In Australia, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, an MP with Greens NSW and a high-profile campaigner for access to abortion, began International Women’s Day with a breakfast for a few hundred women at NSW Parliament House. She became the first Muslim woman to join an Australian parliament in 2013, benefiting from the Greens’ affirmative action policy in a seat that had been preselected for women.
She said it concerned her that the Australian parliament’s upper house had the lowest percentage of women of any in Australia:
That really boggles my mind, I have to say. And being a woman of colour, there’s hardly any diversity.
That’s kind of a challenge as you do feel a little bit lonely, in that space.
She understood why a career in politics would not appeal to women, given both the isolation and the “adversarial environment”:
You wouldn’t believe how many women have said, ‘good on you Mehreen, but I can’t do it’.
Other parties needed to take “serious action” to make sure woman were selected for winnable spots, said Faruqi.
Faruqi recently came under fire for her comments that there was “systemic racism” in Australia; a Liberal upper house MP said it was evidence that the Greens “secretly loathe this wonderful country”.
She said, especially in the context of Australia’s history, it was “undeniable” that there had been racism, though she loved it as she did Pakistan, her birth country.
When she arrived in Australia she was made to feel quite welcome, she said, but that had changed in the last 10 to 15 years:
The amount of racism and sexism women are facing, especially women of colour and Muslim women and those that wear a hijab that are easy to identify – I don’t want us to go that way.
I want us to be the best country possible, and that is respectful, multicultural and inclusive. But the first step towards that is to actually acknowledge that racism exists.
Tokyo will host a women’s march from 3pm local time today, Justin McCurry reports from Japan.
“We have been inspired by the women’s marches which took place around the world [in January], and with the wish to walk together on International Women’s Day, decided to plan the following event and march,” the organisers said on the event’s Facebook page.
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has had limited success in his “womenomics” campaign to raise the profile of women in the workforce, a measure he says will boost economic growth and address the country’s greying working-age population.
While the proportion of working-age Japanese women with jobs has increased – at 66.7%, the rate is on a par with the US – many do poorly paid part-time or temporary jobs that critics say are contributing to a rise in poverty levels in the world’s third-biggest economy.
Although women are notoriously under-represented in Japanese boardrooms, the country’s powerful – and male-dominated – business lobby, Keidanren, has just sent an all-female business lobby to the US, led by BT Japan president Haruno Yoshida.
In Indonesia, a coalition of women’s right groups will be staging a march from central Jakarta to the presidential palace to mark International Women’s Day. Once in front of the palace, a diverse range of speakers will address the crowd, including female migrant workers – a group often subject to exploitation and abuse in the Middle East and across the region – as well as fisherwomen, female farmers and labourers, and victims of the recent and controversial riverside evictions in the capital.
There will also be theatre and music performances, as well as a dance performance by transgender students. Organisers from the IWD action committee expect a turnout of around 2,000 people.
A women’s march in Jakarta this week ahead of International Women’s Day celebrations. Photograph: Afriadi Hikmal / Barcroft Images
The event follows a successful turnout for a planned Women’s march just a few days ago, where hundreds dressed in pink and purple and took to the streets to demand equal rights for women. Several Indonesian women dressed in blood-stained kebayas, traditional Javanese blouses, led the march holding signs that showed how many women are victims of sexual abuse and are killed in fatal assaults each year.
Initially inspired by the feminist movement that swept America after the election of Donald Trump, the Jakarta march on Saturday gave voice to the state of women’s rights in Indonesia – a country where over recent years aspiring female police officers have been subject to virginity tests, and where FGM remains widespread.
Papua New Guinea has for some time been considered one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman or child. Rates of family and sexual violence are at epidemic levels, but many organisations – at community, government, and international levels – have worked hard to address it.
At the end of last year we passed the [government] strategy on family and sexual violence, but we don’t know if funding will be made available to implement it.
We are screaming and shouting for things to be done but what support is being given for it is another matter.
There is government support but no financial commitment.
The fear of stigma and retribution continues to stop many women in violent relationships from seeking protection or assistance, Wainetti says, and there is a lack of services beyond the provincial level. About 85% of Papua New Guineans live in rural areas.
A 2016 PNG campaign to raise awareness on ending violence against women. Photograph: Johaness Terra/UN Women
However, Wainetti says there have been changes in community awareness, not just about the unacceptable levels of violence but also the place of women in the upper levels of leadership. The country goes to a national election in June.
“I’m here at a meeting where 50 women are attending training, learning – if they win – how they will do in parliament and what is expected of them,” says Wainetti. “I have not really seen many women confirmed candidates.” At the last election, there were three and she hopes 2017 will see more.
“Whether they have funding or party support to make it to parliament is another matter. There are changes but we still need to see some concrete support.”
Some of that support comes from international NGOs like MSF, ChildFund, and the Red Cross, as well as foreign governments.
This morning Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, who is currently in PNG, announced AU$10m in grants to six international NGOs to deliver projects promoting the rights of women and girls in 12 developing countries, including PNG.
Bishop said the Gender Action Platform projects “work to increase women’s economic opportunities, improve women’s participation in leadership, and reduce gender-based violence”.
Writing in Guardian Australia today, Greens NSW MP Mehreen Faruqi says the right for women to control their bodies is still under attack in Australia – not least by the continuing restrictions on access to abortion:
So many people are shocked to discover that abortion is still a criminal offence in both Queensland and New South Wales. While medical practice has advanced and majority public opinion has shifted in support of a woman’s right to choose, more than century-old laws remain unaltered in these two states …
Many doctors do not perform this procedure owing to this risk of prosecution. Services are limited, privatised and expensive, creating barriers to access, especially for rural and regional women. It’s not unusual to see intimidation of patients by anti-choice protesters picketing outside clinics with graphic images and even handing out plastic foetuses in an effort to shame them.
This is what criminalisation has led to: shame and stigma. We must remove the shame and end the stigma.
Today’s Google doodle for IWD highlights the lives of 13 women, as told by a woman to her granddaughter as a bedtime story.
All of the women featured, Google says, have previously featured in doodles of their own, but usually only within their home countries.
The doodle shows the stories of American suffragist Ida Wells; Egyptian pilot Lotfia El Nadi; Mexican artist Frida Kahlo; Italian-born Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi; Soviet scientist Olga Skorokhodova; South African activist Miriam Makeba; American astronaut Sally Ride; the first Muslim woman to compete in the Olympics, Turkey’s Halet Çambel; English computer pioneer Ada Lovelace; Indian dancer Rukmini Devi; Argentinian doctor Cecilia Grierson; Korea’s first female lawyer and judge Lee Tai-young; and French tennis player Suzanne Lenglen.
China – home to around 675 million women – is unlikely to witness much IWD action today.
Two years ago, five feminists who were planning to put some stickers on buses to mark International Women’s Day were locked up by authorities on suspicion of “picking quarrels and creating a disturbance”.
Li Maizi, a Chinese feminist, protests against Sina Weibo. Photograph: Li Maizi
Just a fortnight ago, an account called “Feminist Voice in China” on social networking site Sina Weibo was banned for 30 days after it posted a Chinese translation of an article in which academics argued for a new “militant feminist struggle” against Donald Trump’s policies, calling for an international women’s strike today, 8 March.
All day today across TV, radio and digital, Australia’s ABC is celebrating International Women’s Day with an all-female line-up. Women will take over from their male counterparts on programs they host from NewsRadio to ABC TV.
News bulletins across the country and television programs will focus on telling women’s stories.
In a special IWD broadcast at 1pm, Radio National will revisit its groundbreaking women’s show Coming Out with a special Coming Out, Again, which will reunite some of the Coming Out cast from the 70s to the 90s, such as Julie Rigg, Nicola Joseph, Fiona Martin and Kath Duncan.
Mark Colvin’s PM will instead be hosted by Kim Landers and Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery features social commentator Susan Carland. On ABC iview you can watch a collection of programs highlighting the work of women including artist Margaret Olley, journalist Ita Buttrose and comedian Judith Lucy.
But Rupert Murdoch’s stable was cranky with the ABC for devoting the day to celebrating women. A front page in the Daily Telegraph yesterday called it tokenism and a “man ban”.
“The ABC will boot all of its male television and radio hosts off air tomorrow in a bizarre and patronising bid to promote ‘gender equality’,” the Tele reported.
The Australian soon jumped on the bandwagon, with not one but two pieces ridiculing the move: “The ABC in its wisdom is dumping its male presenters tomorrow in favour of an all female line-up.”
The ABC was forced to defend the initiative.
International Women’s Day is an opportunity for the ABC to draw attention to one of the great issues of the modern age. Gender parity is one of the biggest challenges facing the Australian, and the global, economy today.
The #IWDABC line-up on International Women’s Day represents one day of activity; however it sits within a broader ABC campaign focusing on equality and the recognition of women, and supporting the UN’s #BeBoldForChange initiative.
There are a bunch of happenings going on around Southeast Asia for International Women’s Day, reports our correspondent Oliver Holmes.
In Singapore, the iconic Vagina Monologues is on. The show started in New York two decades ago and has since been translated into nearly 50 languages to “empower women and men, stimulate dialogue and support social causes such as ending violence against women”. Tickets are sold out but you can jump on a waiting list here.
A portion of the profit will go towards care packages covering food, medicine, sanitary napkins, infant formula and children uniforms for destitute women on the streets of Johor Bahr, in Malaysia.
Also in the city state (and not sold out!) there is Queer Karaoke. It’s billed as for feminists and pacifists “passionate about women’s issues”. Book here.
Also in Bangkok, a four-days film festival starts in SF Cinema Central World to showcase seven award-winning movies based on gender issues, including ‘He Named Me Malala’ and ‘Dev Bhoomi’.
International Women’s Day talks are being held across the Philippines, too: here and here and here.
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