We the Women

Women, young girls and children are high risk targets in any conflicts and war. Their vulnerability makes them easy targets. They are scarred for life. Their suffering doesn’t end with the end of war, their lives stands totally devastated and mutilated. They are shunned by their community for being victims of rape, and often they have to fend for themselves and their young children. Plan, an international child aid agency has drafted a report, Because I am a Girl , to document atrocities and the affect war and continuing conflicts have on the girls and children.

After the Suffrage movement in 1890s, one thought that emancipation of women will be incessant and there shall be no looking back. Today, in 2008, again a woman feels the need to revolt, to fight for her right and to get rid of the step-mother treatment that this world never fails to give her. She is a modern suffragete, the one who is fighting for equality and who, with sheer belief in herself, shall shatter the glass ceiling that exists everywhere. The glass ceiling that the two women namely Ann Robinson and Rita Pullen wrote so passionately about in the Guardian, UK.

She is not abiding by the stereotypical norms of Indian society which ought to be followed by all girls especially that of the rural region. As a girl enters the stage of adulthood, she steps across the threshold of her new phase of married life however life is not same for the girls of Bedia tribe in the interiors of Rajasthan.

Girls as young as 13 years of age are forced to earn their livelihood by prostitution and just for a mere sum of Rs.100 (Indian currency). Bid can go for Rs.20,000 if the girl is virgin, and if, the girl happens to be ‘pretty’, well the price can soar up to Rs. 40,000.

Once a girl has lost her virginity she cannot marry. The choice has been made and the community celebrates it - this is her non-wedding night.

A girl’s ‘first earnings’ is observed with a huge round of celebrations ‘an extravagant party’, they say where ‘jewellery is bought for her and for her relatives, goats are slaughtered and alcohol runs freely. There is dancing, and offerings are made to the gods’.

Have you ever witnessed a “human zoo”, a place where humans, more specifically women are exhibited in lieu of just £4? I know it sounds absurd but it ain’t. Women of the Kayan tribal community in Northern Thailand come under the paraphernalia of such an exhibition, why? well because of their “Long Necks” and hence they are also termed as “Giraffe Women”.

The age old tradition - of winding coil around the neck of a girl till the adulthood is still carried out by the people which happen to become a tourist attraction - has actually sealed the fate of women which compels them not to think about education, housing, full citizenship and, above all, peace.

Women have always been given the status of being the secondary gender or referred to as being the weaker or the fairer sex, subjecting them to exploitations in almost all aspects of life. The woman who has been the progenitor of life on earth since its very inception has always been looked down upon by the men. Even in the developed societies where the experts claim exists complete gender equality many cases of gender based bias either in the personal or the professional front has been reported, which absolutely justifies the bias against women in the underdeveloped and developing countries where injustice is predominantly prevalent. These facts are reconfirmed with the study conducted by the UN, the reports of which clearly state that ‘women are discriminated against in almost every country around the world’.

On 8 March 1908 female garments workers in USA took to the Manhattan streets protesting against gender discrimination demanding equal pay, better working conditions, childcare centers and right to vote. Since then, this day has been looked upon as one of the first mass protests by women right groups and after a hundred years, we need to do some soul searching as to whether the women in today’s world have succeeded in attaining their legal and social rights.

In the so called developed world, the position of women in public sphere remains static and insipid with any issue relating to them considered innocuous. Time and again women are looked upon as mandated individuals ordained only with duties pertaining to the defined territories of their houses and are predominantly seen as stupefied objects of pleasure, use and abuse.

Sexual violence, vulnerability, fear and parochial outlook is what women all over the world are experiencing, whether in their households or at workplace. The situation worsens when a woman leaves her nationality for serving in an insurgency and war afflicted area like Iraq. This situation seems reminiscent of the US women who serve in the Iraq war either as contractors or soldiers in the army. Abuses relating to women are either shoved away, negated and are usually jettisoned. And women raising voice especially against sexual abuse find themselves helpless in face of the obdurate administration of men of the higher authorities.

Argentina has a new President. And wonder of wonders, the President is a woman. The men are apprehensive whether she might be one of those weaklings who toe the line of her husband, the ex-President Nestor Kirchner. May be the men are also worried whether being a woman she has enough brains to run a nation. Kirchner unconsciously revealed his patriarchy when he told a television channel that being married to President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner for 32 years, he knows better than to interfere. The new President�s virago nature comes out of this.

Argentina is recovering from an economic recession. The annual growth rate is now 8% and Al Jazeera English points out the need for the new President to maintain this growth rate during her tenure. Her allies include Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, Evo Morales, the Bolivian president and Rafael Correa of Ecuador. All are Left leaning ideologues. They are naturally antipathetic to President Bush�s regime in the US. Cristina Fernandez on the other hand, unlike her friends and husband is softer on her stand regarding the US. So she comes as a relief to both the US and her allied. The US would be backing her for it needs at least one person to count on for its presence in Latin America. The allies there need her to pass on their demands to the US. Crisitina Fernandez is thus a stabilising factor in chaotic South America.

I repeat,
The Count your master’s known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed
At starting is my object.

My Last Duchess These lines tell us more about dowry than any drier article ever can.

There are a few axioms of Indian marriages.

If the groom is a government official, doctor or lawyer, then he can ask for greater dowry than a private worker. If the bride happens to be pretty and working, then the dowry goes down. If the guy is a high paid techie, then he can demand the moon from the girls� parents whether she be working or studying.

Dowry is never disallowed in our society and pre-nuptial agreements are virtually unheard of. A 23 year old PhD student, Priyanka Verma, who is also a teacher at Vanasthali Vidyapith, has been recently left in the lurch by a highly paid software engineer at Gurgaon. Problems began at the engagement party.

The boy�s family demanded a car. Rs 10 lakh was asked for buying a flat at Gurgaon. The girl�s family tried to buy peace by giving them the car. The boy said the car was too small. And ultimately the bridegroom�s family has disappeared. The wedding was supposed to happen on Tuesday and everything had been arranged accordingly. Now the girl�s family has lost face and somewhere the boy along with his parents, is enjoying life to the hilt.

Trafficking of women and young girls is on the rise in the tiny Himalayan country of Nepal. It is of no surprise that women from the impoverished parts of the country make up the majority of the trafficked victims. Years of political uncertainty, civil war and the massive growth and influence of South Asian flesh trade mafia have contributed to the rise in trafficking. For regional governments, trafficking is a growing concern.

In Nepal, women and child trafficking is a profitable business for the traffickers. The victims are forced into the sex industry, illegal adoptions, factory labor, organ transplantations, etc. According to many unofficial estimates, around 15,000 Nepali women are trafficked each year, although some suggest that this figure has increased two-fold due to the current political and social unrest across the country.

Poverty and lack of education make the Nepali women, particularly in the rural areas, vulnerable to the problem. Due to the lucrative nature of the prostitution business in the urban areas, socially and economically deprived women find no other options but to take it as a profession.

As more women, both young and old, were victimized in recent violence worldwide, UN experts are alarmed by the growing number of incidents of battered children and brutally inflicted women that seem to be unresolved.

Recent U.S. report highlighted the barbaric behavior of the most notorious Congolese rebels mutilating the innocent bodies of women and raping some of the minors.

UN crisis expert Kathleen Cravero said, it is about time to be more vigilant in protecting women in all nations against the abusive acts of violence and free them from the bondage of helplessness.

Despite many efforts of United Nations and human right organizations in Africa, plenty of cases related to forced sexual intercourse still hits headlines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It had proved to become the biggest epicenter of one of the world’s major humanitarian crises.

In Congo, men of an ethnic group uses rape as weapon to take revenge from other rival group. It is the country where the national army is battling local and foreign militias in a struggle involving unresolved ethnic conflicts.

She has to keep her mouth shut on molestation, harassment, and eve teasing incidents; she hardly goes legal way against the crimes like domestic violence, kidnapping etc. committed by men in Muslim society. This needs very urgent attention of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

The valley, which is still trying hard to live peacefully is hitting headlines not for terrorist activities but for degrading condition of women, live there. In spite of the fact that the violations of human rights in Kashmir are in direct disregard of the principles of international human rights and humanitarian law, no attention has paid towards the these women who have been victim of such inhuman crimes.

Ashaiman women have vowed to march nude and sleep with the Deputy Prime Minster of Local Government & Rural Development, Maxwell Kofi Jumah. This is in protest of the Ashaiman-Adenta municipality�s decision to make Adenta the capital of Ashaiman. Yaa Asantewah, Queen Mother of Ejisu had once resisted white rule with her band of Ghanaian women. Now Madam K. K. Agogoe, Acting Queen Mother of the Ashaiman Market, has stated that since Ashaiman has been in existence for over 100 years, it is unfair to think of making Adenta the new capital. All Africa reports that at a recent hastily called meeting of Ashaiman elders the women unanimously demanded that the government decision be reversed. They pointed out that Ashaiman is logistically better suited for being the area�s capital. The meeting was attended by a veritable who�s who of the Ashaiman people. The importance of this protest is not in the meetings or even the location of the capital. Rather it is in the chutzpah of the women. One wishes that Bihar�s women would teach a similar lesson to the strongman Bahubali who has recently been accused of raping and murdering a woman.

Women the symbol of love, kindness, mercy and spend her life in coping with sexual and mental abuses done by one or more men in countries dealing with war like situation. Whether it is Congo, Iraq, or Sierra Leone that has civil war like situation, thousands of women and girl are the victims of rapes, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy and other crimes of sexual violence.

According to a thirty five page report prepared on the Sierra Leone�s woman and girl revealed that up to a third of the female population are suffering the aftermath of the sexual violence during the 11-year conflict in Sierra Leone. During the war these women have been used as a weapon. Among these victims, only few have been able to get the help from government or other sources (NGOs).