The 1995 Fourth World Conference
on Women from which the Beijing Declaration came forth, was an international
turning point on the participation and visibility of women worldwide. The declarations
were embraced by participating governments and later ratified as best practices
by others. Key among them was the determination to advance the goals of
equality, development and peace for all women everywhere in the interest of all
humanity.
The declaration also states “…empowerment and advancement of women,
including the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief,
thus contributing to the moral, ethical, spiritual and intellectual needs of
women and men, individually or in community with others and thereby
guaranteeing them the possibility of realizing their full potential in society
and shaping their lives in accordance with their own aspirations”.
The fifty-eighth session of the
Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will took place at United Nations
Headquarters in New York from 10 to 21 March 2014. Among the resolutions,
was the reassertion of the Beijing Declaration. The Commission also reaffirmed
that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW) and other relevant conventions and treaties, provide an international
legal framework and a comprehensive set of measures for the elimination of all
forms of discrimination against women and girls and promotion of substantive
gender equality.
Despite these notable
achievements, the visibility of the African woman in the socio-political and economic
scope over the last couple of years has gone to the dogs. Women continue to
face obstacles, and in some cases, dealing with retrogressive oppressive
policies and law.
While some African countries
continue to face serious political crisis or situations of armed conflicts, women
continue to be the main targets of violence, discrimination and stigmatization.
They are used as spoils of war, their very bodies turned to war themselves.
Women in positions of power lack
support, sometimes ignored and their voices drowned by dissidents who deem
their opinions valueless. Women, despite comprising the highest population in
the world, lack conducive platforms to skew impactful policies, economically, politically
and socially.
In March 2012 Amina al-Filali who
was 16 years old, was forced to marry a man who had allegedly
raped her. After seven months of marriage to the 23-year-old man, she committed
suicide. Her parents and a judge had forced the marriage to ‘protect
the family honour’.
Article 475 of Morocco’s penal
code, first proposed by the country's Islamist-led government sanctions the
exoneration of a rapist if he married their victim. Needless to say, Amina’s
death sparked an international outcry that made lawmakers amend the law this
March.
As if on cue, Mozambique has
proposed a similar kind of amendment on a bill, propagated by the majority male
parliamentarians. Article 223 of the Penal Code states that a rapist can avoid
prosecution for his crime by marrying his victim - even if she is a
child. The amendment is to be tabled in parliament.
The ramifications of such a law
are horrific. Instead of freeing and protecting rape survivors from
their attackers, the law would essentially serve them up on a silver platter.
The law does not punish proven rapists, deter potential rapists, or protect
survivors and other women; it actually rewards rape and punishes the victim.
Uganda passed the
Anti-pornographic Law under the façade that it is aimed at eliminating “sexual
crimes against women and children including rape, child molestation and incest”.
This law criminalizes “dressing into cleavage-revealing blouses ('tops') that
excite sexual cravings in public, unless for educational and medical purposes
or during sports or cultural events”. This law, was again, drafted and
propelled by male lawmakers, and the women parliamentarians did not, and have
not objected to its enactment.
The list is not, cannot even be
exhausted, but these are just some of the many. WHERE ARE THE WOMEN VOICES IN AFRICA?
Have we again, let down our guard and retreated to the background as the gains
made are trumped upon in the name of “African-ness, culture, tradition,
religion”? Have we AGAIN, lost control to all aspects of our
health, in particular own sexuality, our fertility, that is basic to our
empowerment?
We
need to draw from the determination to the full enjoyment by women of all human
rights and fundamental freedoms and take effective actions against violations
of these rights and freedoms. These include backward, draconian,
heteronormative and patriarchal policies and laws that are persistently increasing
the burden of poverty on women and creating structural barriers to our
well-being.
That
amendment bill in Mozambique should be scrapped to oblivion, and you can
contribute to that, in your own way. Write to a lawmaker, blog, sign petitions
and tell someone about it. Speak out against oppression, against bigotry,
embrace self-freedom, self-thought and unapologetically live by it.
