Glenda Simms
IN 2001, the World Bank published a policy research report entitled Engendering Development. In this indepth study of the global impact of gender relations, the bank asserts that, "in no region of the developing world are women equal to men in legal, social and economic rights".
Furthermore, the study argues that "gender inequalities undermine the effectiveness of development policies in fundamental ways".
In the CARICOM region the member states have an impressive body of legislation to deal with gender inequalities within their legal framework. In spite of this, we continue to be challenged by the way social and economic factors prevent many citizens from getting justice within our impressive reformed legal structures.
But, in spite of these problems, the region is ahead of much of the developing world where oppressive traditional practices take precedence at both the community and the governmental levels.
TRADITIONAL PRACTICES
The March 2004 edition of Equality Now has pointed out that, in spite of the ratification of international conventions committed to removing laws that discriminate against women, many countries have failed to reform their legislative structures to assure the human rights of women.
Equality Now identifies some of the most oppressive laws in a variety of countries and asserts that "law is the most formal expression of government policy".
Therefore, "a Government that allows discriminatory laws to remain in force endorses and promotes inequality".
It is against this background that some of the legal changes that are taking place in very conservative societies must be evaluated.
Sometimes, those of us who live in societies with an impressive body of legislation to protect the rights of women and girls forget that millions of women in the "global village" still face blatant discrimination sanctioned by law and by traditions.
In the global environment in which we now live, we need to pay attention to some of the countries that continue to treat women as second-class citizens under the laws of their land.
WINDS OF CHANGE
In the Flair magazine of May 10, 2004 a news item carried by Reuters out of Ankara informs us that the Turkish ruling party is agitating for tougher punishment for "honour killings" which are systematically carried out against women and girls who are raped or have children outside of wedlock.
This practice of killing women and girls to 'protect the good name' of the family is quite widespread in some Islamic societies and is routinely adhered to amongst the Kurds in Turkey.
While it is generally accepted in these societies that the cultural prerogatives that are entrenched in tradition must be preserved at all costs, politicians realise that if they are to broker in this age of dynamic global changes, they must be courageous enough to challenge some of the practices that generations of their citizens have come to accept as sacred.
It is in this mode that the Turkish Parliamentarians are forced to revisit one of the oldest traditional violent responses to women and girls who are the victims of male criminal behaviour.
Turkey has to deal with this issue now because the other governments in the European Union will not accommodate in their ranks a country which sanctions such blatant human rights abuses.
Obviously the outcome of this debate will be a change in the Turkish Penal Code. Such a change is described as "part of a broad reform drive aimed at persuading all leaders to revisit the entry talks which have long been delayed by Turkey's poor human rights record".
While governments are oftentimes forced by circumstances to challenge long-held belief systems and practices within their society, it is heartening to learn from the Reuter's report that some women in Turkey are also putting up valiant opposition to the traditional practices that threaten their lives and their right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.
We are told that groups of women are taking to the streets and protesting and bringing attention to the plight of women and girls.
In one case, it was reported that around 50 women staged a demonstration in Istanbul to protest against the latest honour killing to hit the headlines "the case of a father, who, helped by his son, strangled to death his 14-year-old daughter after she was raped".
The winds of change are not limited to Turkey. Several other "traditional" and extremely patriarchal societies are being forced to face and correct the historical wrongs that have textured the present circumstances of their women.
This trend was highlighted in a Reuter's report from Tehran, Iran that was carried in the May 11, 2004 edition of the Daily Gleaner. It was reported that Iran's outgoing reformist Parliament approved a bill that would grant women the same inheritance rights as men.
Currently, an Iranian woman 'with children inherits one-eighth of her husband's possessions when he dies'. However she is not entitled to any share of the land that he owns.
In addition to this, if the marriage did not produce children, the wife gets a quarter of her husband's belongings and the remaining three-quarters would be distributed to other close kin children, parents and siblings. Also in situations where there are no surviving relatives of the husband, the state becomes the benefactor.
In contrast to the situation of women, Iranian men inherit half of their wives' possessions if the union was childless and one quarter if there are children.
The push for legal reform in Iran is aimed at putting widows and widowers on the same footing - a revolutionary initiative in such a conservative and traditional Islamic state.
Ethiopia is another country in which legal reform is being designed to challenge long held traditional beliefs and practices.
One such practice sanctions the abduction and rape of young girls in order to force them to become the wives of their abductors.
According to the February 2004 edition of Equality Now "typically, the girl is abducted by a group of young men. She is then raped by the man who wants to marry her". This man might be known to her or he might be a complete stranger.
To date, this practice has not been completely eliminated but the Ethiopian government has been making some effort to abolish the legal provisions in the Ethiopian Penal Code that "exempt perpetrators of abduction and rape".
As the developing world moves forward in the 21st century, all Governments will be forced to remove the legal barriers to women's equality. This they will do either because they are uncomfortable with the intense glare of the global lenses or because they can no longer ignore groups of voters who are standing up for justice and human rights within their societies.
Indeed, the march to justice for all might be too slow for many, but the push to move forward must be maintained always.
Glenda P. Simms is the executive director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs.
