the shadow National Unity Government, made up of former lawmakers ousted by the coup, the military courts deprive people of their right to defend themselves.
“Does a person get his or her legal rights during this kind of legal process, court hearings and passing judgements? I’m sure they won’t get it,” he said. “The military courts have no independence. You don’t have the right to call witnesses or the right to defend. If you look at it, if a person is unjustly arrested, his or her legal rights are denied.”
Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.