Archive for category: Violence Against Women

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Sex-Ed for Girls in Pakistan

Girls in rural Pakistan are receiving groundbreaking sex education lessons from the Village Shadabad Organization. These lessons range from topics of puberty, sex, marital rape, menstruation, marriage, human rights and self-defense against attackers. These sex education lessons are being taught alongside normal education curriculum in eight different girls schools, which are funded by BHP Billiton, an Australian company.

Lessons on menstruation and puberty teach girls not to be ashamed by their own body, and lessons on marital rape explain that unwilling marital sex is a crime. The girls are taught to scream and fight if they are touched inappropriately, because their bodies are owned by no one but themselves. Uzma Panhwar, a 10-year-old student, declares “My body is only mine and only I have the rights on it.”

These lessons teach girls about their body, and about their sexual health. With greater knowledge and awareness of their bodies and their rights, girls can gain confidence and strike away feelings of guilt and shame thrust upon them by their conservative patriarchal society.

In a country where public discourse on sex is forbidden, these lessons are even more meaningful and relevant for these young girls. It is estimated that 70 percent to 90 percent of Pakistan’s women have experienced domestic abuse. Women in Pakistan experience high rates of sexual and domestic violence, fighting against a justice system that favors their male attackers. Both law enforcement and government officials have proved to be unresponsive towards violence against women.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report ranked Pakistan as 135th in the world due to its gender inequality. Pakistan has a history of honor killings, child marriages and violence against women. Although the country is making progress in women’s education, women still have little representation in their own government.

The families in these rural villages support sex education, but there are many others in Pakistan, especially from the education sector, who oppose it due to constitutional and religious reasons. The education minister for the Sindh province and the president of All Pakistan Private School Federation have opposed these sex education lessons in the rural villages.

These sex education lessons are important in providing a foundation for female empowerment in Pakistan. While reform and increased legislation on women’s rights from the government will be slow to create change, these lessons in rural villages are impacting transformation of social norms at the local level.

Women’s empowerment has been shown to not only combat poverty, but to promote development and greater well-being. Teaching these young girls in Pakistan to take control over their bodies also teaches them to take control of their own lives. These sex education lessons do not merely educate them about their bodies, it teaches them to respect themselves, and to demand the respect they deserve from their society and government.

– Sarah Yan

Sources: The Guardian, Global Public Square
Photo: Taipei Times

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Japanese Prime Minister Will Not Revise Apology Over WWII Sex Slaves

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced this week that he will not retract his country’s official apology for its military’s use of sex slaves during World War II. Abe’s cabinet had been reviewing a landmark 1993 cabinet statement in which Tokyo acknowledged for the first time that the Japanese military had directly or indirectly been involved in establishing brothels for its soldier in territories occupied by imperial Japan during its brutal conquest of east Asia in first half of the twentieth century. Up to 200,000 women are estimated to have been forced to work as sex slaves in Japan’s military brothels.

Speaking on Friday to the budget committee in the upper house of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, Abe said he had, ” no thought of my cabinet revising,” the 1993 apology, known as the Kono statement, after then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono. “We must be humble regarding history… it should not be politicized or made into a diplomatic issue,” Abe said.

The decision by Abe, a rightwing nationalist who recently angered his country’s east Asian neighbors by visiting a controversial war shrine commemorating Japan’s war dead, is being seen as an effort by the hawkish prime minister to placate South Korea, which has criticized Tokyo for its perceived failure to atone for wartime atrocities. Japan annexed the Korean peninsula in 1910 and ruled it as a Japanese colony until the end of World War II in 1945.

Abe’s attempt to mollify Seoul, a strategic partner in countering China’s economic and military rise, comes ahead of a possible meeting between the Japanese prime minister and South Korean President Park Geun-hye next week on the sidelines of a nuclear disarmament summit in The Hague.

On Wednesday, Japanese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Akitaka Saiki traveled to South Korea in a bid to lock down a meeting between the two leaders at next week’s summit. After meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Akitaka left without obtaining a commitment from South Korea for a meeting between its president and Abe, as Seoul continued to insist that Tokyo do more to make amends for it militaristic past.

The Prime Minister’s decision not to revise the 1993 apology comes about two weeks after Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced that Abe’s government was forming a team to review the Kono statement, in which Tokyo acknowledged for the first time that, “The then Japanese military was, directly or indirectly, involved in the establishment and management of the comfort stations and the transfer of comfort women.” Comfort stations is a Japanese euphemism for the brothels operated by the Japanese imperial military in territories conquered by Tokyo during its conquest of east Asia in the first half the twentieth century.

Abe’s refusal to revisit Tokyo’s groundbreaking admission represents a u-turn for the sometimes hard line prime minister, who at times has pushed a revisionist version of history that white washes over Japan’s wartime atrocities. When he was running to be the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party in 2012, Abe said “there was no evidence” that the comfort women had been forced to work in the brothels.

Late last year, Abe angered China and South Korea, both of which were occupied by Japan during the first half of the twentieth century, when he visited Yasukuni, a Shinto shrine that commemorates Japan’s war dead, including 14 Class A war criminals.

– Eric Erdahl

Sources: BBC, BBC, Nikkei Asian Review
Photo: Enformable

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Women and Modern Day Slavery in Pakistan

Pakistan

According to The Nation, women in Pakistan are forced to make bricks in order to pay off the debt their families have incurred.

“Living without running water, and often trapped by their employers for the rest of their lives, these women are forced to work in brick kilns, agricultural fields and other hard labour industries to clear debts which overshadow their families’ lives,” said the Pakistani news agency.

There is no reliable statistic regarding the number of Pakistanis who are currently enslaved as bonded laborers. However, according to the National Coalition Against Bonded Labour, these individuals exist throughout the country not only in the brick industry, but also the agriculture and carpet industries.

Moreover, the Associated Press estimates that “tens of thousands” of poor Pakistanis work within these industries.

“Bonded labor is the most widely used method of enslaving people around the world,” The Nation said. “The person is then tricked or trapped into working for very little or no pay, often for seven days a week.”

In many instances, the amount of work that debt slaves put throughout their lives far exceeds the amount of money they initially borrowed. But instead of quitting, the victims continue to work because they are constantly threatened with physical violence.

 

Facts on Modern Slavery

 

The Pakistani government, along with the world community, prohibits the practice of debt slavery. However, it is highly inefficient when it comes to enforcing the laws and punishing the people who profit from slavery.

Developed countries and humanitarian organizations are highly critical of modern day slavery. Human Rights Watch (HRW) argues that bonded labor is more common in the southern Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan.

“Bondage in agrarian regions involves the purchase and sale of peasants among landlords, the maintenance of private jails to discipline and punish peasants, the forcible transference of teachers who train peasants to maintain proper financial accounts and a patter of rape of peasant women by landlords and the police,” said the organization.

HRW also ties this issue into poverty by explaining that bonded laborers either work in the agricultural industry or the “informal economy.”

This is a vicious circle in which the landless poor “are denied access to institutional forms of credit and must therefore rely on landlords, moneylenders and employers.”

To end debt slavery in Pakistan, the government can work harder to enforce the laws already banning the practice. With debt slavery, individuals are fooled into working in horrible conditions for the rest of their lives.

– Juan Campos

Sources: AP, The Nation, Human Rights Watch

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Hillary Clinton: Champion of Women’s Rights

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In 1995, Hillary Clinton took the stage at the fourth annual United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing. She listed the atrocities and violations committed against women and girls around the world.

Although women comprise half of the human population, they are 70 percent of the world’s poor and two-thirds of women are illiterate. Women in the informal labor economy remain unprotected and at risk of exploitation. Girls around the world are at risk of sexual violence, rape, domestic abuse and child marriage.

Almost 20 years later, Clinton’s speech is still remembered for being a firm declaration of women’s rights on the international stage. Not only was it a message for the Chinese government, but a call to countries around the world to promote women’s rights as human rights.

As a United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton continued to promote women’s rights and empowerment both domestically and internationally. During her four-year tenure, she visited 112 countries, spreading awareness of human rights abuses.

Since leaving the State Department in 2013, she became involved with a new project: the Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation. The Clinton Foundation has partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to further women’s rights.

Although there has been much progression in the 21th century, Clinton warns that there is little data to accurately measure the advancement made in women’s rights globally. This foundation seeks to record and analyze the progress of women by collecting data and figures from traditional and digital sources.

This concrete data will show world leaders how advancing women and human rights is linked with economic development. By empowering and including women in its economic and social life, communities and families are enhanced and can reach their full potential.

On February 25, 2014, Clinton spoke at Georgetown University’s annual Hillary Rodham Clinton Awards for Advancing Women in Peace and Security. The former Secretary of State held that men are also responsible for advancing and protecting women’s rights and that it is not purely a women’s issue. Men, boys, women and girls all suffer from violence and discrimination against females.

Hillary Clinton remains a strong and popular potential candidate for the 2016 Democratic Nomination for presidency. As a woman and potential nomination candidate, she is subjected to greater and unequal focus on her physical appearance, her age, and her hairstyles. And although Clinton has proved her strength, wisdom and determination for decades as a Senator, First Lady of the United States and U.S. Secretary of State, she is still affected by sexism and the widespread notion of what women should and should not aspire to be.

“If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely -and the right to be heard,” Clinton said in 1995.

– Sarah Yan

Sources: Eloquent Woman, MSNBC, Huffington Post
Photo: ABC

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Ending the Practice of Female Genital Mutilation

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Female genital mutilation (FGM) or female circumcision, has been occurring for hundreds of years in mostly sub-Saharan and northeast African regions. The term “female genital mutilation” encompasses every procedure where partial or total removal of the external female genitalia occurs, as well as any general injury to those organs without a distinct medical purpose.

The practice of FGM is internationally seen as a violation of human rights for women and young girls because it emulates the inequality between genders and represents extreme discrimination against women. On top of this, the following rights are also violated: the right to security, physical integrity, health, freedom from torture and from inhumane treatment–especially when the procedure can result in death.

There are four general classifications of FGM: clitoridectomy, excision, infibulation and an “other” category. Clitoridectomy entails the removal of part of or the entire clitoris and is one of the most common types. Excision is where they remove part of or the entire clitoris and labia minora, and this can be with or without cutting the labia majora. Infibulation includes the reduction of the vaginal opening by cutting and repositioning the labia majora to make a covering, with or without removing the clitoris. The “other” category classifies any other harmful procedures to a woman’s reproductive organs in a non-medical way.

FGM is in no way beneficial to a woman’s health, and in fact, it is harmful in several ways. Short-term effects include hemorrhage, severe pain, tetanus and urine retention. Long-term effects include cysts, recurrent urinary tract and bladder infections, infertility, childbirth complications and newborn deaths. This kind of procedure is mostly done to newborns or girls around 15 years of age that are going through puberty. Today, over 125 million women and girls in the Middle East and Northern Africa have been circumcised. By 2030, it is estimated that a further 86 million young women around the world will experience this procedure as well.

Many officials at UNICEF disagree with the practice of FGM and state it is not necessary in Islamic countries. They say it is a very old practice, traced back to the Egyptian pharaohs, and that the Koran says how humans were created in the perfect way, so changing them is not justified by religion.

Fahma Mohamed, a 17-year-old student that leads the Guardian’s campaign to end FGM, has acquired over 212,000 signatures in her petition against the issue. She has even gotten recognition from the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, who has made it a priority to end FGM because of how it threatens the empowerment of women.

There have been progressive signs in the worldwide campaign to end the practice of female genital mutilation with multiple countries like Kenya, Uganda and Guinea-Bissau adopting laws against it. The girls themselves understand the risks of being circumcised, and mothers who have dealt with the ordeal are fighting more and more to protect their daughters from the same fate. Schools can be directed to address the issue so that the people in these countries can learn about the issue and how to shield their young women from it.

– Kenneth W. Kliesner 

Sources: The Guardian (1), The Guardian (2), World Health Organization
Photo: Girls’ Globe

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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

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4 Issues Contributing to Malnutrition in the DRC

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Kinshasa, DR Congo

The second largest country in Africa and is located in the middle of the continent. Since the 1990’s the country has been in a state of political unrest and civil war which is the cause of many of the other problems in the region, such as disease, food insecurity, human rights violations, and violence against women.

Here are four issues that contribute to nearly 6.3 million people remaining food insecure and over half of the children under the age of 5 classified as malnourished in the DR Congo:

  1. Political instability between the government and several militia and rebel groups. Peace talks have been ongoing since 2009 with little progress. Since 1998, 5.4 million people have been killed. Less than 10% were killed during the fighting, instead the majority have died from diseases and malnutrition.
  2. 2.7 million people are internally displaced within the DRC as a result of the civil war. 1.6 million are in the North and South Kivu region, where much of the heavy militia activity takes place. There are an additional 116,000 refugees from neighboring countries currently living in the DRC. The large number of displaced people and perpetual fighting in the country has led to a high rate of abuse and sexual assault of women and children. It is estimated that 400,000 women between 15 and 49 were raped between 2006 and 2007. This is the equivalent of 48 women being assaulted every hour.
  3. 3.71% of the population lives below the poverty line, meaning they live on less than two dollars per day.
  4. Rampant infectious diseases are common across the country such as Malaria, Dengue Fever, Typhoid Fever, and HIV/AIDS. The ministry of health said that Malaria was their number one disease concern and in 2011 alone there were 4,561,981 reported cases.

– Colleen Eckvahl 

Sources: The International Campaign to Stop Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict , WFP, WHO
Photo: This is Africa

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Conditions for Garment Workers in Bangladesh

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When people buy from brands like Nike and shop at stores like H&M and Gap, they do not pay much attention to how the products arrived at the stores. In many cases, these clothing products are produced in sweatshops in developing countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Almost half of the population in Bangladesh lives off of less than a dollar a day.

Garment workers in Bangladesh toil day after day under extremely harsh conditions for low wages, sometimes handling dangerous chemicals with their bare hands and inhaling toxic fumes due to poor ventilation in many factories.

In April of 2013, an eight story building in Bangladesh called Rana Plaza collapsed leaving over 100 dead and over 2,000 injured.

The poor conditions of the factory itself and the lack of safety precautions taken to ensure its workers’ well-being were neglected and therefore led to the collapse. In addition to this incident, there has been a history of factory mishaps over the past couple of years in Bangladesh. In November of 2012, the Tazreen garment factory in Bangladesh caught fire and killed 112 of its workers.

At this time, the factory was producing goods for Walmart.

Besides the incidents themselves, it is also important to focus on the working conditions and the violations of human rights that happen daily in factories like these. According to the Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights, workers in the Tazreen factory work 72-81 hours per week. Their salary depends on their sewing skill; senior sewing operators earn at minimum 23 cents per hour and junior sewing operators earn 21 to 22 cents an hour.

As a majority of the workers are women, abuse is common and some are even denied maternity leave — blatant violations of human rights that have been occurring for years. Even after one tragedy, further precautions are not taken to ensure the safety of the workers.

An article from the Daily Mail accounts a Canadian journalist who worked undercover in Bangladesh and witnessed the atrocities of one of the smaller garment factories. She reported that when she first arrived at the sweatshop, a nine-year-old girl named Meem was in charge of training her.

The article also noted that there were “no fire extinguishers, only one exit – the front door – and little more than a hole in the ground, down a rat-infested hall, for the toilet.” These accounts present the harsh reality for many garment workers in Bangladesh.

Violations of human rights are happening elsewhere too—most recently in Cambodia. Workers there have started protesting in the city Phnom Penh for higher wages.

Sometimes people take things for granted because they are easily accessible. Organizations like the Clean Clothes Campaign have been established to spread awareness of this issue and to help those who have been detained for protesting for higher wages and better conditions. By not purchasing products from companies who outsource their work unfairly to other countries, a better future can be created for garment workers whose human rights have been violated.

– Kenneth W. Kliesner

Sources: BBC News, The New York Times 1, The New York Times 2, The Epoch Times
Photo: Demotix

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Female Genital Mutilation and Poverty

Female Genital Mutilation
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) ruins countless lives every day. FGM is a humiliating torturous cutting of the female genitalia carried out by various groups of the community, including health practitioners, elderly people and female relatives. According to the World Health Organization (WHO,) four types of FGM procedures exist:

Clitoridectomy

The partial or complete removal of the clitoris.

Excision

Involves removal or partial removal of clitoris, as well as labia.

Infibulation

Narrowing of the vaginal opening.

Other

This includes other forms of FGM not classified above, such as, burning, piercing or scraping. Any one of these types of FGMs is carried out on a female at any time in her life.

Millions of cases of FGM are reported each year. According to the WHO, over 100 million women and girls have had their human rights violated.

FGM is considered a human rights violation because it inflicts unnecessary pain and harm to unwilling women and girls. Laws against FGM practices have been created in 18 African countries. If caught sentences from three months up to life in prison are given.

There are also 12 industrialized nations that have passed laws criminalizing FGM.

An 8-year-old girl from Djibouti died from the effects of FGM. She was held down by friends and neighbors while a “practitioner” subjected her to FGM. Her clitoris, labia minora and labia majora, all external genitalia, was cut away causing uncontrollable bleeding.

After the procedure was done the girl’s legs were tied shut to promote “healing” and she was refused water because the need to pass urine was thought to introduce bacteria to the wounds. The young helpless girl continued to bleed throughout the evening and sob uncontrollably due to pain.

Eventually the girl was taken to the hospital and given a blood transfusion. Sadly, it was too late to save her life.

FGM has been reported in 28 African countries and various Asian countries.

According to data from the WHO, seven countries: Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Guinea, Mali, Somalia and Sudan have a FGM prevalence rate affecting 85 percent or more women. Other African countries have only slightly lower prevalence rates; a large portion of the African continent has not received FGM rates.

FGM is most likely performed in lower class poverty-stricken communities. This is due in part to the fact women and girls do not know FGM is against the law. Most believe that it is there duty as a woman to have FGM performed and if they refuse, they will be harshly criticized and shamed. These are the ones who are not held down and forced against their will.

Several campaigns to eradicate FGM from the world are underway. One government organization, the United Nations, has been tackling it as one of the world’s Millennium Development Goals. Also, Women against Female Genital Mutilation leads campaigns to increase awareness of FGM laws and harmful health and psychological effects of FGM on females.

The continuation of advocacy for women and girls suffering from Female Genital Mutilation needs to last until FGM prevalence is zero. People should continue to call their congressmen, write their legislature, and advocate for worlds helpless.

Hopefully, through the increased awareness, global campaigns, and laws FGM will become a thing of the past and no female will have to endure torturous inhumane pain ever again.

– Amy Robinson

Sources: World Health Organization, All Africa, WHO, UNICEF, Center for Reproductive Rights
Photo: International Business Times

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China Eases One-Child Policy

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In late December 2013, China’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress formally introduced measures to ease its notorious one-child policy.

The major tweak of the one-child policy now allows parents to conceive a second child if just one of the parents is an only child.

Previously, parents were allowed a second child only if each parent was an only child. Rural couples on the other hand, were allowed a second child only if the first born was female.

The new measures will be implemented in a phased process at the local level. Furthermore, provincial leaders now have the authority to introduce the changes in accordance with local demographic needs.

While modest, the change will hopefully reduce the number of human rights abuses perpetrated against Chinese women since the policy’s inception in 1979. In the New York Times, OP-ED contributor Ma Jian details some of the horrific experiences Chinese women endure when authorities become aware of a second conception.

She describes the staggering amount of personal invasion local officials engage in to enforce the one-child policy. Family planning officers vigorously chart data regarding menstrual cycles and pelvic exams of every female of child bearing age within every village.

Many of these women are subjected to forced abortions and sterilizations if they are found within violation of the policy.

Probably one of the most egregious injustices of the policy is its disproportionate enforcement. The policy frequently targets poor citizens while bypassing wealthy individuals.

In fact, all violators can avoid the consequences of having a second child if they pay a fine that falls within the range of three times to 10 times the annual household income. It goes without saying that poor citizens, unable to pay the steep fine, either flee their home to avoid the authorities or become victims of forced abortions.

Many see the easing of the policy as a response to the looming demographic crisis that China now faces after 30 years of steadily implementing the one-child policy.  Some say the change is too little, too late.

Nicholas Eberstadt reports in the Wall Street Journal, that even with the policy change, the Chinese government only expects one million extra births per year, resulting in only a six percent increase in the fertility rate.

He also discusses the lasting effect the one-child policy will have long after its easing. For instance, individuals born under the previous policy will be entering the workforce in 2030 and deciding to get married in 2035.

Demographers predict that at the end of the decade there will be over 24 million men incapable of finding a woman to marry. One can expect this number to increase by 2035.

The inability for many to reproduce will leave China with an aging population that will increasingly reduce the number of individuals who are able to work as well as government resources. By 2050, over one quarter of the Chinese population will be over the age of 65.

– Zachary Lindberg

Sources: BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker
Photo:  Dailystormers