An article dated on May 8, 2016 in the South China Morning Post claims that discrimination against women in Hong Kong who are pregnant or are new mothers is actually worse than what had been reported by government officials (Carvalho, 2016). Women’s advocates dispute the claims by the government’s Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) which has stated that over a six-year period 40 percent of all sexual discrimination complaints were filed for Pregnancy Discrimination.
Advocates argue the numbers are actually higher because women in Hong Kong tend to be shy and avoid controversy. They also argue that the EOC numbers are also skewed because of the bureaucracy involved in filing discrimination complaints which women feel would only bring harm to their babies. But, for those who decide to file a complaint their experiences are reportedly unsuccessful because employers are said to have more influence on EOC decision makers than do women.
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The Citizen, an independent online news source in India, reported that Pakistan has banned an article written by an Egyptian-American journalist and woman’s rights advocate on the subject of women and sexuality. The article written by journalist Mona Eltahawy was to have been published in the Pakistani newspaper the Express Tribune, but instead what appeared in the paper was a blank space. Eltahawy argued that such censorship exposes Pakistan’s discrimination against women.
A representative of the Express Tribune stated the newspaper could not ‘afford to publish such controversial articles about Islam’ (The Citizen Bureau, 2016). The article also reports of the backlash in Pakistan after a documentary on honor killings had won an Academy Award. The complaints about the film were focused on how Pakistan was viewed by the rest of the world, regardless of the country being one of the most conservative of Muslim nations that does not grant equal rights and protections to females.
- Carvalho,’R. (2016, May 8). Discrimination against pregnant women and new mothers in Hong Kong ‘worse than figures show’. Retrieved from http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1942142/discrimination-against-pregnant-women-and-new-mothers-hong
- The Citizen Bureau. (2016, May 11). Pakistan bans article on Muslim women and sexuality. Retrieved from http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/OldNewsPage/?Id=7661&Pakistan/Bans/Article/On/Muslim/Women/And/Sexuality
