Stories about Women & Gender from March, 2019
A magical image of a Carnival stilt-walker asserts the legitimacy of public breastfeeding in Trinidad & Tobago
"Eating in public spaces is normal and natural regardless of whether you’re eating off of a plate, a banana leaf or your mother’s breasts."
A new #MeToo wave is flooding Mexican social media
"As students, colleagues and partners in academia, we join the condemnation movement started by @MeTooWriters, followed by @MeTooFilmMx, and sustained by brave and fed-up women."
Netizen Report: Activists in Pakistan and Malaysia confront online backlash after International Women’s Day events
This week, the EU parliament approved its Copyright Directive, Pakistan blocked mobile services (during a military parade) and Bangladesh blocked Al Jazeera English.
Censored on WeChat: #MeToo in China
The term “rice bunny”, which sounds similar to “me too” when spoken in Chinese, was used as a replacement hashtag to get around the censors.
Cote d'Ivoire's chocolate waste spurs second industry in cocoa butter
An Ivorian woman makes cocoa butter to sell to soap makers, using chocolate scraps from Cote d'Ivoire's booming cocoa bean industry, the largest in the world.
Deprived of citizenship, the Vietnamese of Cambodia live on the edge of society
“They tell us to go back to Vietnam. They say we fish everything and leave nothing for them. They tell us to go home. They don’t want us here.”
Website fighting against body-shaming proves Carnival is for #everyBODY
"Thanks to masqueraders like Candice Santana and our followers, we can shed a different light on what true representation of masqueraders looks like."
Controversy at Malaysia’s Women’s Day march leads to its organizers being probed for sedition
"The government must not take the side of the bullies. Denying a group of marginalised groups their right to participate in democracy is truly an abuse of democracy."
‘Who ordered the killing of Marielle Franco?,’ Brazil asks a year after the councilwoman's murder
"Who ordered the president's neighbor to kill Marielle?"
Aurat March breaking barriers against patriarchy in Pakistan
Aurat March was a display of power and unity by women who are not seen in public spaces freely and their opinions and demands are almost never heard.
#FreeSerikjan and the long shadow of Xinjiang's camps in neighbouring Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan's government is nervous about what Seikjan Bilash does, as well as what he might do if allowed to grow more popular.
Teen theatre production banned by Russian authorities for promoting ‘non-traditional family relations’
Russia has recently passed a series of socially conservative laws targeting activists, advocacy groups and online media for anything that can be construed as "promoting homosexuality to minors."
Afghan women send a message to government, Taliban: We want in
"Peace does not just mean an end to the war. No country can be successful in its national programs without the participation of women."
Why is the Islamic Republic of Iran afraid of Nasrin Sotoudeh?
"The Islamic Republic is struggling for its survival. Anyone with the potential of leading change is regarded as a significant threat by the authorities. Nasrin Sotoudeh is such a person."
Carnival may bring out latent body-shaming in Trinidad & Tobago, but this masquerader is having none of it
"My band ran a campaign endorsing all sizes, shapes and shades. This excited me on many levels because truth be told we are a body shaming society."
The challenges of mapping street harassment in Sri Lanka go beyond data collection
Even when women do make police reports, they must battle a victim-blaming culture and a system that is insensitive to the needs of survivors of sexual abuse.
Foreign domestic workers contribute to Hong Kong economy but lack access to basic financial services
"We are treated as foreigners, low-class workers and therefore the government has been pushing for policies and practices that exclude and isolate migrant workers from the whole Hong Kong population."
Japanese app that ‘translates’ wives’ words for husbands ignites fierce online backlash
"This app is no more than an easy way out for selfish men who want to avoid the responsibilities of housework and childcare."
Russia sends an official implicated in a sexual harassment scandal to the 2019 UN Commission on the Status of Women
Leonid Slutsky’s appointment as the head of a national delegation to a global forum on the status of women can only be regarded as an act of cruel trolling.
How Kyrgyz authorities almost banned a women's rally on International Women's Day
A nationalist vigilante group had pledged to break up the rally but the event went ahead without interruption.
Four years on from student's shocking murder, Turkish higher education disavows gender equality
"We need to consider that these meanings are not appropriate for our values or accepted by our society."