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China

New Way In China To Fight Sexually-Transmitted Disease: Deny Passports To Women

Analysis: In Menglian County, a remote area of China's Yunnan province, young women's passport applications are being rejected. Local officials say it's because too many have gone abroad to become prostitutes, and come back with

In Amsterdam's red light district (jakemark)
In Amsterdam's red light district (jakemark)

By Yang Tao
经济观E.O/Worldcrunch

BEIJING - A 24-year-old woman from Menglian County, a remote rural area of southwest China, reported recently that had her passport application rejected. The reason authorities gave: since 2005, too many women from the area have gone abroad to become prostitutes; and when they come back home they spread sexually-transmitted diseases such as AIDS.

Besides, officials note, too many local young men haven't been able to find wives because of this emigration.

In light of this situation, says the local government, it has simply decided to refuse passport applications from women aged 16 to 35, unless they happen to need to travel for a government mission.

It's true that too many women from this impoverished area go abroad to make money as prostitutes, but in a lawful society no government department has the right to deny the legal rights of ordinary people. If there is no law forbidding holding a passport then it's not up to public security officials to make their own laws to deal with prostitution.

This latest restriction harms the legal rights of citizens, because there are of course many who go abroad for study, business, or tourism. If we follow this logic then a man with a passport might be engaged abroad in illicit activities, perhaps visiting prostitutes and bringing home unpleasant diseases of his own. Should their applications be rejected?

And at the same time, the new law won't actually manage to stop those involved in criminal activities, who will always find a way to circumvent such restrictions. Even the chief of immigration of Mengliang County, Yang Zhonghua, agrees on this point.

In fact the reason why these women are prevented from going abroad is to save the face of the local authorities criticized for the high level of venereal disease registered on their municipal performance indicators.

Today it's women's passports, maybe tomorrow their clothes will be regulated: a sharp reminder that unrestricted power is always bound to destroy the rights of citizens.

Read the full story in Chinese

Photo - jakemark


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Society

Do We Need Our Parents When We Grow Up? Doubts Of A Young Father

As his son grows older, Argentine journalist Ignacio Pereyra wonders when a father is no longer necessary.

Do We Need Our Parents When We Grow Up? Doubts Of A Young Father

"Is it true that when I am older I won’t need a papá?," asked the author's son.

Ignacio Pereyra

It’s 2am, on a Wednesday. I am trying to write about anything but Lorenzo (my eldest son), who at four years old is one of the exclusive protagonists of this newsletter.

You see, I have a whole folder full of drafts — all written and ready to go, but not yet published. There’s 30 of them, alternatively titled: “Women who take on tasks because they think they can do them better than men”; “As a father, you’ll always be doing something wrong”; “Friendship between men”; “Impressing everyone”; “Wanderlust, or the crisis of monogamy”, “We do it like this because daddy say so”.

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