Global Roundup: Honduras Abortion Rights, Djibouti Women Leaders, Lesbian Visibility Week, Tokyo 30th Rainbow Pride, Book on Black Women in Canada
Curated by FG Contributor Samiha Hossain
Women protest against an amendment strengthening Honduras’ ban on abortion, and violence against women in Tegucigalpa, January 2021. Photograph: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images
CW: rape, sexual violence
Honduras is being taken to a global human rights body for the first time over its total abortion ban, which campaigners say violates women’s fundamental rights and the country’s international commitments. The Center for Reproductive Rights and the Honduras-based Centro de Derechos de la Mujer (Center for Women’s Rights, CDM) filed a petition with the UN human rights committee this month on behalf of a woman known as Fausia, who underwent a forced pregnancy after being raped and denied an abortion under Honduras’ draconian laws.
Honduras is one of five Latin American countries where abortion is prohibited in all circumstances. And until last year, it was also the only country to outlaw emergency contraceptives. Women who have an abortion or medical professionals who perform one can face up to six years in prison. The ban was reinforced by a constitutional amendment in 2021, which raised the threshold of votes needed for congress to modify the abortion law.
The organisations backing Fausia’s complaint want the UN committee to rule that the total abortion ban is a violation of women and girls’ fundamental rights, and recommend that Honduras regulate access to abortion as an essential health service. They are also seeking reparations for Fausia from the Honduran state over its failure to protect her rights.
An Indigenous Nahua woman, Fausia, which is a pseudonym, was attacked by two men and raped by one of them in 2015 in retaliation for her work as an environmental and human rights defender. She could not access the emergency contraception pill due to it being banned at the time, and when she sought medical assistance – despite threats from her attackers – she was met with hostility and intimidation. As well as enduring the anguish of an unwanted pregnancy and forced motherhood, Fausia and her family have faced death threats and displacement due to her hard-fought efforts to seek justice. Her attackers were finally sentenced earlier this year, although they can still appeal.
Fausia’s case is not an individual tragedy. It is emblematic of the harmful effects of the absolute ban on abortion in Honduras … and exemplifies the systematic use of sexual violence against women and the complete denial of sexual and reproductive rights. -Carmen Cecília Martínez López, from the Center for Reproductive Rights
Campaigners are confident the UN will issue a favourable decision that could mark a precedent for change. Fausia, whose pseudonym means “strength” in her native language also echoes optimism for change.
Peer educators from the UNFPA Elle et Elles network, launched in Djibouti in 2021 to provide support and training for female leaders advocating for women's health and rights. © UFNPA Djibouti
Women leaders in Djibouti are speaking out against gender-based violence and harmful practices.
Nafisa, 44, is a community leader from Djibouti City and founder of the Rasmy women’s association. She was inspired in 2011 by a conversation with a neighbour, Fardoussa (not her real name), who was a sex worker. Fardoussa confided that she had been subjected to violence from some customers, and was living in insecure housing along with several other sex workers. She felt isolated and vulnerable, she said, because of discrimination from others in their community. That’s when she launched Rasmy, to help fight harmful social norms and break the silence surrounding them.
What began as a small, informal group soon grew into a community where women felt safe to express themselves without judgement. Now members of Rasmy provide support for survivors of female-genital mutilation and gender-based violence, as well as advice on other sexual and reproductive health and rights issues.
Thanks to our outreach, many more mothers are aware of their daughters’ suffering, and many more girls are being saved. -Nafisa
Imane, a community leader in Balbala, in the south of Djibouti City, shares how after her mother died, it was difficult to talk to her dad about her first period due to taboos. Imane had been subjected to female genital mutilation as a child, which was causing painful periods. She says her father listened to her and later refused to have her younger sisters cut.
Imane's father works alongside her, lobbying to end female genital mutilation with the NGO Caravanes et Savoirs du Désert, a travelling group of actors who perform plays to raise awareness on sensitive topics such as female genital mutilation and other forms of gender-based violence.
I learned to distinguish between the positive aspects of our culture and the darker areas that must be brought to light. Men must understand that female genital mutilation is not just a woman's burden – violence is never just a women's issue. -Imane
CEO of UK Black Pride Lady Phyll Opoku-Gyimah. (Photo: Phyll Opoku-Gyimah)
Lesbian Visibility Week, which takes place from April 22-28 this year, aims to celebrate sapphics while uplifting and showing solidarity with LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people from all generations, fields and countries. Pink News shared 5 queer women who are using their platforms to change the world.
Texas-based writer Stephanie Suesan Smith, who lives with Parkinsonian syndrome, talks about the need for the LGBTQ+ and disabled communities to “band together” to fight for a better future.
If we all work together to demand our rights, we can insist that everyone is treated equally. We can vote the people who resist that out of office, and fight repressive policies together – and win. -Stephanie Suesan Smith
Model, writer and peak-performance coach Char Bailey uses her experience of being autistic to inform others. Bailey (@char_bailey_) has almost 40,000 followers on Instagram and, in October 2022, took part in an NHS breast cancer awareness campaign, which she shared, to encourage others to check their breasts.
Human rights defender Marcela Sánchez is the executive director of Colombia Diversa, a human rights organisation based in Bogotá that focuses on LGBTQ people’s rights. Most recently she briefed the United Nations Security Council on LGBTQ+ persons in the Colombian peace process.
Every attack against an LGBTQ person, every human rights defender killed, and every murder left uninvestigated, sends the message that our lives are dispensable. -Marcela Sánchez
Activist Phyll Opoku-Gyimah – aka Lady Phyll – the chief executive of UK Black Pride, advocates for racial, gender and LGBTQ+ equality. UK Black Pride is the world’s largest free Black Pride celebration and has taken place in London since 2005.
Black Pride, as I always talk about it, was created, was born, out of a frustration, where we didn’t see ourselves in mainstream LGBTQ+ activities. -Phyll Opoku-Gyimah
Teddy Edwardes runs lesbian club nights in the UK through Lick Events to represent the intersectional identities within the community.
In response to this systemic issue, Lick has emerged as an essential platform for addressing the gaps in representation and actively prioritising the visibility and empowerment of Black queer women. -Teddy Edwardes
Photo: Francis Tang
Rainbow flags were flown and waved through Tokyo’s busy Shibuya and Harajuku areas for Tokyo Rainbow Pride events last weekend, with around 15,000 people marching through the streets. This year marked the 30th anniversary since the first Pride parade was held in Japan in August 1994 with a total of roughly 1,100 participants. Now, Tokyo hosts one of the largest Pride events in Asia, with its turnout still increasing every year.
It’s fun to see everyone dressing however they like, not caring about what others think, in a situation where it feels like everyone's on the same team and just smiling. -Chris, participant
Under the theme “Until it changes, don’t give up,” this year’s Tokyo Rainbow Pride was held after an eventful 12 months for Japan’s LGBTQ movement. In June, soon after the G7 summit, parliament approved a controversial LGBT understanding law that was intended to curtail discrimination but ultimately watered down phrasing to address conservative lawmakers’ concerns. Rights groups voiced disappointment, saying it may actually encourage certain forms of discrimination. In October, the nation’s highest court handed down a landmark decision that requiring people to undergo sterilization surgery to legally change their gender was unconstitutional. And last month, the Sapporo High Court ruled that a ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional — the first such ruling handed down by a high court, with the strong phrasing expected to pressure parliament to follow up with action.
Fumino Sugiyama and Natsumi Yamada, the co-representatives of Tokyo Rainbow Pride, said the overwhelming turnout and improved societal understanding didn’t just happen overnight. Referring to Japan’s first Pride parade, Yamada called it “truly a time when even the term LGBTQ was unknown to most.” She recalled her first time at Tokyo Rainbow Pride in 2012, with only about a fifth of the turnout this year. She stressed the importance of continuing what the LGBTQ community in Japan started decades ago.
In order to connect it to the future, we must take action. -Natsumi Yamada
Jean Augustine, who became the first Black Canadian woman to be elected to Parliament in 1993, helped launch new book Standing Tall at the Art Gallery of Hamilton on April 5. (Evelyn Myrie)
A new book tells stories of Black women in the Canadian city of Hamilton area who 'reshaped the way forward.' Standing Tall features local Black women from the past and present who challenged the status quo.
In the 1980s, Doreen Johnson says, it wasn't easy to be a Black woman in Dundas or Hamilton. Johnson's work fighting racism and sexism has been recognized with several community service awards from the government. She said there were fewer Black women in the Hamilton area then, and many barriers to professional and social success. Those barriers haven't disappeared, but have lessened, thanks to many Black women fighting for equality and access to spaces where they'd been excluded, said Johnson. She is one of the women featured in Standing Tall: Black Women's Stories of Triumph in Hamilton.
It's a great honour that I was featured in the book so the younger generation and others may know that Black women were able to get things done in spite of what was happening in Canada. -Doreen Johnson
The book, a project of the Afro Canadian Caribbean Association (ACCA), was launched earlier this month. The book is intended to be the first in a series. Its sales support ACCA programs. The women featured in its pages have succeeded at high levels in areas including science, media, leadership and business.
In her introduction to the book, Patricia Daenzer describes the women in its pages as "outstanding female leaders who reshaped the way forward for today's generation by enshrining pathways to social progress, political awareness and policy remediation in Hamilton's civic relations," she writes. Daenzer, a retired social work professor whose work examines how race, gender and social status influence the pursuit of justice, said these women will be remembered for challenging the status quo and questioning practices that diminish Black lives.
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.