Women's Rights// A Global Issue

This morning I was going through the news sites and came across a story about a 12-year-old girl, Elham Mahdi, who died from internal bleeding (due to rape) 3 days after being married to a man estimated to be more than twice her age. Though the story is being overshadowed by the successes of the US Nuclear Summit, it is a story that is all too common in the world and one which illustrates the continuing problems women and young girls face cross culturally.

Yemen has become somewhat of a poster-child for Women's Empowerment when in 2008 a 10-year-old Nujood Ali, being raped and beaten, escaped from her husbands house to a courthouse where she sat on a bench demanding that her marriage be dissolved (she succeeded). Underage marriage in Yemen is a large problem where it is estimated that one third of all women are married before the age of 18.

I have written about womens issues in past blogs (see post) as it is a very important subject to me. There are a host of problems in both developed and under-developed countries which contribute to the abuse of women and girls. There are many examples of oppression (sex trafficking, prostitution, rape, incest, physical abuse, emotional abuse, underage marriage, media image, etc.) still existing without any signs of instance reduction. I feel it's important to keep this at the forefront of our thought process when considering cosmopolitical ideals.

Many times (as in Yemen) women are looked at as a burden, both economically and morally. Woman's root (especially in Judaeo-Christian beliefs) is that of sin, temptation, and weakness. One who is weak and foolish.  Is there anything more inhumane and degrading to the human experience than this?

One of the problems (in my opinion a large contributing factor) we face in women's empowerment is a continued patriarchal system of male domination which essentially destroys the Woman and makes her a secondary citizen. Many religions and indeed social institutions (though not all) see the roll of woman to be that of mother; raising boys to be leaders and girls to be mothers who will in turn raise boys to be leaders and girls to be mothers, etc. It's a cycle that continues and is only defeated through education and legislation.

Imagine a world in which girls and boys are raised side by side to be empowered to become that which they choose. To set before them a banquet of opportunity for learning, art, science, sport, business, politics, etc. To feed them encouragement and to teach them respect of all sexes, people, and places. A super-conscious generation of cosmopolites that work together to bring about progress for humanity. Imagine what that would be like...

Here are a couple of links to get started::

http://www.globalissues.org/article/166/womens-rights (Information)

http://www.saynotoviolence.org/ (Action)

by Shadna Aten