Plain talk
By Mursi Saad El-Din
The world has just celebrated International Women's Day. The celebrations have taken different forms of activities, but most events called for absolute equality with men and an end to discrimination against women.
In a supplement with the title "Women and Power", The Guardian Weekly sums up the current status of women. Ceri Hayes, a senior policy officer at Womankind Worldwide, writes, "there has been a recognition that a right-based approach, which focuses on the fundamental right for women to participate equally in the economic, social and political power structures of whatever country they live in, is a great force for change, and one that if properly supported could do more than Western development agencies could dream of achieving."
What is certain, however, is that women the world over constitute a high percentage of the labour market. I remember my visits to some African countries where I saw women undertaking major and highly skilled production work. In some African countries there are now equal numbers of women and men in government positions. In Africa, women provide 70 per cent of agricultural labour. In most developing countries, they produce between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of food.
The struggle for the rights of women has gone beyond national frontiers. It has acquired an international character and become a United Nations concern. The UN Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women needs clarification, some feminist groups claim. It should clearly specify that the state has the obligation to educate and end any practices against the rights of women. Now, according to international law, no state and no man can say, "but this is our culture," when it comes to harming or repressing women, or justifying abuses such as child marriages.
The Guardian supplement devotes a few pages to discussing the situation of Iranian and Iraqi women. Annie Kelly writes about the two leading Iranian women's rights activists who were arrested and jailed for refusing to stop campaigning for more rights for women, and for calling for changes in Iran's discriminatory legal system.
In the same issue Mark Lattimer writes about the situation of women in Iraq. He quotes Bush's claim made in March 2004, that "the advance of freedom in the Middle East has given new rights and hopes for women." This, Lattimer adds, "may have given some people the impression that the American and British invasion of Iraq had helped improve the lives of women." But this is far from the case. He goes on to say that even under Saddam Hussein Iraqi women were widely recognised as the most liberated in the Middle East. They held important government posts and worked in the private sector. "Their rights were protected by a statutory family law that was the envy of women's rights activists in neighbouring countries." But since the 2003 invasion, "advances that took 50 years to establish are crumbling down."
As we celebrate International Women's Day, we should not ignore great advances achieved by women worldwide. On the political level, for example, the number of female presidents and prime ministers has increased over the years. I still remember two of the first women leaders, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who was elected prime minister of Sri Lanka in 1960 and then re-elected in 1970, and Indira Ghandi, who became prime minister of India in 1966. Bangladesh has had female prime ministers since 1991. Margaret Thatcher was British prime minister, and recently Helen Clark became New Zealand's prime minister. Angela Merkel became the first woman chancellor of Germany.
Additionally, there are now women presidents in Argentina, Chile, Mozambique and Liberia. And there is now a big chance that Hillary Clinton might become the first US female president.
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/888/cu3.htm