Global Roundup: Egypt Abortion Laws, Sudan Woman Artist, Nepal Pride Parade, China ‘Road Trip Auntie’, Nigeria Queer Filmmaker
Curated by FG Contributor Samiha Hossain
Image: Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and RESURJ
Egypt’s tough abortion laws force women to turn to dangerous illicit market pills and unsafe procedures, leading to health risks and even legal consequences. When it comes to abortion, Egypt is one of the most restrictive countries in the world. Egyptian law does not permit abortion on any grounds, and it does not allow survivors of rape or incest to exercise their right to terminate unwanted pregnancies resulting from rape. Women who knowingly take abortive medications, including survivors of rape and incest, face severe legal repercussions under articles 260 to 264 of the penal code. Medical professionals who perform abortions, or any individual who administers medications or guides a pregnant woman through an abortion, with or without her consent, are also subjected to imprisonment.
Laila (not her real name) was in extreme pain and discomfort as the pills she had been taking for the past few hours started to induce violent contractions that nearly suffocated her. The 29-year-old discovered that she was pregnant a month earlier, and because she felt unready to raise a child, she chose to terminate the pregnancy. Her resolve broke, however, as the physical pain tore through her that night. She would do anything for it to stop.
Many women who can not find support from healthcare providers obtain abortion pills illegally from the black market and take them. -Lamia Shehab, OB-GYN in the Egyptian Fellowship for Obstetrics and Gynaecology
In November 2022, Laila, frightened and seeking help, contacted an OB-GYN who was an acquaintance. Her friend bought her Cytotec, an abortion medicine, for $16 from the black market, hid it inside another item, and packaged it well, then sent it to her house using a ride application. Cyctotic, currently unavailable in the official market and is listed as an illegal import, is prevalent in the black market, according to an Egyptian pharmacist working at a governmental organisation.
I felt like a criminal for doing something that I believe is my right. It is my body and my life and all I needed was medical support. -Laila
Without medical oversight, home abortions are dangerous due to ineffective medications and incorrect doses, according to Shehab, who notes that the appropriate dosage depends on the patient’s medical history. Lobna Darwish, the director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) women's rights and gender program, stated that if abortions are legalised and treated as any other medical procedure at affordable prices, they would be accessible to women and safer with fewer risks and better results.
In July, Aziz was invited to facilitate workshops at a Sudanese youth conference. Many activists had gathered to speak about how the war in Sudan impacted them, as well as their own work, war response efforts, and calls to action. There, she met Tanzeel, who shared her powerful story of pain and strength. Tanzeel shared how her family was against her studying art as they were worried about her job prospects, so she studied public health instead. She didn’t enjoy it and started attending artists’ gatherings and joined a community of Sudanese artists who worked on art projects together.
In 2017, Tanzeel graduated and did her obligatory national service with Oxfam and UNICEF. By the end of 2018, the revolution started. She couldn’t just sit idly by, she said, so she started helping the resistance committees and protest organizers by designing posters and brochures and printing them secretly with her father’s printer. After moving to Khartoum, she joined a group of graffiti artists, and they began painting murals of the martyrs, depicting the revolution, the environment, Mother Earth, and peace.
I learned that revolutionary art had bloomed during the revolution…That work made me feel alive again, and it gave me hope that the revolution’s values of freedom, peace, and justice were achievable when communities came together. -Tanzeel
Later, Tanzeel co-founded a group called The Solution is in Art, and another group for women artists and graffiti called Myarem. Myarem was awarded the Creative Activism Award from the Culture of Resistance Organization. After the war broke out, she worked as a project lead with the community and youth on assignments that supported resilience through art, cooking, and music.
Tanzeel shared in detail the horrors that she and her family faced because of the war and how it traumatized her. Ultimately, she had to make a long journey to Uganda – a country she knew very little about. But on her second day there, another Sudanese artist connected her with a job to paint graffiti. The money she made helped her support the rest of her family and bring them to join her in Uganda. Tanzeel credits arts for saving her life and giving her purpose.
Tanzeel’s story and strength made me realize that we all have one thing that saved us. For us, the survivors, it is not about what we lost. It is about what we didn’t lose: hope and resilience. -Rania Aziz
Photo: Binaj Gurubacharya, Associated Press
Hundreds of LGBTQ+ people and their supporters rallied in Nepal’s capital on Tuesday during the annual Pride parade, the first since gay couples were able to register same-sex marriages officially in the Himalayan nation following a Supreme Court order in November 2023. The annual event brings together the sexual minority community and their supporters in Kathmandu during the Gai Jatra festival.
Gai Jatra festival is a festival that is a long tradition that has been carried for years and we all are here to help preserve and continue the tradition, and as a sexual minority are doing our part to save the tradition. We also celebrate the day as a pride parade. -Bhumika Shrestha, gay rights activist at the parade
The Gai Jatra festival is celebrated to remember family members who have passed away during the year but has long had colorful parades that brought in sexual minorities to join the parade. After years of struggle, gay couples were able to register same-sex marriages for the first time in November 2023 following a Supreme Court order that directed the government to make arrangements for the registration of marriages for same-sex couples. Sexual minority rights activists have long sought to amend laws to permit same-sex marriage and end provisions that limit marriage to heterosexual couples.
Nepal has undergone a transformation since a court decision in 2007 asked the government to make changes in favor of LGBTQ+ people. People who do not identify as female or male are now able to choose “third gender” on their passports and other government documents. The constitution, adopted in 2015, also explicitly states that there can be no discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
A screenshot from one of Su Min’s videos, showing her near the foot of Mount Everest.Credit...Su Min
In the four years since she began driving solo across China, leaving behind an abusive marriage and longstanding expectations about women’s duties at home, Min has become an internet sensation known as the “road-trip auntie.” She has driven to the foot of Mount Everest and camped on the beach in the tropical province of Hainan. She has been featured in an ad campaign about women’s empowerment and inspired a forthcoming movie starring a famous Chinese actress. However, she has wavered on whether to file for divorce, worried about how it would affect her family. But last month, Min officially began divorce proceedings.
Her decision, Min said, is a testament to how much she has learned to commit to her own happiness, and to the self confidence she has gained on the road. But her experience in trying to end the marriage also shows the many barriers to independence that Chinese women still face. Min’s husband at first refused to divorce, and a legal fight loomed. Judges in contested divorce cases often deny petitions or force couples into mediation that disadvantages the woman, studies show, and they frequently ignore claims of intimate partner violence. It was only when Min agreed to pay her husband more than $22,000 that he gave in, she said.
Chinese law recognizes gender-based violence as grounds for one-sided divorce. But even when there is ample evidence, judges rarely rule that gender-based violence has occurred, said Ke Li, a professor at the City University of New York who has studied divorce in China. If Min could not count on a finding of gender-based violence, she wanted to avoid going to court because a judge would likely then order her to split her assets with her husband, including the rights to her social media accounts. That would mean sharing with him the very platform that had given her the confidence to walk away in the first place.
What saved me was not only myself, but the consistent support and company of my fans on this account. This is the thing I’m most proud of in my life. I can’t give it to him. -Su Min
After negotiations, Min’s husband agreed to divorce without going to court for $22,000. While the paperwork is being finalized she is already planning her next destination. She has never been abroad and is eager to see Switzerland and Paris.
Ezeigwe’s debut film, “Country Love,” tells the story of a femme queer man, who leaves home for 15 years due to homophobia he endured from his family, only to return and find out that nothing has changed. It gained a wide audience locally and internationally, and made it into film festivals including Out On Film, an Oscar-qualifying festival. His forthcoming film “A Little Time Left” details “the life of an ailing pianist who is living the last days of his life in emotional despair, until he is helped by his compassionate lover to reunite with who he truly is,” he explains.
For decades, the Nigerian film industry, Nollywood, has portrayed LGBTQ+ people in a negative light, often painting gay characters as a demonic influence, sometimes even showing these characters being subjected to “conversion therapies.” When they aren’t being painted in this “evil” light, they’re used as a form of comic relief, contributing further to the already negative perceptions of the LGBTQ+ community in Nigerian society.
It is when one is seen that they are known to exist, and it is when one is experienced that they are reckoned with. The insubstantial representation of queer characters in Nigerian cinema makes queer existence watered-down, unusual, unfamiliar. -Wapah Ezeigwe
In 2014, the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act was passed, criminalizing same-sex union and practice with up to 14 years in prison, and punishing organizations who support LGBTQ+ rights with prison sentences or fines. Not only do filmmakers such as Ezeigwe risk being persecuted under this law, they also risk having their films banned by the country’s National Film and Video Censors Board which, in 2020, refused to approve “Ìfé,” a romantic film about two Nigerian women who fall in love, despite its creators never having submitted it for review. Despite this, Ezeigwe believes the future of queer cinema is bright.
There is a wave of young filmmakers who are very intentional about queer representation. I want to see myself grow old in this art form…All stories matter and they are a representation of who we are, of our identity, of our culture, of our history, of our memories, of the place we come from and sometimes even of the place we are headed. -Wapah Ezeigwe
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Samiha Hossain (she/her) is an aspiring urban planner studying at Toronto Metropolitan University. Throughout the years, she has worked in nonprofits with survivors of sexual violence and youth. Samiha firmly believes in the power of connecting with people and listening to their stories to create solidarity and heal as a community. She loves learning about the diverse forms of feminist resistance around the world.
I’m always interested in reading about the struggle for equal rights and acceptance worldwide l—and the joy we find in community. Thank you for your newsletter!