Global Roundup: Gaza Menstrual Hygiene Products, Kazakhstan Intimate Partner Violence, Queer Indigenous Youth, Kenya LGBTQ Rights, Book on Iran Women’s Rights
Global Roundup: Gaza Menstrual Hygiene Products, Kazakhstan Intimate Partner Violence, Queer Indigenous Youth, Kenya LGBTQ Rights, Book on Iran Women’s Rights
Curated by FG Contributor Samiha Hossain
Samah El-Nazli, who lives in a tent in Rafah with her four daughters, says she decided to use the birth control pill to delay her period after she tried other options, including diapers and pieces of cloth. (Mohamed ElSaife/CBC News)
Over 690,000 menstruating people in Gaza are facing limited access to menstrual hygiene products and inadequate washroom facilities, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Many women and girls living in the strip have opted to start taking birth control as a way to stop their periods as Israel’s escalated attacks are nearing their eighth month.
Samah El-Nazli fidgets as she recalls what her living conditions have been like over the past eight months. The mother of four is among millions of Gazans struggling to access food, water and sanitation in the overcrowded camp after losing their own homes in the strip. El-Nazli, 34, said she tried everything to manage her cycle — from adult diapers to dirty cloth — before seeking out medication to stop her period altogether.
There's no way to keep clean, there's no way to be comfortable — we're living a completely destroyed life…None of these things are good. -Samah El-Nazli
Humanitarian groups and experts in reproductive health say the choice women in Gaza face shows how desperate conditions are in the besieged enclave and how women and girls are disproportionately affected. Israel’s siege on the area has made getting aid into the Gaza Strip difficult.
Laila Baker, regional director of UNFPA in the Arab States, said the living situation is a "nightmare" from the perspective of privacy for women and girls. She said the bathrooms in camps, schools and hospitals are overcrowded because the buildings — sometimes designed for no more than 400 people — now house thousands who've been displaced from their homes. According to Baker, there are long lines for toilet facilities that are serving up to 1,000 people.
For Fadwa Muhanna, 30, the decision to take birth control to delay her period meant having more money to feed her family.
We face a lot of difficulties getting necessities like feminine hygiene products and if we find them, the prices are very high. This isn't an easy amount to spend for a big family, so it's 'Do we get our needs or do we get sanitary napkins?' -Fadwa Muhanna
Dr. Jerilynn Prior, the scientific director of the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research at the University of British Columbia in Canada, says it's "terrifying" that women in Gaza are resorting to the pill not as a matter of choice, but as a matter of circumstance.
This June 2017 photo shows a selfie by Saltanat Nukenova, in Astana, Kazakhstan. Her husband is standing trial in her November 2023 death [Courtesy of Aitbek Amangeldy via AP]
CW: intimate partner violence
Last year, in the VIP room of a restaurant in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, Saltanat Nukenova was beaten to death by former minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev, her husband. Bishimbayev has admitted guilt and acknowledged causing her death, but said he had not acted “with exceptional cruelty”, which is what he has been charged with. The ongoing murder trial, which is being live streamed over social media, has gripped not only Kazakhstan but also Russia and beyond and led to debate about traditional gender roles.
In Kazakhstan, there has been a storm, and now the whole country and even the whole world is involved. We’ve been working with high-profile cases for many years, and we see how people are afraid and ashamed to talk about domestic violence… -Dinara Smailova, founder of the women’s rights NGO NeMolchi (Don’t Be Silent)
Smailova said Bishimbayev, previously convicted of corruption, is a “favourite” of former President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Nukenova’s friends and family say over the years they were together, she suffered prolonged physical and mental abuse at the hands of Bishimbayev, whom she tried leaving several times. They say that he forbade her from speaking with them. He was jealous and monitored the contents of her phone.
Nukenova’s brother Aitbek Amangeldy has been in court every day to defend her memory from Bishimbayev’s defence team, which has portrayed her as a hysterical, promiscuous woman who drank heavily and provoked her husband. As a response, Smailova uploaded a photo of herself holding a glass of wine on social media and said “just because you can see me with a glass of wine doesn’t mean you can kill me.” It led to celebrities and everyday Kazakh women posting photos of themselves holding glasses of wine, with the hashtag #ZaSaltanat, meaning For Saltanat.
Amid the public outcry, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on April 15 signed new legislation making striking women and children a criminal offence punishable by jail time. Previously, most instances of intimate partner violence were treated as lesser, civil infractions. Many advocates are, however, disappointed it does not go far enough.
I think the law of April 15 is just a small concession to society to make people shut up. I can separately clarify what we expected from the new law and what we received. Most importantly, we did not receive protection for the constitutional rights of women and children. That’s why I thought for a long time about what to say about the new law, because I think that this is a mockery of the memory of dead women and injured children. -Almat Mukhamedzhanov, from NeMolchi
LGBTQ communities continue to reel from the death of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old transgender student who lived on a Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma.Justine Goode / NBC News; Getty Images
In the summer of 2015, an 8-year-old Choctaw child named Twelve walked in their first Two-Spirit LGBTQ Pride parade. They wore their hair in braids and a black suit, their mother and auntie by their side. The streets of Oklahoma City were filled with music, dancing and drag performances. It was a celebration that seemed like a step toward a future of acceptance for Oklahoma’s Indigenous queer community. Nine years later, queer and Two-Spirit youth in Oklahoma have witnessed the introduction of more than 50 bills targeting LGBTQ people this year alone — more than any other state in the U.S. — from bans on gender-affirming health care to penalizing public school employees for asking a student their pronouns.
In addition, LGBTQ communities continue to reel from the death of Nex Benedict, who reportedly faced bullying over their gender identity. Today, Twelve is a member of Cousins, which has been offering a sanctuary for queer Indigenous youth in a time of rising anti-LGBTQ hostility. Through outdoor activities, out-of-state trips, theater shows, monthly counseling, group talks and mentor pairing, the group is cultivating a community.
Cousins is a place of education, fun, community, support, love and all this good stuff. But at the end of the day, it’s also a safe space for kids who need it. -Twelve
Sarah Adams, the mother of Twelve, and Kendra Wilson Clements — both of whom are Choctaw and Two-Spirit — co-founded Cousins in 2022 after observing a lack of support systems in Oklahoma for queer Indigenous youth. That year, U.S. lawmakers proposed a record 238 bills that would limit the rights of 2SLGBTQ Americans, including religious exemptions to discriminate against queer people, and limits on trans people’s ability to play sports and receive gender-affirming health care.
We want [our youth] to be strong. We want them to be inspired. And we want them to know what it looks like to be visible and out and proud. -Auntie Sage
Cousins members say they are concerned about discrimination in their schools, which has only been highlighted by Benedict’s death. To open up the lines of support, Cousins recently decided to make some of their events inclusive to all LGBTQ youth in the state, not just those who are Indigenous. In February, the group took a trip to San Francisco to participate in the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirit Powwow. The event honored traditional Indigenous culture through song, dance, drumming and contests; it also offered a supportive gender-affirming experience for the diverse Two-Spirit community and allies.
Auntie Sage said she wants to take members away from spaces that often exclude 2SLGBTQ people and put them into environments where they can see possibilities and take pride in who they are. In the meantime, the group will continue to host open conversations, expand its space and counsel queer Indigenous youth and others in the face of rising tensions in schools and opposition to 2SLGBTQ events in the state.
In Kenya this week, a Mombasa court ruled clerics, politicians, and anti-LGBTQ groups cannot hold homophobic protests or engage in incitement. The Mombasa High Court’s ruling, however, is temporary until July 24 when the court in Kenya’s second-largest city determines a petition on the issue.
Two petitioners — Mr. JM and the Center for Minority Rights and Strategic Litigation (CMRSL) — last October sued Police Inspector General Japhet Koome for allowing religious leaders and lobby groups to hold homophobic protests whenever a court rules in favor of the LGBTQ community. The petitioners’ effort to demand a ban on anti-LGBTQ protests in Kenya was in response to a series of homophobic demonstrations, particularly in Mombasa, after the Supreme Court last September affirmed an earlier decision that allowed the National Gay and Lesbian Rights Commission to register as an NGO.
The court’s directives come after the CMRSL led a protest on April 11 against the anti-LGBTQ Movement’s invasion of Mvita Clinic in Mombasa that “hateful misinformation” reportedly sparked because the facility also serves queer people. CMRSL in response to Osewe’s ruling said it was a “major win for safety and equality in Kenya” because it allows the LGBTQ people to live with “greater peace of mind.” The Initiative for Equality and Non-Discrimination (INEND), an LGBTQ rights group, meanwhile lauded the court’s decision as a reprieve to homophobic attacks on the queer community.
There is some reprieve given the security incidents we witnessed during the protests on Sept. 15 last year. We had rescued LGBTQ+ folks in Mombasa, Kilifi, and Lamu, due to security incidents caused by the hatred the anti-LGBTQ movement mongered and the calling of violence towards people associated with the queer group and those identifying as members. -Melody Njuki, INEND Communications Officer
As LGBTQ rights groups seek the queer community’s protection in Kenyan courts, parliament, on the other hand, is set to consider a petition that notes what it describes as the proliferation of homosexuality in the country. National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula on February 27 referred the petition to the relevant parliamentary committee for inquiry after MP Ali Mohamed, a member of the ruling party and a vocal LGBTQ rights opponent, presented it in the National Assembly, the lower house of the Kenyan parliament, on behalf of a group of more than 70 Kenyans and religious organizations opposed to homosexuality.
Marjane Satrapi, a graphic novelist, holds her latest book Woman, Life, Freedom, in her home in Paris, France. Eleanor Beardsley/ NPR
Graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi’s latest book Woman, Life, Freedom is about the Iran women's protests.
The author of the internationally acclaimed graphic novel Persepolis, about a young girl coming of age during Iran's Islamic Revolution, Satrapi thought she had left comics behind. She's mostly been working in film in recent years. But she was pulled back to the medium after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022.
These adolescents are like, 'Stop, we want another world.' If it was only young girls, I would be extremely scared. But the girls were carried by the young guys. This is the difference. A real feminist revolution cannot succeed until men understand that equality between them and women is also good for them! -Marjane Satrapi
The title of Satrapi’s newest book adopts the demonstrators' slogan: Woman, Life, Freedom. The anthology — a collaboration among more than 20 artists, activists, journalists and academics — depicts in words and art the historic uprising and its context. Woman, Life, Freedom was published in Persian and French for the first anniversary of Amini's death last September. The English-language version, translated by Una Dimitrijević and published by Seven Stories Press, came out in March.
Spanish artist Patricia Bolaños says she thought it was a prank when she got an email about working on the project with the famed author of Persepolis. It was only when Satrapi got in touch herself that she believed it. Bolaños, who lives in New York, says Persepolis is one of her favorite graphic novels but she knew little about Iran. So she worked with one of the project's Iran scholars to illustrate the book's chapter on the "Aghazadeh," or noble-born, a term connoting nepotism and corruption that's used to describe the children of Iran's elite, its ruling mullahs and Revolutionary Guards.
Satrapi says it was important to involve people from outside Iran in the project to show Iranians the world is watching, and embracing the protesters' cause. The author believes nobody would read a 280-page book on the history and society of Iran. But a graphic narrative, she says, draws readers in. She is optimistic that the current generation, with educated women and the mobilizing power of the internet, will bring change.
It's such courage. And this is why I believe that this revolution, sooner or later, is going to give its results. -Marjane Satrapi
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.