Scenes from another life (Varanasi, India, September 2015)
Happy Monday, readers. Welcome to The Week in Women, a roundup of women’s rights news from around the world, followed by links to a few good features, longform pieces, podcasts, and radio stories in the universe of gender equality, international human rights, politics, and whatever else is interesting on the internet.
Enjoy, subscribe, and share.
What to Know:
Myanmar Coup: A military coup is underway in Myanmar, and the nation’s leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has been detained. Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize for her commitment to nonviolence over the 15 years she was under house arrest during her nation’s military junta; after she was released and ascended to power herself, she chose to alternately ignore or deny the genocidal attacks on Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim population, disgracing herself and the Peace Prize she still holds. Now, the nation is essentially on lockdown; journalists are fearful for their lives, and news coming out of the nation is limited. It’s a sad and dark time for a country that once held such democratic promise.
Running Scared: A group of Republican strategists are already putting together a “Stop Stacey” campaign to thwart the potential 2022 gubernatorial run of Georgia’s Stacey Abrams. They’re right to be threatened: Abrams is widely credited with delivering Georgia for Joe Biden and two Democratic senators, and she’s a brilliant and charismatic politician. Even if Republicans do interfere with a potential governor’s race, I don’t think Stacey can be stopped so easily.
Her Too: Camille Kouchner might just be the bravest woman in France. She’s breaking what may be the biggest taboo of them all: Incest.
A National Shame: The Trump administration’s brutal family separation policy isn’t over, and the trauma endures.
Abdication: In dozens of countries, there is no plan to vaccinate refugees.
Rest in Power: We lost two good icons: Cecily Tyson and Cloris Leachman.
Women Fighting Back: Poland has implemented a near-total ban on abortion, and women are marching and organizing in protest — the images are just stunning, and you should click and watch. I wrote more about what this all means in the paid edition of this newsletter.
Jab her: It’s WHO official: Pregnant women can take the Covid vaccine.
Progress in Thailand: Thailand, which currently threatens women with years in prison for ending their pregnancies, is set to make some progress on abortion rights, legalizing the procedure up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. But that’s not quite enough — especially because the proposed law would still criminalize women who have abortions later.
Equity in Education: Feminist groups in the U.S. are pushing Joe Biden to create an Office of Gender Equity in the Department of Education.
Equity in Everything: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have already created a White House Gender Policy Council, which aims “to guide and coordinate government policy that impacts women and girls, across a wide range of issues such as economic security, health care, racial justice, gender-based violence, and foreign policy, working in cooperation with the other White House policy councils.”
Adults In Need of Bigger Problems: Republicans in Texas are pushing a bill that would ban transgender girls and women from playing school sports, from kindergarten through college.
Misogyny Int’l: With Biden in power, Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses — including being one of the most thoroughly misogynistic states on the planet — are under new scrutiny. In the meantime, Saudi Arabia has been quietly removing at least some grossly anti-Semitic and misogynistic sections of its textbooks for students. But many remain: According to Saudi schoolbooks, men are still in charge of women, and Jews, gays, and other minority groups are demonized.
Women Running: Somalia’s government is dominated by men, even as women’s rights activists and the Prime Minister say they want at least 30% female representation in Parliament. Women are running, but they face an uphill battle and insufficient support.
Female Firsts: Estonia gets its first female Prime Minister along with a new government, and is looking forward to a gender-balanced cabinet.
Feminist Revolution: Ten years on, one outcome of the Egyptian Revolution: A revived women’s movement.
Ungagged: Healthcare providers worldwide are breathing a sigh of relief now that Biden has lifted one of the most egregious Trump administration rules cutting off U.S. funding to health care organizations overseas.
Single Struggles: Parents have gotten a whole lot of well-deserved sympathy during the pandemic. But being cooped up and isolated really sucks for people who are single.
The Return: A scholar of Khmer antiquity died and left his whole collection to his daughter. He was also accused of looting some of his artifacts. She returned the whole lot to Cambodia.
Cleaning Up the Mess: The cleaners who do ignored, crucial and dangerous work in Covid ICUs.
Eager Beaver: One man in the Netherlands donated so much sperm he fathered more than 100 children. Why?
What to Read
The impossible choices pregnant women face when deciding whether or not to get the coronavirus vaccine — or whether to take a great many necessary medications, few of which are tested on pregnant women. [New Yorker]
They called for help. They’ll always regret it. The families who learned first-hand just how dangerous it is that we criminalize mental illness. [The Atlantic]
The complications of Big Tech policing speech. [The New York Times Magazine]
The glory of science fiction pioneer Octavia Butler [Harper’s]
The Geography Closest In: The uncertain landscape of almost-motherhood [Longreads]
Take a Break
…and watch the new PBS documentary “9 to 5: The Story of a Movement” about women and labor rights in the U.S. It’s on tonight!
…or listen to Tina Turner’s rendition of Proud Mary, a song I blast when I work out, and that helped set Turner free.
…and that’s it! As usual, please feel free to share this newsletter, and if you’re loving it, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.
Have a beautiful week, readers.
xx Jill