Young Women on the Move:Viewpoint: The most critical area of concern for young women for the next 15 years
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BPFA Concern: Violence Against Women
World YWCA 2009 Intern Moo Moo Hsoe from Myanmar explains why she believes that violence against women should be at the top of the women’s agenda.
Violence against women (VAW) is the most urgent concern for women in the world. It may be difficult to discuss because many women are not aware of their rights, even if they are being violated: tortured, forced to labour at home, raped etc. In conflict situations, women are targets for rape and other violations.
If they expose these violations, women may feel shamed by their communities. Many women suffer but try to keep silent. Even women who are tortured by their husbands at home try to stay away from other women and keep silent. In Myanmar, this closure relates to its traditions and culture.
To empower women, the YWCA of Myanmar provides microcredit to more than 3,000 members around the country. But this alone cannot promote women in decision-making positions. Women and their partners must both be educated in gender awareness and gender mainstreaming should continue in all our programmes and activities to address inequalities. Developing the full potential of all girl children is another crucial priority.
I recommend that YWCAs undertake new strategies to invest in young women’s leadership on social issues based on conditions in their own countries, establish more programmes for mentoring young women using intergenerational approaches, and promote increased communication among young women from different regions.
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights are Human Rights
Paola Salwan, World YWCA Programme Assistant for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, calls SRHR the “cornerstone of any young women’s life,” and calls for a holistic approaches to advocacy and education.
Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) reflect a range of concepts and situations that strongly impact a woman’s life including violence against women, female genital mutilation, contraception, HIV and AIDS, early marriage, and sexual orientation. A young woman defending her sexual and reproductive rights takes a stand and says to her community, her society, her world: ”This is my body — my health, my rights. No one but I can control it.”
This simple statement implies a lot. In many societies, women cannot freely control how many children they have, if any, if and at what age they would like to have sexual relations; choose contraception, and protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. They may be forbidden from taking pleasure in sexual intercourse (hence female genital mutilation), or forced to marry young to unburden their families (hence child brides). They are expected to have many children (preferably boys) and should they deviate from the norm, they risk suffering gross violations.
Our mothers fought for their rights, but there is still far to go. Many obstacles still prevent women from fully enjoying their sexual and reproductive health and rights: culture, mentality and beliefs, poverty, and lack of education. Unfortunately women themselves often perpetuate harmful traditional practices. Having internalised what they were taught, they consider a change in mentality sinful or shameful and force the same things on their daughters.
Inadequate involvement and interest from the international community is also to blame. The International Conference on Population Development and Programme of Action adopted in 1994 is useful but not legally binding. Other treaties such as the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 are legally binding, but no treaty specifically focusing on SRHR has been negotiated at the global level.
The solution lies in integrated, comprehensive global programmes including education for women, girls and communities about their human rights particularly their sexual and reproductive health and rights; advocacy at the local, national and international levels; economic empowerment so women can become independent; and reinforced health care systems with adequately trained professionals.
It is paramount that we start tackling these issues in a holistic way on multiple levels to make a lasting difference in women’s rights.