“My Parents Are Women” During the Covid-19 pandemic, Kamsort Khoeun, a poet, visited children and families living around the Stung Meanchey dump site in Phnom Penh. Interacting with the community gave him a better understanding of the challenges faced by families who relied on picking waste from the dump site.
Let’s Talk About Sexual and Reproductive Health Talking about sex, pregnancy, abortions or menstrual health is rarely handled well in our homes or society and is often dealt with as an uncomfortable or stigmatized experience that everyone would rather ignore than deal with. In Cambodia, some of these moral and societal norms come from traditional diktats like chbap srey which sets out a code of conduct for women and explicitly shames their sexual activity.
Lean In: Conversation about Gender Norms Misogynistic social norms and gender roles heavily favor men in Cambodia, a sad trend that transcends many parts of the world. These norms can be so entrenched and hard to change that even frank discussions around changing attitudes towards gender equality, gender-based violence and empowerment of marginalized groups can be fraught.
