Reportage / Women 24.05.2021

The secret border

In the past, girls were sold and then forced into prostitution. But now the situation has changed a lot

Jan Daga

L'articolo The secret border proviene da InsideOver.

Reportage / Women 13.10.2020

A Second Chance

Piedmont is one of the Italian regions with the highest number of Nigerian women forced into prostitution on the streets. Every woman represents a source of income between 35,000 and 50,000 Euros for the criminal organization managing them. It is…

Alessio Paduano

Piedmont is one of the Italian regions with the highest number of Nigerian women forced into prostitution on the streets. Every woman represents a source of income between 35,000 and 50,000 Euros for the criminal organization managing them. It is an enormous business of international proportions, as was proven last year  by the operation carried out by the Italian police which culminated in the arrest of 32 people. Those arrested were operating on behalf of the Supreme Eiye Confraternity and Supreme Vikings Confraternity, the main Nigerian mafia clans in Italy.

In  Asti, an Italian town in the Piedmont region with just over 75,000 inhabitants, there is a non-profit organization which aims to rescue foreign women forced into prostitution. It is called Piam (Integration Project for the Reception of Migrants), an organization founded in 1999 following the encounter between Princess Inyang Okokon, a former victim of human trafficking, with Alberto Mossino, an Italian man who subsequently became her husband.  

Princess entered Italy illegally in 1998 and thanks to the help of a priest of and  Alberto she was able to pay off the debt of 45,000 Euros to her madam, report her exploiters and put an end to that chapter. From 1999 to the present day Piam has saved some 200 women who travelled to Italy with the illusion of finding a job but instead ended up selling their bodies on the streets .

For twenty years Princess and her collaborators have been monitoring the streets of Asti in an attempt to provide women who have fallen into the prostitution trap a second chance. The first approach is vital. It takes sensitivity to slowly win over the acceptance of the women who are mistrustful and often frightened.

“We start by handing out condoms and information pamphlets,” says Princess, “then when the women understand that they have nothing to fear we try to explain to them that a different future is always possible and that they can count on us. It is not a simple job, but if there are women out there  who want to change their lives we welcome them onto our premises, we help them obtain a residence permit, we provide psychological support and we assist them in becoming integrated into Italian society.” 

L'articolo A Second Chance proviene da InsideOver.

Reportage / Women 08.09.2020

Zarbibi

Violence, fire shootings and explosions have been a constant in the months leading up to the elections in Afghanistan. It’s been eighteen years since the beginning of the latest war and no area of the country can be said to…

Vincenzo Metodo

L'articolo Zarbibi proviene da InsideOver.

Reportage / Women 02.09.2020

Shamanesses

The last rays of sunlight filter through the woodland leaves. Sparks of fire lightly swirl up in the sky. The embers glow, going from grey to red, the wood exhaling its last breaths. The elements of the world meet and…

Morena Luciani Russo

Valeria Gradizzi

L'articolo Shamanesses proviene da InsideOver.

Like all Soviet children, she dreamed of being an astronaut. Like fewer kids in her city, Moscow – where she was born 39 years ago to a Siberian mother – she also dreamed of becoming a Shaolin monk. It is one of the first things that motorcyclist Vasilisa Komarova says, showing the pearly teeth of a bright smile that floods the camera with light from afar when she answers the video call in her Nicaraguan time zone.

Tierra del Fuego to Alaska

Life is short only if the mile you choose to go is short. The miles traveled by this woman, with a warrior’s body and the name of Tsarina – Vasilisa in ancient Greek means “Queen” – is very long. Her journey started in 2016 in Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, and will only end when she will reaches the icy kingdom of Alaska. “I am Russian, I have a British passport and a Chilean motorbike with a Colombian plate,” she explains. Someone tried to stop her route with brutal violence, but Vasilisa did not allow the pain to redraw her map.

The first time Vasilisa asked her mother for a motorcycle she was four-years-old. They lived in the Soviet Union which was about to collapse. At seven she started saving money to buy it. Her mother told her that the neighbors used to say: “we saw your daughter standing in line together with agligoliki (alcoholics). She’s selling empty bottles, it is not appropriate for a little girl.” It was not, but with those saved up coins Vasilisa bought herself knee pads for the motorbike. She managed to afford the first Yamaha less than twenty years later, buying it with the money received for a photography prize.

Disaster Strikes in Bolivia

Vasilisa’s existence and route was broken in Bolivian territory on a dark night in July 2016. She was staying at a campsite that people assured her was safe and sleeping alone in a tent. Three men accosted her and raped her. Several broke her arm in order to hold her, then assaulted her to leave her almost lifeless next to her bike, which was also destroyed. They did this to prevent her from leaving and asking for help. They then urinated on her tent and left.

“Vasilisa, you have… you have …”. She finds the right words to finish my sentence: “I banged those dogs in prison.” She is talking about the three rapists who attacked her the night that stopped her journey, and together, her life. Her muscles are those of a fighter and she doesn’t look like someone who has ever felt helpless anywhere. Neither restless nor angry, beautiful and disarming: she does not rumble with a grudge, she is not marred by an anger that for anyone, after all that has happened, would be completely understandable.

Road to Recovery

“They were not men, but creatures. They were drunk and drugged. What they have done to me they do to their wives, to their children,” she says. The following months after that night were dark. “I lived only those black thoughts in my head, I saw the film rewind, I didn’t stop thinking about it.” She remained remote and suspended in the jungle for a while. Her life had ended in a thousand fragments, splinters and swarms of obsessive thoughts, in which the usual old challenge of reacting to pain surfaced.

However, Vasilisa could not let herself be suffocated by a tragedy that can leave even the strongest individual immobile. She had been shot down and burned but she did not let herself go. She did not feed on the defeat nor discomfort: she realized she should not remain in the cell of her head, she had to slam the door of her mind on those three rapists. The way out was not one of the escape, but of struggle.

Trying to Find Justice

Empty bottles: like the ones Vasilisa sold as a child in Soviet Union. She started with a therapy of pieces of glass: her friend taught her to use broken containers to create animal figures. “It was a way to regain control, to get out of my head where thoughts were spinning and I always lived the same scene” she says today. In addition to the glass, she put other pieces together. Of paper, of accusations, of investigations that have become some of the many trials against the assailants in a country that has among the highest rape rates in Latin America, equal only to those of the silence of the women not denouncing the abuse.

The longest road to take was the one to justice. “If one has enough character to go from Patagonia to Alaska, then one must also have it to stop and fight for herself.”Travel is a word that changes meaning when you decide to be alone again in a foreign country until you have justice. Vasilisa, who had studied law in the Russian Federation before moving to London at the age of 23, contacted the authorities: the British embassy answered. A diplomatic representative entered her life: “a woman with a fantastic character, she appeared in my life like Mary Poppins” says Vasilisa.

Spotlight on the Struggle

After two years, Vasilisa wins the trial and the three rapists are given a collective sentence of 42 years. She finally begins to speak out loud about everything that has happened and the newspapers notice it. The Bolivian papers write her story first, then the British ones, then the Russian ones, finally the New York Times. Then Vasilisa and her story became a film produced by Al Jazeera.

“I didn’t change until the movie, but during the movie.” Vasilisa has decided to see again her abusers while being filmed by cameras. This time they were prisoners and she was a free woman. They were in the cell, she was outside. The bars that divided them did not stop her visceral screams from reaching their heads. “I had something to say. For me it was a colossal change, from that thrown pain, I absorbed energy. I screamed, I emptied myself, I came back to fly.” She continues to use that verb, she wants to emphasize the concept.

‘We Need Less Fear, More Struggle’

Po menshe baiatsa, po bolshe borotsa. “We need less fear, more struggle.” The very blonde Russian has become a symbol of the Bolivian brunette women, never being self-indulgent and staying strong. She helped them to overcome a word that she often repeats with anger and indignation: shame. At all latitudes “the dogma of machismo is projected on the woman, who is always guilty and dirty. It is men who commit violence, but it is always the responsibility of the girls,” Vasilisa explains. It is the ancient game of criminalization of victims.

At 35 she wanted to see the world. At 39, after finally finding justice, Vasilisa confirms at the end of the video call that the same desire persists.

“I have been on the road for years, I will reach Alaska as soon as the borders closed for COVID-19 reopen,” she says. :You should never let what happens stop you. Even after everything that has happened, they often tell me that I have to find a man, that I cannot travel alone. I don’t have to feed anyone in the evening, in the morning I wake up and start training. I don’t have a boyfriend, I have a motorbike. It is honest. Those wheels are my wings. I fly.”

L'articolo The Story of a Russian Biker Who Never Gave Up proviene da InsideOver.

Turkey is set to make another attempt to introduce a bill aimed at giving rapists amnesty by allowing them to marry their victims. The legislation which was first brought to parliament for debate on January 16 would pave the way for amnesty to men convicted of child sex offenses so long as they reach a marriage agreement with their victims and their age difference is less than 10 years.

Critics Slam Bill As Legalizing Child Abuse

Critics of the bill have voiced their concerns on grounds that it could legalize statutory rape and child abuse. The UN has also raised concerns that the law would essentially legalize child rape and leave the victims at the mercy of their tormentors.

Leading campaigns against the bill in the Turkish parliament is the opposition party the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) which has stated that standing against the legislation is “a duty of humanity.” One of the party officials Mrs. Figen Demirci warned: “This amnesty law could actually lead to the reduction of the legal age of sexual intercourse to under 12 years with the child then forced into marriage.” The party’s spokeswoman complained that the government appeared to be more interested in protecting the rights of child abusers than that of other vulnerable people.

History Of Turkey’s Rape Marriage Law

Turkey’s rape marriage law was in existence until 2005 when the country repealed it as part of the negotiations to join the European Union. However, in 2016 the Erdogan government made an attempt to reintroduce the law by allowing 3,000 men accused of statutory rape to marry their victims. However, because of the public outcry the issued generated both locally and internationally the proposal was dropped.

The matter resurfaced last year with Turkey’s ruling party AKP insisting that the aim of the legislation was not to excuse rape but to rehabilitate those who may not have realized that their sexual relations with young girls was unlawful, and also to protect the young victims from being ostracized. This came against a backdrop of a 2018 report that showed that a total of 482,908 girls under 18 were married since 2008 in Turkey, despite the legal marriage age being 18.

The Colonial Roots Of Rape-Marriage Laws

Rape-marriages are common in many Arab and Asian countries. According to Humans Rights Watch, many originated from colonial laws in the Middle East and North Africa. HR Watch Senior Researcher, Rothna Begum wrote, “They largely stem from or were inspired by the French Napoleonic code of 1810 which allowed a man who kidnapped a girl to escape persecution if he married her.”

These laws were further supported by patriarchal attitudes that linked a family’s honor to a woman’s chastity and virginity. In many countries rape victims were treated like outcasts and marrying them was resented and seen as shameful. However, because of international pressure and campaigns by women, some countries have began to repeal the draconian laws.

Case Studies: Morocco, Bahrain, Tunisia, Jordan And Lebanon

In 2014 Morocco repealed a provision that allowed convicted rapists to evade punishment by marrying their victims. However the repeal was only taken after a 16-year-old girl called Amina Filali committed suicide by swallowing rat poison after she was forced to marry a man she had accused of raping her.

In 2016 Bahrain Parliament voted to repeal a similar law but the cabinet rejected the proposal on grounds that the marriage loophole should be revoked only in cases of gang rape.

In 2017 Tunisia , Jordan and Lebanon also furthered women’s rights protections by repealing legislation that allowed rapists to avoid criminal prosecution if they married their victims. However, Lebanon was criticized for retaining a loophole that allowed sex with children between the ages of 15 to 17 and seducing a minor with the promise of sex. According to women’s rights campaigners, this article also needs to be repealed.

Nevertheless, UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Raad Al Hussein welcomed these reforms stating there’s no place for hideous laws that seek to “punish a rape victim by making her marry the perpetrator of a horrible crime against her.”

‘Work Towards The Swift Repeal Of Other Legislation That Condones Sexual Violence Against Women And Girls’

She urged the governments of Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia and other Arab countries “to build on this positive momentum and to work towards the swift repeal of other legislation that condones sexual violence against women and girls and perpetuates discrimination against them in clear violation of international law.”

For a country like Turkey which is divided between religiously-based laws and secularism, the proposed bill is likely to generate a heated debate in the political and religious spheres. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has never hidden his perception of the role of a woman in the context of Islam. In 2014 he was accused of sexism when he said that “you cannot put women and men on an equal footing.”

But as Fatma the spokeswoman for the PDP said in response to the marry your rapist bill that the attempt to pass it will increase opposition to abuse of women and girls and awareness of their situation: “The struggles of women is spreading in waves, creating a butterfly effect. We will never allow the masculine mentality which wants to dominate the world to win.”

L'articolo Turkey To Introduce ‘Marry Your Rapist’ Bill proviene da InsideOver.

Last week, 15-year-old Mehak, a ninth standard student left for school to attend her classes in a local school at Jacobabad, Sindh but never returned home.

She was kidnapped by a father of four Ali Raza Solangi. After abducting the minor girl, Solangi forcibly converted her to Islam and married the girl who is half his age.

Mehak’s father Vijay Kumar was devastated. “My daughter Mahek Kumari is a minor – we have all the documents to prove her age. Ali Raza, who abducted her, is already married with four children. He is a daily wage earner. Tell me, why my daughter would be inspired to marry him?” he questioned.

After her kidnapping, a group of silent Hindu men protested against forced conversions of their daughters and sisters. But they were asked to remain silent and wait for the court’s decision. They wrapped their mouth with black strips to record their protest despite intimidation.

Forced conversions are rampant in Pakistan – especially the Sindh province which home to most of the country’s Hindu population. University of Cambridge, in a 2018 report titled “Forced Conversions and Forced Marriages in Sindh, Pakistan” estimates that “1,000 women and girls from religious minorities are abducted, forcibly converted and them married off to their abductors every year.”

Despite such alarmingly high numbers, the government has failed to arrest this rising trend of conversions. In 2019 alone, around 50 confirmed hindu and Christian girls were forcibly converted to Islam.

Most of these girls belong to poor families, hail from remote areas of the Sindh province and under the age of 18.

Almost all of the conversions follow the same pattern. A girl – a minor in most cases – is kidnapped and transported to a distant part of the country where she is held for weeks, even months at times.

In most of these cases, the culprits usually lure them through text messages and whatsapp chats. Taking advantage of their family’s financial vulnerabilities, they convince them into believing that they are in love with them. With promises of financial wellbeing and a better life, these girls leave their families without informing them to run away with their new-found lovers.

During these kidnappings, they are allegedly brainwashed, converted to Islam and then forced to marry men two-times, or at times three-times their age.

The families of these girls call upon the police to recover their children. As investigation gathers pace and police begins to nab the suspects, a video or statement is then released in which the abducted girl repeats a written script.

The contents of these statements are roughly the same in all of the cases. The naïve girl says she has decided to convert to Islam out of her free will and under no pressure from the kidnappers. And appeals to the police and court officials to protect her from her family and be allowed to live in her new home.

At times, these claims are taken at their face value by the courts and police. Arguing with the families, the police officials say the girl is entitled to her free will and can choose to marry or not marry anyone she pleases.

More so, the clerics who convert these girls to Islam usually use the girl’s statement as a proof of their innocence arguing that they had only done what the girl wished in the first place.

But these claims raise further questions as to how can a minor be allowed to change her religion in her parents’ absence? And why does each and every conversion have to be of Hindu minor girls? Why are there no boys converting?

And more importantly, why is the state repeatedly failing at enforcing the rules and enacting legislation to curb this heinous practice?

L'articolo Rampant Forced Conversions in Pakistan’s Sindh Province proviene da InsideOver.

The civil war that followed the Syrian popular uprising that sought to overthrow Bashar Al-Assad created a perfect environment for ISIS to expand by recruiting more fighters. The terror group attracted thousands of young people from different backgrounds and nationalities. But what baffled many was the number of women recruited to the group.

“Traditionally, terrorism has been considered a male domain, women, on the other hand, are believed to have roles that are inherently less important and by extension undeserving of equal consideration in efforts to counter this phenomenon”, read a report on women in Daesh prepared by the Carter Centre in 2017.

“For many, it is difficult to comprehend how a terrorist organisation like Daesh can appeal to so many women from varied national and cultural backgrounds.”

Even though terror groups such as the Taliban had recruited women, the number recruited by the ISIS was incomparable. According to a report by Kings College’s International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, 4,761 (13%) of 41,490 who became ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq were women. The number was even higher considering that the report did not include women recruited locally.

Why so many women were attracted to ISIS remains a topic of discussion. According to the Carter Center, ISIS capitalised on people’s disillusionment with their governments to attract recruits.

Women living in the Middle East and North Africa encounter different daily challenges such as unemployment, limited access to basic services, and oppression. Such conditions predisposed them to Daesh’s idealistic representation of a well-equipped state that offered a high standard of living and promises of amenities that catered for women’s rights.

These views were echoed by Journalist Mah-Rukh Ali in his paper, explaining how ISIS exploited women for propaganda. He argued that women were attracted by a promise of an adventurous life portrayed by ISIS through its propaganda tools. Many girls were also influenced by the social media activity of those who had already joined.

Key in helping ISIS recruit more women in its ranks was a manifesto of women prepared by the Al-Khanssaa Brigade which was mainly made of foreign women fighters. By publishing the manifesto ISIS hoped to position itself as the champion and protector of women’s rights. This they believed would help attract to the caliphate women from countries where women’s rights were violated.

Part of the document read, “Women felt the effects of poverty more than men. It meant that they were not able to sustain themselves as easily as they should have been able to. This miserable situation is obliterated by the Zakar chamber of ISIS, which is installed so women could take their rightful livelihood from it. Hence all due respect and capability is given back to women and harm does not come to them.”

Boasting of how the ISIS justice system was effective in protecting women’s rights, the document stated, “Women now go to courts and openly talk of their issues. They find that they are listened to and their issues are dealt with.”

Many women fell for such promises and left to join ISIS. However, they found a different situation when they arrived in the caliphate. They found a society where women were suppressed and mistreated under radical Islamic rules. They were recruited as policewomen to propagate ISIS abuses and to enforce laws that violated the rights of their fellow women.

They arrested and tortured women who were not fully covered, who embraced western culture and those who ventured outside without a proper reason.

Aisha was one of the foreign women recruited by ISIS in Raqqa Syria. In an exclusive interview with Aljazeera, she said, “That was our job, torturing people. We tortured a lot of people. I cannot even tell you how many”.

She narrated how ISIS had used a pair of pliers to pull out the nails of a woman who had applied polish on her nails and how she had seen pregnant women being tortured.

“Some women were in the early stages of pregnancy. The torture caused them to miscarry. A woman gave birth in the offices of the religious police. She was on her way to the hospital. She had not covered her eyes so they arrested her. She gave birth at the station while they were torturing her. A lot of women had miscarriages there,” said Aisha.

For those women who committed minor offences, there was a biter who would bite the nipples of their breasts as punishment. There was this story of a woman who had just given birth. Her son had a fever. She went out in a panic to get medicine at the pharmacy. A religious police car drove by, they arrested her.

They said,” Why did you go out in that outfit ?” The women answered that she had just had a baby. But the biter still had no mercy and went on to bite her breast. “ The biter would sometimes use her teeth, other times electrical pliers,” said Aisha

ISIS was also known for its sexual objectification of women. Many were detained as sex slaves while others were forced into temporary marriages. They justified their heinous acts by misinterpreting Islamic laws. They claimed that Fatwa Nikkah ul Jihad, required a woman to submit herself to jihadi fighters.

This was to satisfy the sexual needs of the fighters so that they could concentrate on the war. The Fatwa according to ISIS, permitted a jihadi to marry a woman for a week or even a few hours. This had been largely propagated by Saudi born Muslim cleric Sheikh Mohamed al-Arefe, who encouraged women to present their bodies to jihadis fighting Bashar Al Assad.

Perhaps the Yezidi women were the most sexually assaulted women by the ISIS. Many of them were captured as sex slaves when ISIS seized areas of Sinjar in Kurdish Iraq. The Yazidi are considered a minority with their numbers being estimated to be around 50,000 according to the latest figures.

Since they are not Muslims, ISIS called them ‘kafir’ (pagans) and executed many Yazidi men. They detained many Yazidi girls and abused them sexually claiming they were a gift from God to enable them to fulfil their sexual desires while fighting the holy war.

Asharq Haji Hamid was one of the Yazidi girls enslaved by ISIS. In an interview aired on Iraqi TV Al-Iraqiya, she recounted how she was captured and raped by an ISIS fighter called Abu Humam after the capture of Sinjar.

“Abu Humam selected me and then he pulled me by the hair. I did not expect them to rape us, because I was only 14. But they restrained us with iron handcuffs and violently raped us. They raped us one after the other. He kept on promising me that he would let me go but then he would rape three or four times a day. I was just a child and didn’t know anything,” Hamid said.

Long after he sexually assaulted Ms Hamid, Humam was arrested and is currently in prison in Iraq. Last week Hamid now 20, was brought before the captured Humam, and tearfully confronted him saying, “Why did you do this to me? Do you have any feelings?” She fainted shortly after.

L'articolo The Women In and Under the Islamic State proviene da InsideOver.

At long last freedom has come for the women of Sudan after the country’s transitional government repealed draconian laws that oppressed them and violated their rights.

“The council of ministers agreed in an extraordinary meeting today to cancel the public order law across all provinces,” reported SUNA the state news agency. The move gives women freedom to wear trousers, uncover their hair, dance in public and mingle freely with men.

Omar al-Bashir, the ousted Sudanese leader, took power in a bloodless coup in 1989, after which he greatly restricted the role of women for 30 years.

During his rule, the government implemented a strict moral code that human rights activists said mainly targeted women, through harsh interpretations of Islamic sharia law. Thousands of women were flogged, fined and jailed under the oppressive public order law.

According to one women’s rights organisation called SIHA, the rampant arrests, detention, trial and punishment of women under Sudan’s public order, were key features of the government’s criminal justice system.

“The public order laws incorporate strict moral codes designed to exclude and intimidate women from actively participating in public life, for instance by restricting their presence in the public sphere and controlling what they wear.” These laws were enforced by the public order police and public order courts.

Under the law, men were given the power to arrest women for inappropriate dressing or indecent behaviour and take them to a nearby police station. A serious health issue such as miscarriage could land a woman in jail since it could be suspected as abortion which was a criminal act under Section 135 of the Criminal Act.

Abortion could also be interpreted as a sign of adultery, which was also a criminal offence. “Section 135 violates reproductive health rights as a woman who suffers a miscarriage and requires medical assistance, is presumed guilty of abortion and immediately arrested and detained,” read a report by SIHA titled Criminalisation of Women in Sudan.

The public order laws could be traced back to 1983 when the government formerly ruled by Gaafar Nimeiry, introduced Sharia laws. Those who broke the laws were stoned, amputated, cross amputated, crucified, and flogged.

Following the introduction of the laws, Nimeiry declared a state of emergency and ordered security officers to raid homes and clubs and arrest suspects. Many were brought before kangaroo courts and tried for alcohol consumption, gambling, mixing of the sexes without family bonds and/or for holding unlawful gatherings.

When Bashir came to power through a coup in June 1989, he extended and developed the public order law, effectively criminalising and controlling an array of private relations in the public sphere.

Through the public order law, the government sought to impose a particular set of values designed to control gender relations within society and the necessity of state engagement in the regulation of personal morality.

Women who tried to raise their voices and fight for their rights were silenced through intimidation, sexual violence and other forms of abuses. The women targeted were those who provided social services and legal aid, as well as journalists.

According to a Human Rights Watch report released in 2016, women who engaged in these activities were targeted with a range of abuses that ranged “from rape and rape threats to deliberate efforts to tar their reputations .”

“Sudanese women who defend human rights experience political repression like their male colleagues but are also vulnerable to sexual assault and intimidation because they are women,” said Daniel Bekele, the former African Director at Human Rights Watch. “ Sudanese security officials often take advantage of discriminatory laws and social conventions to silence them.”

During the period, the organisation documented several cases in which security forces abused women.

In one case, one woman activist who was urging people to boycott elections in 2015, was told by male security members that “you women activists and party members you are all sharmuta (whores).” The activist was arrested and assaulted when she defiantly stated that she was just doing what she believed in.

“They started kicking me and one of them took his trousers off and started raping me,” she said.  After her release, she was rearrested and warned not to talk about the rape.

In October 2014, security officials beat and sexually assaulted a university student from the discriminated Darfuris after she protested her eviction from Khartoum University. Another student who also took part in the protests was taken to jail where she was raped several times and warned not to talk about it.

It was, therefore, a big win for women two weeks ago when the current government, which they helped bring to power, scrapped the oppressive laws that violated their rights.

Women were the face of the revolution that led to the ouster of Omar Al Bashir. Almost two-thirds of those who turned out on the streets to put pressure on the government were women. This is because they were the one ones had suffered most under Bashir’s autocratic rule which treated them as second class citizens.

Every morning, they would gather under the scorching sun in Khartoum’s main square chanting anti-government slogans despite the brutality of the police and the military.

Apart from scrapping the Public Order Act the new government also ordered the dissolution of Omar Al Bashir’s party, Islamist National Congress Party (NCP). This is among the many steps that are being taken to rid the country of remnants of Bashir’s oppressive regime. The new government under Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok took the step under a decree titled “Dismantling of the regime of 30th June 1989”.

The decree stated, “The National Congress Party is dissolved and its registration is cancelled from the list of political parties in Sudan. None of the symbols of the regime or party would be allowed to engage in any political activity for 10 years”.

The Prime Minister, however, denied that the dissolution of the party was a revenge against Al Bashir. Instead, the aim is to preserve the dignity of Sudanese people “which was crushed by dishonest people and to recover the plundered wealth of the people.” Thousands poured on the streets of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, shouting “Sudan without Islamists. Sudan for all People” as soon the transitional government made the announcement.

L'articolo Under Bashir, a Miscarriage Could Land a Woman in Jail proviene da InsideOver.

The world leaders, civil society organizations and private sector representatives gathered in Nairobi for a three-day global summit on International Conference on Population and Development, (ICPD25) to deliberate on immediate action to ending maternal deaths, accelerate access to modern contraception, reproductive health services, stop violence against women and girls by 2030.

“In 1994 at the ICPD, we imagined a world where one day, no woman would die giving birth, where no woman would be at risk of unintended pregnancy, and no girl would be denied her right to make a safe and healthy transition through adolescence and adulthood,” Said Denmark’s Special Envoy for ICPD25 Ambassador Ib Petersen.

The ICPD goals are anchored on women’s empowerment and gender equality, a catalyst towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, the Summit brought together diverse group of people including top government officials, thought-leaders, technical experts, religious leaders, activists and community organizers, young people, business leaders, indigenous peoples, international financial institutions, people with disabilities, academics and many others committed to sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The meeting focused on universal health coverage to improve access to sexual and reproductive health, measures to end gender-based violence and harmful practices, and the right to sexual and reproductive health care and finally the power in demographic diversity to drive economic growth and sustainable development.

“We have come a long way since the ICPD in living up to our global commitment to make sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights a reality for all,” Says Arthur Erken, Director of Communications and Strategic Partnerships at UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.

Financing ICPD programmes of action was among the issues discussed. The new research done by researchers from UNFPA and the Johns Hopkins University, in collaboration with Victoria University, the University of Washington and Avenir Health. And it’s findings was released during the conference shows that only $42 billion in development assistance is expected to be spent on advancing these goals. That means some $222 billion in investments is required over the next decade.

“The Nairobi Summit represents a renewed, re-energized vision and community working together to act and deliver. Together, we will make the next ten years a decade of action and results for women and girls, keeping their rights and choices at the centre of everything we do,” said UNFPA Executive Director Dr Natalia Kanem.

The findings further shows the detailed costing per each programme objectives with over 95 per cent of maternal mortality in 120 countries will cost $115.5 billion for paying medical staff, drugs and obstetric supplies in key maternal health interventions.

While $68.5 billion will finance the unmet family needs like ensuring reliable contraceptives and efforts to strengthen national health systems. Ending child marriage will take $35 billion, gender-based violence in 132 priority countries will have a share of $42 billion and finally ending female genital mutilation will require $2.4 billion

“Closing the substantial gap with investment of urgently needed resources will ultimately improve health among women and their families and that vision is what should motivate us looking forward after the Nairobi Summit,” said Victoria Chou, a researcher with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The Summit, co-convened by the governments of Kenya and Denmark with UNFPA, where 9,500 delegates from more than 170 countries took part. The United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency unveiled critical new data about the cost of achieving these goals. It mobilized more than 1,200 commitments from around the world, including billions of dollars in pledges from public and private sector partners

“The Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 was a massive success,” said Director-General of the Kenya National Council for Population and Development Dr Josephine Kibaru-Mbae. “But it was only a start. We leave Nairobi with a clear roadmap of actions we must all take to advance the ICPD agenda and transform the world for women and girls.”

L'articolo Transforming the World for Women’s Reproductive Rights proviene da InsideOver.