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Hello. With summer in full swing, we bring you our July newsletter. In this summer edition of the WheelieQueer newsletter, we will have a look at a recent report on the struggles of Africa’s women footballers, discuss a recent push in Italy to remove lesbian mothers from their children’s birth certificates, and share a report by Disability Rights UK on disabled people’s experience with COVID.
Glen Carrie. Unsplash.
THIS MONTH'S NEWS
On Human Rights Issues
Iran: ‘Morality Police’ resumes patrols
After the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Jina Amini last year, who had been arrested by the ‘morality police’, nationwide protests erupted in Iran, with an increasing number of women defying the headscarf law.
Since then, the so-called ‘morality police’ had more or less disappeared from the streets, admits claims from officials that it had been disbanded. However, now, a year later, reports suggest, that the authorities have launched a campaign to reinforce the law.
New videos show male and female morality police officers patrolling in Tehran, with several journalists reporting similar occurrences in other cities.
According to Azadeh Kian-Thiebaut, a sociologist at Paris Cite Universite, who spoke to DW, “the Iranian regime has generally been resolute about enforcing the Islamic republic's hijab policy, which is seen to be a key pillar of the revolution that brought it to power. When it has faced public discontent, it has tried to rebrand and reinvent its methods of enforcement”.
“In recent months, the government had started implementing facial recognition technology on public transport and had also shut down shopping malls, cafes and restaurants that admitted women without hijab. The authorities have also put pressure on taxi drivers to not accept women who are not covered. But Kian-Thiebaut said that these measures had not deterred women from refusing to comply with the law. Compulsory hijab is a failed project […]. The Iranian women have defeated it and men have supported them."
The country finds itself in “a perpetual state of unrest and rebellion,” Kian-Thiebaut states further, with the current regime lacking general support, as the public resentment toward the government continues to grow, due to high unemployment rates, corruption, a rise in the cost of living and the limited social liberties allowed by the state.
Important Read:
Women’s World Cup: A look at Africa’s women footballers
DW has recently published a report on the four teams from Africa that are competing in this year’s FIFA World Cup, and the “poor labor conditions, unfair payments, and sexual abuse” the players are facing.
The report shows that 29% of the players have reported not having received any payment from their national team, and 66% “having to take unpaid leave or vacation time from another form of employment to participate in tournaments”.
The problem often seems to be with the national federations, with the South African Women’s World Cup team recently boycotting a warm-up, as only two weeks before the tournament no written agreements of payments had been made.
A stark contrast can also be found in the apparent gender pay gap, as “Every individual competing in the group stage will earn $30,000 (€26,667),” as announced by FIFA, while “men are paid in their World Cup, where each nation received $9 million for participating in the group stages”.
Another reason for the South African Women’s team walkout: the poor quality of the pitches, with one of Zambia’s players saying that “the better-quality training grounds are reserved mainly for the men's teams”.
The report further highlights the sexual abuse many players have faced, as well as accusations of sexual misconduct by training staff and coaches.
Roy Vermeer, FIFPRO's legal director, tells DW: "‘We were shocked by the allegations obviously, but we were not shocked that this happens,’ according to Vermeer who said it is a structural problem in women's football which occurs all over the world”.
“Sexual misconduct has been reported in the Sierre Leone and Gabon teams. There have also been cases of abuse reported in the United States, Venezuela, Australia, Haiti and Spain.”
You can find the full report here.
Forest Fires
Fires have been blazing in Canada for months now, with firefighters struggling to bring them under control, as around 10 million hectares have already burned while scolding temperatures in Europe are seeing fires in Italy, Greece and Spain. And only three years ago, 24 million hectares were destroyed in the “Australian Black Summer megafires”.
Hamish Clarke, a senior research fellow at the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at the University of Melbourne, tells DW: "We are not on track to reduce risk now, […]. We need to change course urgently and seriously [need to] reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
“Controlled or "prescribed" burning of forest vegetation [also known as hazard reduction], most often in the cooler months, helps lessen wildfire hazards in the summer by reducing the amount of kindling available to fuel fires. In fire-prone nations like the United States, Australia, Portugal, Spain, Canada, France and South Africa, it's been a tried and tested fire management strategy for decades.” - DW
Another option for prevention could also lie in new technology.
“Satellites managed by the likes of NASA are already helping firefighters keep track of moving fires across the planet. More recently, however, drones are becoming a more localized high-tech fire suppression gadget.” While a Finish project is using drones to track emerging forest fires.
While experts are also making a case for more ‘climate-proof forests’: “We must consider future climates and plant with species from drier places, […]. That is, we should not plant with native species, but with those growing elsewhere in warmer locations, so they will be adapted to the climate of the next decades,” DW cites.
And further: “We must consider that the climate will be unsuitable for many of the species currently growing by the turn of the century and start planning for that”. - Resco de Dios, professor of forest engineering at Spain's University of Lleida for DW
Important Read:
On LGBTQ+ Rights Issues
Jakub Jankto no longer wants to hide
With the Women’s World Cup in full swing, it is worth looking back to earlier this year, when Czech Republic’s Jakub Jankto came out as gay, the first current international player in men’s football to do so.
The player announced in February via Twitter that he no longer wanted to hide who he is:
In recent years only few players have come out as gay: in 2022 Blackpool’s Jake Daniels became the first professional player in UK men’s game to come out in more than 30 years, while in 2021 Adelaide United player Josh Cavallo became the then-only openly gay top-flight male professional footballer in the world.
Meanwhile, German footballer and commentator Thomas Hitzlesperger, who came out in January 2014, congratulated Jankto online: “What a player! What a personality! Well done Jakub for speaking up and leading the way for others”.
Italy: lesbian mother’s names to be removed from their children’s birth certificates
In a recent move lesbian mothers in Italy have been informed that the government will start to remove their names from their children’s birth certificates, after an announcement in March, telling state agencies, that they should no longer register children of same-sex couples.
The Pink News reports that in Padua 27 families, have so far received written notice of the change, with one mother stating: “It was as if I did not exist, […] I suspect that the government is afraid that a family that looks different, like ours, can be as happy - maybe even happier, sometimes, as a traditional family”.
The change in the law would mean that if the parent that is recorded on the birth certificate dies, the parent that is not would lose custody of the child, leaving the children and parents in legal limbo.
After the 2022 election, the new right-wing Italian government has been signalling to roll back on legislation concerning LGBTQ+ and abortion rights, in a push that many advocates see as discriminatory.
In Italy, same-sex civil unions were only legalised in 2016 but did not include full adoption rights, which under the new government, seem unlikely to be legalised.
UK: government accused of flouting the law with new hardline guidance on trans students
It has recently been reported that the UK government intends to have schools out trans children to their parents, a push that has been confirmed by education secretary Gillian Keegan only last week, citing “parental consent” when it “comes to children expressing a different gender identity at school,” as the reasoning.
According to The Times, the government had initially intended to introduce a “blanket ban on social transition at school,” but was advised that this could potentially be illegal under the Equality Act.
Both opposition MPS and trans advocacy groups have spoken up against the move, saying that to “restrict young trans people from expressing their gender identity would be detrimental to their wellbeing - and that it could have ‘unintended consequences’ for cis children too”.
Cleo Madeleine, a spokesperson for the trans advocacy charity Gendered Intelligence, remarks that there is a big problem with “fearmongering and misinformation” about what it actually means to be socially transitioning:
“Really what we’re talking about with social transition is young people changing things like hairstyle, make-up, clothing, to explore a different sort of gender presentation, […]. […] what’s really important is to note that none of this is new,” she continues, “Youth and adolescence in particular has always been a time when young people figure out who they are, explore different ways of presenting themselves to the world”.
The new guidance would almost “amount to a ban on students being trans and that’s simply not enforceable,” but only the coming weeks and months will show, whether the government’s push can actually be put into law.
Important Read:
On Disability Rights Issues
A report on disabled people’s experiences of COVID
Disability Rights UK and People’s Voice Media have recently released a report “spotlighting the experiences of Deaf and Disabled people who were left ignored, marginalised and at risk by the government during the pandemic”.
While there is currently an inquiry into the government’s handling of the Pandemic, the two media outlets have collaborated and spoken to people, collecting their lived experiences and stories with COVID.
The foreword reads:
“[I]t is vital for the COVID Inquiry to consider Deaf and Disabled experiences separately from the general population, due to the inequalities Deaf and Disabled people faced before the pandemic. We need to evidence how this has worsened for those people who are most in need of help and support. Additionally, it is essential to understand why this is and, if a pandemic or national crisis should happen again, what has to happen across the UK. From the start of the COVID pandemic, Deaf and Disabled people, together with their unpaid carers, received less support than others. It is essential to have Deaf and Disabled people involved in reports such as this, because they are the experts in respect of their circumstances, and reports need to be relevant to communities, not just policy experts.”
You can read and download the full report here:
A case for better hearing aid designs
In several letters, two readers of the Guardian have recently made the case for better hearing aid design, as wireless headphones have become fashionable gadgets while hearing aids often still cause their wearer embarrassment.
Wendy Ritson writer: “writing of hearing aids, comments that while glasses can make one appear clever, “pushing dangling bits of wire into one’s ears is seen to have the opposite effect”, with the result that people are embarrassed to wear them. Yet millions of people a day shove a pair of earbuds into their ears, wireless or wired, to listen to music, podcasts, football etc, with no hint of embarrassment. Maybe the manufacturers of hearing aids need to up their game on the design front and collaborate with the likes of Apple to modernise the look of their products”.
While another reader writes: “that people seem ashamed of wearing hearing aids. You certainly never see politicians or celebrities using them. Deafness is kept private; alarmingly, it can be a joke, with humour that is based on incongruity. Moreover, someone who can’t hear may appear stupid when they are just at a loss. Glasses can make one appear clever or fetching; pushing dangling bits of wire into one’s ears is seen to have the opposite effect”.
What do you think?
Lewis Capaldi at Glastonbury
The Guardian recently published an opinion piece on Lewis Capaldi’s Glastonbury set, as it put disability centre-stage.
The singer, who has been open about his life with Tourette syndrome and anxiety, at times had problems with his voice and tics during the set, but the silence was filled with the voices of a hundred thousand people singing his songs for him instead.
“I’m going to be honest everybody but I’m starting to lose my voice up here, but we’re going to keep going … until the end,” […] “I just need you all to sing with me as loud as you can if that’s OK?” The crowd did not let him down.”
The all-too-common myth that disabled people should be hiding their disability still prevails, the writer continues, and that most often “out of deference to the feelings of non-disabled people”, with the non-disabled gaze not seeing a disabled person as simply living their life but rather a “supposedly pitiable” or “heartbreaking” moment.
So "[i]magine the difference it would make to people’s lives if disabled bodies were normalised. If a tic were just a twinge on the face and not a sign of failure,” the author concludes, “that’s why Capaldi’s performance on Saturday matters,” because it shows that “acceptance is possible, at least for an hour”.
What’s Next
We hope you enjoyed this month’s newsletter!
We’ll be back in two weeks with our August PIP/Disability News Newsletter.
In this month’s edition we’ll be answering more of your questions, and inform you about this month’s updates on UK disability news, as well as upcoming events and workshops.
So if you have any questions or suggestions for any of our upcoming newsletters or the work we do, you can find our socials and how to get in contact with us in the details below.
Best,
The WheelieQueer Team
WHEELIEQUEER
Breaking down barriers for Deaf and Disabled People
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