Demonstrators in North Okkalapa flee under fire, and junta units raid striking rail workers’ district
Police in Myanmar have surrounded and arrested at least 200 students and civilians protesting against the military coup on the outskirts of Yangon, according to witnesses who said those detained were driven away in unmarked trucks.
Video footage from North Okkalapa showed protesters fleeing under fire. At least one person appeared to be seriously wounded.
Continue reading...Concealing candidates’ surnames in the ultra-competitive civil service exam would help to overcome caste prejudice, report urges
The exam is considered to be the country’s toughest – about a million people sit it every year vying for only a thousand or so vacancies in India’s hallowed civil service. Now a report suggests that it would be much fairer if all the candidates’ surnames were kept secret throughout the application process, as about 90% of Indian surnames reveal a person’s caste.
Candidates’ names are currently concealed, along with their religion, when they sit the written tests. But after the exam, the names of those who qualify for the final interview stage are used. And this, according to the report, scuppers the chances of Dalits, the lowest Hindu caste once called “untouchables”, because of the innate bias of interviewers.
Continue reading...Bajrang Dal hardliners in Madhya Pradesh threaten violence over plays ‘disrespectful to the Indian flag’
Rightwing Hindu vigilante groups in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have forced the cancellation of an annual theatre festival, after threatening violence over satirical plays they accused of being “anti-national”.
The annual theatre festival organised by the Indian People’s Theatre Association in the small town of Chhatarpur became the object of abuse and violent threats by Bajrang Dal, a hardline Hindu group linked with the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP).
Continue reading...Largest such study finds domestic violence experienced by one-in-four teenage girls with worst levels faced by women in their 30s
One in four women and girls around the world have been physically or sexually assaulted by a husband or male partner, according to the largest study yet of the prevalence of violence against women.
The report, conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN partners, found that domestic violence started young, with a quarter of 15- to 19-year-old girls and young women estimated to have been abused at least once in their lives. The highest rates were found to be among 30- to 39-year-olds.
Continue reading...A wide range of issues affecting women, from abortion rights to femicide, were highlighted at rallies and events for International Women’s Day on 8 March
Continue reading...Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng is photographed begging armed police officers not to shoot ‘the children’
Kneeling before them in the dust of a northern Myanmar city, Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng begged a group of heavily armed police officers to spare “the children” and take her life instead.
The image of the Catholic nun in a simple white habit, her hands spread, pleading with the forces of the country’s new junta as they prepared to crack down on a protest, has gone viral and won her praise in the majority-Buddhist country.
Continue reading...Prevented from travelling abroad by the Covid pandemic, locals are instead visiting the magnificent glaciers of the Tian Shan mountain range near Kazakhstan’s biggest city, Almaty
Continue reading...Government blamed for not ensuring safety as broadcaster’s female staff told to stay home after attacks by Isis
A radio and television broadcaster in eastern Afghanistan that has had four of its female employees murdered since December has said it will not hire any more women until security in the country improves.
The broadcaster, Enikass Radio and Television, has also told all female employees to work from home. Islamic State (Isis) has claimed responsibility for killing all four women, but Enikass also blames the Afghan government for not providing adequate security.
Continue reading...Multiple women at Natchi Apparels have reported abuse weeks after 21-year-old worker was allegedly killed by her supervisor
Women in India making children’s clothes for H&M have spoken out about widespread sexual violence they claim to have faced at one of the company’s suppliers in India.
The allegations come just weeks after the body of Jeyasre Kathiravel, a 21-year-old Dalit garment worker, was found in a field close to her family home after she failed to return from her shift at the Natchi Apparels factory in Tamil Nadu.
Continue reading...Hundreds of anti-coup protesters were 'barricaded' by Myanmar security forces in apartment buildings in Yangon on Monday, the UN secretary-general said, calling for their release 'without violence or arrests'.
The police and military have responded with an increasingly brutal crackdown on demonstrators protesting the military coup in February. More than 50 people have been killed and nearly 1,800 arrested.
Continue reading...Police target outlet after hospitals stormed on Sunday night amid call for strike in protest at coup
Myanmar security forces have raided the Yangon offices of a local media outlet as the ruling junta widens its efforts to suppress opposition to the coup it carried out more than a month ago.
Soldiers and police on Monday evening raided the headquarters of Myanmar Now, a news outlet that regularly scrutinises the Tatmadaw, or military, seizing computers, part of the newsroom’s data server and other equipment, a representative of the outlet said.
Continue reading...Healthcare is focus of event to mark International Women’s Day, as organisers say pandemic has led to setbacks in rights
A march during the time of Covid is a difficult thing to plan safely. For Pakistan’s women, determined to have their “Aurat March” today, there are other risks – to their physical safety as well as of online abuse and trolling.
Noor is an organiser for this year’s masked nationwide rallies. She said she could not give her surname for fear of reprisals over her work.
Continue reading...Building and repair ban had turned Dal Lake into graveyard for sinking boats even before coronavirus and Delhi crackdown
Ghulam Nabi Butt may be 90 years old, but he has never forgotten the three days that George Harrison came to stay on his houseboat in October 1966.
It was here, on one of Butt’s first historic Clermont houseboats moored on the northern bank of Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir, that the Beatles lead guitarist met the Indian musician and composer Ravi Shankar and was taught to play the sitar – marking the beginning of an musical collaboration that would last decades.
Continue reading...The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has proposed a series of steps to help restart stalled peace talks between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban, according to a letter from Blinken to President Ashraf Ghani published on Sunday by Afghanistan‘s TOLONews.
Related: Afghans dread the ‘danger hours’ as fragile gains of 20 years slip away
Continue reading...Former Israeli spy says generals have been ‘misunderstood’ as police continue to fire on protesters
Accused of crimes against humanity, an illegal government takeover and gunning down protesters, Myanmar’s military is seeking to rebrand itself in foreign capitals, recruiting a former Israeli military intelligence official turned lobbyist with a record defending controversial clients.
Ari Ben-Menashe, a Tehran-born, Israeli-Canadian lobbyist, was hired by the Tatmadaw this week to “assist in explaining the real situation in the country”, according to a consultancy agreement reported by Foreign Lobby, an outlet that tracks foreign government influence operations in Washington.
Continue reading...Christine Schraner Burgener says UN must put junta ‘on notice’ and stand with people of Myanmar
Myanmar security forces used teargas and stun grenades to break up protests in Yangon on Saturday as a meeting of the UN security council was urged to take action to stop the killing of civilians.
Myanmar has been plunged into turmoil since the military overthrew and detained the country’s elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi on 1 February, with daily protests against the coup and strikes that have choked business and paralysed administration.
Continue reading...A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Colombia to the Sahara
Continue reading...Satellite photographs of protesters, demonstrations, troops, and street art show the extent of the resistance to the military coup
Continue reading...Sharad Arvind Bobde faces calls to resign over remarks to government technician about schoolgirl
India’s top judge is facing calls to resign after telling an accused rapist to marry his schoolgirl victim to avoid jail.
More than 5,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the chief justice Sharad Arvind Bobde quit after he told the government technician at a hearing: “If you want to marry [her] we can help you. If not, you lose your job and go to jail.”
Continue reading...Witnesses shaken by brutality of security forces but remain resolute in fighting military coup
Early on Wednesday morning, the protests building in North Okkalapa, in Yangon, Myanmar, seemed peaceful. “I saw around three or four police officers along the road, but it was calm,” said Khin, who like all demonstrators the Guardian spoke to asked not to give her real name. Onlookers cheered as the crowds passed.
About 1,000 people, she estimated, had joined the march. Many had turned out in the hope that they would put pressure on police resources, and in forcing them to spread more thinly would protect demonstrators elsewhere in the city. After weeks of defiant mass protests opposing the military coup, the security forces were using increasing violence, including live ammunition, to break up rallies.
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