麻豆社

The relationship between women and democracy in Brazil and Bhutan - Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women with a passionate interest in their country's political system.

Petra Costa's parents were dissidents under the military dictatorship in Brazil, and she was two when democracy returned. Petra filmed with the first female President Dilma Rousseff, as she was impeached in 2016, and followed the rise of the populist right-wing President Bolsonaro. In her Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary The Edge of Democracy, Petra asks if Brazilian democracy will survive, and how women will fare.

Namgay Zam is a respected journalist in the small Himalayan country of Bhutan, which only transitioned from absolute monarchy to democracy a decade ago. The number of women MPs has increased in that time but Namgay says there is still a long way to go before women are respected and recognised fully in the political system.

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L: Namgay Zam (credit: Bhutan Street Fashion)
R: Petra Costa (credit: Netflix)