The importance of media in raising awareness
The consultation day was an exciting start to the two weeks on the commission on the status of women. The two panels which I found most interesting and valuable were the Panel of Trafficking of Women and Girls and the Panel of the Role of men. Although the different sessions were varied, I did notice some recurring themes. The theme of media and technology was implicit and explicit in most of the panels. The performance of the group Girls be Heard was a creative and informative performance. It was inspiring to learn of this group which performs around the country to schools, universities, theaters to educate people about different issues involving women. I think this clearly represented just how effectively information can be transmitted if incorporated with entertainment or media. Several panelists highlighted things which relied heavily upon social media or use of storytelling. In my opinion, education is crucial, specifically involving young children in programs which teach them the importance of not engaging in activities which negatively impact women and girls. It is probably the most important beginning step in preventing and solving all of the human right violations against women. In this age of technology, entertainment and the various social media outlets are being used to educate and inform people. Therefore, it makes sense to raise awareness and educate people worldwide through media and with the use of technology. I enjoyed seeing the various Ring the Bell commercials about speaking out against domestic violence and it was impressive to show how those commercials made an impact. I think it made it clear how worth it is to invest time and money in such mediums because as Sean Southey made clear, we are in an age of narrative, an age where people make sense of their world though telling stories and hearing stories. Therefore, it makes sense to try and spread messages through mediums which allow for story sharing because people can relate and see the importance. I found the panel about human trafficking enjoyable because I had a prior interest in and was curious to hear what the panelists would have to say about the issue. During the question and answers, an attendee raised a very good question, who are the traffickers? In most information about human trafficking there is not too much about how the traffickers are and this is obviously an extremely part in ending this atrocity. During the Panel on the Role of Men, I absolutely loved Bafaha Khumaloâs ten points for promotion and prevention of violence against women. In his first point, he highlighted the importance of education young boys about how it is not a right to hurt women. This implicitly implied most men in his nation feel it is their right to mistreat women. His second point called for programs which educate both men and women on how gender inequality not only hurts women, but negatively impacts men as well. Although this seems like common sense, most people do not realize the harm in hindering the potential of half of the population. How is a nation supposed to thrive when half of its people are not allowed to fully participate as citizens? Another point, which again highlighted the importance of media, was how media and publication can play an important role in changing boys and menâs attitude about women. An example was an ad about how hitting women is wrong. The billboard showed a man hitting a woman and then with a caption about violence against women. However, most people are illiterate and only see the picture which seems to be promoting violence against women without the message from the caption. Another important point was providing support for boys and men who witness violence to prevent them from accepting this violence and later participating in it. In one of his points he called attention to stronger policies protecting women from violence and mentioned policies should be made about alcohol. His final points were about gun restriction, empowering women economically, parent training for fathers, and research and adequately funded programs.
One of the amazing things about the United Nations is its ability to bring leaders from most nations together to discuss international issues and to try to solve these problems. However, in most sessions I noticed a lack of variety in the people who attended. There seemed to be a great number of older white women, but what about people to represent all the other people of the world? In a few sessions, survivors of human right violations were supposed to be there to share their story in person, but could not obtain visas to enter the U.S. We need the voices of the women who have their rights violated to share their stories in order to fully understand these problems better and to be prepared to solve future abuses. How can we do that when everyoneâs voices are not heard or not enough people from different nations and groups are there to hear this information and then share this information with others? There were panels held by women from other nations, but in those panels the attendees were women from those nations. This did not make sense to me because although these women are showing support and wanting to hear about the issues happening in relation to them, they probably already know a lot about the issue. So, why not attend another session in which they know nothing about? One of the reasons the womenâs movement picked up so fast was because of the coming together of women from all nations and the utilization of networking. I just felt there was such disparity in the attendees of most of the sessions I attended. Â An example of this is when Bethany and I attended Violence against Ethiopian Women in Ethiopia and in the Diaspora. She and I were mainly the only white people in this session. They spoke about a law in which organizations cannot receive more than ten percent of their funding from other countries. I found this so surprising because Ethiopia is a developing country with a very weak economy. I feel its people in need would benefit more if organizations were allowed to receive funding from outside sources. How is it possible one of the poorest nations will receive the other necessary funding from donations from its citizens? Chances are it wonât. This is the first time I heard about it and I am sure not a lot of other people besides those Ethiopia know this. This is an issue which needs international attention and help from the United Nations in order for it to be changes. I also was bothered by how this session was set for a Saturday afternoon. Therefore, I thought the panel counterproductive because not many people showed up and most of the people there were from Ethiopia and already had a broad understanding of the issue. I already knew there were not going to be many men present in any of the sessions, but it was still very disappointing to see it. Men play such a big role in violence against women and can play an even bigger role in eradicating it. Another thing which bothered me was the lack of youth. In my personal experiences, there seems to be such apathy to human right abuses. I find this disturbing because we are the next generation who will be in control of our nation. We will have the tools to speak out and make a change, but how will this be accomplished if no one cares? I feel the United Nations really needs to think about outreach campaigns especially to youth. People need to need to know more about the horrible human right abuses which happen everywhere and affect everyone on some level.
The first event I attended at the Commission on the Status of Women was Stop the Demand: Youth-to-Youth Project Against Trafficking in Kenya. It was sponsored by UNANIMA International. Unfortunately, the two young women who were supposed to be there to share their stories about human trafficking were not able to obtain visas to enter the country. However, I still found the event to be interesting and extremely informative. The event began with citing the reasons why human trafficking is still widespread and has not been eradicated. At the end of the Cold War, capitalism was a dominating socioeconomic model. Then another reason is tensions being lifted between the East and West which caused removal of barriers allowing people to move more freely in and out of other countries. Inherent weakness in certain states, the technological revolution and access to information, cultural changes, inter-meshing of economies and societies, unequal development in the world, growth without development, increasing gap between the rich and poor, and lack of legal instruments are all reasons why human trafficking still exists today. The speaker also cited the traditional approach to human trafficking is not helping to solve this problem because gender is attached to the issue which means there are a lack of services for male victims, there isnât a cooperation between civil societies from different regions, trying to eradicate trafficking from one area only pushes it into another, more research needed, and the need to consider culture in relation to the issue. Before this event, I knew in certain situations girls and women would be tricked into slavery by women from their own communities because they trust in these women who lure them with promises of work, education, a better life, etc. At this event, I learned how victims of trafficking will become traffickers. I guess I found this so shocking because it shows how numb victims become they are willing to put others through the same torment they went through. A big part of the problem in African countries is people not knowing the name of it. One woman gave a very insightful view of this issue, potential victims know trafficking as an opportunity because they are lured into thinking their life will be better and end up in a horrific situation. The people who spoke at this event told stories of how when they went to educate youth in schools, colleges, and churches, they donât refer to it as trafficking or call it by a name. There is not a lot of knowledge about the issue. Also, it is a cultural practice for families with many children to let some of their children live and work with a relative, but this could potentially lead to a trafficking situation. Therefore, the general population does not really know too much about this issue or does not realize the harm in having their children work for relatives. The same goes for the authorities, they do not know about the issue or how to deal with it. Attending this event made me realize how complex this issue and how daunting it is to eradicate trafficking. I really feel awareness and educational programs to educate people about this issue and to help curb the demand is crucial to tackling this widespread international problem.
One of the events I attended on Friday was Overcoming the Pain of Abuse and Violence against Women and Girls. I decided to attend because I remember Elmira and Radhika urging us to attend events sponsored by United Methodist Women. The event was also sponsored by the organization by DIANOVA. The organization runs a program which is an addiction treatment program for women. The one thing which stood out to me about the program was the inclusion of an abusive partner in the process of healing. The speaker from DIANOVA informed the audience this was crucial because most women would end up going back to situations where the abusive spouse would still be present and then there might be potential for the same problems, but involving the partner might help to reduce this. This was probably the largest event in terms of the number of attendees and in contrast to other sessions, there was actually a good amount of men!  The two panelists, who stood out to me the most, were Pastor Amy and Liz who works with an organization to free women from fistula. The pastor told the horrifying story of a girl who suffered from multiple personality disorder and to add to her struggle, was abused by both her father and brother. The pastor spoke of how when this girl turned to her church for help, the church failed her. She spoke of how there is a struggle between speech and action within the church and how the church should not conform to society, but try to transform it. I am not a very religious person, but I am very open to learning about religions. I found it positive the pastor spoke of the church so openly and seemed to be aware of the problems which can arise due to the church. I think most religions would benefit from having other members like this pastor. Then the other speaker, Liz, who really moved me, spoke about the widespread problem of fistulas in African countries. To be honest, I didn't know how extreme a fistula could be until I heard her speak about it. I felt ignorant about the subject. She informed the audience how fistula occurs after prolonged births are very violent rape. Basically, a woman has been so badly damaged that she cannot control her bowels. Due to this, these women who suffer fistulas are outcast from society. This disturbed me because many of these fistulas occur because of child birth and then these women are outcast by their families and communities. How is it a woman, who brings a child into this world, can just be thrown away like that? She told us the horrifying story of a young woman who had went through a prolonged birth and her family and community abandoned her at a hospital where she did not receive any care. It seems as if everyone viewed her as a lost cause. When she finally received medical attention, they performed a caesarean to remove her baby which she had not given birth to. They discovered her baby to have dissolved inside her. This completely horrified me. A woman should never be so neglected during what should be a beautiful experience to learn her baby has dissolved inside of her. She sustained very extreme injuries from being so neglected. It took her awhile to heal, but she did. When I hear stories such as these, when a person has been to the lowest point they can reach due to things out of their control and then is resilient and learns to live their life again absolutely astounds me. I did not think I would find this event as important as it turned out to be and I am glad I went because it really gave me insight to an issue I did not know much about before.
This event called attention to the issue of traditional practices which remain in certain societies because of their assumed religious importance. I thought the practice of stoning was an event which occurred since the beginning of the Islamic religion. However, this event showed otherwise. I came in late because I had planned to attend an event to which the panelists did not show up and I missed the panelistsâ introductions. However, I was extremely blown away by a young Afghan woman who spoke about the issue of stoning and how wrong it is. She gave a little background on the situation happening in Afghanistan. In short, the most stonings which have occurred have been due to the occupation of the Taliban in Afghanistan. But there have been no recorded cases of stoning. This doesnât make sense because the Taliban believe it is in the religion to stone women who have had extramarital affairs. So, why would they not record any public stonings? Â In order for adultery to be proven, four witnesses need to be present, but this proof was not often needed for stonings to happen. Even the intent of adultery means prison time for women. The stonings are organized by religious leaders who are being used by the Taliban as an act of war to terrify communities. The woman pointed to the idea of the government not taking action. She feels the Taliban uses stoning in order to scare the population into submission. The Taliban uses men in insurgency like as suicide bombers to create the same effect, submission by fear. She cited the issue of the generational circle of Islam, there is no revolution of religious ideas even though the times are changing. She said a reason many traditional practices continues is people who live in villages who are illiterate learn the religion from their parents and are given no understanding of modern issues. Also, everyoneâs interpretations of Sharia Law are completely different. I loved it when she told the attendees the story of when she asked important religious leaders where in the Quran did it state women are to be stoned for adultery and she said this made them angry. I found her to an extremely brave woman to be speaking out in a country where women are extremely oppressed and have very limited rights.
On Saturday, the schedule events changed very much and I ended up attending a few events I assumed I would be disinterested in. One of these events was the Role of Workplace in Supporting Women Experiencing Violence sponsored by UN Women, National Committee Australia, Australian Domestic, Family Violence Clearinghouse, and UNSW. I wanted to attend events which involved developing countries because women living in those countries seem to have less of a voice and not as many rights as women living in developed countries. However, I was glad to have attended this event which focused on workplaces trying to foster environments which support women who are experiencing violence at home. One of the speakers brought up the idea of the general public thinking a woman entering the workforce signals safety in private life, which is not the case because one of the statistics she shared showed how in Australia, 1.2 million women are living in an intimate relationship with violence or previously have. She then cited some solutions to this problem which were women having access to paid domestic leave which allows them time to go to court, move to a shelter, etc. without worrying about losing money. Another is women who have children less than six years of age are allowed to ask for a flexible work arrangement and this can also be available to women in domestic violence situations. She then spoke of the discrimination which occurs in the workplace when women are in domestic violence situations. Many people will view women as unreliable because of the situations they are dealing with at home. This then could lead to a womanâs termination and ultimately elimination of economic resources. She brought up the fact of attitudes of women needing to change in order to better eradicate discrimination against women and abuse of women. The next speaker brought up the importance of partnerships across sectors. In most situations of abuse, men stayed in the home while women left with their children and were forced to look for living arrangements. She felt not only there should be workplace support, but there should also be a law enacted which allows a woman and her children to remain in the home and the man should leave, which makes perfectly good sense. Stories for women in this situation showed how important they felt support from their workplaces was in staying in their homes. These two speakers grabbed my attention and I felt they had the most valuable things to say. It overwhelmed me because this violence against women is occurring in a first world country and I feel the general population would not expect such widespread violence in a developed country. It showed the real effort and complexity it takes to even try to solve such an issue and a country like Australia, has the economy to do so. Therefore, it makes me feel like it would be a hundred times more difficult to tackle the other atrocities which happen to women in underdeveloped countries where there is not much funding or interest in eradicating violence against women. I felt I could relate this session to most of the human rights abuses women face because the solution of changing the structure and environment of a place of work in order to help support women in domestic abuse situations showed me how changing the structures of other institutions is also important is combating other issues. Not only changing existing structures in societies, but also changing preexisting mindset of the public to go along with these new structures which allow for the support and protection against women.
