Women's rights and male chauvinism

by Charmaine FERNANDO

International Women's day falls, as women always do over men, on the 8th of March. Men all over the world will take advantage of its advent to boost hotel and restaurant sales, lift cut-flower prices and print double the quantity of cards to wish women well. A breather of twenty four hours, have been allocated to women, out of a total of 8,760 man-hours, once every 365 days.

Twenty one centuries later, women are still talking; talking about rights, as if any are left. Of all the men including those who evolved from tree tops to skyscrapers, not a single man is stopping to listen. When queried as to why men are not listening to women, especially when they are talking loud and clear about their rights, a wise man burst into laughter till he cried. Nothing was uttered. Only the echoes of his guffaw are retained, reverberating between the wave lengths.

In need of attention

Despite the sarcasm behind the curtains, the facts write big and bold, on black and white boards screaming loud for attention that millions and billions of women are deprived of a voice, protection, education, health care, basic human needs and human rights. The men wear ear plugs, connecting to their mobile phones. They are expecting urgent overseas calls from wherever. Women's rights can wait. If women could wait 21 centuries to redress, without letting their demands turn to fossil matter, then, women must be immune to waiting. Join the queue.

Millions and billions of women are deprived of a voice

Twenty one centuries later, in a world where women are exceedingly forward thinking and breaking even with aptitude, efficiency and professionalism, up against a world dominated by men, they continue to feel the heat of age-old whiplash of violence, repression, isolation, enforced ignorance and discrimination at every turn. These come in all sizes and shapes, shades and phases; in street corners and behind closed doors.

Most often, the poorest and the most conflict-ridden countries let loose a level of violence that makes life unbearable to the women. Repressive laws are enforced by the richer nations with regard to the problems, of the least-advantaged or simply sweep them under the carpet, in deliberation. Refugee women are among the most vulnerable. So widespread are the disadvantages for the women, that it's hard to pinpoint the `worst places for women' in the world. Most surveys rate their problems by quality of life and others by health indicators.

Human rights groups point an accusing finger at countries where violation is so severe that murder has become routine! Male chauvinism is raising its ugly head not sparing the remotest nooks and corners of the globe; forever on the prowl, enjoying a sadistic free for all, leaving its bloody trail on women, gasping for dear life-breadth, gnashing teeth in sheer desperation.

Worst practices

It is no matter for leisurely conversation over Bacardi on the rocks that certain countries adopt worst practices today against women. You don't make small talk over how the average Afgan girl will live to only just forty five years, After three decades of war and religion-based repression, an overwhelming number of women are illiterate. More than half of all brides are under 16, and one woman dies in childbirth every half hour.

Domestic violence is so common that 87 per cent of women admit to experiencing it. But more than one million widows are on the streets, often forced into prostitution.

Afghanistan is the only country in which the female suicide rate is higher than that of males.

The U.S.-led invasion to "liberate" Iraq from Saddam Hussein has imprisoned women in an inferno of sectarian violence that target women and girls. The literacy rate, once the highest in the Arab world, is now among the lowest, as families fear risking kidnapping and rape by sending girls to school.

Women who once went out to work stay home. Meanwhile, more than 1 million women have been displaced from their homes, and millions more are unable to earn enough to eat. Whither women's rights?

In Nepal early marriage and childbirth exhaust the country's malnourished women, and one in 24 will die in pregnancy or childbirth. Daughters who aren't married off may be sold to traffickers, believe me, before they reach their teens! Widows face extreme abuse and discrimination if they're labelled bokshi, meaning witches. A low-level civil war between government and Maoist rebels has forced rural women into guerrilla groups.

In Guatemala an impoverished female poor and powerless class faces domestic violence, rape and the second-highest rate of HIV/AIDS after sub-Saharan Africa. An epidemic of gruesome unsolved murders has left hundreds of women dead, some of their bodies left with hate messages. In Mali, one of the world's poorest countries, few women escape the torture of genital mutilation, many are forced into early marriages, and one in 10 dies in pregnancy or childbirth.

It is despicable to note that in the tribal border areas of Pakistan, women are gang-raped as punishment for men's crimes. But honor killing is more widespread, and a renewed wave of religious extremism is targeting female politicians, human rights workers and lawyers. In oil-rich Saudi Arabia, women are treated as lifelong dependents, under the guardianship of a male relative.

Education

Literacy then, is one of the best indicators of women's status in any given country. Building schools alone and making available free education does not solve the challenge of equal attention n. But parents will not be able to send their daughters to school if they are to be victimized, kidnapped or even raped, for that matter.

Health is yet another clear indicator of the place of women in any given country. Care of pregnant women, who are sometimes forced in to marriage at a disastrously young age and childbearing, some infected with HIV/AIDS.

Unfortunately statistics fail to show the entire complex story. Literally putting power in a woman's hands is the biggest challenge in improving their life, wherever in the world they may be. Be it in the poorest countries like Africa or the most repressive Middle East, lack of control over one's destiny blights women's lives from early childhood. Redress is a crying need, no doubt.

Women all over the world should unite to force the hand of law to activate globally applicable human rights legislature in their favour against suppression, irrespective of the country location. The suffering must end, now.

The time is ripe; ripe for action. It's now or never.