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11 April 2023 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM and Women's Rights
Articles
UN-Taliban talks stall on issue of allowing women to work in UN offices
NEWS DRUM, 11 Apr 2023
Nearly 400 Afghan women who are UN employees have been banned from working by the Taliban. They are working in different mission of the UN in Afghanistan and providing crucial aids to millions. The situation in Afghanistan is concerning, especially for the UN women employees who have been banned from working by the Taliban. Afghan women and girls have also been banned from working for NGOs, except for a few health institutions. Females have been barred from visiting amusement parks, sport clubs and baths. Last week UN officials suspended work for 48 hours in solidarity with the female Afghan UN staff, which is now extended until May 5 of this year.
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Women in Philippines used as Japanese sex slaves demand justice
Al Jazeera, 11 Apr 2023
About 200,000 women and young girls across the region were subjected to sexual slavery – euphemistically known as the comfort system – the tribunal found. A UN expert found in 1996 that the abuses amounted to “crimes against humanity” and some activists and groups including the United States Institute for Peace put the number of victims closer to 500,000. In its March 8 decision, CEDAW recommended the Philippine government to provide the victims with “full reparation, including recognition and redress, an official apology and material and moral damages, for the continuous discrimination that they suffered”.
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Vietnam to introduce landmark new bill making it easier for trans people to change gender
PinkNews, 10 Apr 2023
On Monday (10 April), lawmaker Nguyễn Anh Trí put forward a proposal to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly to create the new law. Trí said the law would show that Vietnam values protecting vulnerable communities and “leaving no one behind in its policies”, Việt Nam News reported. Currently, there are no legal documents regulating gender identity in the southeast Asian country, and although there are no laws prohibiting same-sex relationships or same-sex sexual acts, being queer remains a controversial topic. The proposed law would allow people the right to change gender identity, request a different gender identity to the one assigned at birth and the right to choose a medical intervention method for gender-reaffirming surger.
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The disturbing trend of selective abortion
The Daily Star, 10 Apr 2023
The association between the use of ultrasonography and aborted female foetuses was further established through research in Bangladesh. Consequently, the health ministry banned the use of ultrasonography to determine an unborn child's sex. In February 2020, the High Court also banned gender detection to protect unborn babies and pregnant women. Despite these efforts, gender detection of the unborn is still a common practice in the country, and medical and associated non-medical personnel often support it.
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As India’s population soars, number of women in workforce shrinks
Al Jazeera, 10 Apr 2023
India is on the cusp of surpassing China to become the world’s most populous country, and its economy is among the fastest-growing in the world. But the number of Indian women in the workforce, already among the 20 lowest in the world, has been shrinking for years. It is not only a problem for women but a growing challenge for India’s own economic ambitions if its estimated 670 million women are left behind as its population expands. The hope is that India’s fast-growing working-age population will propel its growth for years to come. Yet experts worry this could just as easily become a demographic liability if India fails to ensure its rising population, especially its women, are employed.
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IRAN REGIME CONTINUES RELENTLESS CRACKDOWN ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS
VITAL VOICES, 10 Apr 2023
The Iran regime is continuing its unrelenting crackdown on women’s rights, declaring in a recent statement that it will deny services to students in schools and university who do not wear head scarfs or adhere to restrictive dress codes. This policy announcement from the Iranian Ministry of Education is the latest effort by the government in its months-long systematic and often violent campaign to silence the voice of women and deny their fundamental human rights. Earlier this year, more than 1,000 schoolgirls were subjected to reported poisoning attacks, in what many students and parents believe is part of an organized effort to close schools at the centre of anti-government protests.
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Access to reproductive health care has become more challenging for women in the US, study shows
CNN Health, 10 Apr 2023
As abortion rights become more restricted in the United States, a new study shows that it’s become harder for women to access reproductive health care services more broadly – such as routine screenings and birth control – in recent years. Women seeking reproductive health care were more likely to report challenges to access – and more of them – in 2021 than they were in 2017, according to the study, published Monday in JAMA Network Open. Researchers analyzed survey data from thousands of women who were asked to reflect on their experiences with reproductive health care in the three years leading up to the study.
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20 years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's women are still not being heard
France 24, 09 Apr 2023
On April 9, 2003, Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq collapsed, triggering a transition period. During this time, a new government was formed, institutions underwent significant changes and the balance of power between different factions of the population changed radically. This new regime represented an opportunity for women campaigning for gender equality. However, little has changed over the past 20 years.
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Tanzania: Campaign On Gender Equality, Human Rights in Offing
AllAfrica, 09 Apr 2023
EMPOWERMENT through Skills Programme (ESP) in partnership with Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) have signed an agreement with community-based organisation and folk development colleges to implement awareness raising on gender equality and human rights. The agreements were signed over the weekend whereas the CBO attended a three days orientation workshop from there they will be trainers of trainers since they have the potential to transform the lives of men, women, boys, and girls in communities across the country. Given their strategic position in the communities and their mandate for social change within the CICan Empowerment through Skills Program (ESP), CBO and folk development colleges they were provided with sustainable capacity building training on gender equality, human rights, leadership, governance and accountability.
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