This week, Document Women has gathered stories from across the globe covering women’s safety.

Canada

Since December 2020, there have been multiple attacks against Muslim women in Edmonton. Most recently, a woman was attacked near a northeast Edmonton mosque on New Year’s Day. Photographer Faisa Omer is drawing attention to Islamophobia and gendered racism through a portrait series of Black Muslim women and girls, in which they are lit by projected images of public areas in Edmonton where attacks have occurred. 

Read more here.

Afghanistan

Under the new Taliban administration, girls may be able to resume their academics as all schools across the country may open for girls after late March. Since the Taliban takeover last August, girls in most of Afghanistan have not been allowed back to school beyond grade 7.

This week, public universities for women students were opened in two of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, a move marking a major concession to international demands by the country’s new rulers. The Taliban’s leadership has often said they are not opposed to girls’ education as long as two basic conditions are met: gender segregation in schools as well as in public life, and the curriculum must conform to the Taliban’s religious beliefs.

Read more here.

Liberia

TW: sexual violence

Protests were held at the Capitol Building in Liberia last week in protest over a thirteen-year-old girl’s death a few days after she was raped. Forty-seven-year-old Prince Massaquoi assaulted Blessing Molton, who died the day she was to undergo surgery.

In 2020, President George Weah declared rape a national emergency and ordered new measures to tackle the problem after a recent spike of cases in the West African state. These protests also served to question the sincerity of the commitment of President George Weah’s administration to tackling rape and other sexual and gender-based violence.

Read more here.

Kyrgyzstan

TW: Suicide

Prostitution accusations against women working in saunas in Kyrgyzstan pushed four young women to attempt suicide in the small village of Kara-Balta, some 50km from the capital Bishkek These actions follow accusations by a group of young men calling themselves the “Committee of the Youth”.

The group had gathered in Kara-Balta earlier that day demanding the closure of the local saunas where they believed the young women, who were waitresses, sold their bodies.

Read more here.  

Australia

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia’s minister for women, Gabrielle Williams, had said the pandemic had disproportionately impacted women, as they are more likely to lose work, suffer severe financial impacts and shoulder an even greater share of unpaid caring responsibilities.

The non-profit organisation Fitted for Work is one of six organisations to receive a share of $1.1m in new funding from the Victorian government to help women overcome barriers to economic security. The funding will support more than 800 women at greater risk of economic insecurity, including single mothers, Aboriginal women, women over the age of 45, women with a disability and women from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, including migrants and refugees.

Read more here.