Global Roundup: Seoul Pride Parade, Iran Sexual Abuse of Protestors, Spain Menstrual Leave Law, Book on Young Women Activists, Canada 2Spirit Artist Logo
Curated by FG Contributor Samiha Hossain
Photo: Raphael Rashid via Twitter
Tens of thousands of people marched in South Korea’s 25th annual Pride parade in Seoul last weekend, despite authorities denying the event the venue for the second year in a row. In April, the Seoul Queer Culture Festival (SQCF) filed a complaint with South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission after noting in a press release that the Seoul Metropolitan Government has denied the SQCF permission to rent venues four times in 2024 alone.
In addition to rejecting the use of Seoul Plaza for Pride, the city also denied the SQCF’s applications to host a debate at the Seoul Citizen’s Hall, as well as two lectures, one of which would have taken place at the Seoul Museum of History. Rather than congregating in Seoul Plaza, Pride attendees took to the streets in droves, with many sporting orange, the official theme color for this year’s event.
The color range symbolizes an intermediary quality between red and yellow. It doesn’t belong anywhere but exists independently… akin to our queer way of being. -SQCF organizers
The event also featured blessings for queer couples, giving them an opportunity to participate in a custom that is sometimes denied to them otherwise. Park Hyun Chung and Kim Jarim, a queer couple planning to marry in 2025, said they were “touched” to receive blessings from the Pride parade as they are unsure whether their own families will participate in their wedding.
The 2024 Seoul Pride Parade also attracted a counter protest featuring roughly 20,000 participants, who organized under the name “Holy Breakwater of Unified Christian Rally” and carried “Believe in Jesus” crosses and signs carrying messages like “Homosexuality: Not Human Rights But Sin.” South Korea has not legalized same-sex marriage or passed legislation banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. Likewise, the existing National Human Rights Commission Act does not specifically cover LGBTQ+ people.
We think that sending out a message of ‘queer is everywhere’ is the most important. [...] My message is, do not fear. Open the closet and take a step closer. -Holic, SQFC Organizing Committee Chairperson
(Photo: Reihane Taravati via AP)
Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate and activist Narges Mohammadi is urging support for a newly launched campaign targeting sexual abuse of activists and protesters detained in Iranian prisons. She wrote in a Tuesday Instagram post calling for victims to "share personal stories":
Sexual harassment, assault and rape serve as instruments of torture, intimidation and coerced confessions by governments seeking to suppress popular protest movements. -Narges Mohammadi
Mohammadi's post referenced widely reported accounts of torture at Kahrizak Prison in the 1980s, in which "some officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran admitted to sexually abusing prisoners and detainees,” her statement said. Located in southern Tehran, Kahrizak Prison again drew attention for the alleged torture and rape of detainees following the June 2009 post-election protests. She said the practice of tacitly approved state-led sexual harassment and rape of activists and protesters in Iranian prisons continues.
Rape and sexual violence as a means of suppressing dissent within Iran’s prison system has been documented by numerous news outlets and international human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and others. Mohammadi, 52, who has already received three court sentences for speaking out about harassment, is set to stand trial for the fourth time on June 8, 2024. Thirty-six female political prisoners at Tehran's Evin Prison issued a statement on Monday demanding that Mohammadi's latest trial be conducted "publicly and with the presence of witnesses and individuals who have experienced harassment, abuse, and sexual assault, as well as independent media."
Currently serving a 6.5-year sentence for her human rights work, Mohammadi has been imprisoned multiple times. In December, an Iranian court added 15 months to Mohammadi's current prison sentence for allegedly spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic, according to her family. In October 2020, Mohammadi was released early from the 10-year prison sentence she received on charges stemming from her human rights work.
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A year after Spain became the first country in Europe to introduce paid menstrual leave, it appears that relatively few employees have made use of the policy. In the 11 months since the law was introduced, menstrual leave was taken 1,559 times, according to data from Spain’s ministry of inclusion, social security and migration. Furthermore, the average leave taken spanned 3.03 days and an average of 4.75 people used the leave each day.
When it was passed last year, the legislation was touted as a means of allowing employees experiencing period pain to take as much leave as needed, as long as they had a doctor’s approval, with the state social security system picking up the tab. The equality minister at the time, Irene Montero, billed the legislation as a means of addressing a long-overlooked issue. “It is a historic day for feminist progress,” she wrote on social media last year. The wording of the legislation that was finally passed, however, limited menstrual leave to those with previously diagnosed conditions such as endometriosis. The paradox is that many of those who have conditions such as endometriosis are using contraceptives to manage it, according to Irene Aterido, of RedCaps, a network of Spanish healthcare professionals who focus on gender and environmental research. Many of those diagnosed use contraceptives to manage symptoms and thus do not get their period.
Menstrual leave is a misnomer because it is really leave due to intense secondary dysmenorrhea that has been diagnosed. If you’re not diagnosed, your family doctor can’t sign off on menstrual leave. -Irene Aterido
In a country where unemployment continues to hover around 12% – the highest in Europe – Aterido, who is also the founder of EndoMadrid, which seeks to protect the rights of those with conditions such as endometriosis, said women were right to worry. In her case, the process of requesting leave had been onerous, hinting at another reason that take-up has remained limited. Her one attempt to request menstrual leave was successful, but only because she understood the legislation and how to go about processing the request.
Every time a woman with endometriosis takes sick leave, she risks losing her job. That’s the reality. It’s enormously naive to think that in the Spanish job market a woman with endometriosis is going to open up about her condition. -Irene Aterido
One 31-year-old woman in northern Spain told the newspaper El País that the first time she asked about menstrual leave she was told it didn’t exist, and the second time staff at a different health centre told her they didn’t know how to put her request through the system. Others, like Mónica Ciria, an adviser who deals with workplace problems, are optimistic.
For me, the most important thing has been the recognition that the pain is real. It's a huge step forward. Particularly when it comes to making this visible. It’s shown that women aren’t crazy … Hopefully other countries start to offer this kind of leave. -Mónica Ciria
(Photographers from top to bottom: Gabriella Angotti-Jones, Sonali Kohli, and Tamara Leigh Photography. Portrait of Sonali Kohli by Gabriella Angotti-Jones.) (Images courtesy of Sonali Kohli)
California-based journalist Sonali Kohli’s new nonfiction book “Don’t Wait” shares the true stories of three young women of color fighting for change in the U.S.. Each activist takes on an issue important to her life.
Nalleli Cobo protests the urban oil fields that sicken her and other kids in the Los Angeles neighborhood she grew up in. The campaign she launches with her mother, People Not Pozos, eventually helps shut down the oil well across from her childhood home. When Kahlila Williams faints from dehydration at her school’s picnic, a school police officer asks if she’s having a drug overdose. The encounter spurs Williams to advocate for the removal of school police from Los Angeles Unified schools. Her work helps persuade the school board to cut the school police department’s budget and reinvest the money to hire counselors, school climate coaches, and other staff to support Black students. Sonia Patel Banker’s advocacy helps lead to a successful voter referendum that now requires the state to give schools extra funding for arts education. Kohli hopes young people who read the book will be able to learn from the three girls and their different approaches to activism.
I want people to just be able to say they learned something from it, and that it helped them engage in their community in any way — big or small. -Sonali Kohli
In an interview with Chalkbeat, Kohli discusses how she chose the title “Don’t Wait.” It was inspired by a speech from Kahlila given at a school board meeting. Kohli says it embodies the book’s message to young people that they have agency now and don’t have to wait until they’re a certain age or until an issue affects them personally. She also notes how she wanted to root the book in the state of California, where she is from, because it is seen as a liberal, progressive state, when in reality inequalities persist.
The book covers important movements such as defunding school police, environmental justice, environmental racism, and arts education. In the interview, Kohli discusses in depth the value of arts education, the struggles of the young activists, and how adults can best support and empower them.
CBC Arts logo by Natalie King. (Natalie King)
Natalie King is a two-spirit, queer, Anishinaabe artist and CBC Arts in Canada commissioned her to make a logo for Pride and National Indigenous History Month. She used watercolour, felt pen, and a bit of digital magic to produce the piece, and like much of her art, the doll-eyed figure gazing out from the centre of the gem represents King's kin, and the "ambiguity and multiplicities of identity within the Anishinaabeg queer experience."
The artist has explored everything from painting and sculpture to video and installation work. But no matter the shape her art takes, King strives to convey an uplifting and transformative message.
I would like people to leave with a sense of world-building, pleasure-centred resistance and joy…Using art as a connection with our culture, land and each other, is important. -Natalie King
In an interview with CBC, King talks about how her work is motivated by a commitment to representing “2S and Indigenous livelihood.” She is inspired by many things and people including: two-spirit kin, friends, family, the many Indigenous artists who came before her, and her peers in the Toronto arts community. A crucial part of her work is portraying what a decolonial, liberated future could look like.
These paintings serve as gateways, opening portals to a realm of potentialities. They act as both visual representations and conceptual notions, offering glimpses into the possibilities of a self-determined future. These figures not only exist as visual images but also as embodiments of ideas and aspirations. -Natalie King
King is proud of her ability to juggle working full-time as an arts administrator while continuing a full-time arts practice. She has several ongoing projects and will be having a solo exhibition next February – May at the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation on Manitoulin Island.
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.