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Women and gender

Women and gender
News and analysis on women's rights, the gender gap, LGBTQ issues, sexual harassment, sexual minorities and masculinity in Asia and beyond.
A young family at the promenade of West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong, on September 18. Photo: Elson Li
Hong Kong economy

Opinion | Raising Hong Kong’s birth rate is an economic imperative

Economies competing in an AI-driven future will need more highly skilled workers, not fewer. Low fertility is not only a social challenge – it’s an economic threat.

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Africa

Morocco’s king appoints El Mansouri as first woman prime minister

France

Eiffel Tower chief to step down over removal of women staff for Hindu group visit

Hong Kong society

Economist formally apologises for ‘sexist’ talk as students urge suspension

Terence Chong says he failed to consider choice of words and setting, as Chinese University of Hong Kong students and alumni demand action.

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Terence Chong has posted a formal apology for remarks during a New Asia College assembly talk criticised as “sexist”. Photo: Jelly Tse
India

‘Law enforcement failure’: India’s top court urges accountability over rapes

Over 80 rapes are reported across the nation each day. Last month, a teenager said she was gang-raped in a bus by the driver ‌and conductor.

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Universities in Hong Kong

Opinion | A Hong Kong professor’s sexist views have been laid bare. That’s good

Students speaking up against an academic’s reductionist analysis of love and marriage is a welcome sight – better yet if it sparks a broader, needed debate.

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Malaysia

In Malaysia, a mother’s love offers her trans daughter refuge

For transgender Muslims in Kelantan, quiet family acceptance at home contrasts with growing fear of sharia crackdowns.

Hana* (left) embraces her mother outside their home in a village near Kota Bharu, Malaysia’s Kelantan state. Photo: Iman Muttaqin Yusof
Fame and celebrity

Meet Landry Kiffin, who’s getting heat over dad Lane Kiffin’s LSU Tigers move

Targeted by explicit banners in Oxford, Mississippi over her dad’s move to coach the LSU Tigers, the Ole Miss student has spoken out against the harassment.

World of performing arts

How one woman is rewriting kabuki’s ‘all-male’ narrative in Japan

Ranshou Fujima, a female kabuki dancer and archivist, is reimagining the onnagata tradition through a landmark exhibition in Tokyo.

Italy

Italy to ban burkas in schools, with 30% cap on pupils with poor Italian

The move comes ahead of Italy’s election next year, in which PM Meloni’s party faces pressure the even further right National Future party.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni delivers closing remarks at a rally celebrating her government’s record as the longest-serving administration in Italy’s republican history, in Bari, Italy on September 4. Her Cabinet has now adopted the measures by decree. Photo: Reuters
Chinese culture

Who was Wang Zhenyi? Chinese female scientist who defied gender expectations

Wang shot for the stars with her work in astronomy and mathematics at a time when learned women did little more than write poetry.

Qing dynasty astronomer and mathematician Wang Zhenyi defied societal norms and the expectations set upon her gender to study and demystify complex scientific and mathematical concepts. Illustration: Huy Truong
United States

Harvey Weinstein gets 15 years for sex assault after pleading for mercy

Disgraced Hollywood figure resentenced in New York for sexually assaulting a former production assistant.

Sexual harassment and assault

US ‘looksmaxxing’ influencer Clavicular charged with raping 17-year-old

Social media creator Braden Peters was accused of giving the teen alcohol prior to the alleged 2025 assault.

Education in Hong Kong

CUHK gives top economist warning over talk on women ‘marrying for money’

University’s New Asia College tells Terence Chong to be mindful of speech and others’ feelings after talk on women marrying for money.

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“If anyone might feel uncomfortable, I am really sorry,” Professor Terence Chong said. Photo: Jelly Tse
Gender

The women fighting Indonesia’s wildfires

The women fighting Indonesia’s wildfires
Style Edit

Style Edit: YDC 2026 spotlights Hong Kong’s fashion trailblazers

Up-and-coming designers brought personal stories, experimental craft and fresh perspectives to the runway at the Centrestage annual showcase.

India

Indian transgender patients left in limbo following legal amendments

The amendment introduced penalties for forcing someone to assume a transgender identity through surgical, chemical or hormonal procedures.

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China society

Opinion | Why women in China are still at risk of abduction and forced marriage

The latest incident has exposed many failings in local authorities’ work in a country where a mindset of favouring sons over daughters still exists.

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A wedding takes place in Kaizhou city, Chongqing, in 2014. As long as a preference for sons exists, daughters will continue to be seen as good for little more than marrying a man and bearing his children. Photo: Shutterstock
South Africa

South Africa on alert after seventh woman’s body found near capital

The seventh body found in two months has sparked fears of a potential serial killer.

Sexual harassment and assault

British man admits drugging, raping wife over more than 2 decades

Man pleads guilty to dozens of charges in Manchester court as 12 co-defendants face trial.

K-pop

Viral clip tests South Korea’s deepfake laws

Viral clip tests South Korea’s deepfake laws
Italy

Emma Bonino, Italy’s activist politician, dies aged 78

Bonino was a passionate advocate for social justice and gender equality who deliberately courted controversy to advance her many causes.

Italian senator Emma Bonino looks on during an event in December 2019. Photo: AFP

Indian powerlifter won silver at world meet but says focus was on her looks

Keyaa Kunal Banerji calls out ‘sexism at its finest’, saying her feat of lifting more than three times her body weight was downplayed.

Sexual harassment and assault

Tate brothers lose bid for release from US jail pending extradition fight

In denying bail, the judge cited the influencers’ wealth and frequent international travel as making them ‘quintessential flight risks’.

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Crime

Mistrial declared in Lindsay Clancy child killings case

Jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict on whether the former nurse was criminally responsible for the deaths of her three kids.

Lindsay Clancy and lawyer Kevin Reddington watch jurors in her murder trial in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

South Korean football referee faces hearing over using ‘period’ insult on player

Official will face disciplinary inquiry over incident that saw the international booked after demanding a penalty during a local league game.

Suwon FC midfielder Ji So-yun, seen here after a semi-final loss in the AFC Women’s Champions League, had approached the referee while playing for her club side. Photo: Korea Times
Gender

Activists call out gaps in Hong Kong’s voyeurism laws

Crime

Holdout juror stopping verdict in Lindsay Clancy US child murder trial: lawyer

A note from the foreman suggests that one juror ‘refuses to listen’ to the judge about what constitutes reasonable doubt.

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