As the curtain rises on a fresh Women’s International Year, and women activists take to the streets to demand their rights, and urge women to ‘ Be Bold For Change’, for millions of others trapped by poverty and violence it will be just another bleak day in their lives. That there is such a day where women are given the centre stage to freely express their opinions and demands means nothing to women mired in harsh surroundings, where expressing their views or demanding their rights is not tolerated and can have deadly outcomes. For women in the war torn Middle East, such as, Somalia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh, displaced from their homes and loved ones, and imprisoned in unsafe, alien environments, the only reality right now is being able to live through another day of bombing which can snuff out their lives in one deadly puff.
Born amid the furious onslaught of arsenal, forced to flee from camp to camp, the only thing that matters is to save their lives and those of their loved ones from the raging war around them..
Sex slaves
War is not the only thing that has robbed them of the Rights that the UN has enshrined in Charters and Acts which most countries have pledged to keep: the right to dignity and self respect, right to education, to have control over their bodies and be free from violence and abuse.
Women are also increasingly being used as sex slaves. Thousands of young women are lured, bought and sold into a thriving sex industry which condemns them to a life of prostitution .
Just a few days ago, a documentary by CNN and BBC, as well as, some other channels showed large groups of young women , including underaged girls of no more than 13 and 14 years, being trafficked across the boundaries of their homelands to different countries of the globe. Viewers saw large numbers of young girls lured through a middle agent from poverty stricken nations in Asia, but what shocked this writer was that the contagion had spread to affluent countries like the US , UK ,Canada and Western Australia as well as Hongkong and Singapore, where it is one of the biggest and most profitable businesses in a hidden world.
So, where does Sri Lanka stand?
Although though not so common in our own little island, prostitution is still a thriving business in tourist spots like, Sigiriya ,Anuradhapura and in Colombo’s night clubs. The girls are not only from impoverished homes for whom it is a means of livelihood. A disturbing trend is that, an increasing number belong to affluent homes, some, students from international schools who engage in prostitution during or after school hours, to earn money for drugs or high living.
Domestic violence
Domestic violence is equally rampant in Sri Lanka. Studies by Women – in Need ( WIN,) supported by the Police Women’s Desks bear evidence of this fact. According to recent statistics, a woman is beaten, sexually molested, verbally abused every 5 minutes. Ironically, it is not just the illiterate women who have no skills and bargaining powers to leave their husbands or male perpetrators . Educated women holding top executive positions, even earning bigger salaries than their male partners, have been found to be among the victims of domestic abuse. Shame and the fear of being exposed to society’s critical judgement are one of the reasons that prevent them from breaking their silence. Threats of having their children taken away from them by the perpetrators is another. Lack of adequate halfway Homes, as a refuge or temporary escape is another obstacle. “So, without these support systems what else could we do but hide behind the wall of silence we have built inside our own homes?”, an abused mother of three young children confessed.
Handicaps
Despite the fact that females make up more than half the world’s population, (over 51% according to world reports) studies have shown that they suffer from far more handicaps than their male counterparts in almost every sphere of life, from day one : social inequality, unequal education opportunities , in securing employment, in reproductive health , and personal security.
Collectively, these negative factors as the latest UNFPA report comments , represent the worst human rights violations affecting women.
On top of this, women continue to be sidelined when it comes to making powerful decisions, not just about themselves but on a higher level when their opinions can impact on the nation as a whole. This is largely due to the low standing they have among their male colleagues sharing the same board. Politically, either they are under-represented or ( thankfully in a very few countries) not represented at all in the highest law and decision making bodies of their respective nations. And, even if seasoned politicians in their own right, very few women seem to have made it to the very top in both, the Asian and the Western world. Take Hillary Clinton, a seasoned senator, who almost made it to the very top until Donald Trump dashed her hopes and dreams of cracking the glass ceiling that prevented a woman becoming the President of the USA.
That a few women have managed to do so against heavy odds, like our own woman Prime Minister ( the world’s first ) Sirimavo Bandaranaike, followed by India’s Indira Gandhi, and now Germany’s Angela Merkel and UK’s Theresa May, is creditable, and sets an example for others to follow.
Status of Lankan women
Lankan women never really had to fight or shed blood for their rights in the way women in the UK and USA did .Most girls in our country have enjoyed free access to education, health, food, shelter, for nearly sixty years. In recent times, there have been many instances where women have struck at the centre of jealously guarded male preserves and emerged triumphantly. These bastions of male preserve include; law, with Sri Lanka now boasting of a female judge, medicine- we now have many more women surgeons, cancer specialists, neuro physicians and anesthetists among other specialties who are making their mark in this field, space technology, heads of universities, and even in the airline business, where at least two women have broken the glass ceiling to become pilots.
Women are also beginning to shine in the field of culture, with a number of females, old and young, having won national and global recognition for their contribution towards enriching our culture. One can only hope that our budding poets, singers, actresses, dancers and creative writers will continue to put the Lankan woman on the global map in 2017.
Social status
Sri Lankan women are also now coming into their own in jealously guarded male preserves- as pilots, engineers, draftsmen, judges, in medicine, space research, as heads of universities. But, what of their social status?. How far have Lankan women come in their struggle for equality and social acceptance in our patriarchal society? Not much, when you consider that even seven decades after independence, many women are still regarded as being ‘inferior’ to men. The fact that women, however educated continue to accept their submissive role without much protest, proves this.
The typical role of a woman inside her home will reveal that those females still have little say in important family decisions, even if it is something that concerns them personally, such as, their reproductive health. This submissive and passive acceptance of their ‘low status’ inside their homes is difficult to understand in a country where women have high literacy rates, to the point that women undergrads have begun outnumbering male undergrads, It underpins their inferior status, and at the same time rejects claims by various politicians that Lankan women now enjoy hundred percent equality.
What it does prove is that gender inequality does exist, in both, visible and invisible forms, despite Sri Lanka being a signatory of the Act to Prevent Discrimination against Women in All forms.
Abortions
And, while female infanticide and sex selective abortions have not been recorded in Sri Lanka, there is no denying the fact that an increasing number of children are left on the streets or even killed by their own parents due to the absence of legally approved abortions in the country. The incidence of media reports of unmarried women leaving their newborns to die in hospital lavatories, on bridges, thrown into rivers or abandoned in jungles is on a shocking high. Added to this, is the stigma against unmarried mothers that is often the reason for those desperate gestures, while the absence of legal support for mothers whose babies have been born out of wedlock has also made it difficult for teen-aged married mothers to claim financial assistance for such children.
Women politicians have a long history in Sri Lanka, harking back to the early1930s when women like Lady Molamure sat in Parliament. Yet, sixty years on, the ratio of women in Parliament remain abysmally low. Barely5 % of the full complement of politicians who sit in our Parliament today are women.
While recent efforts by the government to increase the ratio of women entering politics is encouraging, the glass ceiling for them to crack will remain as long as they are prevented from doing so because of harassment by their male rivals.
So, as we celebrate another Women’s International Year, let’s start focusing on the goals that still elude us in achieving equality in its fullest sense. To do that we must begin at the very beginning, starting from the girl child, and going beyond. We must also engage the support and participation of the opposite sex. Discussing our rights in our limited female circles is not enough.
Men need to understand why these Rights are so important to women, why sexual abuse whether verbal, physical or mental can jeopardize the health and scar a woman for life Discussion, awareness raising and even encouraging husbands/ partners to attend natural birth classes alongside their women, as well as, political commitment, stiffer laws and penalties for offenders of any law protecting women’s rights are options to be considered.
Expediting all outstanding rape and abuse cases and meting out justice which will be strong enough to halt the offender in his tracks, providing more half way homes for victims of domestic violence, can help our future generation of women to be able to grow in safe environments, free of abuse and violence. Walking along this path of reconciliation and justice could in the long run be more effective than heaping invectives and blame, only on the opposite sex.
Over to our readers
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| While recent efforts by the government to increase the ratio of women entering politics is encouraging, the glass ceiling for them to crack will remain as long as they are prevented from doing so because of harassment by their male rivals |
Pix: Saman Sri Wedage