May

4th May 1905: Birth Anniversary of Anna Chandy

Justice Anna Chandy was the first female judge in India and the first woman to be appointed as a High Court Judge in all the commonwealth regions. She was also the first woman in Kerala to obtain a degree in law.

She founded ‘Shrimati’, a Malayalam magazine to encourage discourse on social norms affecting women. She also contested and won the local assembly elections in the Tranvancore state.

Ms. Chandy was a vocal proponent of women’s rights and bodily autonomy. Her efforts for reservations for women in government jobs, led to the change in a statute that prevented women from working in the government. She even raised questions against a law that exempted women from getting the death penalty.

5th May: International Midwives’ Day

Global evidence has shown that safe and effective midwifery care can avert 83% of all maternal deaths, stillbirths and newborn deaths.

India has over two million nurse-midwives and nearly nine lakh Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) who contribute to improving India’s maternal and infant mortality rates.

10th May 1927: Birthday of Nayantara Sahgal

Nayantara Sahgal is an Indian author and political commentator, who is known to speak truth to power. She is also considered to be India’s finest political novelist.

She was a vocal critic of her cousin, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s autocratic turn in the 70s and most recently protested the murder of rationalists, mob lynchings and the increasing intolerance to dissent in 2015, by returning the ‘Sahitya Akademi Award’ which she won for her novel, ‘Rich Like Us’.

Her invitation to the 92nd Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, was rescinded due to threats by right-wing groups as her speech mentioned the lynchings. Her speech has since been read out at multiple forums and gatherings.

13th May 1983: Founding of Naripokkho (Pro-Women)

Naripokkho was founded in Bangladesh by Shireen Huq and her friends who agreed on the need for an organized space to raise and discuss women’s issues. The organisation works toward reducing violence and threats of violence against women.

Bangladesh’s success with respect to women’s development is undermined by structural violence (2 out of 3 women in Bangladesh experience domestic violence) and the pervading environment of intimidation.

Naripokkho is recognized as a leading voice for women’s rights in Bangladesh.

16th May 2004: Bangladeshi Constitution amended to increase reservation for women in Parliament

The 15th Amendment to the Bangladeshi Constitution made provisions for an increase in the representation of women in the Parliament through reservations.

This meant that 50 seats in addition to the 300 constituent seats would be allocated to women in Bangladesh.

This amendment is valid for 10 years, after which the Parliament would take a decision on its extension based on the favourability of women’s participation in politics in the country.

17th May: International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia

The International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) is a day to celebrate diversity and to raise awareness of the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTIQ+) people.

Anti-gender movements deny the humanity of those who challenge traditional gender roles and stereotypes, particularly LGBTI persons.

Apart from undermining equality, they also endanger democracies.

17th May 1947: Birth Anniversary of Halima Xudoyberdiyeva

Halima Xudoyberdiyeva was an Uzbek journalist and poet who wrote about Uzbek nationhood, history, liberation movements, and feminism.

The changing themes of her central Asian female sufi poetry reflected the social transformation of Uzbekistan.

She was honored with the title of People’s Poet of Uzbekistan, Order of the Badge of Honor Medal and the Order of El-Yurt Hurmati (Respect of the Homeland) medal.

18th May 2018: Soni Sori awarded the Front Line Defenders Award

Soni Sori is an indigenous and women’s rights defender in the militarised Bastar region of Chattisghar, India.

She documents and advocates against violence perpetrated by the paramilitary and police forces against local Adivasi tribes in the name of combating an armed Maoist insurgency.

In retaliation for her work, security forces detained and tortured Soni. She has refused to stop and continues to travel into the Maoist regions to speak with survivors of the ongoing conflict.

In recognition of this indomitable spirit, Soni Sori was awarded the Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk (Reginonal Winner for Asia Pacific).

20th May 2012: Death Anniversary of Leela Dube

Leela Dube was a world renowned anthropologist and feminist scholar.

Ms. Dube played a crucial role in shaping the ‘Towards Equality’ report by the Committee on the Status of Women in India and worked to bring Women’s Studies into mainstream sociology.

Her gender sensitive contribution to anthropology helped in highlighting critical fallacies in our society and her work is still an important part of the gender curriculum in social studies.

20th May 2009: The Supreme Court of Nepal rules that Abortion is a Right

The Supreme Court recognized the inextricable link between the right to abortion, the right to equality, and the right to freedom from discrimination.

Going beyond the paternalistic tendencies of conditional abortions allowed elsewhere, the Court observed that just as the law does not force a man to use his body in certain ways, a woman should not be forced to use her body in ways she does not want to.

Denial of a legal abortion results in forced pregnancy and childbirth. This, in turn, causes irreparable harm to women and violates many of their fundamental human rights.

21st May 2012: Asma Jilani Jahangir awarded the North-South Prize

Asma Jahangir was a Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist and has spent her career defending the human and women rights, rights of religious minorities and children in Pakistan. She was a staunch critic of the Hudood Ordinance and blasphemy laws of Pakistan.

She was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief from August 2004 to July 2010. Previously, she served as the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Arbitrary and Summary Executions.

Among the many honors to her name is the the North-South Prize by the Council of Europe in 2012.

25th May 2019: WHO declassifies being transgender as a mental disorder

On May 25, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a new set of guidelines for the revised eleventh version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), to reframe 'gender identity disorder' as 'gender incongruence,' and move it to a chapter about sexual health.

The resolution to remove ‘gender identity disorder’ from its diagnostic manual was voted for by the World Health Assembly (WHA), the governing body of WHO, which represents all its 194 member states.

27th May 1935: Death Anniversary of Ramabai Bhimrao Ambedkar

Ramabai Bhimrao Ambedkar was the first wife of B. R. Ambedkar, who has credited her sacrifice and support as an important reason he could pursue his higher studies.

Ambedkar dedicates his book, ‘Thoughts on Pakistan’, to Ramabai’s “goodness of heart, her nobility of mind and her purity of character and also for the cool fortitude and readiness to suffer”.

She has been the subject of a number of biographical movies and books. A number of landmarks across India have been named after her.

29th May 1851: Sojourner Truth delivers, “Ain’t I a Woman?”

Born into slavery in 1797, Sojourner Truth went on to become one of the most powerful advocates for human rights in the nineteenth century.

After she defiantly walked away from her ‘master’, who reneged on upholding the New York Anti-Slavery Law in 1827, she became involved in the growing antislavery movement, and by the 1850s she was involved in the woman’s rights movement as well.

In 1851 Sojourner Truth delivered what is now recognized as one of the most famous abolitionist and women’s rights speeches in American history, “Ain’t I a Woman?”

She continued to speak out for the rights of African Americans and women during and after the Civil War.

References

https://feminisminindia.com/2018/10/18/justice-anna-chandy/

https://www.internationalmidwives.org/icm-events/international-day-of-the-midwife-2020.html

http://www.jstor.com/stable/24157428

https://thewire.in/rights/full-text-nayantara-sahgal-undelivered-speech-marathi-sahitya-sammelan

https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/news-and-events/stories/2019/11/i-am-generation-equality-shireen-huq

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatiya_Sangsad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halima_Xudoyberdiyeva

https://www.coe.int/en/web/human-rights-channel/idahotb

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/2018-front-line-defenders-award-human-rights-defenders-risk

https://yourstory.com/socialstory/2019/05/transgender-declassified-mental-disorder-world-health-organization-who

https://reproductiverights.org/story/nepal-supreme-court-abortion-is-a-right

http://feministsindia.com/in-memoriam-prof-leela-dube-1923-2012/

https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/HumanRightsPrize2018.aspx

https://feminisminindia.com/2020/02/13/ramabai-ambedkar-pioneer-own-right/

https://www.nps.gov/articles/sojourner-truth.htm