Hijab pressures, LGBTQ rights, 'antifeminists': the challenges Asian women, gender minorities faced in 2022

From hijab-burning protests in Iran to faltering progress on LGBTQ issues, 2022 has presented ongoing challenges for women and gender minorities in Asia.

But this year also saw women breaking barriers: Malaysia had a number of women shaking up a political scene historically saturated by men, and, across Asia, women continue to do their part in addressing traditional and emerging security issues through peacebuilding - despite the importance of their efforts often going unrecognised.

Here is a look at some of This Week in Asia's coverage of gender-related issues that made headlines across the region this past year.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

All eyes were on Iran as hijab-burning protests spread nationwide over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, following her arrest by Tehran's notorious morality police.

Amini died on September 16, days after being urgently hospitalised following her arrest by police over alleged violations of Iran's Islamic dress law while visiting relatives in Tehran.

The protests grew into one of the most significant challenges to Iran's theocracy since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, with at least 475 people killed and 18,000 detained.

What followed was a deadly crackdown by police and the ongoing persecution and execution of detainees convicted for their alleged involvement in the protests.

Thousands of kilometres away in Indonesia, pressures to don the hijab also exist. This Week in Asia spoke to women from the country's different cultural groups who have vowed to preserve their traditions in the face of rising Islamic conservatism.

While some women are standing their ground, others have succumbed to the pressures of Islamic modesty rules. Some female Javanese dancers for example, have resorted to modifying their usual garments, which often feature bare shoulders and unencumbered heads.

Despite most people from the Javanese ethnic group being Muslim, the hijab is not a mandatory cultural garment for women.

Therein lies the conflict, which has left many women fighting to fortify their sense of cultural identity in the face of rising Islamic conservatism in the Muslim-majority country.

The electoral win in March for Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea's new president, came as a disappointment to many women in the country who feared his rule would be a step back for gender equality in the country.

Women's rights activists labelled the 61-year-old former prosecutor general a misogynist for his rejection of evidence of systemic discrimination against women and his suggestion that feminism is to blame for the country's low birth rate.

Yoon's 'antifeminism' stance was further criticised when he pledged to scrap the country's gender equality ministry.

His win - although by a narrow margin - intensified fears that young men in the country want to increasingly exclude women and feel threatened in the job market and in their social lives by growing women's rights activism.

Malaysia's general election in November highlighted another issue: the lack of women represented in the country's political sphere.

In the hotly contested ballot, women made up a mere 13.5 per cent of the 1,386 candidates on the ballot - a far cry from the 30 per cent figure that Malaysian leaders had committed to.

Experts told This Week in Asia that Malaysia's patriarchal political culture sidelines women, and as a result, the representation of females in parliament is still lacking.

But last month's election also saw a number of female candidates from diverse backgrounds vying for seats, including Noraishah Mydin Abdul-Aziz, a 47-year old activist with spina bifida wanting to give voice to those with disabilities, and Siti Rahayu Baharin, an educator pushing to provide access to school for the country's underprivileged children.

In a major step forward for LGBTQ rights in Vietnam, the country's health ministry said in August that "homosexuality cannot be 'cured', does not need 'to be cured' and cannot be changed".

It urged its medical professionals to be "respectful" of gender and sexual orientation after receiving reports of doctors claiming they could treat gender minorities.

Meanwhile, in a milestone for LGBTQ rights in Singapore, lawmakers voted in November to decriminalise gay sex.

However, they also voted to amend the constitution to maintain the status-quo definition of marriage, which prevents legal challenges to the current definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.

Top Islamic scholars in Indonesia urged Jakarta not to follow the lead of neighbouring countries in decriminalising gay sex.

A spokesman from the influential Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) said that the LGBTQ community is condemned by all six state-recognised religions, even though homosexuality is not illegal in the country.

Many in Indonesia - especially the older generation - continue to view same-sex relationships as deviant, and observers say that the nation's acceptance of marginalised sexual communities may be complicated by attitudes within this demographic.

In a series earlier this month, This Week in Asia explored the role of women in peacebuilding efforts and security across the region.

The series came on the back of Asean's official launch of its Regional Plan of Action on Women, Peace, and Security on December 5.

One such woman making a difference is Connie Dumato, who, with her daughter, Princess, devotes her time to conflict mediation and advocacy work in the southern Philippines, an area long plagued by poverty, insurgencies and endemic violence.

In Indonesia, This Week in Asia spoke to Nisfi Lailatin. As a teenager, her life was turned upside down when she was groomed by an extremist Muslim group - one which she described as specifically targeting women.

Now 22, Nisfi shared the story of her path to deradicalisation with support from her uncle, amid a trend showing a rise in the number of women in extremist groups. Despite this, however, experts say that women are also playing some important roles in preventing and responding to violent extremism in their communities.

In conflict-hit south Thailand, female community leaders have taken the lead in providing support and training for women and young people grappling with the impacts of endemic violence, poverty, drug trafficking and the pandemic.

Provinces in southern Thailand along the border with Malaysia have long-endured an insurgency, and attacks in recent months have deepened a dispute that has pitted the Thai government against groups seeking greater autonomy in the region.

Advocates say that women are key to resolving conflict in the deep south, but they are still sidelined from the peace and security decision-making process.

Thai businesswoman and transgender rights activist Jakapong "Anne" Jakrajutatip became the first woman to own the Miss Universe beauty pageant after a US$20 million acquisition in October.

Jakapong, the CEO and biggest shareholder of JKN Global Group Pcl (JKN) wants to use the event to inspire women like her and boost tourism.

"It's a universal platform ... I can become the aspiration for so many people, in particular women, LGBTQ, so they can transform," she told Reuters.

The celebrity media tycoon has been outspoken about her experience as a transgender woman in Thailand and has set up advocacy groups to support the right to dignity and opportunities for transgender people.

Jakapong also hopes that Thailand can host the pageant every few years and further promote tourism - a major driver of the Thai economy.

Specialists and support workers found that social media platforms have been failing women "systematically", with online sexual harassment and violence growing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

One such form of abuse is image-based - when someone shares, or threatens to share, intimate images without the consent of those featured.

The statistics are worrying: a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a US-headquartered non-profit organisation focusing on disrupting online hate and misinformation, showed that Instagram did not act on 90 per cent of abuse sent via direct messages (DMs).

Experts say that the report revealed the problematic nature of the systems and processes of social media platforms, and how they are being used to exacerbate abuse.

Much more needs to be done by social media and chat apps to make changes to how they operate and counter what the CCDH describes as an "epidemic of misogynist abuse" faced by women online.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.