End Discrimination Against Women: Dominant Call by Bishops at Vatican Meeting
The "pain and frustration" that women feel because of their position in the catholic church has been the major issue being brought up by bishops from around the world at the recently concluded Bishops' Synod at the Vatican.
According to a report from the Associated Press, bishop after bishop from varying places in the world brought up the matter in this advisory meeting which had been called by Pope John Paul II.
"This is not just an issue affecting some regions of the world but one which definitely touches the credibility of the church's teaching on human dignity everywhere on this planet," said Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwakee, who recommended that women should be given high-ranking posts at the Vatican and in its diplomatic corps.
"The credibility of the church in our century in its pastoral mission depends on its forthright response to the concerns of women in church and society", he said, "Increasing the role of women is perhaps the most significant challenge we face today as disciples of Christ."
The Bishop of Oslo, Norway also echoed this view: "The insufficient entry of women into the ecclesiastical environment is being experienced ever more as a fundamental failure of the church," he stated. Similar sentiments were voiced by bishops from Asia, Africa, Europe and South America.
According to Archbishop John May of St Louis, "no theme has been more frequently mentioned in this synod. There is a clear consensus that the church must do everything in its power to put an end to unjust discrimination against women in its own structures and practices.
"That concern is coming forth from every area of the world, and it has frankly amazed me."
The church ban on ordination of women priests has been questioned by some bishops and lay observers, although no one has called for its repeal. The Pope strongly reaffirmed the ban during his U.S. tour.
Source:
Associated Press
A new wave of women's publications washes in from the Caribbean...
"One one cocoa full basket" is one of the traditional proverbs printed in a new publication coming out of Belize, a tiny nation- state on the South American mainland. The proverb means that with tiny, consistent steps forward, big changes can eventually be achieved.
This publication is one of two periodicals and a deluge of books which have been produced by Caribbean women recently. Called The Belize Woman, it is a newsletter published by the Belize Rural Women's Association and carries news on events in that territory.
It describes a number of small initiatives by Belizian women to organise themselves as groups and to involve themselves in development activities of benefit to their communities.
The second periodical is a women's newspaper which has been born in the island of Trinidad. Called The Workingwoman after the group which publishes it, this publication aims to counter the negative image of women propagated by the vibrant mainstream media in that country.
Source:
Workingwoman
Cecilia St., Tunapuna
Trinidad & Tohago
While steps are taken for Caribbean Unity...
Unity in any sphere has been traditionally very difficult to achieve in the Caribbean region. This is because of the historical barriers created by colonial empires.
Now, where the politicians and economists have fail women's groups have taken up the challenge. In February, a group of women representing 13 Caribbean countries and Caribbean women resident in North America met in the island of St Vincent to create the "Women for Caribbean Liberation". This group, which is composed of feminist movements from the four linguistic blocks of the region, takes as its task the breaking down of traditional barriers towards unity, to promote education of Caribbean peoples on the problems of women in the region and to oppose any kind of economic initiative which uses women as cheap labour.
Source:
Mujeres de Continente Contra la
Intervencion
PO Box 847
Managua, Nicaragua
Raipur Women against Rape...
The gruesome rape of an eleven-year-old girl in the Indian city of Raipur and the consequent lack of conern by the police has caused women to rise up in an unprecedented fashion this year.
The event took place in January and was described extensively in the Indian women's magazine, Manushi.
According to Manushi's report, the child disappeared while playing near her home. The police were too involved with arrangements for an official visitor and neglected to take any action on what they termed a "routine matter". Five days later, the child's body was found in a well with evidence of multiple rape.
Manushi's report states:
"Shweta's death shook up the city in an unprecedented manner, on January 20 a total bandh was observed. The next day, women students held a 2,000 strong silent procession culminating in a tearful condolence meeting at Shweta's home. At a public meeting that afternoon, about 24 organisations expressed their concern over the fact that crores of rupees are spent on the security of the rulers of the country, the life and liberty of ordinary people are at stake.
"From January 22, women students began a relay hunger strike. They sat on a platform in the marketplace to draw public attention to their demands..."Many women's organisations... who have been involved primarily in religious and social activities, joined the protest. Women began to turn up in large numbers to join the relay hunger strike. Often, there was not enough space on the platform to accommodate all the volunteers. Brothers, fathers and husbands would hover around the platform, day and night, looking unnerved.
"The authorities tried their best to persuade the women to withdraw the agitation, advising them that it was not seemly for them to agitate in public. Male principals of colleges pressured the woman principal of the woman's degree college to stop hostelers from sitting on hunger strike at night. However, she continued to support them.
"The local police subtly attempted to propagate a theory that Shweta was 'of hose morals'. 'This is totally absurd,' said Shweta's teacher... The police subjected Shweta's classmates to grueling interrogations...
"The apathetic attitude of government is best summed up in a remark reportedly made by chief minister Motilal Vara to a group of women students on January 20: 'There are many such incidents occurring daily. Why are you making such a hue and cry about this only'"
"On January 26, the authorities convened a meeting of concerned citizens and tried to persuade them to withdraw the agitation. But, the public outcry continued to mount. On January 28, class III and IV employees of the state government went on a day's strike. About 3,000 workers took out a silent procession. Schoolgirls... joined the hunger strike on January 27..."
The action of the police in response to this agitation has been very dubious. Arrests have been made, but their validity is in serious doubt. They may well be simply attempts to quieten things down.
At the time the article was written, other plans for statewide action by women to protest the indifference of the authorities to the problem of rape were in train.
Serbian Women Force Government's Hand
Angry Serbian women in Yugoslavia erupted into a series of demonstrations recently over an insult to their dignity by a public official. The official had to be expelled from the Communist Party after having tendered a public apology, but the agitation is still continuing.
Mr Fadil Hoxha, formerly partisan commander of the troubled province of Kosovo, had stated in a public forum that there would be fewer rapes in the province if the authorities brought in more Serbian women willing to sleep with the local men.
The resulting unrest included demonstrations in which children carried banners with such slogans as "Our mothers are not whores." Hoxha's expulsion was not sufficient to pacify the women and the central government has installed a 3,000 strong anti- riot unit to prevent continuing conflict between the majority population of Albanians and the Serbian minority.
Pakistan: Valiant Resistance Against Anti-Woman Laws Continue
The resistance to barbaric anti-women legislation continues undiminished in this unfortunate country. Women are maintaining a strong rearguard stand against new laws which take away their rights in the legal sphere and institutionalise their inferior status. These laws include:
- The Hadood Ordinance, which states that women's evidence in cases of theft or rape is unacceptable for obtaining conviction and making the offender liable for maximum punishment. In addition, this law does not distinguish between rape and adultery, so that since it was promulgated, numerous rape victims have been convicted of adultery while their attackers have gone scot-free because the testimony of the woman was insufficient as a basis for conviction.
- The Islamic Qanoon-e-Shahadat (Law of Evidence) which states, in effect, that in matters pertaining to "financial or future obligations," the word of two women is equivablent to that of one man.
- The Law of Qisas and Diwat which equates women's testimony with circumstantial evidence and dictates that compensation for a murdered woman be established at half that of a man.
Pakistani Women's groups are also maintaining protests against other alarming developments taking place within the society, for example proposals for re-introducing the creation of child brides, for reviving the dowry system and for further restricting women from participating in political, social and cultural life.
In a situation as bleak as this one, women in Lahore continue to hold on to demands that the government reverse the present trend of depriving women of basic human rights guaranteed by constitutions all over the world.
According to a recently published newsletter of the Women's Action Forum of Lahore, there are small reasons for celebration.
Within the last year, two women's groups in that city merged and were able to acquire an office. Now, they are seeking assistance with the acquisition of furniture. They have also started another smaller Source: smaller chapter in Abottabad, and plan to issue a national publication very soon.
Despite their adverse circumstances, however, the tone and stance of their publication is clear, strong and unintimidated. More power to them.
Source:
Women's Action Forum Lahore
Newsletter
P. O. Box 3287 Gulberg, Lahore
Pakistan
Tracing Patterns of Life in Tanzania
Bar girls, business women, domestic servants, nurses, landladies, community workers and many other groups of women are currently being interviewed and their life histories documented in Tanzania.
This is part of a study launched by the Women's Research and Documentation Project in Dar es Salaam titled "Patterns of life and work in the city". The project combines archival research with personal life histories in order to relate personal events with broader issues of social change and vice versa. One of the projected outcomes of the research is to be a series of life histories to be published in the WRDP Pamphlet series.
According to a pamphlet distributed by the coordinating committee of the project, this activity has been organised to promote the study and research of the women's question in Tanzania in relation to problems and strategies of development.
It is a collective comprising mainly academics in Dar es Salaam and is affiliated with the International Council of Adult Education Women's Programme and the Association of African Women Researchers. It seeks to encourage documentation, writing, publication, seminars and mass dissemination.
The collective wishes to broaden its education base in order to incorporate a wider range of women in its activities. It has started a women's documentation centre and is publishing mimeographed material in order to promote the wider dissemination of information on women's issues.
A monthly newsletter is also published in Kiswahili. Persons wishing to contribute letters, brief notes, poetry or short articles may contact:
The Coordinating Committee
WRD
PO Box 35108
University of Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania