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Welcome to the Feminist News Wrap by Impact, a Les Glorieuses newsletter. In addition to our monthly reported feature, we bring you a summary of all that’s making news in the world of women’s rights, from historic political decisions to the grassroots movements pushing for change.
Got a news item you think should be included in our wrap? Email us: [email protected].
You can also read Impact in French. You may be interested in our other bilingual monthly newsletter, Economics.
– The team at Les Glorieuses
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Same-sex marriage in Chile; abortion in Mexico, US and Germany; and more
MEXICO: On 1 December, Colima became the sixth state in Mexico to approve legal abortion up to 12 weeks. The state is also the first to formally recognise the term “pregnant people”, acknowledging that trans men and non-binary people can also get pregnant. The other states where abortion is legal are Mexico City, Oaxaca, Hidalgo, Veracruz and Baja California. In September, country’s Supreme Court ruled that the criminalisation of abortion nationwide was unconstitutional.
EL SALVADOR: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled on November 30 that El Salvador is guilty of the death of a woman, known as Manuela, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison after suffering a miscarriage in 2008, accused of having an illegal abortion and charged with aggravated homicide. Manuela died of cancer in jail in 2010. The verdict found the State guilty of violations of personal liberty, judicial guarantees, equality before the law, and the rights to life, personal integrity, privacy and health. El Salvador currently bans abortions in all circumstances. The decision sets a historic precedent in Latin America.
GERMANY: The new German government has unveiled its coalition deal, announcing the decriminalisation of abortion, abandoning restrictive legislation inherited from the Nazi era. Abortion is currently available up to 12 weeks only if the person seeking the procedure receives mandatory counselling, or in cases of health risks or rape. The ruling coalition, led by Chancellor-elect Olaf Scholz and composed of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Free Democrats, will also pursue the right to self-identification for transgender people and full funding for gender reassignment surgeries.
US: The Supreme Court has heard oral arguments in the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, which could overturn abortion rights in the country. The case is the biggest threat yet to the Roe v Wade decision which legalised abortion in the US in 1973. Twenty US states have ‘trigger laws’, which will automatically ban or severly restrict abortion if Roe v Wade is overturned. During the hearings, Donald Trump court appointee, judge Amy Coney Barrett questioned why pregnant people could not turn to adoption if they did not wish to become parents.
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CHILE: Emilia Schneider will be the first transgender deputy in the country’s parliament. A leader of the Student Federation of the University of Chile and one of the most visible faces of the social movement that led to the Constitutional Convention in May this year, the 25-year-old was elected on November 21 and will take office in March 2022. Meanwhile, Congress approved same-sex marriage on December 7, although it has rejected the full decriminalisation of abortion on November 30; the bill cannot be considered again until the end of 2022.
UGANDA: After becoming the first transgender women in Uganda to have her gender identity officially changed, Cleopatra Kambugu is now leading a campaign to include questions about the transgender and intersex community in the next census. In Uganda, gay sex is punishable by up to ten years in prison and gender identity is not recognised by law. To get her ID changed, Kambugu appealed to laws regarding intersex people.
HUNGARY: The Hungarian parliament has supported an initiative by Viktor Orban’s ultra-conservative party to hold a referendum in 2022 on issues that restrict the rights of LGBTIQ+ people. Voters will be asked if they agree with sex education programmes in schools and with gender transition programmes for minors. They will also be asked whether they agree with members of the LGBTIQ+ population appearing in media and adverts. The proposed measures were already passed by the parliament in June under the pretext of « preventing paedophilia ». Rights groups have denounced these actions as a violation of human rights.
AFGHANISTAN: While girls continue to be denied an education and many women are still banned from going to certain workplaces, the Taliban have announced new measures on women’s rights. In a new decree, they outlawed forced marriage and established that widows have rights to the property of their deceased husbands. At the same time, several women activists who participated in demonstrations or actions against the Taliban regime were reportedly killed. The UN has stated that Afghanistan has one of the highest rates of violence against women in the world, with 9 out of 10 women experiencing at least one form of gender-based violence in their lifetime. This situation has deteriorated since the Taliban took control four months ago, wiping out rights that women had gained over the past two decades.
KENYA: Four out of five Kenyan women have experienced some type of violence since the Covid-19 pandemic began, a new study has found. Three out of five received verbal insults and more than half received some form of physical abuse, according to a UN Women report released on November 25 during the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. After conducting surveys in twelve countries, the same report reveals that in Morocco, 69% of women were victims of gender-based violence, while in Jordan and Nigeria one in two women experienced a similar situation. The organisation also concluded that 70% of women felt unsafe in their own homes.
CHINA: International concern is growing over the safety of tennis player Peng Shuai. In early November, she accused the country’s former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli of raping her in Beijing in 2018. “You took me to your room, and like what happened in Tianjin over ten years ago, you wanted to have sex with me. I was very scared that afternoon,” she wrote on her Weibo profile, which was later restricted. Since she spoke out, the athlete has largely disappeared from the public eye. Though she has carried some private interviews, for example with the International Olympic Committee, organisations such as Women’s Tennis Association and the UN have expressed concern about the case and demanded explanations from China. The WTA has suspended its competitions in China over the issue.
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This issue of IMPACT was prepared by Agustina Ordoqui, Heloísa Marques, Megan Clement and Steph Williamson from the team at Les Glorieuses.
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