TALIN DEROHANESSIANS WRITES — It’s no surprise that women in Japan are held to strict beauty and dress standards. Now they have been banned from wearing glasses to work. Working women already must follow a strict dress code, including high heels, which sparked the #KuToo movement. According to the Vision Council…
Full Article WITH OR WITHOUT GLASSES, ASIA’S WOMEN HAVE THEIR OWN VISION
LORI DEMIRJIAN WRITES- Make way for women’s empowerment in Lebanon. Since October 17 they have been on the frontline of the revolutionary movement, keeping the peace between the military and protesters. Such empowerment is a true feat, considering women’s usual underrepresentation in government and politics. What’s more, the female heroines…
Full Article LEBANON: WOMEN ON THE FOREFRONT OF THE REVOLUTION
ANDREA PLATE WRITES – Let us all breathe a sigh of relief. Tuesday’s U.S. Senate confirmation hearings (July 30) into the matter of Air Force General John Early Hyten’s fitness to serve as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was not a #MeToo mobbing – thanks to Martha…
Full Article SOCIAL JUSTICE: SENATOR MCSALLY ON THE ASSAULTIVE QUESTION OF WOMEN IN THE MILITARY
YUXIN ZHOU WRITES — On April 2, the Chinese TV drama series “All is Well” ended. The show was about a typical Chinese family, in which, yes, (as the title suggests) all is well. Is it? While the show features an ordinary Chinese family, in one episode Mingyu (played by…
Full Article China: Modern Chinese Women Struggle in Problematic Family relationship Caused by Parents’ Gender Preference
NAWAF Al-SABAH WRITES– Rahaf Al-Qunun captured international attention at the beginning of the year as she sought to escape her allegedly abusive family. Rahaf, who is Arabian, barricaded herself in a Bangkok airport hotel room to prevent Thai authorities from deporting her. She had been detained at the Bangkok airport…
Full Article SAUDI ARABIA: The Unending Labyrinth of Male Guardianship
CHELSEA SALAC WRITES– On December 17 last year, Catriona Gray won the Title of Miss Universe 2018. “It’s our Superbowl. The level of support that Filipinos give the arena of pageantry is phenomenal,” 25-year-old beauty queen Catriona Gray explains. The Philippines, a country that dominates International Beauty Pageants, has produced…
Full Article Philippines: Powerhouse of Beauty Pageants
(Certain names in the story have been shortened to protect the person’s identity.) AASHNA MALPANI WRITES– I hear a piercing wail in the background. My source puts the phone on hold for a minute, then returns with apologies: “Sometimes I wish I never had him.” She sounds exasperated, complaining about…
Full Article INDIA: Postpartum Depression, Women, and the Indian Society in Between
ANAS ALZAHRANI WRITES — While countries around the world are buying into the “this is what a feminist looks like” mentality, China still seems to maintain its distaste for the movement. Yet despite strict regulations to curb radical voices, activists refuse to stay quiet: especially the Feminist Five. The group…
Full Article CHINA: Who Are the ‘Feminist Five?’
AASHNA MALPANI WRITES – In the streets of Hyesan city, North Korea, a woman in her forties makes ends meet by selling clothes and textiles to local markets. A guard or a police officer stops her, demanding she follow him to an empty room or other such location. She complies.…
Full Article North Korea: The Deadly Silence Behind #Metoo
TOM PLATE WRITES — Chinese authorities who fret about a Cold War with the U.S. might also want to analyze – unemotionally – another possible threat to domestic tranquility: a kind of brewing ‘cold’ war between the genders – at home, upfront and personal. One vista of future shock was…
Full Article CHINA’S FEMINIST ISSUE – IS IT SO UNLIKE AMERICA’S?