Global Roundup: Malawi Domestic Workers, Croatia Femicide Law, Uganda LGBT Organisation, Ecuador Indigenous Women, Queer Black Woman-Owned Barbershop
Global Roundup: Malawi Domestic Workers, Croatia Femicide Law, Uganda LGBT Organisation, Ecuador Indigenous Women, Queer Black Woman-Owned Barbershop
Curated by FG Contributor Samiha Hossain
Activist Pililani Mombe Nyoni. Photo: BBC
CW: sexual assault, gender-based violence
Georgina, 32, believed she had been recruited to work as a driver in Dubai. She had owned a small business in Lilongwe, Malawi, and was managing when approached by an agent saying she could earn more money in the Middle East. It was not until the plane landed in Muscat, Oman, that she realised she had been deceived and subsequently trapped by a family who made her work gruelling hours, seven days a week. She recounted being sexually assaulted by her boss and others.
Georgina became desperate and in a post on Facebook she begged for someone to help her. Nyoni, who lives in the US, saw the message and began to investigate. Eventually, over 50 Malawian women working as domestic workers in Oman joined the WhatsApp group Nyoni created. The WhatsApp group was full of voice notes and videos, some too harrowing to watch, detailing the horrific conditions the women were enduring. Many had their passports taken away as soon as they arrived, preventing them from leaving. Some told of how they had shut themselves in toilets to secretly send their pleading messages.
It is estimated there are around two million women domestic workers in the Gulf Arab states. In a survey of 400 women in Oman by migrant charity Do Bold, published by the 2023 US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report, almost all were found to be victims of human trafficking. Nearly a third said they were sexually abused, while half reported physical abuse and discrimination.
Nyoni began speaking to human trafficking charities in Malawi and was introduced to Ekaterina Porras Sivolobova, founder of Do Bold, based in Greece. Do Bold works with a community of migrant workers in the Gulf countries, identifying victims of trafficking or forced labour and then negotiates with their employer for them to be released.
The laws that are in place [in Oman] prohibit a domestic worker to leave the employer. She cannot change jobs and she cannot leave the country - no matter how you are treated. -Ekaterina Porras Sivolobova
This is what is known in the Middle East as the "kafala" labour system, which ties workers to their employers for the duration of their contract.
After 3 months, Nyoni was able to get Georgina out of Muscat in 2021. Georgina's case allowed her to raise the alarm within Malawi – and pressure began mounting on the government to intervene. The Malawian government, which also worked with Do Bold, said it has spent more than $160,000 (£125,000) to bring 54 women back from Oman. Human rights activists continue to call for the abolishment of the kafala system.
Nyoni’s WhatsApp group is now more of a support forum for the returnees. For Georgina, the trauma has been hard to put behind her. She finds it calming to go down and look out over Lake Malawi, one of Africa's biggest.
When I watch the waves, it reminds me that nothing in life lasts forever. One day all this will be history. I find peace and encourage myself that I will return to how I was - the old Georgina, who was independent. -Georgina
The Croatian state parliament building at St Mark's Square in Zagreb, Croatia
Croatia's parliament has approved changes to the criminal code making the killing of women because of their gender a distinct crime. Croatia becomes the third country in the European Union after Cyprus and Malta to recognise femicide.
The move to make femicide a specific criminal offence followed the death in September of 20-year-old law student Mihaela Berak, who was shot dead by a serving police officer she had briefly dated. The death of Berak triggered protests across Croatia and demands for the penal code to specify that femicide is an aggravating circumstance demanding severe sanctions and long jail terms. The new changes mean anyone found guilty of violence against women faces between 10 and 40 years in jail, the toughest punishment provided for under Croatian law.
Croatian NGOs say the Balkan country has the third highest femicide rate per capita in the 27-nation EU. Last year, 2,300 women in Europe died at the hands of an intimate partner or family member, according to EU data. There were 12 such murders in Croatia, which has a population of 3.8 million.
MPs have also approved an "anti-leaks" bill banning the disclosure of information about criminal procedures. The law says anyone who discloses "the details of investigations or evidence gathering procedures" can be jailed for up to three years. The government insists the new regulations do not mention journalists but focus instead on judicial officials, police, lawyers and witnesses. But journalists say the bill will silence their sources and limit information provided by whistleblowers, making reporting on corruption and public affairs issues increasingly difficult.
People hold placards during a demonstration against the proposed new Ugandan anti-gay legislation which makes homesexuality illegal and punishable by harsh sentences for people identifying as LGBTQ+ in Pretoria, South Africa on March 31, 2023. PHOTO | REUTERS
A Ugandan court last Tuesday dismissed a petition by an LGBT advocacy group seeking to compel the government to register it, a lawyer for the petitioner said. Sexual Minorities Uganda (Smug) first filed the suit in the country's high court in 2015 after the government's registrar of companies refused to list it – which would allow the organisation to operate legally – saying its name was "undesirable". It also said at the time the organisation promoted the interests of people whose lifestyles were criminalised by Ugandan laws.
In 2022, the Ugandan government suspended Smug's operations because it was not officially registered. Same-sex relations have been illegal in Uganda since the British colonial era and the country enacted one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBT laws in May, outlawing the "promotion" of homosexuality.
The case decided last week was an appeal of a lower court judgement from 2018 that had ruled against Smug, one of Uganda's most prominent LGBT rights organisations. The appellate court that issued the judgment is the same that acts as the constitutional court expected to soon rule on a challenge to Anti-Homosexuality Act, which carries the death penalty for certain same-sex acts and terms of imprisonment up to 20 years. A challenge to the law was argued before the court in December. LGBT rights activists say they expect a ruling soon.
Smug's lawyer, Edward Ssemambo, said the ruling was "not reassuring" as the forthcoming ruling on the anti-LGBT law approached, although he said that petition touched on wider political and economic issues that could weigh on the judges' deliberations.
"My participation in the march as an Amazonian woman is to praise our rights and violence worldwide." Portrait of Josefina Tunki, the ex-Executive President of the Government Council of the Shuar Arutam People in Puyo, Ecuador, March 8, 2024. Photo: Tatiana Lopez for NPR
With rue in hand, guided by the sacred smoke of incense and the legacies of their grandmothers, the Indigenous women of the Ecuadorian Amazon met in the streets last week to commemorate their ongoing fight to protect the Amazon and to bring visibility to their rights, their concerns and to demand the well-being of their bodies and territories. Women from different Indigenous nationalities traveled from their territories to the city of Puyo on March 8 to march through the city's streets as they do every year on International Women's Day.
This year, the march was self-organized by women's collectives and grassroots organizations. The event brought together around 100 women who marched with placards that read "Free," "If your voice does not reach we will all shout for you," "Today not all our voices are here because from the grave you cannot shout" and "you get tired of hearing it, we get tired of living it,"as the women chanted slogans of resistance.
The women expressed their rejection of the hike in the country's value added tax rate, budget cuts to universities, and the ongoing destruction of the country's rainforests, policies imposed by the country's current president, Daniel Noboa. Raising awareness about the importance of defending ancestral territories from extractive initiatives in Indigenous communities and guaranteeing the rights of women nationwide was a clear statement marchers made during the gathering.
NPR asked several marchers to answer on a sheet of paper the question "why are you marching?"
I march because it is a special day for all women and because we shout with strength to lift other women and thus support each other together. -Ñay Gaba of the Waorani and Sapara nationality
Khane Kutzwell (left) mentors apprentice barber Da’Shawn Scott (right) while touching up the sides on a Fordham Law School student. Photo: ERASMO GUERRA
Gay people, even straight women, were just being refused service. A lot of women get that ‘I’m not cutting your hair’ at barbers. Oh yeah, the barber industry is one industry that goes unchecked. -Khane Kutzwell
At the time, Kutzwell had been the store manager of a national coffeeshop brand, responsible for 30 employees, but she found a way to attend barbershop school as she continued working. In 2007, she earned her license and began to work out of her own home in Crown Heights. When she started taking clients, she recalled that some would show up with their heads down.
You know, just showing low self-esteem, unsure because maybe they had a terrible experience at some other barbershop two weeks ago. And by the time we were finished with the cut, their heads would be up, and they’d be talking, and looking in the mirror…-Khane Kutzwell
In 2017, she opened Camera Ready Kutz in a busy corridor of immigration law offices and chicken joints (curried, stewed, jerk), African hair braiding shops, and a mural of Shirley Chisholm, the Crown Heights icon who was the first Black woman elected to the US Congress. When Kutzwell’s landlord urged her to expand, she took the retail spot next door, allowing her barbers and clients to spread out for social distancing when the pandemic hit. The shop has a sign-in book where customers are encouraged to draw and write as a way of sharing their creativity. A bearded drag queen is painted on one wall. And the bathroom has a basket of free condoms to encourage safe sex.
The shop has a strong sense of community. And everyone who comes through the shop contributes to its growth. Past barbers have painted the walls, creating murals inside and out. Kutzwell reluctantly uses “queer” to describe herself because she doesn’t like labels that announce or justify identity. But because the barbershop is such a male-dominated industry, she does want people to know that her shop is female-owned, black-owned, LGBTQIA-owned.
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.