Q&A: FGM Is About Culture, Not Religion

February 7, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

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Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Credit: UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

Kitty Stapp

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 07 (IPS) – The fight against female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) continues to gain traction around the world.On Wednesday, the United Nations observed the annual Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM/C, an act that is shocking and inhumane to much of the world but remains a tradition among a significant minority.

This year’s observance is particularly momentous after the General Assembly’s December 2012 unanimous adoption of the resolution on "Intensifying Global Efforts for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilations", which U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin says "speaks volumes to the world’s commitment" and is "the greatest testimony to the work we do".

An estimated 140 million women and girls in the world – 120 million concentrated in 29 African and Middle Eastern countries – are living with FGM/C, which, in addition to being excruciatingly painful, can result in infection, cysts, infertility, childbirth complications, and the need for corrective surgery.

IPS correspondent Marzieh Goudarzi spoke with Dr. Osotimehin on UNFPA’s role in the global fight against FMG/C. Excerpts follow.

Q: According to data from the World Health Organisation, FGM/C-affected communities exist in northern, northeastern, and western Africa and in some Middle Eastern and Asian countries. FGM/C is also practiced in immigrant communities from these countries living in other parts of the world. Are there common elements among these communities that allow FGM/C to continue?

A: It is difficult to find a common thread, but I would like to suggest that it is more cultural than anything else. I do not think it is religion. What UNFPA has done with our partner, UNICEF, is to engage communities across those regions that you mentioned and persuade them that FGM/C has no medical benefits at all and that, for a fact, it causes damage to women and girls physically, psychologically, and emotionally.

Q: Can you discuss some specific mechanisms employed by UNFPA and UNICEF to bring about change?

A: On the ground, community dialogue, making sure we connect directly to the community, and making sure we educate them about the harmful effects of FGM/C, are all crucial. We do this with community leaders, religious leaders, and the women, especially the elderly women, as well as the practitioners themselves, who are engaged in this practice. For some, it has been like this for generations so you have to try and shift them away from that sort of harmful tradition.

We are also encouraging them to abandon FGM/C and we see great success in that area. In fact, a total of 1,775 communities across Africa publicly declared their commitment to end female genital mutilation and cutting. That was very gratifying. We have also worked in countries to put in place a legal system and laws to penalise the practice. Thirty-four African countries that have done this.

Q: To what extent does the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme for the Acceleration of the Abandonment of FGM/C work directly with local implementers on the ground in FGM/C-affected countries? Who are the key local implementers?

A: The truth of the matter is that we at UNFPA and UNICEF work in countries to provide assistance, support, and advocacy to governments and to civil society. So we see that "tripartite" as an essential to what we do. We don’t do it all by ourselves because of sustainability issues.

You have to build a whole army of stakeholders on the ground, particularly when you do community work, which will consist of local leaders and civil society, to be able to sustain the advocacy and to ensure that communities go forth from where they are now and are able to maintain that pattern.

Q: What is UNFPA/UNICEF’s strategy in approaching a sensitive issue like FGM/C, which communities see as rooted in cultural or religious tradition, and how do you engage communities and community leaders who hold these beliefs while actively working to abolish the practice of FGM/C?

A: We go into communities, first of all, to understand communities. UNFPA initiates community dialogue with interlocutors that have integrity within the community, with mutual respect from both sides, to understand why they do the things they do. We then explain to them that these are things we believe we have to let go because of their consequences, and demonstrate quite clearly to them why that is so.

It takes some time for them to change what has been a part of their culture for years and years. However, this can be done with persistent and continuous engagement, honesty of purpose, and the ability to generate "champions" on the ground who will impact their communities. This is the basis of our success on the ground.

Q: Recent data shows that since the establishment of the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme in 2008, nearly 10,000 communities in 15 countries, representing about eight million people, have renounced FGM/C. UNICEF data from 2012 shows that younger women and girls have lower rates of FGM/C than their older counterparts. Looking ahead, what has worked for the countries that are making progress and how will UNFPA and UNICEF continue their work on this issue?

A: Going forth, we want to continue to ensure that we build capacity on the ground, and also ensure that we identify real "champions" who will work on the ground. Sustainability of (the programme) is in community ownership… and in making sure we have data which is reliable, that enables us to track the progress we make and give us a better on handle on what we see.

We have trained about 88,000 health providers and established 15 medical and paramedical schools just to make sure that this is not something which is going to regress.

If the present trend continues, there will still be as many as 30 million girls below the age of 15 that will still be at risk. We need to continue to give visibility to the issue to ensure that we can avoid the unfortunate extent of girls being cut.

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This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Culture, Diplomacy, Gender, Human Rights, Interview Tagged With: , ,

Kenyan Men Turning the Tide Against FGM

February 6, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Miriam Gathigah

NAIROBI, Feb 06 (IPS) – For the Samburu community in northern Kenya it was bad enough that Julius Lekupe had not sired a son – it was even worse that his eldest daughter refused to be “cut”.“Women are like property here. We circumcise them and marry them off – some as young as 10 years old,” Lekupe told IPS.

He knew it was only a matter of time before his 16-year-old daughter, too, was going to have to undergo the ritual against her will.

“She begged me to support and protect her. It was a tough decision, but I agreed. I sent her to Nairobi to live with a friend,” Lekupe recalled.

He is among an increasing number of men belonging to ethnic groups that practice Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) who have begun to speak out against the now-illegal practice in this East African nation.

Legally, the tide turned in Kenya in 2010, when parliament adopted the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act, which stipulates that offenders serve up to seven years in prison and can be fined up to 5,800 dollars – a huge sum in a country where the average monthly wage is 250 dollars.

The combination of national legislation and shifting attitudes at the community level seems to bare fruit.

On Wednesday Feb. 6, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), together released new numbers that show FGM/C is becoming less prevalent on the continent and particularly among the younger generation of girls.

In a joint statement, the agencies highlighted Kenya as an example of sharp decline in the region, saying that “women aged 45 to 49 are three times more likely to have been cut than girls aged 15 to 19.”

“This progress shows it is possible to end FGM/C,” underlined UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake, adding that “we can and must end it to help millions of girls and women lead healthier lives.”

Increasingly, men are assuming active roles in initiating this cultural shift, as UNFPA’s 2012 report “Accelerating Change” points out. In addition to fathers like Lekupe, who wish to protect their daughters, young men across Kenya are speaking out publicly to announce their preference to marry uncut girls, according to the report – a significant development in a country where FGM continues to be a prerequisite for marriage in some communities.

What’s more, over two dozen male Muslim leaders made public declarations to fight FGM/C in 2011, UNFPA said.

“We had been misled into believing that FGM/C is the practice of the Prophet, and that His followers must follow it,” Abdi Omar, a husband and father from Garissa in northern Kenya, told IPS. “But all over northern Kenya we have Muslim leaders telling us that it is not. Why should I support it if it isn’t the practice of the Prophet?”

According to Ibrahim Shabo, an FGM/C activist from Isiolo — a town in northern Kenya where the pastoralist community is notorious for practicing FGM/C — this stance by Muslim leaders is particularly significant when it comes to influencing Kenyan Somalis in northern Kenya, who have a FGM/C prevalence rate of 98 percent.

In Kapenguria, Rift Valley, the local council of elders has joined the growing chorus against FGM/C by making a public declaration to abandon the practice in 2011.

“This is a community that is known to practice extremely brutal forms of FGM/C,” Philipo Lotimari, a community leader in the town, told IPS. He went on to describe the practice that involves opening up a girl’s vagina with the horn of a cow the first time she has sex following her circumcision.

The stance of the all-male council has shifted attitudes, according to Lotimari, by sending “a collective message that it is okay to marry a girl who isn’t circumcised.”

His younger sisters have not been circumcised, he added, because he wanted them to have an education and not be married off.

But not all men have altruistic reasons for preventing the practice.

Omar, a father from Garissa, said that male youths in his region are against FGM/C, because they feel they themselves have become “victims” of it.

“If the girl is sewn so tight, you can neither penetrate nor enjoy sex. So marriages are ending because of it,” he said.

Dr. Salim Ali, a reproductive health physician in northern Kenya, told IPS: “Sex with (women who have undergone FGM/C) is uncomfortable and they do it as a duty. They rarely reach orgasm and make sex tedious. Women who haven’t been cut enjoy frequent sex – sex with them is enjoyable.”

In other cases, men whose wives suffered complications at birth were forced to pay for emergency operations to save their wives and children, Grace Gakii, a gender activist who has worked in FGM/C-practicing communities such as the Maasai’s and the Pokot, told IPS.

“The men are forced to sell their livestock to raise the money for surgery. This is a problem because of the attachment they have to their herds,” said Gakii.

While not all men who speak out against FGM are acting as women’s allies, their support for the issue at large is nevertheless crucial for accelerating the eradication of the practice.

“If more councils of elders and young men continue to show support for an FGM-free society, Kenya will be heading for zero tolerance of FGM.”

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This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Gender, Human Rights, Report Tagged With: ,

Domestic Violence Taking High Toll in Armenia

February 6, 2013 by

Global Political Economy Net / IPS

Gayane Abrahamyan

YEREVAN, Feb 05 (EurasiaNet) – Increasingly the issue of domestic violence in Armenia is a topic for public discussion. Yet greater attention to the issue isn’t yet translating into an expansion of programmes to alleviate suffering and address policy shortcomings.In 2012, Armenia set a grim record for domestic violence when six women, ranging in age from 21 to 50 years old, died over the course of six months in incidents involving their husbands or fathers-in-law. Collectively, the six dead women left behind 12 children.

No official registry of domestic-violence attacks exists in Armenia. But a 2008 survey of 1,000 Armenian women by Amnesty International found that more than three out of 10 had suffered from physical abuse, and 66 percent from psychological abuse.

The outcry over the recent deaths prompted activists to believe that the government would start making state funds available for the protection and treatment of victims of domestic violence. But on Jan. 21, the government blocked passage of what would have been the country’s first domestic-violence law, saying that revisions should be made to existing legislation, or to the bill itself.

In the absence of government funding, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are struggling to meet needs.

“There are many cases, and only NGO efforts do not suffice,” commented Susanna Vardanian, director of the Women’s Rights Center, a Yerevan-based NGO, which is a backer of the stalled draft law.

At present, three private domestic-violence shelters (two in Yerevan and one in the nearby region of Armavir), along with several NGO-run hotlines are all that exist for female domestic violence victims. Over the past two years, the Women’s Rights Centre, which runs two hotlines, four regional crisis centres and one shelter, has received some 2,557 calls from women seeking help, according to Vardanian.

At a facility run by the charitable foundation Lighthouse in the village of Ptghunts, the 55 women residents are mostly unemployed, and either pregnant or raising children. The shelter provides basic job training, as well as psychological counselling.

For decades, domestic violence was a topic that not only battered women, but also officials and law-enforcement authorities shied away from acknowledging or discussing. But now, that has begun to change, with people starting to be held accountable for abusive actions.

For example, Haykanush Mikayelian received a 10-month sentence in 2012 for her role in the abuse of her 23-year-old daughter-in-law, Mariam Gevorgian, over a prolonged period starting in 2009. According to testimony at the trial, Mikayelian burned Gevorgian’s body with an iron and a cigarette lighter, beat her regularly and kept her locked indoors under key.

Although police officers are arguably now more aware of the domestic-violence problem than several years ago, they are often left flummoxed by the lack of state-run shelters and legal mechanisms to prevent ongoing abuse of a woman by a husband or relative.

“As soon as it comes to taking actual steps, we seem to be faced with the same resistance,” remarked Lara Aharomian, director of the Women’s Resource Centre, another Yerevan-based NGO active in addressing domestic violence.

The draft domestic-violence law that the government rejected earlier in January would have tried to strengthen official measures to protect victims by introducing restraining orders and expanding the number of shelters, among other measures.

Activists believe that the six fatal domestic-violence cases in 2012 might have been prevented if Armenia had had a law outlining responses to the abuse, and, correspondingly, providing state assistance for shelters.

“(T)he law proposes the creation of a number of facilities, [and the] training of police, which are preventive measures,” said Anna Nikoghosian, a project manager for the non-governmental organisation A Society Without Violence. If shelters had existed near the homes of the six murdered women, all of whom lived outside of Yerevan, “some . . . might be alive today.”

“There are many badly in need of support, but it is impossible to house all of them in only three shelters,” agreed Lighthouse Director Naira Muradian.

Lala Ghazarian, head of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare’s Department for Family, Women and Childcare Issues, stressed that the domestic-violence bill isn’t gone for good. “It just needs some changes” to bring it into line with existing criminal law, she said. “We are all well aware that we need a law, shelter, trained policemen, functional tools, but it implies extensive work to change legislation, and it will be done.”

Some government members have said that parliament, now controlled by the Republican Party of Armenia, could pass a domestic-violence law by 2014 or 2015, once ongoing amendments to the criminal code are complete.

Meanwhile, as the topic’s stigma fades away, many ordinary Armenians affirm openly that they are eager to find solutions. In the village of Burastan, 30 kilometers outside of Yerevan, women in 2006 told EurasiaNet.org that questions about domestic violence “destroy traditional Armenian families". Seven years later, they admitted that abuse is an issue that “has to be addressed".

“Our children have been growing up in an atmosphere of beatings and fights,” commented 67-year-old Karine Galstian, a mother of four. “Only now we realise how wrong it is to keep silent, because we should at least teach our daughters that the husband has to respect his wife, should not beat her, should not humiliate her in front of the children.”

In the absence of further government measures against domestic violence, such realisations could make a critical difference.

Editor’s note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.com in Yerevan.

This story was originally published by EurasiaNet.org.

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This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Europe, Gender, Report Tagged With: , ,

Fear of Rape Stalks Indian Women

December 28, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Sujoy Dhar

NEW DELHI, Dic 28 (IPS) – While a 23-year-old woman battles for life in a New Delhi hospital after she was gang raped and brutalised on a moving bus in India’s prosperous national capital earlier this month, women across the nation say they live in constant fear of sexual assault.The incident sparked widespread protests across New Delhi, with huge numbers of women and even school children braving police batons, water cannons and teargas shells in a wave of public fury.

Anti-rape walks in other Indian metropolises were more peaceful but the turnouts spoke volumes.

Many protesters say they are stalked by the fear of sexual assault each time they venture out of their homes, while rights activists charge that India is devoid of a proper system to deter offenders.

In a nation of 1.2 billion people, where official crime statistics say a woman is raped every 28 minutes, women’s groups say law enforcement and prosecution measures are abysmal.

"The country simply has no infrastructure to protect its women or punish their attackers with investigation and speedy trials," Sukanya Gupta, coordinator of Swayam, a Kolkata-based women’s rights organisation, told IPS.

"Six decades after independence, we will no longer tolerate these (crimes). The chain of fear must be broken," she stressed.

Women feel unsafe in big cities, while in rural India rape is rampant, with the victim herself often at the receiving end of punitive laws.

Rampant insecurity

According to a survey released in December by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), 92 percent of working women say they feel insecure, especially during the night, in all major economic hubs across the country.

Among the metropolitan areas, New Delhi topped the list with 92 percent of women respondents complaining that they feel unsafe, followed by 85 percent of women in Bangalore and 82 percent in Kolkata.

Women say they feel insecure working in key industries like information technology, hospitality, civil aviation, healthcare and garments.

The study by ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation (ASDF) is based on the feedback received from both working and non-working women.

The random survey of women in the Delhi National Capital Region, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune and Dehradun found that 100 percent of women respondents feel that the problem of women’s insecurity is bigger than any other challenge currently facing India.

ASSOCHAM Secretary General D. S. Rawat told IPS, "Female employees remain extremely concerned and anxious (for their own security) even in places like hospitals."

Poor infrastructure and response

ASSOCHAM says a highly effective and responsive GPS system is required to reach out to distressed women using public transport.

To provide safety and security to their employees, especially females, companies and firms should provide small security devices to their workforce to preempt attacks.

Other experts have recommended measures like police verification of cab drivers’ identification.

According to the ASSOCHAM survey, the key issues that contribute to women feeling “unsafe or uncomfortable” are poor lighting, no access to emergency assistance and inadequate police security.

Women’s groups in Kolkata, where many were shocked after a woman was raped inside a car by a group who accosted her on the city’s sunset boulevard Park Street back in February, say they are fed up with this “insensitive system”.

"Close to Kolkata, a suburban town called Barasat has gained notoriety for periodic assaults on women and yet there is no proper deployment of police (to assist) girls reaching home safely," according to Gupta.

"There is a total lack of action and that encourages the men to be aggressive towards women," she added.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau statistics for 2011, West Bengal reported 12.7 percent of total cases of crime against women in the country, accounting for 29,133 out of a reported 228,650 crimes registered across India.

The Park Street rape victim, who spoke out on TV channels after the most recent Delhi incident, says she is still awaiting justice, with two accused absconding and the trial yet to begin.

Rape law and trial lacunae

According to Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research (CSR) in New Delhi, India needs to immediately review its rape laws and the definition of rape itself.

"An amendment to the law has been pending for seven years. The new amendments have been prepared after lots of consultation but the government is not serious about passing it in Parliament," she told IPS.

"Our rape laws do not define rape adequately. They talk only about penile penetration. There should be an increase in punishment, too, and economic assistance to a raped woman should not be called ‘compensation’," she added.

"We are also against any kind of reconciliation between the rapist and the raped. Some estimates say 100,000 rape cases are pending in various courts. We have a count of 40,000. But irrespective of the figures there is a need to fast track the cases in special courts,” said Kumari.

India’s young citizens also want to see changes in the laws.

A student group in Kolkata, which recently drew about 6,000 citizens to a rally after the Delhi rape, says it will continue to demand a change in the system and the country’s laws.

Altamash Hamid (21), a student in the mass communications department in the city’s ivy league St. Xavier’s College, who led the Kolkata march, told IPS, "We want to keep the movement going and petition the President of India to change the rape laws, inculcate the fear of law in people and provide more security on the streets.”

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Crime, Featured, Gender, Human Rights Tagged With: , ,

International Outcry on the Congo Must Be Louder

December 10, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN

By Bernadette Paolo*

IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – The people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have long been savaged. Perhaps that is why the international outcry over the M23 rebels overtaking Goma and wreaking humanitarian devastation has been muted. Everyone has grown used to hearing about the violence that has become endemic in the DRC.

While the reports of rebel patrols leaving Goma as a result of a deal brokered in Uganda are encouraging, this temporary hiatus from the torture inflicted on Congo’s displaced residents is simply not enough. What about the people who have been killed, the women who have been raped and the children who have been orphaned, or those who have been injured and are struggling for their lives?

Forces have been arrayed against resource rich Congo for many years. Holding any government hat is complicit in backing the M23 accountable for the devastation that is occurring in the DRC is critical. The sovereignty of any nation in the international community warrants safeguarding no matter where it is situated. It is unthinkable, for example, that the United States could back rebels who would invade Canada without the whole world condemning this action.

Fortunately, the United Nations, African Union and regional entities such as ECOWAS, together with some African Heads of State, have stepped in during crises such as the one unfolding in the DRC and in Mali, to curtail the destabilization of countries and regions.

The continent of Africa has made huge strides within the past three decades in all realms. Most of the now 55 African countries have democratically-elected governments. Africa is on the rise economically. While six African countries have the fastest growing economies in the world, it is not unreasonable to believe that number will be doubled within the next few years. And African countries are now becoming a force to be reckoned with within the United Nations and other international bodies, including The World Bank and the IMF.

The only way this progress can be derailed is a reversion to the past where conflict was not limited to a few countries, where dictators were prevalent, where the voice of civil society was stifled and where poverty, disease and chaos existed and were amplified by the media. It is incumbent for those parties that are guilty in perpetrating these crimes against humanity in the Congo to be named and to be stopped. Weaker countries cannot simply be rolled by their neighbour, no matter where that neighbour is positioned within the United Nations. Not protecting one nation endangers every nation.

This is a new day for the continent of Africa. This is the Africa where citizens in countries are demanding [The writer | Credit: The Africa Society] their right to vote and are engaging in the political process. This is an Africa where many countries are clamoring to develop trade relationships and make investments. This is an Africa where more people are being educated and asserting their positions globally. Retrenchment must not be allowed.

*Bernadette Paolo is the President and CEO of The Africa Society, headquartered in Washington DC, and a former Staff Director of the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa. [IDN-InDepthNews – December 8, 2012]

2012 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

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Filed Under: Africa, Conflict, Featured, Gender, Human Rights Tagged With: , , ,

Q&A: Honouring the Silent Courage of Afghan Women

November 24, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Julia Kallas

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 24 (IPS) – Violence against women is internationally recognised as a threat to democracy, a burden on national economies, and a serious human rights violation.Yet in Afghanistan today, 87 percent of women face physical, sexual or psychological violence or are forced into marriage, according to recent data from Human Rights Watch.

"Afghan women have a very rich track record which is never acknowledged, never published, never spoken about," Sharmista Dasbarwa of UNDP told IPS. It is time to talk about "the resilience, the silent courage of the village women of Afghanistan who have gone through hell for so many years and (still) dream and hope for a better and peaceful Afghanistan."

Dasbarwa spoke to IPS correspondent Julia Kallas about the struggle to secure gender equality in the war-torn country, and why it is indispensable to lasting peace. Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: Advancing women’s empowerment is an essential priority for the transition in Afghanistan, as it contributes directly to stability. How can women play a bigger role?

A: Although Afghanistan has got about 27 percent of women in the parliament, there are still some very deep biases against women. They want to achieve what every woman in the world wants, which is to have access to opportunities, education, training, political participation, economic activities. It is very difficult for an Afghan woman to achieve this.

Having said that, at the same time, the resilience and the character of Afghan women is very big. I feel that the establishment of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in 2002, and the activities that they are doing in influencing different legal instruments to insure a better integration of women in the field, is very important.

At the moment, women are very eager to play an active role in the transition. Things are improving with the High Peace Council and different structures that the government of Afghanistan has established. There is a considerable scope to involve women in a very active way.

Q: How can you ensure that compromises made in the ongoing peace-building process do not lead to a rollback of women’s rights?

A: There is no official peace agreement in Afghanistan like there was in Sudan or Timor Leste. I wish I could answer your question in a very positive way, but the situation at the moment is very unstable.

Although there is a lot of political representation of Afghan women, nobody knows what will be their role during the transition and the peace-building process. So it is very difficult to say if there will be compromises. I hope not, but there is a possibility.

But Afghan women have developed a kind of determination, resilience and hope to ensure that if there are any compromises, their gains from the past 20 years are not lost and no compromises will be made in order to step them down to second-class citizens again.

At work I deal with women from the villages, from the rural communities, from the academic institutions, from the members of parliament, from the ministries. And they all have displayed a lot of determination which is a very rare thing. I worked in a number of countries and I have not seen this kind of resilience anywhere in the world.

Q: How does the new gender equality project focus on preventing violence against women in Afghanistan?

A: We are providing support for the elimination of violence in three different ways.

Firstly, to provide policy support to the legal department of the Ministry of Women’s affairs by ensuring that any legislation drafted which has a direct impact on the life of Afghan women is reviewed by the Legal Department of Women’s Affairs, passed through the government and translated into action.

Secondly, we aim to install more legal health centres. In the first phase we established 24 legal heath centers in four provinces. The purpose of the legal health centres is to reach women living in rural areas who do not have access to the formal justice system and police authorities, and to ensure that they have free legal advice and protection.

Thirdly is the advocacy campaign, which we have been doing involving different stakeholders and media. It will involve round table television discussions and debates. The focus will be to raise awareness on women’s rights and their access to legal protection.

The 2009 law on elimination of violence against women has got a commission established in national and subnational level. We propose in the next phase of the project to provide technical support to the commission so that this law becomes more active. A report from 2011 showed that the number of cases registered was 2,999 and the number of cases prosecuted was only 27 percent, so we want to improve the enforcement of the law.

Q: On Sunday, we celebrate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. What are the lessons that other countries can learn from the women’s programme in Afghanistan?

A: The level and depth of violence that Afghanistan women face is something very rare in other countries. Yes, there is violence in other parts of the world but I have not come across this kind of sustained nature of violence and weakness in the voices of women to come out and seek help.

I have worked in a number of countries in Africa, and I come from India, but I have not seen this kind of helplessness, powerlessness, and lack of voice. But this is one side of the picture.

Despite having this weak position, Afghan women are very determined. The lesson that women from all over the world should learn from our programmes is that the very small support and incentive that we are doing have changed the quality of life of these women.

Our programme needs to be replicated in other countries, especially countries emerging from conflict. Afghan women are also fighting to ensure that when peace happens and peace-building negotiations are over, there is sustainable peace right down at the grassroots level.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Gender, Human Rights, Report Tagged With: ,

MEXICO: Deadly Cocktail of Sexual Violence and Impunity

November 23, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Emilio Godoy

MEXICO CITY, Nov 23, 2011 (IPS) – Sexual violence against women in Mexico is on the rise, alongside the escalation of violence between police and soldiers and the drug cartels, women’s rights activists warn.

"We have seen an increase in sexual harassment, groping, gang rape, and rapes of girls," Imelda Marrufo, founding director of the Red Mesa de Mujeres, a network of women’s groups in Ciudad Juárez, on the U.S. border, told IPS.

The National Citizens’ Observatory for Femicide (OCNF), which groups 43 human rights and women’s organisations, documented around 7,000 cases of rape in 10 of Mexico’s 32 states in 2010. However, the real total is assumed to be much higher as rape is considered one of the most underreported crimes.

The average age of the victims was 26, the report adds.

In cities with high crime rates like Ciudad Juárez, invaded by drug cartels, the police and army troops, groups of men frequently seize girls and women from the streets, rape them, and release them – or toss their bodies in the desert or garbage dumps.

"It is a very serious situation," said María Estrada, head of the OCNF and of the gender violence and human rights programme of Catholics for the Right to Decide. "The cases aren’t investigated, and impunity rules. The organisations have asked us to document the cases," she told IPS.

One high-profile case of sexual violence against women occurred in the town of San Salvador Atenco, 45 km east of the Mexican capital, during a clash between local residents and police in May 2006.

During a violent operation to evict street vendors from an unauthorised area of the town, 47 women were arrested, and at least 26 of them were beaten, raped and tortured sexually.

No officer responsible for the abuse has been held accountable.

Because the women have failed to find justice in Mexico, 11 of the victims turned to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which accepted the case.

The police repression in San Salvador Atenco "has become a pattern; it has been repeated in other places," Edith Rosales, 53, one of the petitioners in the case, told IPS. "Women are used, they are forced to participate in the drug trade and are used sexually. Their normal lives are stripped away from them."

"Violence against women is rooted in society," Isabel Valriveras, a representative of the General Council of Spanish Lawyers (CGAE), told IPS. "Women can be tortured, raped and killed; they are considered the lowest of the low in society, and are thrown out like scraps."

Valriveras forms part of the international mission "for access to justice for women" which is touring Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador Nov. 17 to 24 to assess the situation of gender violence and measures taken to combat it, in the run-up to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, celebrated Nov. 25.

The Mexican state was found guilty three times in 2009 and 2010 by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for violations of the rights of women.

The first ruling, handed down in November 2009, was for the 2001 murders of three young women in Ciudad Juárez, in what is known as the Cotton Field case for the area where their corpses were found along with the bodies of several unidentified women.

And in August 2010, the Court found the state guilty in two separate rulings for failing to protect the rights of two young indigenous women, Inés Fernández and Valentina Rosendo, who were raped by soldiers in 2002 in the southern state of Guerrero.

After conservative President Felipe Calderón took office in December 2006, he deployed the armed forces in a major offensive against drug trafficking and organised crime. The ensuing "war on drugs" has claimed the lives of at least 50,000 people, according to press reports.

According to the defence ministry, 159 members of the armed forces are under investigation by the military courts for abuse of authority, torture or murder, another 57 are facing prosecution and seven have been sentenced.

For its part, global rights watchdog Amnesty International reports that at least 60 indigenous and peasant women have been sexually assaulted by soldiers since 1994.

"It’s not just the invasion of their bodies, but the violation they face because they are the mothers or wives and girlfriends of people involved in organised crime. And there are no clear signals from the state that gender violence will not be tolerated," Julia Monárrez, a professor at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF) research centre in northern Mexico, told IPS.

Monárrez was an expert witness for the prosecution in the Cotton Field case.

"We have not found justice in Mexico; impunity reigns here," said Rosales, the petitioner in the San Salvador Atenco case before the IACHR.

From January 2010 to June 2011, 1,235 women were killed in just eight of Mexico’s states, while another 3,282 went missing in nine states, according to the National Citizens’ Observatory for Femicide.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Crime, Gender, Human Rights, Latin America, Report Tagged With: ,

Afghan Women’s Rights ‘Under Threat’

October 4, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Correspondents*

DOHA, Qatar, Oct 3, 2011 (IPS/Al Jazeera) – Women’s rights in Afghanistan are once again under threat after 10 years of progress, two leading British aid agencies have said.

Oxfam and Action Aid said on Monday many Afghan women were worried that the impending international troop withdrawal, coupled with an ongoing effort to secure a political deal with the Taliban, could undermine their future.

Louise Hancock, the co-author of the Oxfam report, told Al Jazeera that women’s rights in Afghanistan had made some gains in the 10 years since the Taliban was deposed. But, she said, it was now "time to take stock of what has happened and what still needs to be done".

At 2.7 million, half of the nation’s school-aged girls have gained access to education. For Oxfam, this increased access to education is seen as marked improvement over the five-year period under the Taliban when education of girls was outlawed entirely.

Politically, nearly 28 percent of seats in the nation’s parliament have gone to women. Though it may be the result of a quota, that figure puts Afghanistan near the top in terms of worldwide female parliamentary representation.

‘Sacrificing’ women’s rights

However, the Oxfam report sees increasing violence in the nation as a sign of trouble ahead for women’s rights. Hancock, who says "women are particularly vulnerable to insecurity", sees increased violence as particularly troubling to the nation’s more than 15 million women.

"What is life going to be like for us in the next 10 years? Already life is getting tougher for Afghan women," said Oxfam report co-author Orzala Ashraf Nemat.

From a legal standpoint, the group sees a dangerous precedent in the implementation of a law against honour killings and child marriage.

Though the report finds that 87 percent of women have suffered "physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage", the law will only be implemented in 10 of the nation’s 34 provinces. This outcome is indicative of a sharp contrast in the experience of women in larger cities and rural areas highlighted in the report.

The report also points to "willingness to sacrifice women’s rights for political ends" among the administration of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, as a sign of potential trouble.

In 2009, Karzai faced international scrutiny for signing the Shi’a Family Law, which included a controversial provision that human rights groups said amounted to legalised rape.

Facing pressure domestically and abroad, Karzai would later revise the law, saying he was not aware of the provision in question.

As girls’ schools continue to face attack, and the movement of women is still heavily restricted in Taliban-controlled areas, rights workers fear the Karzai government may be too willing to concede women’s rights in negotiations with the insurgent group.

"Afghan women want peace, not a stitch-up deal that will confine us to our homes again," says Nemat.

*Published under an agreement with Al-Jazeera.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Gender, Human Rights, Report Tagged With: ,

RIGHTS-PERU: Following the Clues in Exhumation of Massacre Victims

July 13, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Milagros Salazar

DOCE CORRAL, Peru, Jul 13, 2011 (IPS) – The daylight is fading, but Francisca Huanca’s hopes are growing brighter. "Yes, they’re his sneakers, he liked to play football," she says with tears in her eyes. She has just caught a glimpse of the remains of her husband, nearly three decades after he was murdered in the biggest massacre committed by the Maoist Shining Path guerrillas in Peru’s highlands.

Huanca is 67, and her slight stature – just one and a half metres tall, and thin – gives her a fragile look. But she has not hesitated to come here, to a mass grave in Doce Corral, a freezing windswept spot over 4,000 metres above sea level where two families tend to hundreds of grazing alpaca in the southern Andean region of Ayacucho.

She arrived on Jun. 21 after a 15-hour drive from Sicuani, her hometown in the nearby province of Cuzco. She was accompanied by eight fellow townspeople who also decided to return for the exhumation of the remains of their loved ones killed in the Jul. 16, 1984 massacre committed during the 1980-2000 civil war between the Shining Path and government forces and their paramilitary allies.

On that day in 1984, a group of between 30 and 40 members of the Shining Path used pickaxes, hammers, stones and guns to slaughter around 100 villagers at several locations in the south of Ayacucho province, in a case known as the "bus of death".

The guerrillas, disguised in military and police uniforms, had hijacked the bus that runs to the highlands in the south of Ayacucho province from Lima every Monday, and made a macabre tour from 7:00 AM to midnight, stopping in each town and village where the local authorities and community leaders had refused to join the Shining Path.

The bones talk

The victims included at least a dozen traders from the market town of Sicuani, who happened to be in Doce Corral at the time, buying alpaca wool. Alejandro Aguilar, Huanca’s husband, was one of the traders who never came home.

"I was left on my own with my small children. One of them was just eight months old," Huanca says as she shows IPS photographs of her family, her husband’s identity card, and their marriage certificate.

She is crying, but is obviously very strong. She was fully aware that by coming to Doce Corral for the exhumation of the remains of her husband and other victims from Sicuani by the forensic experts and staff from the public prosecutor’s office, she would be delving into her own pain.

The exhumation of common graves is part of the process of clarifying what happened that day, returning the bodies to their families for proper burial, and bringing those responsible to justice.

The bones of the dead talk: they reveal how the victims were killed, the wounds they suffered, the last frozen expressions on their faces.

The clothing is still intact, and provides the clues needed to jog the memory of the victims’ family members, of the last time they saw their loved ones. Huanca has always remembered the red wool sweater her husband was wearing when they said good-bye that day in Sicuani.

The first day of digging did not bring the expected results: the forensic experts excavated a grave believing they would find Alejandro Aguilar’s body, which wasn’t there. Only the next day, after Huanca had an anxious, sleepless night, were his remains found in a nearby grave.

"It’s very complex to exhume a clandestine cemetery because there is no information on the location of the graves," forensic archaeologist Marcela Ramírez with the Andean Centre for Forensic Anthropology Research (CENIA), who is leading the team of experts, told IPS.

"You can only base your work on people’s memories, which is why it is important to carry out a good preliminary investigation, to avoid digging around in vain and raising people’s expectations," she explained.

CENIA has been carrying out this work for the non-governmental Human Rights Commission (COMISEDH) and the Sicuani Catholic vicariate, which have supported the families of the victims of Ayacucho and Cuzco in their struggle for justice.

Since 2005, the two organisations have been pushing the public prosecutor’s office to investigate the case, but not until 2009 did the Ayacucho prosecutor’s office launch the investigation.

COMISEDH and CENIA have worked with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR) that investigated the abuses committed during the armed conflict, to help locate mass graves.

Ayacucho, one of the poorest and most remote, rural and heavily indigenous parts of the country, accounted for a full 47 percent of the nearly 70,000 people killed in the civil war, according to the CVR report issued in 2003. The Commission held Shining Path responsible for 54 percent of the killings.

After the CVR completed its work, COMISEDH and CENIA continued their investigations, documenting 99 victims of the "bus of death" and 34 burial sites expected to hold the remains of 72 people.

The case is especially complicated given the remote location – over 25 hours by car from the capital of Ayacucho; the number of years that have gone by since the killings; and the way they were carried out, with bodies buried at different spots along the route taken by the hijacked bus. Moreover, some of the victims are still missing.

In the face of so many obstacles, the victims’ families and the authorities have had to be extremely dedicated to pushing forward with the case.

The latest exhumation is an illustration of the difficulties: of the more than 20 bodies that the team expected to find, only 15 were found between Jun. 20-29 – four victims from Sicuani and the rest from villages near Doce Corral.

Furthermore, the government forensic team had to call off its work early due to logistical challenges and because it failed to find family members to approve further exhumations.

Waiting for closure

Ayacucho provincial assistant prosecutor Carlos Antonio Zaravia, who has overseen the exhumation work, promised the families of the victims from Sicuani to hand over the remains to them shortly, after the lab results have been compared to the information gathered in the preliminary investigation. "That could take five or six months, if DNA tests are not needed," he told IPS.

Despite the wait, some have already begun to find closure in their grieving process. The Sinsaya family from Sicuani managed to identify the clothing of Leonardo Sinsaya, another of the victims.

His widow Teófila, who is now 64, and his 54-year-old brother Esteban and 45-year-old sister Benedicta, spotted the beige jacket Leonardo was wearing that day, the red and blue sweater he knitted himself, and the grey slacks he usually wore. His hands had been tied behind his back, and his wide open mouth indicated that the last sound heard from Leonardo was a scream of terror.

"He suffered a lot when he died, now we have found that out, with a great deal of pain," Benedicta tells IPS. "But at the same time we are more at peace now because we know it’s him."

Her brother Esteban says that after they found Leonardo’s remains, he "saw" his brother saying good-bye. "I saw him dressed in a brown suit, he smiled at me and said ‘you don’t know anything, don’t say anything’, said good-bye and went through a large green door," he says, sobbing.

Esteban Sinsaya saw this vision during a group therapy session led by psychologist Joni Muñoz with the government’s Integral Reparations Programme. The psychologist came to Doce Corral with the family members from Sicuani to help them process their pain.

The families of the victims from Sicuani have become very close. They help each other out and provide each other with support. In Doce Corral, they pray over every corpse that is unearthed and make traditional coca leaf offerings.

They have shared the same pain for the last 27 years, and for at least some of them, the search for the remains of their loved ones has finally come to an end.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Gender, Human Rights, Justice, Latin America Tagged With: ,

ARGENTINA: Shedding Light on Dictatorship’s Sex Crimes

June 28, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jun 28, 2011 (IPS) – It’s been nearly three decades since Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship came to an end, but the sex crimes committed against political prisoners are just now starting to draw more attention, after being pushed into the background in human rights trials.

"It’s not that it wasn’t talked about before; it’s that people weren’t listening," sociologist Lorena Balardini, a researcher at the Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), a prominent human rights group involved in a number of the cases, told IPS.

Balardini, a co-author of the study "Gender violence and sexual abuse in clandestine detention centres", is working with lawyer Ana Oberlin and psychiatrist Laura Sobredo to finally bring these crimes to light – and the perpetrators to justice.

The three CELS experts who produced the study organise seminars to sensitise judicial system workers on the issue. Speakers in the seminars include well-known figures like former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón – famous for getting former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) arrested in London – and members of international criminal tribunals.

So far, there have been scant results with respect to prosecuting sex crimes committed during the dictatorship. Only one sentence has been handed down so far, against non-commissioned officer and torturer Gregorio Molina, in June 2010. Although the grounds for charges in such cases "are excellent," this was the only conviction, Balardini said.

"There is great reluctance on the part of judicial system operators," said the expert. The majority see sex crimes as falling in the broader category of torture, but classifying them as such is just another way of concealing them, she said.

"If a crime is differentiated and specified in our penal code, to merely lump it in a wider category reduces its significance and importance," Balardini said. "We want it to be understood that the systematic repression included the practice of sexual violence."

The justice system must specifically investigate these crimes, she said. But few prosecutors and judges have done so, although some have begun to study the issue.

"We are making progress. But we have had more failures than achievements," she admitted.

A layperson might suppose that after all these years, sex crimes would be difficult to prove. But Balardini explained that when it comes to crimes against humanity, in which victims suffered a wide range of abuses and torture in clandestine detention centres run by de facto governments, the main evidence comes from testimony.

It is impossible to prove each case of torture in which a victim was naked and tied to a metal bed spring in a room where the only other people were torturers. Other witnesses, if any are still alive, can only testify that they heard her screams or saw her coming out of the torture chamber or back to the cell injured, she said.

Balardini noted that women are reporting sex crimes now more than ever before. And some cases have begun to prosper. In the 1980s, "neither the justice system nor society heard or paid attention to them," she said.

In seven years, the dictatorship forcibly disappeared between 11,000 and 30,000 people, depending on the source of the estimate.

The regime hunted down left-wing activists, guerrillas, trade unionists, members of social movements and people who were picked up and "disappeared" merely to rob them. These people filled up numerous concentration camps, where they were tortured and usually ended up being "transferred" – a euphemism that meant they were being taken away to be killed, either shot or thrown, drugged but alive, from airplanes into the Atlantic Ocean or the River Plate estuary.

Among the abuses, sexual attacks on women as well as men were a systematic practice.

The former junta members were tried in 1985 and sentenced, several of them to life in prison, during the government of Raúl Alfonsín (1983-1989).

Later, the legal action brought against thousands of lower-ranking members of the security forces sparked army revolts and heavy military pressure against the still-fragile democracy, which prompted the adoption of two amnesty laws, in 1986 and 1987, that shielded human rights abusers from prosecution.

The former military commanders were pardoned and released in 1989 and 1990 by then president Carlos Menem (1989-1999).

The impunity only began to be tackled when the late Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) became president. Congress repealed the amnesty laws and presidential pardons, and the Supreme Court found them unconstitutional. As a result, the human rights cases were resumed in the courts. Today there are more than 360 trials underway nationwide.

In this new context, the sexual torture of women political prisoners has begun to receive specific attention, unlike during the trials in the 1980s.

A few judges have called for specific investigations into what are classified as "crimes against honour," although most other judges still include sex crimes in the broader category of torture.

"In the first case involving the First Army Corps (one of the clandestine prisons), the number of victims who reported sex crimes was appalling, but these crimes become invisible in sentences that broadly refer to cases of torture," Balardini said.

The study on gender violence and sexual abuse collected the accounts of women political prisoners. In some cases, their husbands, who were seized along with them, are still missing, and in other cases, the women’s children were taken from them – circumstances that tended to overshadow the other crimes of which they were victims.

"I am only now able to talk about it," said one. "Within the context of the horror you experienced in the concentration camps, a rape seemed like something secondary," said another of the women who spoke anonymously.

In some cases, women were forced to fix themselves up and were taken from the illegal detention centres to apartments to have sex with military officers or others. If they refused, they could be "transferred". The victims finally feel they can talk about these situations in which they were degraded and forced to have sex.

The authors of the study say that in the 1980s, the trials had "limited aspirations," and the testimony was focused on proving the existence of a systematic plan of repression. For that reason, sex crimes did not figure in the sentences against the former junta members.

In the face of the magnitude of the plan to exterminate dissidents, the objective of demonstrating the extent of the repression overshadowed the details of the individual experiences of political prisoners.

But now there has been a "qualitative leap" in the testimony of victims, the authors say.

The survivors of the dirty war, both men and women, had largely refrained from talking about sex crimes for different reasons.

One was that at the time, when the dictatorship had just come to an end, they believed the priority was to find out what had happened to the victims of forced disappearance. Many also felt the need to conceal from their families the most shocking and private details of the horror they had experienced.

But today, the survivors are apparently more ready to reveal their experiences. There is also a large body of academic work by the women’s movement that has helped bring visibility to the question of sex crimes, the study’s authors explain.

Balardini said the sentences issued by the U.N. international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s set a fundamental precedent by recognising various forms of sexual violence as crimes against humanity.

She also said recent reports that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi purportedly ordered that rape be used as a weapon of war against the opposition were made possible by the new visibility of sexual violence within the context of armed conflicts around the world.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Gender, History, Latin America, Report Tagged With: , , , ,
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