In villages still dominated by family heads, women who marry an “outsider” lose access to local services and compensation for expropriated collective lands. With rising levels of education and greater social connections, more and more cases of these types of disputes are reaching the courts. But the road ahead is still uphill.
Milan () – At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Women’s Forum, held a few weeks ago in Qingdao, Chinese President Xi Jinping described women as “important promoters of human civilization and social progress” , praising them for their “remarkable achievements in all walks of life.”
In reality, however, “the other half of the sky” continues to struggle to assert its rights, as gender inequality remains a deep-rooted problem in Chinese society.
Those who suffer from this disadvantage are mainly women who live in rural areas of the country, among them the so-called wai jia nü. This expression refers to those who, by having married a foreigner, lose all the rights derived from belonging to their native village, such as participating in local elections, benefiting from social services, obtaining the lease of plots, receiving compensation for expropriated or requisitioned collective lands. The situation of the wai jia nü is even more serious when one considers that these restrictions also extend to their children, who are even denied access to local schools.
In some cases, young women united with a partner “outside” their rural community prefer to remain single, rather than face the dramatic consequences and be treated like “wasted water” (po chu qu de shui), to quote an old saying which is usually referred to as the wai jia nü. On the other hand, a completely different treatment is reserved for men, who are free to marry whoever they wish without risking losing their privileges.
This should not be surprising, given that these ancestral customs are perpetuated in village decision-making bodies, theoretically open to all adults in the rural community, but in fact dominated by family heads. Although in 2010 an attempt was made to increase the female presence in them, through an amendment to the Organic Law of Village Committees (Cunmin weiyuanhui zuzhifa), in reality the influence of women remains limited.
Fortunately, however, a quiet female resistance is taking shape in the Chinese countryside. As we read in a report recently published in The New York Timesmore and more wai jia nü are deciding to take legal action to claim their rights. According to official figures, the number of court cases involving them has jumped from 450 in 2013 to 5,000 in 2019, partly due to higher levels of education and greater opportunities to establish social contacts.
The road ahead, however, remains uphill, with courts often refusing to deal with such disputes and local authorities refusing to enforce any favorable rulings for fear of social unrest. Lin Lixia, a lawyer at the Qianqian law firm in Beijing, says that about 90% of the lawsuits she has filed are unsuccessful.
In 2023, the weekly The Economist reported on the case of Ms. Su, a plaintiff from Fujian who, despite her victory in court, has never been compensated for the financial damages suffered. To make matters worse, her fellow citizens began to marginalize her and a member of the local party came to insult her, calling her a thief and downplaying her judicial success.
The New York Times tells the story of Ma, excluded from her community in Guangdong after marrying a stranger in 1997. Although she has returned to live in her birthplace after divorcing her husband, her situation has not changed: local authorities continue to refuse access to their requests, while villagers and relatives accuse her of demanding what does not belong to her. Other protagonists of similar stories claim to have been harassed, beaten or detained for trying to pursue their own interests.
Regardless of their achievements on the path to the recognition of their rights, the courage demonstrated by the wai jia nü in daring to challenge the impositions of patriarchal culture, inherited from the Confucian tradition, is an achievement in itself. In fact, despite the visible effects of modernization, the ancient conception that considers women an appendage of men persists in rural Chinese society. But it is with the introduction of the family responsibility system (baochan daohu) in the 1980s and the subsequent transfer of land usufruct rights to members of rural villages that the economic implications of gender inequality become more evident.
Some studies show that in many regions of China, although the law provides for an equitable distribution of land, sons are granted twice as much as daughters. Furthermore, the custom of registering leases of plots, houses and deposit accounts in the names of their parents or husbands limits the ability of women to freely enjoy family assets and thus obtain benefits. If their marital status later changes, because – as in the case of the wai jia nü – they marry a foreigner or get divorced, the lease of the land and the associated benefits are usually revoked.
According to some observers, a positive sign could come from the introduction of the new Law on Rural Collective Economic Organizations (Nongcun jiti jingji zuzhi fa). Approved on June 28, 2024, it will enter into force on May 1, 2025. Its objective is to strengthen the economic development of the Chinese countryside, improve the well-being of its inhabitants and safeguard their rights.
Specifically, article 12 eliminates a series of conditions that previously had to be met to value membership in rural communities, guaranteeing that all women, regardless of their marital status, are legally part of them and have the right to enjoy the benefits that this entails. But since it is the village bodies that finally grant membership, many are skeptical about the real effectiveness of the new law: the wai jia nü remain a minority and it is unlikely that local authorities and the courts will be willing to jeopardize the social stability of the villages to protect the rights of this small cluster.
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