Activists and students additionally say the transfer will solely additional hinder civil liberties and human rights, together with one which has already come below fireplace: town’s embattled gender motion.
“If John Lee adopts the Mainland China mannequin of managing civil society, this may increasingly carry a few additional onslaught of Hong Kong’s as soon as vibrant civil society,” says Diana Fu, Affiliate Professor of political science on the College of Toronto. “Within the mainland mannequin, civil society teams that advocate for liberal rights — together with gender equality — are seen as conduits of Western affect.”
“Gender consciousness must be promoted from the underside up,” mentioned Petula Ho, an area feminist scholar. “Nevertheless it’s like the entire of society has given up on this challenge.”
The previous a number of years haven’t been good for feminism and gender rights in Hong Kong. The professional-democracy protests that rocked town additionally noticed ladies protestors reportedly trolled on-line and sparked #ProtestToo, a uncommon #MeToo-style sub-movement the place 1000’s gathered following allegations of sexual assault by the police. One grievance, filed by a young person who accused officers of gang rape in the course of the protests, was dropped by the Division of Justice as a result of “opposite proof.”
Whereas praised for the energetic involvement of girls protesters, the pro-democracy motion itself has additionally been criticized for sexism. Feminine authorities officers, law enforcement officials and critics of the motion confronted sexualized insults and threats; frontline ladies protesters have been idealized as martyrs, which some feminists have condemned because it presents ladies as solely being of worth of their sacrifice.
“[The pro-democracy movement] has this populist aspect which has made it extra patriarchal and tougher for range and gender points to exist,” mentioned Ho, who has researched these dynamics and informed CNN she’s confronted assaults on social media for her critiques.
Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong has made it tougher to advocate for any causes, not to mention gender-related ones.
Because the implementation of the nationwide safety legislation in 2020, over 50 civil society teams, from commerce and academics unions to pupil organizations, have disbanded. And greater than 180 folks (together with activists and pro-democracy figures who’ve advocated for gender points) have been arrested because the legislation was enacted in June 2020, in keeping with a tracker run by ChinaFile journal.
Following an overhaul of town’s electoral system to make sure loyalty to the Chinese language state, pro-Beijing lawmakers and councilors now dominate town’s legislature. After the reforms, greater than 200 district councilors have both resigned or been disqualified and lots of have been arrested on nationwide safety grounds, forcing out virtually all opposition.
These ousted embody Tiffany Yuen, a former district councilor with a background of selling ladies’s rights and Raymond Chan, Hong Kong’s first lawmaker who publicly recognized as homosexual, in addition to three different homosexual and lesbian district councilors.
Kenneth Cheung, a type of councilors, democratically elected into workplace by voters in 2019 earlier than he was disqualified by authorities, mentioned the expulsion of pro-democracy politicians will additional scale back avenues for gender advocacy within the authorities.
Cheung mentioned many researchers and workplace employees engaged on gender-related initiatives with pro-democracy lawmakers are actually unemployed, and there may be now fewer progressive illustration on these points in public boards. The closing of progressive media shops corresponding to Stand Information has already weakened protection on these matters, he added.
“After I look forward on the subsequent 5 to 10 years, I really feel depressed,” Cheung mentioned, explaining that democracy and progressive causes are intrinsically
linked. “Earlier than, democratic politicians would increase points about marginalized communities or invite questions. Within the coming period, we in all probability will not see this anymore.”
Political adjustments have additionally hampered the gender activism of Lily Wong, a intercourse activist and former member of the now-disbanded pro-democracy group Demosisto. In 2020, Wong co-founded a YouTube channel exploring sex-related matters referred to as “Faan Hou ABC,” with Yuen and one other pro-democracy activist Ho Ka-yau.
The channel initially took off as a result of its pro-democracy stances, however was in a position to seize a wider viewers by linking points about intercourse and gender to democracy and liberal values.
“In comparison with the 2014 Umbrella Motion, extra ladies have been accepted on the frontlines in 2019, which was an enormous change,” Wong informed CNN, including that whereas she too, like Ho, condemned the sexist conduct by some protesters, the motion did positively affect folks’s attitudes in direction of ladies in different methods. “Though points like gender have been secondary, I believe these secondary points nonetheless progressed.”
When Yuen was charged with allegedly violating nationwide safety final 12 months, nevertheless, the ladies shut down the channel. “Within the coming years, I believe folks shall be extra cautious on the subject of participating with political causes,” Wong mentioned.
CNN put to the federal government the problems of shrinking civil society area, Carrie Lam’s document on gender initiatives and the allegations of sexual assualt by the police.
“The allegation is not any farther from the reality,” a authorities spokesperson informed CNN, including that the rights of Hong Kong residents are “protected in accordance with the legislation” however that “many freedoms and rights will not be absolute, and may be restricted for causes together with safety of nationwide safety and public security.”
In response to allegations of police misconduct, the spokesperson mentioned legislation enforcement companies take actions primarily based on “proof,” are liable for sustaining public security, and can “train skilled judgment to take applicable actions, together with utilizing the minimal power as needed.”
No remark was made concerning the out-going chief, Lam.
Hong Kong, nonetheless ready for its feminist rebellion
The long run for progressive politics might look bleak now. However on the subject of feminism and gender equality, Hong Kong has lengthy been a difficult surroundings.
In contrast to in different elements of the world, the #MeToo motion did not get mainstream acceptance right here. Hong Kong has carried out effectively on some gender equality metrics. The 2021 report from the Ladies’s Fee — set as much as promote the event of girls in Hong Kong — reveals that over the previous decade ladies outnumbered males in larger education schemes funded by the College Grants Committee, and that their participation in some fields {and professional} roles had additionally grown.
Nevertheless, many feminists say larger illustration has not translated into real equality and society stays deeply patriarchal.
Take sexual violence which Hong Kong’s Ladies’s Basis described as a “pervasive, deeply regarding drawback”. A 2021 survey by the Hong Kong Ladies’s Coalition on Equal Alternatives discovered that just about 40% of respondents (37.5%) say they skilled sexual violence of their lifetime — up from 15% when the survey was final carried out in 2013. Worry of being blamed and never believed have been reportedly two of the primary causes victims do not search assist.
The Ladies’s Basis, citing authorities figures, additionally revealed an infographic in 2019 that included particulars corresponding to “solely 55% of girls are within the workforce” and “Hong Kong has a gender pay hole of twenty-two%”
In fashionable tradition, sexist tropes, such because the stereotype of the “Kong lady” — a girl from Hong Kong who’s materialistic and pampered — additionally proceed to proliferate.
Even when town had a feminine chief govt, Carrie Lam, few noticed her tenure as a win for girls’s rights. Not solely did Lam overlook the problem of gender in her public addresses all through her time in workplace, she has additionally been accused of utilizing the truth that she is a mom to deflect criticism of her actions.
“She used her picture to justify sure actions and current herself as an excellent mom, as if by advantage of being a mom that [a positive] implication is there,” Ho informed CNN. “However then in fact folks actually do not assume she’s motherly in any respect, she is any individual who we expect is towards ethics of care.”
Some may say that Hong Kong in latest occasions has seen extra progress on LGBTQ+ points than on ladies’s rights, however China’s hardening stance on LGBTQ+ activism on the mainland has additionally began to trickle down into Hong Kong politics, sparking issues over a brand new surge in conservatism.
Within the run as much as the Homosexual Video games — a global sporting, arts and tradition occasion organized for the LGBTQ+ group — some pro-Beijing lawmakers have condemned the occasion which is because of happen in November 2023, calling it a “risk to nationwide safety” and a guise via which to advertise political causes.
Whereas the LGBTQ+ group has seen some authorized victories lately, town has no authorized protections towards discrimination on the premise of sexual orientation and gender identification, and same-sex marriage has but to be legalized. “I am actually involved. The state of affairs is getting worse,” says Alvin Cheung, a homosexual activist and social employee.
Regardless of the extra repressive political ambiance, there are nonetheless small teams and people creating secure areas to speak about gender and sexuality, notably on-line, in keeping with Grace Ting, assistant professor of gender research on the College of Hong Kong.
Ming Chan, a transgender activist in her 20s, is certainly one of them. In 2020, she helped co-found Quarks, a trans and non-binary youth help group that now has some 2,700 followers on social media.
Chan says some communities like hers are thriving, as a result of after the pro-democracy motion, extra persons are realizing that they’ll affect society in numerous methods.
“I am fortunate to have such an area,” Chan informed CNN. “I imagine a few of the energies generated from the political motion have been transferred to the gender equality and feminist motion, as a result of it is a discipline the place you’ll be able to nonetheless do one thing.”
Story of the week
It’s estimated that postpartum melancholy (PPD) impacts one in 10 ladies, but there may be nonetheless little consciousness and far stigma round it. CNN tells the intimate, harrowing story of 1 household’s battle with the situation.
Pranaiya was a contented mother – then she began speaking about eager to disappear – CNN
Ladies Behaving Badly: Ma Anand Sheela (1949 – current)
Written by Adie Vanessa Offiong
Ma Anand Sheela was comparatively unknown to many past India and the US, previous to the discharge of the 2018 six-part Netflix documentary, Wild Wild Nation.
The piece, confirmed her because the fearless proper hand and private secretary of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (often known as Osho), founding father of the Rajneesh motion, which attracted devotees from around the globe to its base within the Oregon desert. The motion is now largely recognized for a sequence of felony actions it carried out, together with certainly one of America’s largest immigration frauds and the biggest bioterror assault within the nation, orchestrated by Sheela. Regardless of this, she nonetheless maintains a following.
Born Sheela Ambalal Patel right into a rich Mumbai household in India, Ma Anand Sheela studied linguistics at Baroda College, India and Artwork at Montclair State Faculty in New Jersey, the place she met her first husband, Marc Silverman. She married thrice.
After College, Sheela was launched to Rajneesh by her father, who noticed him as a non secular instructor, and he or she is claimed to have been immediately dedicated to him.
She is now described because the mastermind behind Rajneesh’s dealings and admits to Australia’s 60 Minutes to being the one with the flexibility to place his “desires and imaginative and prescient” into follow.
In 1984, Sheela orchestrated a large-scale bioterror assault, contaminating the salad bars at ten eating places in Oregon in hope of rendering folks unable to vote and assist sway a county election in favour of the cult’s personal candidates. The assault, sickened 751 folks and put 45 in hospital.
In 1986, she was charged with immigration fraud, tried homicide, wiretapping and conspiracy to tamper with client merchandise. She pleaded responsible and was sentenced to twenty years in jail, in keeping with a Swiss Data report. She was launched for good conduct after 39 months, paid a $470,000 tremendous and was deported, in keeping with an Related Press report.
She at present lives in Switzerland the place she runs two residential properties for folks with psychological diseases.
Deep dive: Abortion
This week, in an unprecedented leak, information broke that the US Supreme Court docket may overturn the nation’s 50-year-old ruling that legalized abortion within the nation. Listed below are some tales that present context on what’s been taking place within the US and elsewhere on the earth on the subject of abortion.
“No lady can name herself free who doesn’t management her personal physique.”
Margaret Sanger, American contraception activist, intercourse educator, and nurse