China has told women to uphold “family values” in an updated gender law, the latest sign females are facing growing pressure to adopt domestic roles in the world’s second-largest economy.
An amendment to the Women’s Rights and Interests Protection Act passed by the nation’s top legislative body on Sunday introduced a list of moral standards for women to observe.
“Women should respect and obey national laws, respect social morals, professional ethics and family values,” says the law’s opening chapter, which outlines the overarching principles of the revised legislation.
Photo: AFP
It would be adopted from next year.
As China grapples with record-low birthrates and plummeting marriage numbers, women are coming under pressure to revert to traditional caregiver roles.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) said it was crucial for women to be “good wives and mothers” to ensure the “healthy growth of the next generation” in a 2013 speech.
“China is attempting to use laws to regulate and discipline women,” said Liang Xiaowen (梁曉文), a New York-based feminist and lawyer.
“Why do you only need women to observe family values? What kind of family values are we talking about? These are very vague ideas,” she said.
Other revisions tackled sexual harassment and discrimination, with the updated legislation banning employers from passing over women for promotions due to their marital or pregnancy status.
It also requires lower-level governments to report the suspected abduction or trafficking of women to police in a timely manner.
Liang called these developments “a step forward” for women.
‘EYE FOR AN EYE’: Two of the men were shot by a male relative of the victims, whose families turned down the opportunity to offer them amnesty, the Supreme Court said Four men were yesterday publicly executed in Afghanistan, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban’s return to power. The executions in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an Agence France-Presse tally. Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most of them carried out publicly in sports stadiums. Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the center
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
The US will help bolster the Philippines’ arsenal and step up joint military exercises, Manila’s defense chief said, as tensions between Washington and China escalate. The longtime US ally is expecting a sustained US$500 million in annual defense funding from Washington through 2029 to boost its military capabilities and deter China’s “aggression” in the region, Philippine Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro said in an interview in Manila on Thursday. “It is a no-brainer for anybody, because of the aggressive behavior of China,” Teodoro said on close military ties with the US under President Donald Trump. “The efforts for deterrence, for joint resilience
RSS