text:
Forced To Pay Bribes At Every Step: How Trans And Intersex People Say They Survive In Kenya - Minority Africa
Toluwani Omotesho
April 19, 2024
But first, in Nigeria, Bobrisky, a popular transgender woman, has been sentenced to six months in jail without the option of a fine for “spraying” the naira — a common practice in Nigerian parties and celebrations. To fully understand the circumstances behind Bobrisky’s unusual prosecution and sentence, we must look back three weeks ago.
On March 24, 2024, Bobrisky received the Best Dressed Female award at a movie premiere, which caused nationwide controversy, heated debates, and anger, especially with Nigeria being a conservative country. At the premiere’s afterparty, videos of Bobrisky and other celebrities spraying money at a performer surfaced online. However, days later, Bobrisky was the only one charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for naira abuse.
In a surprisingly fast-paced prosecution, only lasting one week, Bobrisky was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison without the option of a fine despite being a first-time offender. It’s difficult not to see this sentence as being not targeted because there are numerous videos of senators and ministers spraying naira notes without repercussions.
However, what’s even more disturbing is that the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS) announced that Bobrisky will serve her sentence in the male section of the prison facility, exposing her to the risk of harassment and assault. This situation not only sets a dangerous precedent, but it’s yet another example of how dangerous Nigeria is for queer people regardless of their wealth or social status.
Sudan civil war: The children living between starvation and death in Darfur
Vatican declares surrogacy & gender-affirming care violations of human dignity
In island communities on the southwest coast of Cameroon, the majority of the inhabitants are Nigerians. Stifled by administrative bottlenecks and despite their wish to, these Nigerians, most of whom were born in these communities, have failed to obtain Cameroonian citizenship.
Stella Ogunsemore, 31, was born in the small island community of Mbomo, 20 minutes away from Kangue Island. 50 years ago, Ogunsemore’s parents migrated from Nigeria and settled in Mbomo. While the mother of three sees herself as a Cameroonian — given that she was born and raised there — Cameroon doesn’t recognize her as such.
“I was born and bred in Cameroon but I don’t have a Cameroonian nationality,” Ogunsemore, who is also a seamstress, tells Minority Africa.
She has made several attempts to obtain Cameroonian nationality but has failed.
“I have compiled my documents several times and dropped them in Buea to get a nationality as a Cameroonian but I have never succeeded.”
Because of this, Ogunsemore has to reserve 150,000frs (about $250) of her small income to acquire a residence permit every two years.
“From time to time, Cameroon’s forces of law and order visit our community and if you are caught without a residence permit, you will be arrested and you will pay a lot of money to gain your freedom,” she says.
The colonial construction of transphobia and the continued enforcement of gender hegemony, have created an environment in which transgender people have to conform to idealised depictions of femininity and masculinity to find a sense of community and safety.
As a non-binary trans woman, my usual gender presentation does not match with the typical ideas regarding femininity. I realized this a while ago while living in Tamboerskloof, an area in the center of Cape Town, South Africa. I was having a bad day and wanted to get some snacks from my local grocery store. I was wearing no make-up, a baggy band shirt, and a comfy pair of sweatpants.
I made the five-minute walk down the road to get myself some ice cream and a bottle of wine. As I walked back to my apartment, two men followed me home, yelling transphobic slurs at me. Eventually, the two men cornered me outside my apartment and threatened to “fix me” with sexual violence. I made the same walk two weeks later in a dress and make-up with zero harassment. I learned a lesson that day. I was putting my life on the line if I ventured into the city center without appearing vaguely feminine.
This forced me to start to think about African societal perceptions of womanhood and femininity and how much of what we tout to be African ideas of gender were set up and continue to be propped by colonialism and its many instruments.
On a rainy night last June, police officers in Mombasa arrested a young trans woman and allegedly refused to let her go until she’d paid them a $50 bribe.
Brian, in her late 20s, told CNN that the police held her in their custody for “being drunk and disorderly” when she was leaving a queer-friendly club in Kenya’s second most populous city.
But “I wasn’t drunk at all; neither was I disorderly,” Brian told CNN, saying the arrest was a ruse. Her real name, and those of all the other trans and intersex people in this story, have been withheld to protect their identities either because they are not publicly out or because they fear reprisal from the people and institutions they accuse of demanding bribes. She chose a traditionally male name as a pseudonym, telling CNN that it’s safer to navigate Kenyan society with one.
Brian said that on the night of June 14, as she and five other trans friends were leaving the club, they saw a police van parked just a few meters away. Brian said she heard a police officer say, “These are gays” as he moved toward them, so she and her friends ran. “My friends managed to escape, but since I was wearing a tight black dress and high heels, I slid and fell,” Brian said. Three of the five friends who were with her that night gave the same account. CNN couldn’t reach the other two.
The three police officers on duty at the time of her arrest confirmed that they had arrested Brian, but denied commenting on her sexual orientation. “She was drunk and disorderly,” one of them told CNN.
The German parliament has voted for legislation smoothing the process for transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to change their name and gender identity.
Lawmakers in Germany on Friday approved a law to make it easier for transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people to change their name and gender in official records.
Under Germany’s current so-called “transsexual law,” expert evaluations and a court decision are necessary if someone wants to change their gender. Opponents say this is invasive, forcing people seeking a change to undergo a psychological assessment and often intimate questioning.
The law, supported by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition and the socialist Left Party, eventually passed on a vote of 374 to 251.
The Bundestag debate was both contentious and sometimes emotional.
“As trans people, we experience time and again that our dignity is made a matter of negotiation,” Green lawmaker Nyke Slawik, herself a transgender woman who changed her legal gender, told parliament.
Activist Isaac Smith is now leading the charge to help queer folks in the Kakuma Refugee Camp flee yet again.
Isaac Smith has been on the run for years. He’s tired but still determined. Right now, he’s hoping an online fundraising campaign can help him and 19 other queer people make it safely from Kenya to South Sudan. There, they hope to find acceptance, and most importantly, they hope it will be the final leg of their journey.
Ten LGBTQ+ folks Smith knows have already made it across the border after leaving the Kakuma Refugee Camp, but he and the rest remain trapped in a nightmare.
Smith’s life on the run began in Uganda in 2021, when his world was shattered before his eyes with the murder of his partner of two years, Johny Wasswa, by a mob that broke into their home.
“It is one of those memories I never wish to remember again,” Smith told LGBTQ Nation. “His only crime was being queer.”
A queer parenting group at Chicago’s Northwestern University has created a vital support system that is helping its members better support their family members.
The faculty-only group meets monthly at the University Women’s Center and is comprised of LGBTQ+ parents, parents of LGBTQ+ kids, and parents who want to raise their kids in affirming environments, according to a report from the Daily Northwestern.
“It’s a very generous community of people,” Sarah Brown, one of the group’s organizers and the director of the Women’s Center, told the publication. “If somebody’s like, ‘My kid just came out to me,’ and there’s also queer folks in the room, they can be like, ‘This is what this was like for me.’”
Determined to raise her first child as free from gender roles as possible, Cassie Ptoskey, the university’s director of alumni engagement, joined the group for support on gender-creative parenting.
“I’m really glad that I did take that first step to go to meetings because otherwise, I don’t really have a group to talk about these types of questions,” Petoskey said. “And how cool is it that it’s at the place where I work?”
Features a roundup of fresh MA reports, announcements, events/workshop listings, and minority content curated from across the web.


text:
Ghana’s Parliament Passes Anti-LGBTQ Bill - Minority Africa
Toluwani Omotesho
March 13, 2024
But first, in Nigeria, persons with disabilities (PWDs) are appealing to the government for equal representation in government.
Although Nigeria is a country with about 35.1 million persons living with disabilities, there is little to no representation in any tier of government. Instead, many have had to deal with stigmatization, discrimination, and lack of access to basic needs such as transportation, health, education, and housing.
In 2018, the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities Prohibition Act was passed. Its violation would incur a fine of ₦1 million for corporate bodies and ₦100,000 for private individuals or a six-month jail term. Still, it was discovered that there had been little compliance with this Act, even among ministries, departments, and agencies.
The House of Representatives recently initiated an investigation into compliance levels in MDAs. Meanwhile, Dr. Chike Okogwu, Founder and Chief Responsibility Officer of Care for Ability, Rehabilitation and Empowerment (CARE), urges the government to ensure the representation of PWDs in government positions. Such inclusivity would empower the community and address its unique challenges. This is especially important during the current economic downturn, making them even more vulnerable.
Anti-Muslim hate speech soars in India, research group says
Nigerian economy: Generosity of strangers stuns struggling mother
Rwanda is called the land of a thousand hills because it has hills everywhere you look! The hills create a picturesque scenery that highlights Rwanda’s natural beauty.
“Tag the trees”: The disappearing Kenyan Language being saved with afforestation
A stroll through Mukogodo Forest in Laikipia County, Kenya’s largest national and dry forest reserve covering landmass of over 30,000 hectares, reveals a sight: metallic tags adorning the trees, each bearing two words. One word is in English, while the other is its translation into Yaakuntee, the indigenous language of the Yiaku people.
The tags, with the English word ‘Elephant,’ and its counterpart in Yaakunte ‘Sogomei,’ are an initiative of Ann Naibini and Juliana Kageni, sisters working hard to revive their dying Yaakuntee language and traditions. They are the grandchildren of one of the three remaining elders of the Yaakunte tribe.
“The words are in English and their translations are in the Yaakunte language to make it easier for the young learners to understand,” says Kageni.
In the year 2020, Yaakunte was declared among the critically endangered languages in Kenya by UNESCO.
The Yiaku people were a traditional hunter-gatherer community that migrated from Southern Ethiopia to Mukogodo Forest more than a century ago. They settled in Laikipia County, Mt Kenya region. The Yiaku resemble the Rendille and the Somali people living in northern Kenya.
Saying: ‘I don’t care that you are queer,’ to a queer person is not allyship. Here’s why
When I came out to my friend she told me, “I don’t care that you are queer. You are my friend and I will always love you.” At first, I was elated by the show of support, thankful that her love was present nonetheless, especially because I knew that many queer people lose friends and even family when they come out.
But in subsequent times, I have begun to think long and hard about this statement and I have become conscious of how though well-intentioned, it can be unsupportive.
Much of my thought process was inspired by how frequently I started to hear it being used among friends and allies and the unintended nuance that is communicated.
When you say that you do not care that I am queer and you love me regardless, the statement implies that although my queerness is not something lovable, you love me anyway.
It goes further to cast the ally as doing a great job of acceptance whereas neglecting the role and effort LGBTQ+ persons play in summoning the courage to come out. In that instance re-calibrating the situation and making acceptance seem like a favor when it shouldn’t be.
Ghana’s parliament passes anti-LGBTQ bill
Ghana’s parliament has voted to pass a controversial bill to severely restrict LGBTQ rights, in a move that has been condemned by rights activists.
A coalition of religious and traditional leaders sponsored the legislation favored by most lawmakers and passed in parliament on Wednesday.
The bill would punish those who take part in LGBTQ sexual acts, as well as those who promote the rights of gay, lesbian, or other non-conventional sexual or gender identities with time in prison.
The bill, one of the harshest of its kind in Africa, still has to be validated by the president before entering into law, which observers believe is unlikely before a general election in December.
Activist groups have called the “Human Sexual Rights and Family Values” bill a setback for human rights and urged President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government to reject it. But the legislation is widely supported in Ghana, where Akufo-Addo has said gay marriage will never be allowed while he is in power.
Pakistan: When a blasphemy accusation is evidence; the sentence often death
The Pakistani city of Lahore is famous for many things: beautiful Mughal architecture, delicious street food, eye-pleasing greenery, and, of late, air pollution that ranks amongst the worst in the world.
But as dangerous as that last distinction is, Lahore recently avoided being known for something far worse: mob lynching.
Here’s what happened: A married couple was out shopping, peacefully going about their day when a passer-by spotted something that he found offensive – in this case, the woman’s garments.
It’s not that her clothes were revealing — something frowned upon in this culture — or otherwise morally offensive to this worthy gentleman. No, he became enraged because, to his eyes, the woman was wearing a dress covered with Quranic verses.
Except he clearly couldn’t read Arabic.
Why South Korean women aren’t having babies
On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, Yejin is cooking lunch for her friends at her apartment, where she lives alone on the outskirts of Seoul, happily single.
While they eat, one of them pulls up a well-worn meme of a cartoon dinosaur on her phone. “Be careful,” the dinosaur says. “Don’t let yourself become extinct like us.”
The women all laugh.
“It’s funny, but it’s dark because we know we could be causing our extinction,” says Yejin, a 30-year-old television producer. Neither she nor any of her friends are planning on having children. They are part of a growing community of women choosing the child-free life.
South Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world, and it continues to plummet, beating its own staggeringly low record year after year. Figures released on Wednesday show it fell by another 8% in 2023 to 0.72. This refers to the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime. For a population to hold steady, that number should be 2.1.
If this trend continues, Korea’s population is estimated to halve by the year 2100.
‘Love transcends language’: Kashmir’s silent village
Dressed in their finest shalwar-kameez and sporting well-trimmed mustaches, a group of men deliberates over the terms of a dowry as the women prepare halwa with dried fruit and a pot of traditional, salty Kashmiri tea in the adjacent kitchen.
In the modest home of Muhammad Sharief in Dadhkai, a tiny community nestled high in the Himalayan mountains, the two families have gathered to plan the upcoming marriage of Reshma Sharief, 19, and Mukhtar Ahmed, 22.
Muhammad Sharief, 40, the bride’s father, waits patiently as the men continue their discussions. They ultimately agree upon a dowry of $1,200 in cash plus a few gold ornaments. The older men murmur prayers as sweet treats are brought out from the kitchen. The home’s rough-cut wooden roof, mud floor, and bright walls, colored pink and green, hum with the sounds of celebration.
But while the two families have followed all the customary nuptial rules, this marriage will be far from ordinary: Both the bride and groom, like dozens of others in their village, are deaf-mute.
Features a roundup of fresh MA reports, announcements, events/workshop listings, and minority content curated from across the web.

source: news-minorityafrica

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Toluwani Omotesho


text:
These Nigerian content creators want to change perceptions about albinism - Minority Africa
Toluwani Omotesho
March 13, 2024
But first, in Ethiopia, where 45 civilians in the Amhara region are reported to have been killed in door-to-door raids by the Ethiopian troops.
The ongoing conflict in Amhara can be traced back to 2022 when the Ethiopian government signed a peace deal with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to end the civil war and disarm the Fano and other militias in the region. However, the Fano militia, a paramilitary group, felt slighted by this deal and even described it as a “war pact.” This discontent and suspicions eventually resulted in armed conflict between the militia and the Ethiopian military in April 2023.
Unfortunately, the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, despite his reputation as a peacemaker, has relied heavily on using military force to quell opposition, which has led to many deaths and widespread atrocities. According to the UN, civilian targets, including a school compound and a bus station, were hit by drones in December.
Amhara experienced a month-long internet blackout in January, resulting in a complete communication shutdown. This has led many to assume that the victims from the door-to-door raids by the government troops may surpass 45. While the Ethiopian government has not yet addressed the killings, it is looking to extend the region’s state of emergency by four months in addition to the initial six-month declaration in August.
This move has caused many to frown and express their concerns over the government’s intentions. But in the meantime, the US and EU are calling for independent investigations into the actions of the Ethiopian troops in the Amhara region.
To end the siege on my Burkinabé town, we must open a dialogue with the jihadists
‘Dark Valentine’ day in Kenya, as nationwide vigils mark grim toll of murdered women and girls
Dangerous stages: Gendered harassment in Uganda’s music …
Eswatini’s LGBTQ community is “mounting and waving their flags”
From pride marches to legal advocacy, Eswatini Sexual and Gender Minorities (ESGM), a youthful LGBTIQ organisation is determined to break new grounds and challenge broader Swazi society’s ultra conservative attitudes.
On the evening of July 2 2018, Mapezu Kunene was filled with anxiety and anticipation for the Pride march happening the next day at the Prince of Wales sports ground in Mbabane, Swaziland. The thirty-one-year-old found herself caught in the uncertainty about the reactions of authorities. However, she held on to hope.
“[That] night I posted my outfit on social media showing everybody who cared that I was ready,” Kunene recalls. “I couldn’t wait for tomorrow!”
On the morning of the march, she received numerous calls from fellow LGBTIQ friends and allies as early as 6 o’clock offering transport to the venue.
“I arrived early in Mbabane. I met excited Pride members and allies. We hugged and kissed and hurried to Prince of Wales where we mounted our flags and banners,” Kunene narrates.
Kunene, an activist and member of the LGBTQ+ community, embarked on her journey of advocacy shortly after finishing high school. Witnessing the enduring stigma and discrimination faced by LGBTQ+ individuals, she felt compelled to take action and sow the seeds of change.
These Nigerian content creators want to change perceptions about albinism
Media content around albinism is ridden with various misconceptions and myths, and many of them are dangerous. Can these content creators change that?
As a child, Jessica Hyacinth, who lives with albinism, was frequently scrutinised and dehumanised.
“I went to the market with my mum one day and children followed us singing oyibo pepper, adults were asking if I could see and arguing among themselves that I was actually a doll and not a real person,” Hyacinth recalls.
The experience, one of many others, spurred the Nigerian content creator to begin to make educational content about albinism.
“The biggest challenge is that people don’t have the right knowledge about the condition. If they all knew better, life would definitely be easier,” Hyacinth says about the necessity of her voice and platform.
She shares a story. “I was in a bus one day riding to Lekki Phase 1 and some people got off; then a person with albinism was about to enter the bus and occupy [one of] the empty seats when the driver yelled at him to get off that he doesn’t carry Afins [a Yoruba word meaning White Skin].
“I froze where I sat in the last row. I was so sad and felt guilty that I couldn’t do or say anything. So I just sat there and cried.”
In bid to curb immigration, France to scrap birthright citizenship in Mayotte
Children of immigrants born in Mayotte, the French overseas territory situated between Madagascar and the African mainland, will no longer automatically become French citizens, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said late on Sunday.
Located close to the impoverished Comoro islands off the East African coast, the former French colony has become the centre of fierce social unrest, with many residents blaming undocumented immigration for the deteriorating conditions.
Much poorer than mainland France, Mayotte has been shaken by gang violence and social unrest for decades. The situation has recently worsened amid a water shortage.
Since January, island residents have been staging strikes and erecting roadblocks to protest against what they say are unacceptable living conditions, paralyzing large parts of local infrastructure.
Greece legalises same-sex marriage
Greece has become the first Christian Orthodox-majority country to legalise same-sex marriage.
Same-sex couples will now also be legally allowed to adopt children after Thursday’s 176-76 vote in parliament.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the new law would “boldly abolish a serious inequality”. But it has divided the country, with fierce resistance led by the powerful Orthodox Church. Its supporters held a protest rally in Athens.
Many displayed banners, held crosses, read prayers and sang passages from the Bible in the capital’s Syntagma Square. The head of the Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos, said the measure would “corrupt the homeland’s social cohesion”.
The bill needed a simple majority to pass through the 300-member parliament.
Mr Mitsotakis had championed the bill but required the support of opposition parties to get it over the line, with dozens of MPs from his centre-right governing party opposed. “People who have been invisible will finally be made visible around us, and with them, many children will finally find their rightful place,” the prime minister told parliament during a debate ahead of the vote.
‘Killed by police bullets’: Deadly clash scars Muslims in India’s Haldwani
At about 6:45pm on February 8, Mohammad Arif called his brother Zahid. A mosque and an Islamic school had been razed by government officials in their town of Haldwani in northern India, and violence had broken out. The 52-year-old Arif wanted his brother, seven years younger, to return home immediately from the iron and cement shop he worked in.
Zahid rushed home on his motorbike and parked it outside the house. Unaware that the protest had become violent, Zahid hurried to buy milk for his infant grandchild.
When Zahid’s 16-year-old middle son Mohammad Anas learned that his father had gone out again, he went looking for him in the cramped, dingy lanes of Haldwani’s Banbhoolpura area, a Muslim ghetto. The police shot the son in the stomach in the lane, and the father in the chest 200 metres along the same road.
The beekeepers of Sine Saloum: How all-women team tends to Senegal mangrove
Clutching a purse and clad from head to toe in white protective gear, Bintou Sonko removes a small metal kettle from her purse and releases smoke into one of the 50 beehives nestled in the dense mangrove outside her town in Senegal. Pacifying the bees, the 53-year-old extracts a dark golden liquid from within.
In 2022, she, her sister, and several others in the 67-strong women’s cooperative in Joal-Fadiouth, a town 100km (62 miles) south of Dakar, spent a month learning how to make honey, build hives and interact calmly with the bees. Despite an initial fear of being stung, she is in no doubt of their importance in the mangrove.
For Sonko and her colleagues who have long been shellfish gatherers, their newfound occupation as beekeepers provides additional income. But as climate change and deforestation threaten the mangrove, many say beekeeping is good for the invaluable biodiversity haven and carbon sink that stores up to five times more carbon than tropical rainforests
Features a roundup of fresh MA reports, announcements, events/workshop listings, and minority content curated from across the web.


text:
How A Malawi WhatsApp Group Helped Save Women Trafficked To Oman - Minority Africa
Toluwani Omotesho
April 19, 2024
But first, in Uganda, an LGBTQ activist, Ronald Agaba, has been arrested for peacefully protesting against the scapegoating of the LGBTQ community by Anita Among, a member of the Ugandan Parliament.
Since the signing of Uganda’s harsh anti-LGBTQ bill into law, Anita Among has been one of the prominent politicians advocating for its enforcement. However, she’s also been taking advantage of Uganda’s homophobia to avoid scrutiny for recent corruption allegations.
In an expose released February 2024, Among was one of the Parliament members accused of diverting billions of Ugandan shillings in public funds to personal accounts despite the nation’s escalating debt and rising poverty rate. When confronted, Among, using a slur, dismissed the allegations and accused the “homosexuals” of spreading rumors and distorting evidence. However, this glaring attempt to avoid accountability and victimize the LGBTQ community sparked a wave of social media criticism.
Ronald Agaba has been one of the leading voices speaking against the victimization of gay Ugandans and abuse of office by Anita Among on social media. He set out for a peaceful protest at the Ugandan Parliament on Thursday, March 14, to demand for her resignation, but mysteriously disappeared. On March 18, it was revealed that he has been charged with incitement of violence and is currently being detained in Luzira Prison until April 4, 2024.
Presently, there’s an ongoing campaign with the hashtag #FreeRonnieAgaba to demand for his release, and to have the charges dropped. Peaceful protests are a fundamental human right, and it’s beyond alarming to see Uganda abuse this while overlooking the cases of corruption and embezzlement of public funds.
Tension mounts as Gambian lawmakers debate repealing landmark FGM ban
Migrant workers exploited, abused in Italy’s prized fine wine vineyards
“Living in constant fear”: PWDs are paying a hefty price in Nigeria’s raging war with bandits
It is a little past two on a June afternoon. Aisha Muhammed holds her four-year-old son, Ahmad, in her left hand as he assists her to a green plastic chair. She leans against a nearby tree so he can clean the dust on the chair and then she settles.
Every day, Muhammed, who is blind, scours through Gusau, the capital of Nigeria’s northwestern state of Zamfara, for alms. That Saturday afternoon, she had learnt about a nonprofit distributing food items to displaced people. An hour earlier, she was at Tudunwada, another part of the city begging for alms as well.
The mother of three, who currently stays at the camp for internally displaced persons in Tsunami, has been struggling to fend for her family and take care of herself without a source of employment.
“Life has not been easy since we left our village,” she tells Minority Africa. “Although there are times people come here to distribute food and money to us, we mostly go out to look for what to eat.”
Muhammed is one of many other persons with disabilities in the region contending with an uncertain future amid increasing attacks by bandits.
In Zimbabwe, a highly conservative country that has been under a repressive regime for years, LGBTQ+ issues have remained highly polarised – a legacy of the hard-line stance of the late Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s former president.
A legacy that can be summed up in “worse than pigs and dogs,” a statement he once shockingly made about homosexuals, that still lingers among many people in the country, including journalists who have conveniently skirted around LGBTQ+ issues like a plague. So when a representative of the LGBTQ+ community, Agatha Marekera, recently told a public media workshop in Zimbabwe’s eastern border city of Mutare that the gay and lesbian population in the country is far higher than many people think, some journalists were both shocked and perplexed.
“There are so many people who are members of the LGBTQ+ community, but many people in the country don’t understand LGBTQ+ issues,” Marekera revealed to incredulous gasps.
For some journalists, it was their first time sharing a conference room with individuals who openly identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community. This is because, in the past, LGBTQ+ members have largely taken the backseat for fear of backlash from both the conservative society and the government.
Traditionally, this has been considered a man’s job, but now a handful of courageous women are challenging stereotypes and steering change in the world of guiding.
“At first I was nervous,” confessed Bontle Cindy Mothogaathobogwe, who has been guiding for three years. “At first, I was thinking, ‘What will people say? This is a man’s job!’ Then something came into my mind that, no, I need to make a change and I need to set an example to every woman to show that anything is possible as long as you have passion, confidence and love what you are doing.”
Japan court rules ban on same-sex marriage is ‘unconstitutional’
A high court in Japan has ruled that the country’s ban on same-sex marriage is “unconstitutional” as pressure mounts for such unions to be legalised.
On Thursday, the Sapporo High Court said not allowing same-sex couples to marry violates their fundamental right to have a family, and called for urgent government action to address a lack of laws allowing same-sex unions.
A lower court in Tokyo issued a similar ruling earlier on Thursday, becoming the sixth district court to do so.
But the Tokyo District Court ruling was only a partial victory for Japan’s LGBTQ community calling for equal marriage rights, as it does not change or overturn the current civil union law that describes marriage as between a man and a woman.
Japan is the only member of the Group of Seven (G7) nations that still excludes same-sex couples from the right to legally marry and receive spousal benefits.
How a Malawi WhatsApp group helped save women trafficked to Oman
Warning: Some people may find details in this story distressing.
A 32-year-old woman breaks down in tears as she relives the abuse she experienced when, hoping for a better life, she found herself working as a maid in Oman.
Georgina, who like all the trafficked women interviewed by the BBC opted to only use her first name, believed she had been recruited to work as a driver in Dubai.
She had owned a small business in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital, and was managing when approached by an agent saying she could earn more money in the Middle East. It was not until the plane landed in Muscat, the capital of Oman, that she realised she had been deceived and subsequently trapped by a family who made her work gruelling hours, seven days a week.
“I reached a point where I couldn’t take it,” she says, detailing how she got as little as two hours’ sleep. She had not been there long when her boss began forcing her to have sex with him, threatening to shoot her if she said anything.
“It wasn’t only him,” she says. “He would bring friends and they would pay him after.”
She struggles to speak as she recounts how she was forced into anal sex: “I got badly injured. I became so distraught.”
A Queer Chinese Artist Finds Liberation Through Folk Art
In the years he hid his sexuality from his children and village neighbors, Xiyadie would take short-bladed scissors to rice paper and give shape to unfulfilled dreams.
At first glance, his creations conform to traditional cutout designs of animals and auspicious symbols adorning doorways and windows in China. But a closer look at the shapes — birds, butterflies and blossoms perched on twisty vines — reveals bodies conjoined in the throes of intimacy or separated by brick walls.
The artist, 60, who goes by the pseudonym Xiyadie, was born in a farming village in northern China, and he creates queer paper cuts. Paper cutting is a folk tradition dating from the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 C.E.) that involves cutting crisp lines and shapes into folded layers of rice paper. It’s about excising the negative space to reveal the picture inside.
Features a roundup of fresh MA reports, announcements, events/workshop listings, and minority content curated from across the web.


text:
How An Indigenous Dialect Radio Station In Kenya Revives A Dying Minority Language - Minority Africa
Toluwani Omotesho
April 19, 2024
But first, in Gambia, lawmakers are currently deliberating on a bill to lift the ban on female genital mutilation (FGM).
FGM is a harmful traditional practice that involves the partial or total removal of the external part of the female genitals. Unfortunately, some communities and families still believe that this practice will help preserve a woman’s virginity for marriage.
According to the United Nations, more than 75% of women between 15 and 49 have undergone FGM in Gambia. It was eventually outlawed in 2015 under the regime of former president Yahya Jammeh. However, since Jammeh left office in 2016, many influential Muslim clerics have pushed for the ban to be annulled.
Although there are some opposing views from leading Islamic scholars in Egypt, Gambia’s main Islamic body, The Supreme Islamic Council, supports lifting the ban. The lawmaker sponsoring the bill argues that his stance is driven by the need to maintain religious purity and safeguard cultural norms.
Approving the bill to lift the ban on FGM would be a step backward and a clear violation of the human rights and health of women. FGM has no health benefits but only serves to harm girls and women in many ways. Hopefully, Gambia’s National Assembly will take the right step by rejecting the bill and making provisions for public awareness campaigns to properly educate the public on FGM’s health complications.
Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) faces probe over pregnancy, HIV tests for recruits
UK plans to pay asylum seekers to move to Rwanda
How an Indigenous dialect Radio station in Kenya revives a dying minority language
Standing out within the Mau Forest Complex, in a forested area approximately 210km west of Nairobi, Kenya, is an over 60-foot steel radio mast with an aviation light on top. Inching closer, a wooden fence intertwined with wire mesh separates the compound of Sogoot 97.1 FM from the houses around it.
A community radio station, Sogoot, which in Ogiek means “leaves,” broadcasts in Ogiek from 6 am to 11 pm daily, educating and giving direction to thousands of Ogieks within the station’s 30-kilometre radius.
“Sogoot FM is a game changer for us,” says Stephen Lele, station manager and a founding member of Sogoot FM. “Within where we reside, we haven’t heard any radio station that broadcasts in our language. Our shows focus on everything that touches on humanity, from culture, health, education, leadership and governance, conservation, social, and economic empowerment”.
Why are affluent Zimbabweans cornering shops meant for low-income families?
The mid-morning Saturday sun is still weak in Stoneridge Park Township, south of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. Kiosk stores are already filled with smokers, bargain hunters and noisy street touts. Today is unlike weekdays when buses with city-center-bound commuters race past kiosk stores without dropping off passengers.
The sprawling township is home to Pamacongo, one of the cheap food markets in Harare, located in a low-income neighborhood where many residents supplement their food needs via home gardens. Because of this, food prices are relatively low, attracting many city dwellers.
Among these is 41-year-old Samy Jangwa, a resident of Borrowdale, Harare’s most glamorous neighborhood.
“My family lives in Borrowdale. For our staples, we drive 20 miles to forage in townships [and]food stores and restock our kitchens,” the software teacher at an upscale private school in Harare says.
This food migration began to gain steam four years ago as Zimbabwe’s inflation started climbing worryingly again after brief years of a lull.
It resulted in middle-class suburban supermarkets and food stores like SPAR, Bon Marche and those located in city-centres becoming incredibly expensive.
Rose left Nigeria full of optimism for all that Britain has to offer.
The first of five children, her father had been a trader until he lost his shop, which meant the family could not pay for her to continue her education.
So when a family friend from church told her of an opportunity to become a nanny for a wealthy UK couple, who would sponsor her studies, she jumped at the chance. She travelled to the UK on a six-month tourist visa. When she first met the couple, she says they seemed “nice” and gave her a room in their four-bed apartment, but she soon found the work was not as advertised.
Rose, not her real name, says she was taken to a restaurant owned by the couple, where she would cook and clean from 17:00 to 05:00. She worked six days a week, and on her only day off did more chores at home.
“I felt so exhausted… so empty. This was not what they promised me,” she says.
A recent attack on a young trans couple in Greece has left LGBTQIA+ people shaken, with some describing the incident a reminder of how “extremely polarised” the country is on equal rights.
A mob of almost 200 people cursed, spat and threw bottles at the pair in Thessaloniki on Saturday (9 March) night, resulting in the arrests of more than 20 people. Thousands took to the streets in protest of what happened the following evening, though the LGBTQIA+ community’s concerns are far from quashed.
“Greece is a very homophobic country,” says conceptual artist and filmmaker Fil Ieropoulos, who was born in Athens and raised in northern Greece. “It’s a very macho, traditionalist, fundamentalist, religious place where racist, homophobic, misogynist, transphobic behaviours have been tolerated for way too long. One should not be fooled by the pinkwashing of the whole bourgeois Mykonos thing or silly ideas about supposed connections to homosexuality through Ancient Greece.”
Zimbabwe police charge self-proclaimed prophet Ishmael and rescue 251 children
A self-proclaimed Apostolic prophet who kept 251 children on his property has been charged with exploiting minors.
Police said that Ishmael Chokurongerwa, 56, led a sect with more than 1,000 members in Harare. The children were allegedly used for cheap labour. Unregistered graves, believed to be of infants, were also found.
Chokurongerwa was arrested on Tuesday “for criminal activities which include abuse of minors”.
He appeared alongside seven congregants before a magistrate’s court on Thursday. All eight of them were charged with violating children’s rights and contravening burial and cremation laws.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police released a statement on Wednesday saying that the arrest followed a raid. Officers discovered that 251 minors were found living on a farm run by Chokurongerwa about 34km (21 miles) north-west of the capital, Harare.
Some 246 out of the 251 children staying at the property had no birth certificates.
First top-flight male soccer star to publicly identify as gay proposes to partner on home pitch
Josh Cavallo, the first top-flight male professional soccer star to publicly identify as gay, has blazed a new trail by proposing to his partner on the pitch of his club.
The Australian player made history in 2021 when he posted an emotional online video to talk about his sexuality and vowing to change the sport’s culture “to show that everyone is welcome in the game of football.”
His announcement was hailed as a watershed moment in a sport with a long and troubled history of entrenched homophobia, particularly in the men’s game. Since then, Cavallo, 24, has become one of the most recognizable faces in the sport and an outspoken advocate for greater equality for the LGBTQ community.
On Thursday, he announced that he had proposed to his fiancée at Coopers Stadium, home pitch of his Australian A-League team Adelaide United.
Alongside a picture of him down on one knee, holding out a ring, Cavallo declared in a post on X: “Starting this year with my fiancée.”
Features a roundup of fresh MA reports, announcements, events/workshop listings, and minority content curated from across the web.


text:
“I endured in silence”: Deaf Women in Uganda And Their Struggle with Abusive Relationships - Minority Africa
Toluwani Omotesho
March 13, 2024
But first, in Mozambique, where pregnant or parenting adolescent girls and young women are unable to complete their education due to stigma, discrimination, and other societal barriers.
Mozambique has the fifth highest rate of child marriage in the world, and its adolescent pregnancy rate is the highest in East and Southern Africa. A 2019 study also revealed that 70 percent of primary school dropouts in Mozambique were pregnant girls.
In 2003, in a bid to promote girls’ education and equality in the country, the Mozambican government adopted an order that mandated school officials move pregnant girls and adolescent mothers from daytime to nighttime schools. But this only resulted in even more discrimination against them which led to many campaigns from civil rights groups. Eventually, the government revoked the order In December 2018 and instructed schools to allow pregnant and parenting girls to study with their peers during regular school hours.
But despite this, some school teachers and authorities automatically refer these young girls to night schools, enforcing the stigma and discrimination. In addition to this, many of these pregnant and parenting girls are often from low-income families, making it difficult for them to finance their education. All of this only contributes to their decision to eventually drop out.
Although the Mozambican government has shown commitment to advancing girls’ education, there’s still a lot of work to be done. There’s a pressing need for the government and other stakeholders to make system reforms and enforce policies that ensure proper sexual education for young girls and women. The establishment of a responsive reproductive healthcare and support service is also crucial.
Prioritizing the reproductive education and rights of women would create a society where fewer girls drop out of school due to adolescent pregnancy. This would not only promote gender equality but also ensure that young women can pursue their education and contribute meaningfully to their communities and the nation as a whole.
In Ethiopia, a secret committee orders killings and arrests to crush rebels
Hydeia Broadbent, H.I.V. and AIDS Activist, Dies at 39
“I endured in silence”: Deaf women in Uganda and their struggle with abusive relationships
When I was thirteen years old I lost my hearing due to a case of mumps. The complications and mishandled treatment, I lost my ability to hear.
After meeting and falling in love with Geoffrey*, a man who was also deaf, in 2019, we got married in a ceremony in Kampala filled with hope and anticipation for our future together.
After our wedding I wholeheartedly embraced change by moving to Western Uganda to support Geoffreys job. Although our initial months as newlyweds were joyful, we faced challenges relying solely on Geoffreys income. The pressure increased when we discovered that we were expecting a baby girl.
Gradually the man I loved transformed before my eyes. His actions became colored with disdain. He became violent with me. At night his touch felt more forceful than loving leaving me feeling more isolated than before. Our marriage was supposed to be a haven. Instead it became a battlefield where my cries for help went unheard.
Failure To Protect: Disabilities and Gender-Based Violence In Nigeria
When Bunmi, who was born with a visual impairment, announced to her relatives that a ‘brother’ in her church had shown a willingness to marry her, the news was received with enthusiasm. Many did not hesitate to tell her how lucky she was to have found such a “good man.”
Her marriage was barely six months old when she began to complain to close relatives that her husband and primary caregiver frequently beat her during disagreements and constantly called her an ingrate. He accused her of being ungrateful after he had taken pity on her by marrying her. Her relatives advised her to ‘work harder’ to please her husband and save her marriage. Things however took a turn for the worse when Bunmi suspected that her husband had diabolic intentions towards her.
“He would sometimes rub strange objects on my head and down my body whenever he thought I was asleep, and I could hear him whispering strange things I didn’t understand,” she says. Not long after her husband’s strange behavior began, Bunmi confronted him about it. He did not receive this well and he attempted to strangle her to death. Though she was rescued by neighbors who believed that the couple was having a spat, many women and girls living with disabilities are not so fortunate.
Diagnosis Of ADHD More Difficult To Obtain For These Women
As the first child in a family of six, Chidera Ochuagu was parentified from a very young age. This did nothing to protect her from Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), even now that she is 25.
A neurological development disorder, ADHD affects how people see and interact with the world, causing misalignments and problems in their personal and professional lives.
One of the most prominent symptoms of ADHD in Chidera’s childhood was always being on the noisemaker list in school, and this action caused her to be constantly monitored and forced to behave a certain way due to the expectations placed on her both as a girl and as the eldest child in her family.
Constantly feeling restless, excessively talking, obsessive use of social media, easily losing interest in things, and racing thoughts are common in people with ADHD.
Opinion: A Sydney ‘copshop’ with a dark history. And the gay community reclaiming it
This week, the world’s biggest permanent LGBTQI+ museum will open in a venue that has, to say the least, raised eyebrows.
Qtopia, Sydney’s first center for LGBTQI+ history and culture, and Australia’s only queer museum, will be officially opened by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday at the former Darlinghurst Police Station.
Until now, a makeshift temporary museum was divided between several Sydney sites. But the move to a permanent home at the former police station has ruffled some feathers — especially amongst “‘78ers,” as they’re known.
These were the marchers in Sydney’s first ever Mardi Gras peaceful protest in 1978, which called for gay equality and a decriminalization of same-sex relations. Many marchers were brutally beaten by police. Fifty-three were arrested. Dozens were held in overcrowded cells at the Darlinghurst station.
Sudan’s collapse is a test for the international community. We are failing it
A Sudanese woman who fled conflict in Darfur, where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has been carrying out mass atrocities, crossed to neighboring Chad on 2 August 2023.
In the deafening silence of global indifference, the war in Sudan recently entered its 10-month mark.
Since April 2023, close to 8 million people have fled their homes, of whom more than 1.6 million have sought refuge in Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic – countries already grappling with immense difficulties.  Close to 25 million people need humanitarian assistance, including around 5 million people on the brink of famine and nearly 7 million children who are severely undernourished. Mass graves conceal evidence of widespread, systematic, and targeted mass atrocities that could be repeated at any moment as the conflict further expands.
Yet despite all of this, Sudan remains seemingly invisible to the global community.
One School’s Attempt At Bringing Education Back To The Displaced
One morning in January 2015, Hafsat Bukar woke up to a violent attack by Boko Haram insurgents in Baga, a town in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno. When her family saw people running helter-skelter, they joined the crowd as the sounds of gunshots displaced dozens of villagers.
Hafsat, who was only nine years old at the time, found herself separated from her mother, surviving in the bush with a stranger who fed her a small portion of stockfish while they desperately searched for her family.
“I was with a stranger who helped me through for three days until we saw my mother in a town called Bundur in Monguno,” she said, each word from her laden with the weight of memories too heavy for a young girl. Just when her family thought they had lost her forever, they were reunited.
Features a roundup of fresh MA reports, announcements, events/workshop listings, and minority content curated from across the web.


text:
“My personal secret”: Accessing family planning beyond religious boundaries in Zimbabwe - Minority Africa
Toluwani Omotesho
March 12, 2024
But first, in Sudan, where there has been an ongoing war for the last seven months, there’s fresh evidence of brutal ethnic killings in Darfur by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
On 4 November 2023, the RSF reportedly captured the Sudanese army headquarters in El-Geneina, the capital city of West Darfur, Sudan. However, following this, the RSF and other Arab militias have been accused of targeted attacks against ethnic Masalit people, including looting, raping, and murder. Chad has since received over 7,000 refugees, mostly women and children, fleeing from the large-scale violence against civilians.
Although the RSF denied these accusations, new evidence in videos, images, and eyewitness accounts prove otherwise. In the videos, members of the RSF and allied Arab militias appear to round up residents, shout racist slurs, whip, and shoot a man forced to run down the street.
People fleeing Darfur to Chad also reported to have seen the RSF forces targeting and killing non-Arabs in the region. On 5 November, the RSF raided an IDP camp at Ardamata and executed more than 30 men, according to witnesses interviewed by journalists. One witness, Mashaar Omar Ahmed, said that he had to deny being Masalit to avoid being taken away by RSF border guards.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), since the start of the war, over 4.5 million people have been displaced, and an estimated 1.2 million people have become refugees in neighboring countries. But despite interventions by the U.S. State Department and the African Union, the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have been unable to agree to a ceasefire.
Pre-colonial Africa comprised 10,000 states, each with its distinct language and customs. Some popular pre-colonial African states are the Mali Empire (13th – 16th centuries), Benin Kingdom (13th – 19th centuries) and the Nubian Kingdom (3500 BCE – 300 CE).
Members of the Johanne Marange Apostolic (JAMC) sect staunchly reject any form of medical treatment, even in the most critical instances of injury or illness. They firmly hold the belief that divine intervention, rooted in their unwavering faith, is the sole path to healing.
At 15, Catherine*, a member of the Johanne Marange Apostolic Sect (JMAC), one of an estimated 160 Apostolic sects in Zimbabwe, got married to her husband of the same faith.
Three years later, she welcomed her first child, beginning a pattern of almost yearly pregnancies.  Catherine, now 37 years old, refrained from seeking medical advice due to the gendered inequalities embedded in the doctrines of the JMAC regarding contraception.
The central tenet of the JMAC is encapsulated within their Apostolic text, known as “Umboo Utsva hwa Vapostori” (The New Revelation of the Apostles). The book is revered as a canonical addition to the Bible. According to their Apostolic book, the JMAC maintains a religious culture against the idea of contraception.
South Africa’s recognition of Sign language as an official language sets a progressive example, but across the continent, acknowledgement, training, and standards for sign language interpretation remain varied and insufficient even in countries where Sign language is officially recognised.
For 29-year-old Tapiwa Chishaka who was born deaf, his days follow the same routine. From sunrise to sunset, he walks from one bus to another on the highway, sharing laminated copies of a letter stating the bearer is deaf and therefore seeking any form of help.
He is often met with different reactions– from sympathetic to cold, and sometimes even harsh – by the bus crews and passengers. But at the end of the day, he gets something to take home.
In April 2020, Chishaka could no longer go out and could not understand why. The COVID-19 lockdown had begun, and in the ensuing panic and confusion, neither his mother nor community members could explain that the whole country had been put under a total lockdown to control the spread of the deadly virus.
Despite the July deal made between the European Union (E.U.) and Tunisia to curb illegal migration, more than 90,000 people have arrived in Italy through the Mediterranean Sea from Tunisia. Also, since the outbreak of the war in Sudan, more asylum seekers and migrants have entered Tunisia from Libya, hoping to register with the UNHCR for protection and assistance. However, these hopes are shattered as the asylum seekers are faced with registration delays and left to fend for themselves; the little aid that is provided comes from local volunteers.
Abdallah Abdallah, a 22-year-old who fled from Sudan to escape the ongoing conflict, shares that he spent three and a half years in Libya subjected to forced labor. Although he’s safer in Tunisia, his situation isn’t as different as he thought because he still has no shelter, money, or food.
Tunisia has no national asylum law or system, and thus instead allows the UNHCR to register and provide a refugee status card to asylum seekers. However, the absence of federal legislation prevents refugees from accessing work and other services, leaving them dependent on the United Nations agency, which cannot provide sustainable support.
Medical gaslighting refers to situations where medical practitioners wrongfully dismiss their patients’ complaints by convincing them their concerns aren’t valid. Unfortunately, this worsens the condition of the patients, sometimes leading to their deaths.
Unfortunately, women are disproportionately affected by this as their complaints are usually dismissed due to the gender bias that portrays women as dramatic and irrational.
Maimunah Abba has been struggling with heavy bleeding and cramps since 2019 due to an unclear diagnosis from doctors. Some of the doctors have even recommended surgery despite not knowing what’s causing her symptoms, which she declined. As a result, she has had to leave her legal practice to adjust to her health condition while still seeking the proper diagnosis and treatment.
The rise in digital transactions and instant payment platforms is helping marginalized communities, like transgender people in India, to manage their finances better and avoid discrimination.
In 2016, the Indian government began implementing policies like demonetization to boost digital transactions over cash. The 2020 pandemic helped encourage the adoption of online banking and has also spared trans people from the prejudice and discrimination they face from visiting banks.
Nonetheless, this isn’t a perfect solution as some trans people still can’t easily update their gender identity on existing bank accounts. Others find it difficult to open a new regular bank or digital payment account due to the invasive questions and cheap jokes they have to face when applying for a PAN or Aadhar card —a financial document needed to open accounts in India and for the compliance or know-your-customer (KYC) processes.
Rokhaya Diagne, a 25-year-old A.I. entrepreneur in Senegal, is part of Africa’s enormous youth population who is confident technology can solve the continent’s biggest problems.
In her early teens, Rokhaya Diagne would retreat to her brother’s room, where she played online computer games for hours daily until her mother finally got fed up. She threatened to send her to a psychiatrist if she didn’t stop with her addiction.
Her mother’s interventions worked. While Ms. Diagne’s passion for computers has, if anything, intensified, she has redirected her energies to higher pursuits than levelling up at Call of Duty. Now, her goals include using artificial intelligence to help the world eradicate malaria by 2030, a project she is focused on at her health start-up.
Features a roundup of fresh MA reports, announcements, events/workshop listings, and minority content curated from across the web.


text:
The Northern Nigerian Women Reclaiming Their Lives After Divorce - Minority Africa
Toluwani Omotesho
March 12, 2024
But first, in South Africa, where, despite the rise in xenophobic attacks, the Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, announced on November 16, 2023, that the country would be toughening its asylum and immigration laws. This news is expected to have far-reaching effects on refugees fleeing their home countries.
Motsoaledi’s proposal has been made available to the public for discussion — a standard procedure in South Africa before laws are passed — and if approved, it’ll be a significant shift from the government’s previous policy of welcoming refugees.
One of the reasons behind this proposed change is that South Africa’s current unemployment rate is estimated to be around 32%, and the latest census recorded more than 2.4 million migrants in the country. This has fed the feelings of hostility towards migrants, and officials are referring to this situation as a ticking time bomb.
However, there are also political motivations behind this proposal. The ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), hopes to “correct its mistake” during its adoption of the UN refugee convention in 1996. The UN refugee convention, also known as the Geneva Convention, is a multilateral treaty that defines who a refugee is, their rights when granted asylum, and the obligations of countries that provide asylum. In a bid to integrate post-apartheid South Africa with the rest of the world, the ANC agreed to offer refugees the same rights as its citizens — including the right to equal employment and education— unlike many other countries that opted out of these clauses.
With the increasing conflict between citizens and migrants and the upcoming elections next year, the government is unlikely to change its plans, especially as it would put the ANC in the good graces of the electorate.
Antisemitic and Anti-Muslim Hate Speech Surges Across the Internet
The world’s oldest footprints were discovered in Laetoli, Tanzania. These footprints are estimated to be over 3.6 million years old and are the oldest evidence of human ancestors walking upright(i.e., bipedal humans).
“Some people never made it out alive”: Tackling endemic trafficking in North-West Nigeria
Due to its strategic location near porous borders, the town of Ilela, Sokoto state, has become a hotspot for human trafficking. In response, various advocacy groups have emerged to combat this issue in the region, providing vital support to victims including counseling, shelter, and the crucial task of repatriation of victims to their families.
Auwal Muntari was filled with joy when three men approached his family, offering to enrol him in a secondary school in Niger Republic, which was located just across the border from his village in Ilela. It was 2017, and at the age of 17, Auwal had longed to attend a good secondary school ever since he completed primary school in 2013. Unfortunately, there were no operational secondary schools in his village, so the opportunity in Niger seemed promising. Being just a few kilometres away from his village, it felt like a viable option.
A few days later, Muntari, along with two other teenagers who had also been promised a quality education, embarked on a motorcycle journey through a bush path towards Niger. They were hopeful that the journey to the nearest town in the French-speaking country would only take a few hours, but to their surprise, it ended up taking approximately two days. Eventually, they arrived at a village where Muntari was allocated a room with seven other young men.
How Congolese women put an end to generations of economic abuse
Access to land and natural resources is essential to the survival of women in eastern DRC; yet the culture discriminates against them by denying them the right to acquire plots of land. In the Nyangezi region, around a hundred women have started to acquire land despite these barriers. They are inspiring others with their extraordinary stories.
In the Wafuliro culture, to which Joséphine Mahendwa belongs, it is a shame for a woman to go back to her parents’ house; so she resorted to moving from house to house with her three children after her husband’s death 23 years ago at Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
“My husband’s family chased me out of the house my husband had built for our children and me,” the 50-year-old Mahendwa says. “They took all the land titles, divided the house among themselves, and asked me to go back to my parents.”
Mexico’s first openly non-binary magistrate found dead at home
Jesús Ociel Baena made history a year ago when they were sworn in as the first openly nonbinary person to assume a judicial post in Mexico.
On Monday, Mx. Baena, who used they/them pronouns, and their partner were found dead inside their home, stirring calls from Mexico’s LGBTQ community to determine if the magistrate had been targeted for promoting the rights of nonbinary people. The authorities in the state of Aguascalientes, where Mx. Baena, 38, was a magistrate on the electoral court, have said that their 37-year-old partner, Dorian Herrera, appeared to have killed them with a razor blade before dying by suicide.
But LGBTQ leaders in Mexico are questioning whether such a swift assessment fits what they say is a pattern by the authorities of effectively dismissing grisly killings involving LGBTQ people as crimes of passion.
Manipur women in naked assault video ‘will not give up’
In May, the small Indian of Manipur was plunged into a state of civil war due to ethnic violence between the Meitei and Kuki. At least 130 people have been killed, 400 wounded, and more than 600,000 forced out of their homes.
Unfortunately, rape and sexual violence are being used as weapons of violence in this conflict. Six months ago, two Kuki-Zomi women, Glory and Mercy, were stripped, paraded naked, and allegedly gang raped by a mob. Their ordeal was filmed and shared online, and while the video amplified their suffering, it also became evidence of injustice because it brought attention to the ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities.
The widespread outrage that followed the release of the video compelled Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make his first statement on the violence. That was followed by the arrest of seven men who have now been charged with gang rape and murder.
The Northern Nigerian Women Reclaiming Their Lives After Divorce
Female divorcees in this part of the country are, more often than not, victims of stigmatization. Despite this, some, like Aishatu Muhammed and Rahmatu Hassan, saw divorce as a chance to rebuild their lives.
When Aishatu Muhammed was married off at age 17, she was indifferent. Her husband was a 28-year-old man whose family had a strong relationship with hers. She didn’t know much about him at the time, and they only spoke casually before their wedding.
Aishatu lived most of her life in Akko Local Government Area (LGA) of Gombe State in North East Nigeria. But life after divorce would soon push her back to the northwestern Kaduna State.
Ethiopian artist Julie Mehretu breaks African art-world record again
US-based Ethiopian Julie Mehretu has again broken the record for the highest sale price of any work by an African-born artist at auction. On Wednesday, her abstract painting Walkers With the Dawn and Morning fetched $10.7m (£8.6m) at Sotheby’s in New York. The piece features ink and acrylic on canvas and takes its name from a 1920s Langston Hughes poem.
Mehretu, 52, was born in Ethiopia and moved with her family to the US in 1977 during political strife. She has since become one of the most prominent names in the fast-growing contemporary African art world.
Features a roundup of fresh MA reports, announcements, events/workshop listings, and minority content curated from across the web.


text:
‘Stop killing us!’: Thousands march to protest against femicide in Kenya - Minority Africa
Toluwani Omotesho
March 13, 2024
But first in Sri Lanka, where hundreds of refugees and asylum workers are facing fear and uncertainty about their future, following news of the UNHCR shutting down operations in the country this year.
For years, Sri Lanka has been home to hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers; according to the UNHCR, there are about 567 refugees and 224 asylum seekers who are mostly Pakistanis. However, Sri Lanka isn’t a member country of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and the 1967 protocol, so it has no domestic laws to help guide its actions towards refugees or asylum seekers.
As a result, this has made it a way station for refugees while the UNHCR processes applications for their resettlement to other countries. Refugees and asylum seekers are legally barred from working in Sri Lanka, so they’ve had to depend on allowances from the UNHCR to cover their rent, food, and other basic needs. Scholarships are also provided to fund the education of many children. However, these allowances and scholarships were scrapped in December due to the UNHCR’s plans to close its office in Columbo and maintain only a liaison presence from 2025.
The rationale behind this move is that most displaced people from the Sri Lanka civil war have returned to their native places. Still, many refugees and asylum seekers worry that this opens them up to deportation amidst the already dwindling hopes of survival without the UNHCR’s financial support.
To address these concerns, the UNHCR has promised to collaborate with Sri Lankan authorities to safeguard the rights and interests of refugees. Nonetheless, many human rights activists advocate for establishing domestic laws guaranteeing refugees and asylum seekers access to basic rights like shelter and education.
‘Stop killing us!’: Thousands march to protest against femicide in Kenya

CNN
‘We are dying slowly:’ Palestinians are eating grass and drinking polluted water as famine looms across Gaza
Did you know that Madagascar produces about 80% of the world’s vanilla? It’s often referred to as the vanilla capital of the world.
Edwin Chiloba, my first love
On January 4, 2023, Edwin’s body was found stashed in a metal box along the Kipkenyo-Kaptinga road in Kenya. Maybe, as is alleged, the murder of Edwin was a case of intimate partner violence. However, the events that led to his death cannot be divorced from homophobia.
When I first met him, there would have been no way to know that years later, I – and the world – would lose him so tragically. Due to the long wait at the bus terminal at our initial meeting, I was already irritated when he stepped out of the bus.
He stood at 6’2”, wearing a shirt with fur-like imprints on the collar, straightened black trousers and heels a few inches tall. He was a breathtaking figure and a sight that easily made me forget the hours of waiting.
I had little time for pleasantries as I was meant to travel to the countryside on a night bus that same day so we took the first tuk-tuk to my place, a humble bedsitter with a bed, cooking gas and a few utensils, where I fixed us supper before heading out to get the bus to Nairobi then try to get another bus to the countryside.
Mainstream breastfeeding discourse has nothing to do with women. And everything to do with patriarchy
Alternatives to breastfeeding like wet nurses have existed since 18th century France where 90% of babies were breastfed by women who were not their mothers. Today, millennial African women are not given the freedom to choose.
I introduced formula milk to my second son’s diet when he was five months old. I did this because I had a very busy schedule that kept me away from him for many hours during the day.
While I was thrilled that supplementing breast milk with formula kept my son full and happy throughout the day, I was constantly bombarded with questions from people I knew and even strangers.
Why are you not breastfeeding exclusively? Isn’t it too early to introduce the boy to formula? Do you even know what is in the formula?
Many of these people considered it appropriate to probe me in this manner. It left me feeling like a failure and with an ongoing question on my mind: why does society interrogate and scrutinize the actions of mothers and women generally, in a way that it does not do to fathers?
A life in Fear: The dangers of finding love online as a queer woman living in Nigeria
Izzy was feeling hopeful about the year ahead. It was January 2010, and she was about to meet a woman she’d been chatting with online for a few weeks.
She took her time getting ready, choosing to wear jeans and a button-down shirt to look casual yet, hopefully, impressive.
Her date had been pestering her to meet for some time, she remembered, but she had wanted to wait. “I was happy we were finally meeting physically,” Izzy recalled.
The two women had initially planned to meet in a public place, but her date changed the venue at the last minute, saying it would be more comfortable and safer to meet in her home in the Ogba neighborhood of Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos.
When the then-20-year-old arrived, she was welcomed in and told to relax. Her date, Izzy remembered, made some food and served drinks, and the women began to connect. But something felt off.
France: Migrant Children Sleep in the Street in Marseille
The French department of Bouches-du-Rhône, which includes Marseille, France’s second-largest city, is failing to provide unaccompanied migrant children the protections they need and to which they are entitled, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 70-page report, “‘Not the France I Imagined’: Housing, Health, and Education for Unaccompanied Migrant Children in Marseille,” finds that Marseille’s child protection authorities are leaving children with health needs on the street without treatment, psychosocial support, or follow-up care.
Half of unaccompanied migrant children who face an age assessment in Marseille are denied formal recognition as a child. Yet, those decisions are overturned for nearly 75 percent of those who file an appeal. Review by the courts can take months or even years, leaving children ineligible for emergency accommodation and services such as legal assistance, the appointment of a guardian, universal health protection, and education.
How new anti-LGBTQ+ bills in Africa expand crackdown on rights
Despite the decriminalization of same-sex relations in Mauritius in 2023, rights groups warn that new laws being considered in several African countries risk eroding LGBTQIA+ rights by creating new offenses and targeting new groups.
Many of the new bills resemble Uganda’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act, which was signed into law last May and which includes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”
Sexual minorities in the East African nation say they have faced a wave of abuse since then, with a prominent LGBTQIA+ rights activist stabbed in an attack in January.
In a January report, Amnesty International described a “barrage of discriminatory laws stoking hate against LGBTI persons” in some African countries.
Here’s what you need to know.
Gene Therapy Allows an 11-Year-Old Boy to Hear for the First Time
The genetic treatment targeted a particular kind of congenital deafness and will soon be tried in children who are younger.
Aissam Dam, an 11-year-old boy, grew up in a world of profound silence. He was born deaf and had never heard anything. While living in a poor community in Morocco, he expressed himself with a sign language he invented and had no schooling.
Last year, after moving to Spain, his family took him to a hearing specialist, who made a surprising suggestion: Aissam might be eligible for a clinical trial using gene therapy.
On Oct. 4, Aissam was treated at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, becoming the first person to get gene therapy in the United States for congenital deafness. The goal was to provide him with hearing, but the researchers had no idea if the treatment would work or, if it did, how much he would hear.
The treatment was a success, introducing a child who had known nothing of sound to a new world.
Features a roundup of fresh MA reports, announcements, events/workshop listings, and minority content curated from across the web.


text:
Most Birth Control Measures Still Not Made Safe For Women. Why? - Minority Africa
Toluwani Omotesho
March 13, 2024
But first, in Sudan, there has been a collapse of internet connectivity amid the brutal 10-month civil war.
According to Netblocks, an internet monitoring firm, there has been a complete shutdown of internet and phone networks since Friday, February 2, 2024. It started with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seizing control of internet service providers’ (ISP) data centers in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital city. This resulted in the total shutdown of MTN Sudan, Zain Sudan, and Sudani, which are the major ISPs in the country, disconnecting about 14 million people from the internet.
Since the outbreak of the ongoing civil war, 8 million Sudanese have been forcibly displaced, and nearly 18 million are currently experiencing food insecurity. The recent internet blackout only further poses severe challenges for citizens as access to humanitarian aid will become more complex. Also, people cannot access lifesaving information, healthcare, or banking services, making them unable to flee the conflict or travel to safe zones.
Unfortunately, Sudan has a track record of shutting down the internet during civil unrest to control the flow of information. In 2022, internet access was cut off on at least four different occasions during protests after the military coup in 2021. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have decided to remain silent regarding the recent internet blackout.
However, in the meantime, human rights organizations and a non-profit Sudanese Organization, Digital Rights Lab, are working to end the disruption of internet access across the country.
Over 500,000 Displaced Sudanese Flee To South Sudan Seeking Refuge
‘My search for intimacy led me to chemsex, now I’m trying to regain control’
Did you know Ghana was the African country to gain independence from colonial rule in 1957? This paved the way for other African nations in the struggle for independence.
Formal education is a farce for blind and visually impaired people in Cameroon
Cameroon’s formal education system is keeping out blind and visually impaired students, and it doesn’t stop there.
In 2016, when I enrolled in university to study journalism and mass communication, my very first class ended on a very poor note. The lecturer told me that journalism, my program of choice, was not for blind people like me and that I was the first blind student in the university’s almost three-decade history. He said that my decision to study was a “mere waste of time” and that I was becoming a “burden to people’s children.”
I have been aware of how difficult it is for blind and visually impaired people to get a formal education for most of my life. Some of this was due to the narrative government officials created that providing accessible education for people with visual disabilities is a waste of resources. Most of it, however, was that while in school in Cameroon myself, I would come to experience this firsthand.
What can African history teach us about queer belonging?
Framing conversations about queerness around the modernity of first-world nations and their global influence does a poor job of recognizing the ancientness of queer identities and how they often manifested all around the world in pre-colonial societies.
From the 1960s to the early 1980s, Ukonu’s Club was hailed as Eastern Nigeria’s most popular television program. The show featured a variety of entertainers like Mazi Ukonu, the show’s namesake, and Christy Essien. In the 1970s, one unique entertainer made a name for themselves on the show, an individual by the name of Area Scatter.
The story of Area Scatter begins sometime during the Civil War, when Scatter, previously a civil servant, disappears into the forest and emerges seven months and seven days later as a well-endowed woman. Per their admission, the gods had blessed them with supernatural powers that enhanced their musical talent and feminine qualities.
Three People in Russia Have Already Been Charged for Displaying Rainbows
Three people in Russia have been charged for displaying rainbow symbols in public after the country’s Supreme Court issued a draconian ruling last November declaring that the “international public LGBT movement” is an “extremist organization.” These are the first convictions following the ruling, as Reuters reported.
On Monday, artist and photographer Inna Mosina was hit with a ₽1,500 ($16 USD) fine for Instagram posts featuring rainbow flags, according to the Associated Press. Although Mosina’s legal team argued that the posts were published before the November ruling took effect, the court ordered her to pay the fine regardless.
This incident follows a pair of convictions last week. Last Thursday, a court in Volgograd charged a man who had posted a photograph of an LGBTQ+ flag with “displaying the symbols of an extremist organization,” ordering him to pay a fine of 1,000 rubles (roughly $11 USD), according to Reuters.
The Taliban and the Global Backlash Against Women’s Rights
The crisis in Afghanistan has largely disappeared from the news. It was pushed aside by the war in Ukraine and the humiliation and fatigue of Western countries whose twenty years of military and civilian intervention ended in dust and defeat. As a new war unfolds in the Middle East, Afghans do not have the option just to move on and forget—for women and girls in particular, life under the Taliban involves ever-deepening misery.
In the more than two years since seizing control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have carried out a relentless and all-encompassing attack on the human rights of women and girls, violating virtually every aspect of these rights.
Afghan women are putting their lives on the line—facing surveillance, harassment, assault, arbitrary detention, torture, and exile—to oppose Taliban abuses. They deserve the international community’s full solidarity in their struggle. But the world should also stand with them because the events in Afghanistan—and the world’s response—have deep implications for gender equality everywhere.
Most Birth Control Measures Still Not Made Safe For Women. Why?
The pain 27-year-old Ramatu Adam* experienced during the insertion of her Intrauterine device (IUD) in 2023 was so overwhelming that she passed out. Not even the painkillers, including the local anesthesia spray, helped. She still struggled months later.
An IUD is a T-shaped device placed inside the uterus to help prevent pregnancies. Even though they are reported to have a 99 percent efficacy rate and need a specialist to put them in place, making them safer than some birth control methods, they sometimes come with side effects such as cramps, clotting, headaches, anemia, and ovarian cysts. Ramatu lived her entire life in Kaduna, Northwest Nigeria before she moved to the UK in 2021.
“I was told to go [to the hospital] with someone, so I went with my husband. I experienced cramps, which they warned me about, and bled on and off for more than two months.”
At first, Ramatu thought it was because she had an existing medical condition, uterine fibroid, which limited her options, but the experiences she later heard about IUD insertions from some women were similar, even though not all women go through that pain during the procedure.
A Graphic Novel Finds a Relatable Hero in a Modern African Woman
One of the most successful African comics has no super heroes, and certainly no supernatural powers.
Instead, “Aya,” a graphic novel series, is full of everyday heroes, and topping the list is Aya herself, a young woman navigating the delights and obstacles of early adulthood in the West African nation of Ivory Coast.
Inspired by the childhood years that its author, Marguerite Abouet, spent in Ivory Coast and focused on daily life in a working-class suburb of Abidjan, the country’s largest city, the series mixes humor and biting takes on society, with a feminist twist — all vividly captured by Clément Oubrerie, the illustrator.
In the books, Aya and her friends go on awkward first dates, hook up and share countless shenanigans that celebrate Ivory Coast’s favorite sport after soccer — “palabrer,” or talking endlessly.
Features a roundup of fresh MA reports, announcements, events/workshop listings, and minority content curated from across the web.


text:
Nigeria: Ending Sexual Abuse In IDP Camps - Minority Africa
Toluwani Omotesho
April 19, 2024
But first, in Nigeria, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) closed down a KFC branch in Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, over the alleged discrimination against a passenger with reduced mobility (PRM).
On Thursday, March 28, 2024, Adebola Daniel, on social media, shared that while trying to wait for his flight at the KFC outlet of the airport, he was ordered by the manager to leave because of his wheelchair. According to the manager, wheelchairs weren’t allowed in the fast food restaurant, much to the disbelief of Adebola and his family.
Despite multiple attempts by his family and other witnesses to appeal to the manager’s good nature, she insisted it was the restaurant’s policy to bar wheelchair users.
As expected, the post sparked social media outrage, catching the attention of FAAN, who launched an investigation leading to the closure of the KFC branch. This is in line with the Lagos State law on People with Special Needs, Part C, section 55 of General Provisions on Discrimination, which states that “A person shall not deprive another person of access to any place, vehicle or facility that members of the public are entitled to enter or use on the basis of the disability of that person.” The airport authority has ordered the fast food chain to tender an apology in writing to Adebola and display a non-discrimination policy as a condition for reopening.
While FAAN can be lauded for its quick response, they’re not entirely blameless. Adebola wanted to wait for his flight at the KFC outlet because the lift to the airport’s lounge has been out of service for the past three years, indicating the nationwide problem of a lack of maintenance culture. It’s crucial for all institutions to proactively ensure accessibility for everyone to create a functioning society where everyone can fully participate and thrive regardless of their abilities.
India says new law saves persecuted refugees. Rohingya ask ‘Why not us?’
‘Over my dead body’, say Gambian mothers amid efforts to lift FGM ban
Namibia’s efforts at curbing sexual and gender based violence remain ineffective without the inclusion of LGBT persons
In Namibia, there is a high incidence of sexual- and gender-based violence (SGBV) targeting women. According to official statistics, more than 5,000 GBV and 700 cases of rape were reported in 2020 and 2021 in the country. However, people in same-sex relationships are often not included in these statistics, suggesting that it might even be higher.
These incidents, therefore, go unreported because of the stigma involved around being lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT). Just recently, former Mr Gay Namibia, 41-year-old Wendelinus Hamutenya, who was stabbed several times by his husband in November 2021, highlighted how LGBT persons refrain from reporting their abusers to the police for fear of backlash.
There currently exist no constitutional or legal protections for LGBT persons and, therefore, same-sex relationships are not recognized. There is also a sodomy law that criminalizes anal sex between two men, which stems from the South African colonial period (1915 – 1990). This was informed by a misogynistic (and colonial) culture that viewed sexual or romantic relations between men suspiciously. That this law still exists points to existing misogynistic attitudes that prevail even after the end of apartheid and colonialism.
When Jamiu Jubril, 23, gained admission to study English at a university in north-central Nigeria, he knew little of the uphill task he was about to embark on for the next four years. Being a blind student, the journey was steeper than initially envisaged and on many occasions, he was broken.
“My passion was to go to school and study English. It kept ringing in my head even when it seemed impossible,’’ Jubril tells Minority Africa.
The ‘impossible’ he refers to is the reality of the Nigerian education system for many visually impaired students. A major hurdle Jubril had to overcome was getting his hands on accessible format copies to make learning possible for him.
“In the department of English, in any school, you will be given a lot of books to read… which include novels, plays and poems and even course materials. A lot of books are usually prescribed and they are all in hard copies. They were all inaccessible to me,” he says.
Only 1 – 7% of the world’s published books make it into accessible formats and in Nigeria, disability rights activists estimate this number to be less than 1%. Conversion of books into accessible digital formats for visually impaired people is illegal according to extant copyright laws in the West African country.
Sexual minorities in South Korea are still struggling to be accepted in a society that remains conservative and strongly influenced by traditional Confucianist attitudes.
A new study has indicated that most South Koreans do not want to live alongside anyone identifying as LGBTQ+, while Seoul officials have recently blocked a queer culture festival.
“South Korean society is unique in that while the country had an economy that developed very quickly after the Korean War, the nation’s spiritual values, and especially perceptions towards sexuality, have lagged far behind,” said Jung Cueri, a 36-year-old lesbian woman who lives in Seoul and is involved in organizing the annual Seoul Queer Culture Festival.
Jung believes post-war assistance from the US helped the economy and made Koreans of that generation envious of developed countries, marginalizing values such as justice, equality, human rights and the concept of fairness among citizens.
“In that process, the rights of minorities, such as women, people with disabilities and foreigners, were relegated to being of less importance,” she told DW, adding: “And as a result, it is no secret that gender conflicts are playing out in Korean society today, and the same is true for LGBTQ+ issues.”
Afghanistan: Teen girls despair as Taliban school ban continues
Teenage Afghan girls have told the BBC they feel “mentally dead” as the Taliban’s ban on their education prevents them from returning to school once again.
More than 900 days have now passed since girls over 12 were first banned.
The Taliban have repeatedly promised they would be readmitted once a number of issues were resolved – including ensuring the curriculum was “Islamic”. But they have made little comment as a third new school year started without teenage girls in class this week.
The BBC has asked the Taliban’s education minister for an explanation, but he has so far not responded. The Taliban’s chief spokesman told local TV there had been “some problems and shortcomings for different reasons” in getting the ban lifted.
According to Unicef, the ban has now impacted some 1.4m Afghan girls – among them, former classmates Habiba, Mahtab and Tamana, who spoke to the BBC last year.
The hope they described 12 months ago is still there, but seems to have dwindled.
Nigeria: Ending sexual abuse in IDP camps
TW: This article includes accounts of rape and physical assault
Having escaped attacks by violent criminals and armed gangs known as bandits in their villages, many displaced women and girls in Nigeria are now facing a new challenge.
Sexual harassment is rife in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) across northern Nigeria — mostly when it comes to access to food or money. With little protection, IDPs are also at risk of being kidnapped by bandits and jihadists.
A bloody conflict between the army and jihadist groups, including Boko Haram, has been raging in Nigeria since 2009. It is estimated that more than 40,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million more displaced — 80% of whom are women and children who live in government-registered or unregistered camps for IDPs.
Amina Rabo, who lives in an unofficial camp in the northern Nigerian city of Katsina, fled her village after it was attacked by bandits. Since arriving there, Amina says she has suffered various forms of violence. Apart from sexual harassment, she also lives with the fear of being kidnapped.
Thai parliament passes same-sex marriage bill
Thailand’s lower house of parliament passed on Wednesday a bill that would legalize same-sex unions in the country. The text still needs the Senate’s approval and the king’s endorsement to become law.
Thailand has one of the most open LGBTQ communities in Asia, but activists have said Thai conservative laws do not represent the community despite the changing social attitudes in the country. However, the bill was passed by an overwhelming majority of the 415 lawmakers present, with 10 votes against.
“We did this for all Thai people to reduce disparity in society and start creating equality,” Danuphorn Punnakanta, chairman of the parliamentary committee on the draft bill, told lawmakers ahead of the reading.
“I want to invite you all to make history.” Almost all of Thailand’s major parties supported the bill.
“Today society has proved to us that they care about LGBT rights,” Tunyawaj Kamolwongwat, a member of the progressive Move Forward Party which has pushed for LGBTQ rights, told the French AFP news agency.
“Now we finally have the same rights as others.”
Features a roundup of fresh MA reports, announcements, events/workshop listings, and minority content curated from across the web.