The horrifying murder of Abby Choi, a young mother of four and social media fashionista, has transfixed Hong Kong residents in a case that again highlights the government’s policy shortfalls towards domestic abuse.
A controversial guilty verdict has put the spotlight, again, on how China’s justice system denies divorces to women even if they have abusive husbands, and how the police allow intimate partner violence to escalate.
Getting divorced isn’t easy in China, especially when you’re a woman and your husband doesn’t want you to leave.
It was a strange “I love you” day for one celebrity couple — fans of an actress rejoiced at news of her divorce, but censors stepped in to stop the congratulations.
The woman's legal battle to leave her violent, obsessive husband lasted nearly five years. Her divorce requests were repeatedly rejected by the local court, which persisted in arguing that her abusive marriage was not completely dead.
Written into China’s first-ever Civil Code, which passed in May of last year and came into effect this January, the “cooling-off” period forces divorce-seeking couples to re-think the situation and consider reconciliation because it makes it impossible to divorce impulsively.
A court awarded a woman compensation for her domestic labor in a divorce settlement. Some social media users saw it as a victory for women’s rights, others said it did not go far enough.
Scalpers in China who sell hospital appointments and concert tickets have discovered a new revenue source: selling appointments for official divorce registration.
In some ways, the proposal of a pre-marriage “cooling-off” period shares elements with the controversial one for divorcing couples, but it serves the exact opposite purpose — to encourage couples to identify and address potential issues that may put their future marriage at risk.
In a year defined by crisis, Chinese women found their urgent voices — demanding changes to the policies that affect their lives, smashing taboos, uniting to end violence against women, refusing to conform, and calling out misogyny whenever and wherever possible.