Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

In China, if a young woman does not marry by age twenty-eight, she is widely considered “leftover”. If she is single by age thirty, she is made to feel she has truly expired.

Melissa Schneider, a couples counselor living in Shenzhen, believes that the so-called “leftover women” problem has been exaggerated.

After lengthy debates, the parliament in Kyrgyzstan has adopted legislation banning young women from travelling abroad without parental consent. On Registan.net, Alisher Abdug'oforov suggests that the new legislation not only violates the country's constitution, but is also unlikely to solve any problems it is designed to address.

Mia Freedman of popular website Mamamia attacks the “disgraceful” behaviour of shock jock Howard Sattler when he asked Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard whether her partner Tim was gay. [Wikipedia: 'A shock jock is a type of radio broadcaster or disc jockey who entertains listeners or attracts attention using humor and/or melodramatic exaggeration that a notable portion of the listening audience may find offensive.']

A woman leaves an airport and feels naked in the face of the looks that every man throws at her on the way out. All women have experienced this to the extent that it seems normal. An article entitled What a Woman Feels [pt] by Cláudia Regina sheds light on this day to day life of a woman, from the sexist comments and inconveniences she must put up with, to the violence, family oppression, and society that she has to endure throughout her life.

Amader Kotha, a site dedicated to women's issues in Bangladesh reports that at least 35,000 children are being exploited sexually on a commercial basis in the country. More than half of them live in the official red light districts of the country and are often forced to enter the profession that their mothers have been in.

SlutWalk Brazil (@MarchaVadias) protests on the streets of Brazilian federal state capitals such as São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Recife, Florianópolis, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Belém, Rio de Janeiro and Vitória, and the Federal District, this weekend. They demand an end to violence against women and will be echoing slogans like “my body my rule” and “neither saint, nor whore: a woman.” Information on the social movement website.

China Digital Times highlighted some discussion on gender gap in China. Even though the overall percentage of working women is not very low, as a result of urbanization, employment rate for working-age women in urban areas fell to a new low of 60.8 percent in 2010, down from 77.4 percent 20 years earlier.

Does the absence of women in public spaces makes these spaces safer for women?

The above comment is made by the blogger at The Life and Times of an Indian Homemaker, who is outraged by the decision of the government of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, to ban women from pubs after 10 pm claiming that it would keep them safe.

Yari Yari Ntoaso is an international conference on literature by women of African ancestry. You can follow in on Twitter using #YariYari hashtag or on Kinna Reads blog.

Hong Wrong rounded up Hong Kong citizens’ responses to the city's security chief's comment on the soaring of rape cases. The police head, Lai Tung-Kwok, told women to cut down on drinking in a press conference.

Off Beat China translated Chinese netizens’ reaction to Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy. Comments are mixed, some find the act courageous, some say it is over-reaction.

To counter the dropping birth rate, the Japanese government is proposing compiling a handbook with information on pregnancy and family planning to educate teenage girls on the subject. This plan to distribute the so-called “women's handbook” has been met with criticism by women's groups, which argue that the issues of pregnancy involve both men and women. More »

Patrick Lozada and James Griffiths from Shanghaiist explained on the findings of a report that found that around 50 percent of Chinese men admit to sexually assaulting their partners:

In publishing our original post, and this follow up, we are not seeking to demonise Chinese men [...] Domestic violence is a serious issue in China, but one that the government has long dragged its heals on and shown little inclination to deal with.

Blogger and feminist lawyer Verónica Rivera Torres writes [es] about the piece of legislations that seeks to extend the Law Against Domestic Violence (Law 54) in Puerto Rico to same sex couples:

Since our Supreme Court ruled that the Law of the Prevention and Intervention in Domestic Violence, known as Law 54, did not apply to same-sex couples, individuals and human rights groups have been waiting for the historic moment we are witnessing today.

Finally, after ten long years, the legislator Luis Vega Ramos has filed a measure to clarify what for many people was clear since Law 54 was created: the protection of all victims of domestic violence, regardless of their sexual orientation, marital status and gender identity.

South Korean President's press spokesman Yoon Chang-joong was relieved of his duty over allegation that he sexually assaulted a 21-year-old intern during President Park's visit to the United States which he accompanied. A community website for Korean women living in the U.S, Missy USA, first revealed the case and a screen capture of Missy USA's report [ko] has widely spread online.

kiskeácity links to a letter which “echoes many of the issues Haitians face with the White Savior Industrial Complex…and its army of 3,000 NGOs, 12,000 UN troops, innumerable speakers for Haiti, appropriators of Haiti's ancestral religion, culture and music and other so-called ‘allies’ who silence Haitians for a profit while assuming their voice.”

KAFA (Enough Racism and Violence) posted [Ar] that the migrant domestic workers in Beirut celebrated Labor's Day by holding a demonstration in which they demanded an end to the Kafala System [Sponsorship System]. The demonstration culminated with a gathering in a public park where the workers shared different aspects from their respective cultures.

South Korea’s intelligence agency went under fire for hiring bloggers and using its agents to manipulate public opinion before the presidential election. Korean female net users from the ‘Women’s Generation’ [ko] community site took to the streets (photos) of Seoul to protest against the agency’s electioneering and vowed to continue demonstrating till June.

A father had a bad dream which now troubles him. So, he decides that his daughter will not travel anywhere. He takes away her passport and air tickets while she is sleeping, but the daughter takes the documents back. Finally, the father decides to lock his daughter at home to prevent her from leaving.

The web was abuzz over the photo of 20 of South Korean pageant contestants who all look uncannily alike, and jeering comments were made against South Korean women's beauty standards. However, some Korean net users, pointing out some media coverage can be misleading, posted another photos of contestants which people can tell them apart and explained that it is more of the ‘photoshop’ issue- the overuse of airbrushing.

While Chinese people still remember Red Cross China's corruption scandal during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, a new scandal has exposed, this time it also involves Guo Meimei, a then “manager at China Red Cross”, showed off her fancy sports cars and luxury handbags on Sina Weibo in 2011. This time it involves a sex tape showing someone who looks like Guo having sex with a few high-ranking China Red Cross officials. More from Offbeat China.

The latest police investigation found that at least two agents from the South Korean National Intelligence Service have illegally posted online comments to influence the presidential election. An online petition was posted [ko] on Daum Agora site in support of one police woman who bravely revealed that she has been pressured to remain silent on this illegal electioneering case.

Arwa al-Hujaili has become Saudi Arabia's first female legal trainee – or three years of apprenticeship ahead before she earns her full legal licensure to become a lawyer. Free Arabs has more here.

She has to be admired for her ability to transform her country…as a middle-class woman in the conservative party. But I remember apartheid, and…how she almost destroyed the British university system, and…made Britain unwelcoming.

Blogworld writes limericks in commemoration of the Iron Lady.

Diaspora litblogger Geoffrey Philp notes the passing of Jamaican folklorist and author, Dr. Olive Lewin.

[D]o something useful. Stop sticking your breasts there where they may offend people. And don’t stand in the way of real feminists doing their noble job.

Anonymous Brazil released a dossier [pt] about Marco Feliciano, recently elected as chairman of the Committee for Human Rights and Minorities in the Deputy Chamber amid the outrage of human rights defenders due to his vocal hardline views on homosexuality and racist remarks. The dossier contains information on legal cases involving the evangelical preacher and congressman as well as “ghost workers” from his office.

The journeyman.tv published on March 25 a detailed investigation using undercover filming to expose the booming child sex trade in Madagascar:
One mother in the film testifies:

My daughter was at school, I had no money and no job so she decided to become a prostitute. I finally decided not to stop her

Has Barbadian society become more exclusionary? Code Red cites a report that suggests it might have.

On Riyadh Bureau, Ahmed Al Omran writes:

A member of the Saudi Shoura Council said today that he is going to sue a conservative writer for attacking him on Twitter. Shoura member Issa al-Ghaith said that “due to the escalation of offenses on Twitter and the necessity of legal action” he is going to sue Abdullah al-Dawood, a Saudi conservative writer based in Riyadh, for accusing him of “demanding secularism” after al-Ghaith spoke in positive terms about lifting the ban on women driving.

The Shura council is a 150-member advisory body, appointed by the king, which cannot pass or impose laws and women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.