Women This Week, Around The World In 5
In the ongoing series, Document Women highlights noteworthy news related to women and this week’s post covers November 4 to November 11.
India
Young girls in Assam, India, are using khomlainai, a form of traditional Bodo wrestling, to get fit and to support their families. The Khomlainai is heavily dominated by men but these girls of Assam are redefining the sport.
Khomlainai has become more popular in recent years and is practiced widely across Assam and beyond. In 2013, it was included in the Indigenous Games and Martial Arts Scheme in India.
Read more here.
Tanzania
Africa contributes just 4 per cent of the world’s soaring greenhouse gas emissions, but it is facing the brunt of the consequences of climate change. Reduced harvests, extreme weather events like Nigeria's worst flooding in decades, mass migration and rising poverty and hunger.
Rural women are usually exempt from community decision-making, but yet they are key players when these disasters happen.
Jacqueline Tesha, a Tanzanian environmental and climate expert is working to find solutions for a continent on the frontlines of the climate crisis – by helping rural women in her homeland access vital weather and climate information.
Read more here.
Madagascar
Madagascar’s textile and garment industry workers are thinking up ways to deal with gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in their factories.
The workers at Marine et Moi set up a committee to fight GBVH at their factory in Antananarivo. Speaking at a training workshop attended by 30 participants, 22 women and eight men, from IndustriALL affiliates SEKRIMA, SEMPIZOF, and SVS, from 7-8 November, focused on sexual harassment and how to reduce the risk factors.
Participants said they were engaging their enterprise committees on GBVH and carrying out awareness campaigns to sensitize workers on fundamental rights at work.
Read more here.
United States of America
Voters supported abortion rights in the U.S. midterm elections with this week, with measures affirming access to abortion adopted in all five states where the issue was on the ballot. California, Vermont, and Michigan passed measures to enshrine the right to reproductive freedom in their state constitutions.
Voters also elected a record number of women governors, with twelve women slated to take office once votes are finalized.
Read more here.
Afghanistan
This week, the Taliban’s Ministry of Virtue and Vice banned women’s access to public parks, amusement parks, and gyms in the capital city of Kabul.
Currently, women must travel with a male escort and wear a headscarf outside of the home. They are also largely prohibited from working and Afghani girls are barred from secondary education.
A spokesman from the ministry said the policy is being implemented in response to breaches of gender segregation restrictions and women ignoring headscarf laws.
Read more here.