Global Roundup: Peru LGBTQ+ Community Protests, Morocco Abortion Rights, Mexico Pulitzer Winner, Pakistan Women Judges, Canada LGBTQ Chalk Movement
Curated by FG Contributor Samiha Hossain
The LGBTQ+ community and its allies protests in front of Peru’s health ministry on 17 May against a government decree listing ‘transsexualism’ as a ‘mental disorder’. (Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty)
Protests broke out in Peru last week after trans, non-binary and intersex people were classified as mentally ill, following a decree from the government’s health ministry. Sexual diversity activists planted themselves in front of the country’s health ministry on May 17, coinciding with the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), to demand the government repeal the decree.
Although homosexuality is legal in Peru, and some anti-discrimination laws exist, the country still doesn’t recognise same-sex marriage. The decree, signed by Peruvian president Dina Boluarte, defines “transsexualism” and “gender-identity disorder in children” as mental illnesses. Jheinser Pacaya, the director of OutfestPeru, posted on X/Twitter that the South American country’s transgender community will not rest until it is repealed.
Protestors also staged rallies outside the Peruvian embassy in Quito, the capital of neighbouring Ecuador. During the protests, people held placards stating their opposition to the legislation. Others came together to lie on blankets of red, creating what looked like a sea of blood, while holding signs opposing the decree.
©FADEL SENNA/AFP via Getty Images
A new report titled My life is ruined: The need to decriminalize abortion in Morocco, documents how the criminalization of abortion in Morocco has devastating consequences for pregnant people. Facing threats of imprisonment, many are compelled to clandestinely seek dangerous methods to terminate pregnancies. Those unsuccessful are coerced into carrying pregnancies to term, facing additional risks of prosecution under laws criminalizing sexual relations outside of marriage. The report features interviews with 33 women who sought abortion, as well as additional interviews with Moroccan NGOs working on women’s rights, legal and medical professionals.
Despite sending letters to the Moroccan authorities in March and November 2023, and again in January 2024, presenting the report’s findings and seeking their response for inclusion in the report, no replies had been received thus far. The report is being launched alongside a campaign to demand the decriminalization of abortion in Morocco.
No state should dictate pregnancy decisions and deny women and girls essential sexual and reproductive health services including abortion that they are entitled to under international law. -Amjad Yamin, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Women are most often left with no choice but to pursue unregulated, unsafe and often expensive abortions in secret. Farah (not her real name), for instance, was raped by a male colleague when she was unconscious as a result of a diabetic attack. Two months later she found out she was pregnant and sought assistance from a gynaecologist who refused to perform an abortion. Her boss suspended her to avoid what he perceived as reputational harm to his business if she was to be prosecuted for sexual relations outside of marriage. Farah tried terminating her pregnancy by herself but ultimately was forced to carry through the pregnancy to term despite suffering injuries and an infection.
The courageous women sharing their heartbreaking stories in this report inspire and demand action. It’s high time for the Moroccan authorities to prioritize women’s sexual and reproductive rights and shatter state silence and inaction surrounding abortion. -Stephanie Willman Bordat, Founding Partner of Mobilising for Rights Associates (MRA)
Cristina Rivera Garza. Photograph: © Tonatiuh Ambrosetti, Fondation Jan Michalski, 2022
Through writing about her sister Liliana’s murder 30 years ago, Cristina Rivera Garza found a community of those whose female friends and family members had also been killed. Rivera Garza's book Liliana’s Invincible Summer won the Pulitzer prize for memoir earlier this month. For the Mexican author and academic, publishing the book meant sharing the weight of a long-held grief with other shoulders across the world for the first time. Rivera Garza’s sister, Liliana, was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 1990. Perpetrators in the country are very rarely brought to justice. In Liliana’s case, corrupt police demanded a bribe her father could not afford to continue investigating, and officials immediately referred to the murdered woman as if she had brought on her own death.
I don’t believe in the therapeutic effects of writing … I really think that the only healing possible will be through justice. -Cristina Rivera Garza
It was a reader who sent Rivera Garza a tip after the book was published, leading her to the man she suspects murdered her sister. This man had escaped to the US and lived for years in southern California under an alias before dying in 2020. The reader sent Rivera Garza a link to a digital wake held for him, where people had left messages with condolences using his birth surname. But Rivera Garza is still waiting for US and Mexican authorities to confirm his identity.
In discovering the life story of her sister’s killer – in particular finding that dozens of friends and relatives in Mexico knew where he was and interacted with him for decades without revealing his location – Rivera Garza was once again confronted with the saturation of machismo in Mexico.
While visiting Mexico City searching for the case file in 2019, Rivera Garza was inspired by the fervour of Mexican feminists who sought justice for their friends and relatives killed by intimate partners. These cases seemed almost indistinguishable from Liliana’s.
We are not speaking of gender violence as something extraordinary that happens for unknown reasons. We’re talking about a violence that is structural, that we can identify. And of course, the powers that be are not going to be welcoming of this language. -Cristina Rivera Garza
Though Rivera Garza views her work as defying a state that condones a war against women, she is realistic about the limits of the written word to spark structural change. Even in her sister’s high-profile case, the Mexican justice system, through the Mexico City attorney general’s office, has refused to produce the relevant documents to close the case once and for all.
Pakistan's first female Supreme Court justice, Ayesha Malik, was only appointed in 2022.Image: Press Information Department/AP/picture alliance
Across Pakistan and South Asia, women are struggling to become judges and rise up to senior judiciary positions – those who have tried say Pakistan's patriarchal system is holding them back. Khalida Rachid Khan says "male chauvinism" kept her from reaching the very top of Pakistan's judiciary. Decades ago, Khan became the first female judge to break into the upper echelon of the country's courts. But eventually, the hurdles she faced from male colleagues and superiors led her to take on a posting outside of Pakistan More than two decades later, women remain largely underrepresented among Pakistan's judges and judicial officers, with less than one in five being female.
The entire South Asian region has a disproportionate representation of women in their judicial administrations. They make up less than 10% of judges in the region. Less than one-tenth of advocates and judges in Nepal are women, while in India, women represent only 13% of the high court judges. Rida Tahir, high court lawyer
Tahir believes the system is based on outmoded notions of seniority, which are also hostile to women's desire to advance their careers. She describes the nomination and promotion processes as non-transparent, and says aspiring female judges need to contend with burdensome workloads devoid of family-friendly initiatives as well as stereotypes against female lawyers.
Retired justice Nasira Javed Iqbal, who previously served at the Lahore High Court, says patriarchy is the major reason for gender inequality in the country's justice system.
Ours is a male-dominated society. By and large, they [men at the helm] can't see us [women] on par with them. They consider and treat us as a commodity and not human beings. Just see we got women judges in high courts only after a woman [Benazir Bhutto] became the prime minister, while the first woman made it to the Supreme Court just two years ago. It's enough to show the deep-rooted patriarchy in our society. -Nasira Javed Iqbal
With the gender gap persisting in both junior and senior levels of judiciary, there are growing calls for Pakistan to implement quotas for judicial appointments. Opinions on it, however, remain divided. Maheen Paracha, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent watchdog, said Pakistan's gender disparity on the bench and in the bar warranted a proactive, long-term approach to tackle structural discrimination and casual sexism in the legal community. She believes that more women on the bench will make the courts more accessible for litigants and victims from vulnerable groups and thus improve public confidence in the judiciary itself.
Chalk art like this is what Prince and Brocksom encourage Londoners to produce. (Perri Prince)
Members of the Canadian City of London's LGBTQ community have started an initiative to fight back against anti-LGBTQ graffiti that's appeared on multiple city properties in recent months. They're encouraging people to fill sidewalks with tolerant, positive messages, written in chalk, as part of a new movement they call Chalk the Walk.
We're hoping to enter this summer, and Pride month, with a renewed sense of community. To find a way to take back these negative actions and turn them into supportive ones. -Perri Prince, transgender Londoner
In recent months, Prince and others have reported a rash of anti-LGBTQ messages written on bridges, sidewalks, and other city property in chalk. The London Public Library reported hateful messages appearing outside two of its branches in March. The London Police Service also published a report in the same week showing the LGBTQ community is the primary target for hate crimes in the city, especially during Pride month, accounting for more than a quarter of all reported hate crimes in the city in 2023.
For many, seeing negative graffiti, despite it washing away with the rain, is difficult. It's one of the reasons Stevie Brocksom, an LGBTQ activist and parent, is happy to take part in Chalk the Walk. Brocksom is inviting others to create positive messages with chalk to mark the Rainbow Week of Action – a national movement from May 11-17, urging governments to take action against rising hate toward the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
Yes, we're there in defiance and in resistance to all the hate sweeping across Canada. But we're also there to celebrate each other. To remind each other that love is going to win. -Stevie Brocksom
Both Prince and Brocksom say they hope their chalk movement will continue on into the summer.
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.