23 May 2023 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & Women's Rights

Articles

'Comfort women': Last known Taiwanese survivor dies at 92
BBC, 23 May 2023

The last known Taiwanese "comfort woman" from World War Two has died aged 92, says a Taipei anti-sex trafficking group. The woman, who did not wish to be named, died on 10 May said activists. Activists estimate 200,000 people from the occupied territories of Korea, China, Taiwan and the Philippines among other areas, were forced between 1932 and 1945 into sexual slavery, including about 2,000 women in Taiwan.

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More women sue Texas saying the state's anti-abortion laws harmed them
NPR, 22 May 2023

Eight more women are joining a lawsuit against the state of Texas, saying the state's abortion bans put their health or lives at risk while facing pregnancy-related medical emergencies. The new plaintiffs have added their names to a lawsuit originally filed in March by five women and two doctors who say that pregnant patients are being denied abortions under Texas law despite facing serious medical complications. The Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the women, is now asking for a temporary injunction to block Texas abortion bans in the event of pregnancy complications. The lawsuit, filed in state court in Austin, asks a judge to clarify the meaning of medical exceptions in the state's anti-abortion statutes.

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Experts of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Commend Iceland’s Strong Gender Equality Policy, Ask about Women’s Representation in Leadership Positions and Health Services for Women
OHCHR, 22 May 2023

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today concluded its consideration of the ninth periodic report of Iceland, with Committee Experts commending Iceland’s strong gender equality policy, and asking about women’s representation in leadership positions and health services for women. Iceland was considered to be the top standard for many countries as an example related to the development of their gender policies, with a strong gender equality policy and a high level of the representation of women in decision-making position. 

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Lebanese feminists protest after woman harassed over swimsuit
Al Jazeera, 22 May 2023

On May 14, two men who called themselves Muslim sheikhs approached Mayssa Hanouni Yaafouri and her husband, demanding that the pair leave because Yaafouri was wearing a one-piece swimsuit.  The incident sparked a protest this Sunday with about 70 feminists, activists and journalists gathering in Sidon from across the country to support Yaafouri in order to reclaim public spaces and demanding deeper implementation of women’s rights.

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Two girls’ schools blown up in Pakistan
The South African, 22 May 2023

Militants detonated explosives inside two empty girls’ schools in northwestern Pakistan overnight, destroying nine classrooms but causing no casualties, officials said Monday. The twin attacks on the girls’ schools took place on Sunday night in the Hassu Khel and Gul Mosaki areas of North Waziristan, both around 20 miles (32 kilometres) from the border with Afghanistan. Girls’ education has long been contentious for some regional militants, including the Pakistan Taliban, notorious for shooting then-schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai as she campaigned for schooling in 2012.

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Indigenous Mexican Woman Kills Rapist, Sentenced to Six Years in Prison
HipLATINA, 22 May 2023

Justice for the victims of feminicide remains a rarity because of factors including corruption in the system. This week, Roxana Ruiz, who is Indigenous Mixteca and a single mother from Oaxaca, Mexico, was sentenced to six years in prison for killing her rapist in 2021. Despite the fact that her attack was in self-defense, courts ruled that she used “excessive use of legitimate defense,” alleging that a hit to the head would have been sufficient to defend herself and ordered her to pay $16,000 in reparations to the rapist’s family.

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