Pakistan

A group of women in Pakistan are providing menstrual hygiene products to those affected by the catastrophic floods. Over 30 million people have been affected by floods that cover a third of the country following record monsoon rains, with hundreds of thousands made homeless.

“Periods do not stop during floods. Women need this assistance.” -Bushra Mahnoor

Bushra Mahnoor, a university student in eastern Lahore, founded the Mahwari Justice campaign to provide help

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India

Simultaneous protests were held in several parts of India against a recent government decision to free 11 men who had been jailed for life for gang-raping a Muslim woman during India’s 2002 religious riots.

The 11 men, released on suspended sentences on 15 August, were convicted in 2008 of rape, murder and unlawful assembly.

The victim was pregnant when she was gang raped during communal violence in 2002 in Gujarat, which saw over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, killed in some of the worst religious riots India has experienced since its 1947 independence from Britain.

Seven members of the woman’s family, including her three-year-old daughter, were also killed in the violence.

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Japan

Chiho Asada is one of only two certified intimacy coordinators in Japan, and her job is to create a safe plan for scenes that involve nudity, kissing, touching, simulated sex or sexual content on screen and in theatre.

“It’s still a new job title that many Japanese have not heard of. But I want intimacy coordinators to be as normalised as stunt choreographers…many actors have experienced some level of stress because they were afraid of listening to their feelings about what they are comfortable doing with their bodies.” -Chiho Asada

Her responsibilities for the cast include requiring erotic scenes be shot on a closed set with as few crew as possible, making sure actors are given modesty patches to cover their private parts, and ensuring there are no surprises while the camera is rolling

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China

This week, Chinese prosecutors they had launched criminal proceedings against 28 people suspected of assaulting a group of women in a viral incident that sparked outrage over gender-based violence in the country.

Footage of a group of men assaulting four women at a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan, east of the capital Beijing, was shared online, renewing the debate about violence against women in China.

The men assaulted the women after they rejected their advances, the footage showed.

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Saudi Arabia

Just weeks after the verdict against Salma al-Shehab, a doctoral candidate at Britain’s Leeds University, rights groups say another woman was handed down a 45-year sentence for her social media posts.

Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani was convicted of “using the internet to tear the (Saudi) social fabric”. Saudi app Kollona Amn, meaning “we are all security” in Arabic, has been downloaded over a million times from the Google Play store.

Last month, Document Women covered the conviction of Salma al-Shebab.

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