Stories about Feature from March, 2021
The Gambia’s missed opportunity for digital rights reform
Gambians held high hopes for digital rights reforms under President Adama Barrow. But the draft constitution fell short on its promise to adequately protect digital rights.
LIVE on April 7: The other health crisis—breaking the taboo on abortion
Unsafe abortions result in 30,000 deaths each year. Join us to hear women from Uganda, Thailand, Brazil, Pakistan and Poland talk about the reproductive rights situation in their countries.
How a Salvadoran artist teaches Nawat to empower transgender people
A two-spirit theatre troupe celebrates the members’ indigenous ancestors, and themselves as transgender people, through language and art.
The price of dissent: Women and political activism in Vietnam
Women "should think that our fight is not only against dictatorship ... It is also a fight to free ourselves from our own ideological constraints, from the prejudice that we impose on ourselves."
Post-Magufuli, will Tanzania review its repressive online content regulations?
Tanzania's content regulations are often used to undermine and clamp down on digital rights and freedom of expression. With a newly sworn-in president, will the government review these repressive laws?
How Hong Kong lost its academic freedom in 2020
Since the enactment of the national security law, professors have had contracts terminated, student protests were repressed, and a new curriculum will be implemented in all schools starting September 2021.
Nearly five decades after Franco’s death, the far right might make a comeback in Madrid
"Vox is a melting pot combining nostalgia for Spain’s imaginary past glory, rejection of feminism and so-called woke culture, Euroscepticism, a negative attitude towards migration, and love for bullfighting."
Using tablets, activist gets 900 girls and women educated in rural Afghanistan
"Afghan women are the future of this war-torn country."
South African shack settlement activist wins the 2021 Per Anger Prize
“A shack without water, electricity, and sanitation is not worth calling a home. It means life-threatening circumstances that are harsh towards women, children and minority groups,” says rights activist, Zikode.
My truth: The pain of being silenced in Cuba
"The '1984' book by George Orwell provides an understanding of the existing analogies with the oppressive Cuban society."
Turkey withdraws from Istanbul Convention
The convention pledges to eliminate domestic violence and promote gender equality.
Is Bolsonaro's anti-China rhetoric fueling anti-Asian hate in Brazil?
Global Voices talked to five people of Chinese descent in Brazil. All said intolerance increased with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Transition in Tanzania: From President Magufuli to President Hassan
To some, Magufuli is remembered as a “true African statesman'' and pan-African putting Africa first. Other remember him as a “populist” president who promoted nationalism — above all else.
Did the Ethiopian government use its COVID-19 restrictions to silence dissent?
The state of emergency restrictions were used as grounds to arrest a lawyer and a journalist last year -- both known critics of the government in Addis Ababa.
Angola's new penal code, which decriminalizes homosexual relationships, comes into force
The new legislation was approved in 2019, but only ratified in December 2020. It replaces the old penal code of 1886 of the Portuguese colonial administration.
Malaysia’s ‘fake news’ ordinance takes effect amid continuing concern over the COVID-19 state of emergency
"This ordinance strengthens the perception that the state of emergency we are currently in is a smokescreen to curb any form of criticism towards the government of the day."
Sierra Leone’s new cybercrime bill could turn a phone into a crime scene
Sierra Leone’s cybercrime bill could turn a citizen’s smartphone into a crime scene at a moment’s notice.
The difficulties journalists face covering the COVID-19 pandemic in three African countries
Journalists from Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria identified mis-and disinformation, and safety concerns while in the field, as some of the greatest obstacles while reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Armenia's PM calls for early elections in June in bid to de-escalate crisis
The president has faced increasing calls to resign since November when he signed a peace deal ending the six-week war over Nagorno-Karabakh, which many Armenians say disproportionally favored Azerbaijan.
Not just Atlanta, but also Victoria, B.C.
White supremacy in Victoria makes going about daily life pretty easy for people like me, but potentially deadly for a whole lot of other people.
Protests erupt in Bangladesh after writer arrested under the Digital Security Act dies in prison
Ahmed was arrested after he criticized the government's pandemic response on social media. He was charged with "tarnishing the image of the nation" and "creating hostility" -- all offenses under the DSA.
