Archive for category: Gender Equality

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Violence against Women in Latin America

Over the past decade, Latin America’s economy has improved due to the rising quantity of exports. At the same time, rapid growth of urban centers has created socioeconomic problems like an increase in prostitution and sex trafficking. One of the consequences of the urbanization of Latin America is a rapid increase in population, which in turn results in a larger number of unemployment and homelessness. The high population outnumbers the amount of jobs available for people, especially women. The consequence is that more women living in these urban slums resorting to commercial sex work. These women then become vulnerable to diseases and to violent environments.​

In Brazil, over 40,000 women have murdered for simply being women in the past 10 years. And Honduras is labeled one of the most dangerous places to live for a woman. There, the violent killings of women there have tripled. Unfortunately, only 5 percent of these crimes have been investigated and the murderers prosecuted.

Columbia is facing significant gender-based violence because of military conflict within the country. Women are often attacked who take part in activism to encourage political and social reforms for more representation and rights.

The third most violent place in the world for women is Guatemala. The county ordered a new law to prevent violence against women in 2008, making it the first Latin American country to do so. Yet since the law was implemented, not much has been done to support the new reforms. Women continue to have problems finding prosecution for the culprits.

Not only does violence cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of women in Latin America, but it decreases the region’s social and economic development. The killings are preventing these women from contributing to the economic growth of the country. Seven Latin America countries rank in the top 10 countries in the world for most domestic violence against women.

One answer to this matter is the program U.N. Women, which helps to strengthen the representation of women in government and politics. New policies are developed for women’s economic development; particularly, women in isolated and rural regions in Latin America. These policies aim to create equal and fair workplaces for all women who are seeking or already have employment and to create job opportunities.

UN Women is helping to end gender based violence against women in Latin America by creating services for victims and survivors. This will help by implementing laws to protect women and provide justice for those in need.

— Rachel Cannon

Sources: CSIS, UN Women 1, UN Women 2
Photo: UN Women

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#YesAllWomen Dominates Twitter

In light of the recent Santa Barbara massacre, Twitter users have taken the web by storm through the #YesAllWomen hashtag. The result has been incredible: voices around the world have given personal (yet all-too universal) recollections of misogyny as it exists in their professional, social and familial lives. An example of social media’s power to do good in the world, the campaign is only growing as more than a million posts (and counting) have been spreading around the web.

Elliot Rodger killed six students from the University of California-Santa Barbara last week, and wounded 13 others. Just before the massacre, Rodger wrote a 140-page “manifesto” crippled with misogynistic remarks, claiming that he would take “retribution” for the crimes against him and would punish the world for those women who refused to sleep with him. The media frenzy that followed proved unique: the massacre and its aftermath was about more than just one mentally disturbed man exacting revenge. It is about a culture of misogyny and the detriment it can cause.

Today, more than 311 million working-age women live in countries where sexual harassment is not outlawed in the workplace. In many less-developed countries, a third of women are married or in a union by only 18. Around 60 percent of women have experienced physical or sexual violence at least once in their lifetime, and 2.6 billion women live in countries where rape within marriage is not outlawed.

These statistics are what the campaign #YesAllWomen stands for: across the world and in varying degrees, women are still treated as lesser citizens. #YesAllWomen works to teach that we have remained all-too blind, and it is doing so in strides.

Accessible to most of the world at any time or place, the campaign has brought a unique, understandable perspective of feminism to the most-reached platform in the world: the Internet. Yet despite the campaign’s current popularity, many wonder if it will do any good to solve the problem in the long run, comparing the campaign to short-lived, social media frenzies like #BringBackOurGirls (which has died down in response to the now popular #YesAllWomen.)

These social media phenomenons, some argue, do little to prevent or change the actual circumstances of the problem. Yet it can be argued that their real success is by infiltrating and educating by providing a much-needed lesson as to why misogyny is a serious problem we must work to fix. #YesAllWomen attempts to bridge this problematic gap.

– Nick Magnati

Sources: CNN, Chicago Tribune, UN Women, Foreign Policy
Photo: The Province

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Carolina Maria de Jesus: Life in Favelas

The book begins: “July 15, 1955. The birthday of my daughter Vera Eunice. I wanted to buy a pair of shoes for her, but the price of food keeps us from realizing our desires. Actually we are slaves to the cost of living.”

Carolina Maria de Jesus’s diaries were edited into a book called “Room of Garbage” (1960), which quickly became one of the most successful books in Brazilian publishing history. In Sao Paulo, 10,000 copies of the book sold out in the first three days and it has since been translated into 13 different languages, becoming an international bestseller. Despite her success, within a few years she would return to living in the favelas and would later die in poverty.

Carolina was born in 1914 to a single mother in Minas Gerais. After attending primary school for two years, she was forced to drop out. She wrote her diary entries while living in the favelas (slums) of Sao Paulo with her three illegitimate children.

After World War II, the number of favelas exploded in major cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo due to mass migrations. Favelas were located on the unwanted lands left behind by urban development, often in the hills surrounding the cities.

A self-confident woman, Carolina refused to conform to social standards. She never married, and she expressed herself aggressively with sometimes racist views. Her diary entries describe her struggle to rise above poverty, living as one of the “discarded” and marginalized.

She collected paper, bottles and cans for coins, held various odds and ends jobs and scavenged in garbage bins for food to feed her children. Her stories, poems and diary entries deal with themes of poverty, loneliness, hopelessness and death. She writes of the racial injustice and discrimination heaped onto the poor and the blacks in the favelas.

She writes about political events and politicians with their empty promises to the urban poor, arguing, “Brazil needs to be led by a person who has known hunger. Hunger is also a teacher. Who has gone hungry learns to think of the future and of the children.” Many readers and critics were surprised that an uneducated black woman from the slums could eloquently write about politics, racism and gender discrimination.

In 1958, Audalio Dantas, a reporter for Diario da Noite, heard Carolina yell at a group of men on a playground, “If you continue mistreating these children, I’m going to put all of your names in my book!” Dantas convinced her to show him her writings and took them to his editor.

Although her book would reach international acclaim, many Brazilians criticized and ostracized her for her refusal to conform to social norms. Today, most Brazilians do not acknowledge her impact, only recognizing her as that “slum dweller who cracked up.” Why is Carolina Maria de Jesus important if her country refuses to remember her?

Her stories humanize poverty and hunger, bringing attention to the human lives behind facts and figures. She describes the pain of hearing her children ask for more food because they are still hungry. She writes about watching restaurants spill acid in the trashcans to prevent looting by the poor. In the favela, she had the “impression she was a useless object destined to be forever in a garbage dump.”

A quick search on the Internet can show you numbers and statistics about the millions of people living below the poverty line in the world, but Carolina’s words showed people “the meaning and the feeling of hunger, degradation and want.” To overcome global poverty and move forward with understanding and empathy, Carolina’s stories and the countless stories of others must not be forgotten.

– Sarah Yan

Sources: Latin American Studies, The Life and Death of Carolina Maria de Jesus, Notable 20th Century Latin American Women
Photo: Omenelick 2 Ato

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The Unwanted Women in China

Over the past few years, Chinese media has been portraying the image of an unwanted leftover woman. The term leftover woman, has been used in the media to persuade women to be less career-minded, ambitious and be more centered on matrimony. The prospect of an educated, successful women in her late 20s is made to appear more like a death sentence than a good thing.

There has been a recent backlash over the past few decades against women’s rights in China. Recent gender inequality is beginning to rear its ugly head again and perpetuating the idea that women are not focused on the traditional way, which is marriage and motherhood. Less than half of China’s women are employed and that rate continues to drop each year. The Gender Gap report stated that an average income for women is 67% of men’s income while the nation is ranked 50 out of 137 countries for equal wage. Female employment has gone down over 10% through the past 10 years, due to the gender based view of the unwanted, over-achieving women in China.

A woman facing the business marketplace in China endures discrimination based on her gender and measuring up to the beauty standards placed on women in the professional world. Some Chinese women are told from a young age not to pursue certain careers like those in the medical field, because that would make them seem undesirable to a man. The pressure increases as women finish school and grow into their mid-twenties to settle down and have a family. There is also the pressure to maintain a perfect figure instead of embracing the normalcy of aging. Women that do not fit these molds and instead gain higher education are blamed for the high numbers of unmarried men.

Leta Hong Fincher, author of “Leftover Women,” states that “the image of the left over women is everywhere and in the end it is insulting.” In her book, she explains that the Chinese government is blaming these women for the high number of single adult males. The fear is that those unmarried men will cause problems relating to the social stability in China. Moreover, problems like bride kidnapping and prostitution are increasing each year the marriage crisis continues.

The traditional view of men and women, that men are superior to women, has molded the Chinese culture today. The Chinese government passed the one child law in the 1980s and gender-based abortions have skyrocketed since 1995, when gender-confirming technology was introduced. The fact is that Chinese families prefer a son over a baby girl. This supports the overwhelming number of men under the age of thirty in China today.

China’s rapidly-changing economy is changing how women view their positions in society. Women want access to the same positions as men, and are doing so by obtaining higher degrees such as masters and PhDs. These degree programs require more time spent in school and women are not looking to marry until later in their twenties. The traditional mind-set of these women is fading and marriage is no longer the focal point. The market in China continues to be flooded with men, but the future of  highly-qualified women reaching the same opportunities is changing China’s structure and providing women with more rights.

– Rachel Cannon

Sources: The Telegraph, The Economist
Photo: Ministry of Harmony

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Women’s Rights in Kenya

While women in Kenya take care of the majority of the agricultural and produce market work, they only earn a fraction of the income their male counterparts do. As an outcome of wage discrimination for women, 40 percent of households in Kenya that are run solely by women are in poverty.

Women’s reliance on men has greatly increased within the past few years, due to state and resource conflicts during wartime. For instance, even though Kenya suffers droughts throughout the year, women are afraid to travel to collect water for their families due to gender-based violence. As a result, young girls cannot gain an adequate education due to the deficiency of proper hygiene and clean water within the school, resulting in low literacy rates. In addition, pregnant adult females who do not have access to clean water are more likely to acquire a water-borne disease, harming both the mother and unborn child.

Women in Kenya are not only restricted in the private realm, but also face restrictions in the public realm. For example, women cannot gain any property or land regardless of their social rank. In fact, after their husband’s death, several widows lost their homes and families because of these harsh gender-based rules. If a woman tries to acquire any property or land for her family, she will be exiled from the household, or even worse, from the community.

Kenyan cultural practices also influence the threat of HIV and AIDS that plague the country. Further, in addition to the medical threats of this disease, it also lowers  women’s self-esteem. Forced sex and inheritance of a widow by male relatives is part of Kenyan culture, yet 1 in 5 adults have HIV, a rate even higher for women.

Besides the negative effects of some cultural practices, women also have a higher rate of experiencing gender inequality, discrimination, gender-based violence and rape. In particular, practices such as gang rapes or forced sexual mutilations continue to be a major issue in communities across the country. Unfortunately, even when these women file rape complaints, police often do not prosecute their perpetrators. Thus, there is no support for victims and survivors of violence.

While there have been reforms to the Kenyan constitution within the past year, such as more rights for female business owners to help grow the economy, they constantly fight to keep their business afloat to support their families. The laws may vary, yet the traditional codes are nevertheless in effect within some communities and villages.

Kenya needs to improve its legal assistance and medical care for women, while ensuring all women receive the highest degree of protection and representation. In addition, girls must have better access to education to improve literacy rates. Even though women voters make up the bulk of the voting population in Kenya, they continue to be seriously underrepresented in politics, making it difficult to achieve these tangible goals. Overall, if women are more included in Kenya’s economy, the country can progress from severe poverty. By bringing women and young girls out of poverty and providing basic political and socio-economic rights, the country can and will grow for the better.

– Rachel Cannon

Sources: The Water Project, Foundation for Sustainable Development
Photo: Buzz Kenya

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‘Victory’ in Tunisia

On January 26, 2014, the national assembly of Tunisia passed a new constitution that created a full democracy in the country. The constitution was the first in the Arab world to provide full equality for men and women.

Article 20 guarantees male and female citizens equal rights and equal treatment before the law. Article 45 of the constitution requires the state to protect women against violence and guarantee equal presentation of men and women in elected institutions.

Ms. Lobna Jeribi, a member of the Ettakattol party, described the article as “a revolution in itself. It’s a big, historic step, not only for Tunisian women”.

But has this new constitution truly given women their rights? Will women be seen equal by the law after the passing of this constitution?

In September 2012, Meriem Ben Mohamed was out with her fiancé in Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia. Two policemen took turns raping her in a police car, while her fiancé was forced by a third policeman to hand over cash money.

On March 31st, the three policemen were convicted in a Tunis courtroom. The two men who raped her were given seven years in prison, while the third policeman was convicted of extortion and was given a two-year sentence.

However, Ben Mohamed’s road to justice was long and full of obstacles. When she first accused the policemen of sexual assault, the Tunisian security services charged her with “public indecency”. After public outcry, the president of Tunisia, Mocef Marzouki, gave her an official apology.

The policemen denied the charges of rape and accused Ben Mohamed of seducing them on that night. During the trial, medical evidence was presented, which demonstrated that Ben Mohamed was sexually active before the policemen raped her.

In Arab countries, sexual activity before marriage is taboo. Instead of focusing the attention upon the perpetrators, much criticism during the trial was launched towards Ben  Mohamed herself, in a standard case of victim blaming.

Ben Mohamed currently lives in France and has described her ordeal in a published book called “Guilty of Being Raped”. When she walked out of the courtroom, Ben Mohamed shouted, “when I demand justice, they insult me”.

In Tunisia, the maximum jail term for rape is 25 years. Because the policemen were only given seven years in prison, Ben Mohamed’s legal team will appeal for a longer sentence.

Ben Mohamed’s case demonstrates the fierce opposition Tunisian women face in day-to-day life. Despite the newly adopted Tunisian constitution that guarantees women protection against violence and equal rights before the law, there is still a long road before women can walk the streets of Tunis, unafraid.

– Sarah Yan

Sources: The Economist, BBC, Iol

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Coca Cola Leading the Way for Sustainability

Coca-Cola has continued to be a responsible citizen in the global community through empowering women around the world along with aspiring to conserve the world’s natural resources. Coca-Cola has pushed for better agriculture over the past few years along with providing better agricultural principles and clean water for Africa.

Coca-Cola believes that women are the key to economic growth and reducing global poverty. In fact, The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that if women and girls have just as much access as men and boys do to agricultural resources like farming this could increase production by 20 to 30 percent. This could tremendously aid in farm production in developing countries.

In addition, Coca-Cola South Africa has teamed up with UN women to ensure growth in women entrepreneurship. Women in South Africa are receive training in areas of business and marketing to help prepare them for the current job market. In turn, many of these women will be opening small retail stores selling Coca-Cola products and with the help of Hand in Hand, the partner in the program, estimates predict to have over 25,000 South Africa women running their own businesses by 2015. This is not only expanding Coca-Cola, but the overall business in South Africa.

All the same, Coca-Cola is making use of new technology for their products and services to invest in these developing countries’ futures by creating new business models which can improve the lives of millions and reduce global poverty. Nevertheless, Coca-Cola strives to improve the quality of life for low-income families by providing opportunities which were among the least in these areas, while conserving the environment.

Coca-Cola demonstrates the qualities of a caring citizen for the world with the development of Ekocenters, which provide basic human needs such as clean water, vaccines, food and electricity in developing countries. The developing nation’s biggest issue is the need for basic human necessities in order to continue to develop and reduce global poverty. Therefore, these technological advancements can aid as well, by providing the necessary tools to move beyond poverty.

Coca-Cola is aiming to give back by creating a goal for the year 2020 to improve the company’s water-use efficiency. Also, Coca-Cola has created programs to help get water back to the communities through watershed efforts like the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation’s Replenish Africa Initiative and helping to bring safer water to communities around the globe. Accordingly, the Replenish Africa Initiative works by improving access to water and sanitation. This then promotes better hygiene and the reduction of illness and disease. In turn, this helps the community at large by improving health, the environment and helping to promote sustainable water for the environment.

Coca-Cola is transforming communities by empowering women and investing in the future of these small businesses. This will in turn bring more opportunities to the development of the community, along with improving the environment by conserving natural resources that are valuable to all countries, and bringing basic human needs to these areas’ doorsteps.

– Rachel Cannon 

Sources: Coca Cola, Harvard Kennedy School
Photo: Flickr

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Human Rights Groups Fear Iraq Child Marriage Bill

After news broke of a child marriage bill in Iraq that would make it legal to marry girls as young as 9 years old as well as require women to be fully submissive to their husbands, human rights advocates were outraged.

The law is called the Jaafari Personal Status Law, based on ideas of a particular school of Shiite religious law. It was introduced last year, but was just approved by the current prime minister’s, Nouri al-Maliki, Council of Ministers. This action is a prerequisite for the law to be voted on in Iraq’s state assembly.

Many believe that this controversial law is an attempt by the government to create laws more representative of the Shiite majority of the population. The Shiite majority had been repressed prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that effectively removed Saddam Hussein’s Sunni regime. Since that invasion, many Shiite leaders both political and religious have made efforts to demonstrate the strength of their new regime.

The draft law does not actually state a minimum age for marriage, but instead includes a section on divorce with rules for girls who have reached the age of 9 according to the lunar Islamic calendar. The law would also give a girl’s father the sole ability to accept or refuse a marriage proposal, effectively taking any influence away from a girl’s mother.

It is important to notice that the Islamic lunar calendar is about 10 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar. Therefore the age of 9 by the Islamic lunar calendar is the same as 8 years and 8 months old by the Gregorian calendar. Including these divorce rules implies that it would be allowed for girls as young as 9 to have first been married.

The legal age of marriage in Iraq is 18 years old without parental approval, but younger girls can be married with parental consent or consent of a guardian. Reports show that underage marriage is on the rise, with statistics from 2011 showing that 25% of marriages in Iraq included at least one person under the age of 18.

The draft law would also legalize a husband to have sex with his wife regardless of her consent and would require women to get the permission of their husband before leaving the house. Furthermore, the law would make it more difficult for women to obtain custody of children after divorce and would make it easier for men to have more than one wife.

Rights advocates and many Iraqi citizens alike see the law as a major regression of women’s rights. Many also believe that the law would further aggravate tensions between Shiites and Sunnis in the country.

Joe Storl, Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director, has said, “Passage of the Jaafari law would be a disastrous and discriminatory step backward for Iraq’s women and girls. This personal status law would only entrench Iraq’s divisions while the government claims to support equal rights for all.” There have also been outcries that the law legalizes the rape of women.

While the reactions to this law demonstrate a fear that Iraq is moving backwards, it appears that the Shiite government is not concerned. Prime Minister al-Maliki’s spokesman Ali al-Moussawi said, “Some media outlets show Iraq as it has gone backwards but this isn’t true. In the west, people are talking about gay marriage. This is something we would never discuss and it is against our religion, our nature, yet we don’t say that they are backwards.”

While protests continue, we can only wait to see what will happen and if this controversial law will actually be passed.

– Julie Guacci

Sources: TIME, The Huffington Post, The Guardian
Photo: Rasoul Ali

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Poverty in Iraq Dangerous for Pregnant Women

A recent report called Iraq “one of the worst places for children in the MENA region.” The past few decades in Iraq have been marked by warfare and human rights violations. Currently, 3.5 million Iraqi children are living in poverty and over 1.5 million are considered malnourished. Iraq is also a dangerous place for pregnant women and infants, with approximately 100 infants dying per day, according to a Global Research report.

Dozens of pregnant Iraqi women are being admitted to the hospital with life threatening conditions every month. According to UNICEF, maternal mortality rates in the war torn country have increased by 65 percent since 1989, a number that is much higher than neighboring countries. Until political conditions improve and pregnant women have more access to healthcare and basic necessities, doctors in the region fear the problem will get worse.

Dr. Mayada Youssif, a gynecologist in Baghdad, attributed the increasing mortality rate to ‘insecurity and poverty that Iraqis live with due to conflict.’

“Insecurity has forced pregnant women to stay at home during their whole period of pregnancy,” Youssif says, “and they look for a doctor only when they are feeling really ill or feel, near to delivery time, that conditions have become too dangerous.”

UNICEF recommends three basic needs that should be available for pregnant women and their babies: good nutrition, access to antenatal care and access to emergency care if a problem were to arise. All of these services are impeded in Iraq because of limitations such as curfews and a fear of being subject to violence. What often results  is that help isn’t sought out until it is too late.

That is exactly the situation in which Salah Hussein found himself when his wife died during childbirth. The doctors attributed her death to a combination of malnutrition and the effects of constant stress from living in a war-torn country. Now Hussein faces having to raise his child alone with the help of his extended family. Malnutrition is still a problem, as he cannot afford formula for his child.

Even if Iraqi women can get to a doctor, many hospitals are ill-equipped to deal with common pregnancy issues such as anemia. There is a rising call to increase investment in the health department to combat rising mortality rates. The main issue is the lack of specialized care that is available to all pregnant women. Some live in areas where they cannot physically get to a doctor, or worse, there is not even a doctor in the area.

Global Research says that the problem will not be fixed until governments that are actively and militarily involved in the country use their resources to address the problem. Until action is taken to improve women’s health in Iraq, we will continue to see the same problems. Global Research has recommended that this issue be taken up by the international community in order to work together to find a solution.

– Colleen Eckvahl

Sources: IRIN News, Centre for Research on Globalization
Photo: Articlesbase

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HRW Reports Violence Against Women in Iraq

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There are many women in Iraq who have faced and continue to face abuse within the Iraqi judiciary system, as outlined in a new report from the Human Rights Watch (HRW). According to the HRW, although both men and women suffer from the severe flaws of the criminal justice system, women suffer a double burden due to their second-class status in Iraqi society.

Iraq has had other allegations challenging its reputation for gender discrimination in the past. During the 1970s, Iraq guaranteed equal rights to women before the law by mandating compulsory education through primary school for both genders and changed labor, employment, and personal laws to grant women greater equality in the workplace, marriage, divorce and inheritance. These advancements were done, however, in order to create loyalty to the ruling government and Baath Party.

After losing the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein tried to boost his power and popularity by embracing Islamic and tribal traditions. This led to the rapid deterioration in social status for women in Iraq, which has only worsened since the Iraq War.

Although there has been some debate in the international community as to the legitimate use of interrogation tactics like water-boarding, the abuses these women sustained seem to have amounted to torture. Nearly all of the women in Iraq that were interviewed by the HRW were handcuffed, kicked, punched, beaten with cables, subjected to electric shocks, and subjected to falaqa, which is the practice of tying someone upside down and beating their feet.

Many also reported being raped and sexually assaulted by security officials who also threatened to do the same to their daughters. After succumbing to torture, these women were forced to sign and fingerprint confessions they could not read, or in some cases, that were just blank pieces of paper.

Although prohibited by both Iraqi and international law, corruption and a lack of government oversight ensures that these abuses continue with no repercussions for the abusers and no relief for the victims. By detaining women without arrest warrants, holding them for indefinite periods before allowing them to see a judge and demanding bribes for their release, the actions of the government are synonymous to kidnapping.

The current situation is also influenced by religious strife, as the vast majority of these women and girls are Sunni and being illegally detained by the Shia-led government solely because of their branch of Islam. The majority of the women interviewed were held for allegedly covering up for crimes committed by male family members, and charged under Iraq’s Anti-Terrorism Law. Many were convicted not by evidence, but based on coerced confessions and testimony from “secret informants.”

The response from Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s administration has been criminally insufficient. They have yet to begin investigating allegations of abuse, and many government officials have denied that there is a problem, with some even accusing the women of lying. To move past the legacy of corruption left by Saddam Hussein, a greater sense of transparency of and accountability for government procedures could greatly improve the situation.

– Kenneth W. Kliesner

Sources: Human Rights Watch, Al Jazeera
Photo: Aljazeera