What are India’s resolutions for 2014?

It is upsetting when I look at the news and the first thing I read on a quiet evening is the rape of a 23 year old woman in India.  It is always reverberating to read a rape case, but this article to me resonated.  I was shocked to read the slew of words that followed discussing traditional ways of life, and the irony of this case.  I couldn’t digest it- a female was ordered to be raped as a form of punishment for having sexual relations with a married man.

The turning point of the article was when I read that she was tied to a tree and raped in FRONT of the community and raped BY people in the community.  People that others praise and look up to as leaders! To me a leader is someone worthy of being followed, an individual of high esteem that we hold as a role model for our actions, our decisions not someone who forces themselves unjustly on another.  I was dumbfounded that the horrific truth to this was that no one stood up for her.  No one even testified that this indeed did happen, when questioned people denied that this incident took place.

As I sat there in awe, I reread the article over and over again.  I realized I hadn’t found anything out about the married man. What happened to the male that cheated on his wife known or unbeknown to her? There is no story I could find on him. In fact, aside from one sentence about him in numerous articles aimed at the shameful girl there was absolutely zero information on the married male. Most evidenced in this case is the level of patriarchy.  Often we associate countries in the Far East as being male dominant and females subservient.  To my dismay this was widely apparent through this article.

I thought 2014 would bring change. When I read an earlier article about India being polio free for three years – a milestone for the developing country, I thought this is a country that is taking steps in the right direction.  I thought this was the true meaning of progress.  Instead this article shed light on a country with strong traditional roles and a mentality of a people that needs to be altered, needs to be educated.  The article talked about the female being shameful. 

In my opinion the tribal elders and eastern village where this incident took place should be ashamed.  Ashamed for accepting the current fabrics of a society with long standing issues, for using a method completely inhumane on someone for a mere action no matter how unacceptable it was.  This is a country that should be setting up goals for a better tomorrow not churn more gang rape cases that worsen each time around.

Case Details:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/23/india-gang-rape-case-sexual-violence

By: Juliet Abdeljawad

Light amidst the grim violence in the Arab Region

I can recount how many times we’ve heard of violence in the Middle East in the 21^st century and even more so in the past two years. Violence, which has increased over the past two years in MENA in conjunction with the “Arab Spring”, has left several countries in a state of instability. I recall my trip to Egypt a few months back and the hostility, impatience and unfriendly personalities I encountered far different from the people I’d known a few years prior.  I can recall a conversation I’ve had with an American Jordanian friend who found those same characteristics in the Jordanian people.  When we queried one another it was evident that the violence in the region had taken its toll on the civilian population more than the long standing regimes. 

We seem to have quickly dismissed the current situation in Syria, and filed it in our minds as “violence in the middle east” the unstable region that it is. The U.S. has had talks, spoken against such atrocious acts while every day the Authoritarian regime continues to rule with people suffering at the hands of their merciless ruler.   People…who amount to a mass of thousands of children, families, and communities. From the outside looking in the country looks rather grim as it’s marred with the blood of innocent people forever scarred by this “civil unrest”.  This morning I read something that lightened the picture.  Although there are more than 2 million displaced or refugee Syrian children in Jordan and the surrounding region and although young girls collect water in near freezing temperatures by their refugee camps in Jordan, several international organizations are taking a step forward. 

UNICEF has assisted refugee children through several outages the main and most important in this winter season are Blankets.  The United Nations Refugee Agency and the Jordanian Government are preparing to open a second major camp just as Syrian refugee numbers have increased crossing into Jordan (over 6,400 in the course of a night).  Outside of those large entities there are people helping, people like UNICEF child protection specialists who go out daily and interact with these refugees to help them reach their sense of identity, to help them connect with one another, and to re-learn to play, and talk about their feelings in dealing with the immense stress they’ve undergone.

I write this not to rant about international organizations, injustice or governments.  I write this blog so that readers can look at themselves and thank God for their situations because in other places it’s much worse.  It is my hope that one day I’ll be that change, be that someone who can lend a hand directly in those camps in those countries where gender inequality, impoverished children and displaced families exist.  I ask YOU to become more aware of the rest of the world and help. Help, even if it’s helping your neighbor next door who isn’t able to walk to their car, or someone on the side of the grocery store with no food or money, help because that help is the hope that will brighten the long days ahead.

By: Juliet Abdeljawad

Beheading in Saudi Arabia

It certainly is astonishing to learn about such a practice but it is indeed true, particularly in a country whose legal system supports this.  Saudi Arabia’s law to behead a criminal who has been convicted and found guilty is criticized by the international world.  In fact, the recent incident had the UN highlighting how it does not endorse this law in any way.  Other organizations namely, Amnesty International have voiced their oppositional stance on this law.  In recent news a female was found and convicted of killing the very child she was supposed to care for as a maid in Saudi Arabia.  

 
So we get the picture that this government appears to be going to inhumane lengths but at what point do we stop to ask ourselves the underlying cause? I think the issue isn’t the victim but why she was made a criminal in a country foreign to her.  It seems to me that the matter is more than the mere beheading of someone.  In order to judge we need to be fair and unfortunately the law in many countries is far from that. 
 
The criminal whose name was Rizana Nafeek, was of Sri Lankan decent.  Her crime is that she was found guilty of killing an infant and for that she was beheaded according to the law of the country she was working in.  It may seem unfair but regardless of what nationality one is the law in a country one works or resides in is the binding law.  So some may think that I agree with her sentence but that’s not true, I disagree with this law because I don’t see it being the best method of penalizing someone legally but whose not to say that our method for example in the U.S. where we put people in prison on a life sentence is any different.  What is any different than a life in which one isn’t living, but merely motioning day by day until the last second the last breathe they have is in the confounds of a cellar. 
 
The real underlying issue is that this female lied to leave her country, about her age mainly in order to find work and make herself a better life.  It’s terrible that this tragedy happened and that she was the victim of this rather harsh Saudi Arabian law but the root of the cause and why she was in a foreign country is because of her own accord.  Her own country, Sri Lanka’s inability to find out that she had committed fraud to leave out of the country (by documenting that she wasn’t a minor) and their inability to provide or help those citizens in need, that is the cause.  For a minor to feel that she has to take the weight on her shoulder to provide for herself and assist her family back home is a scenario that several impoverished women face.  Her soul weighs heavily on all females everywhere, on those of us that struggle day by day to make ends meet and those of us that meet a rather bleak ending. 
 
Thoughts go out to her family in prayer.

By: Juliet Abdeljawad

Swaziland solves the issue of Rape?

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Swazi police ban “rape – provoking” miniskirts – Al-Jazeera Article

If you’ve thought this to be slightly surreal, then you’re right!
The solution to Rape, a horrid violation of human rights has definitely NOT been achieved, particularly in Swaziland, a formerly colonized landlocked country surrounded by South Africa. Recent news has perpetuated that the government has begun taking the wrong measures to end Rape.  This awareness has heightened after allegations made on Christmas Day that the Swaziland Government has banned Miniskirts.  The law came into effect after a march by women and girls last month to protect themselves from rampant rapes in the impoverished kingdom.  Failure to abide by this law ensures the offender faces a six-month jail term.
Puzzled? You’ve definitely read it correctly, to STOP future Rape the government has issued this new law which bans females from wearing certain garments. Now that is astonishing! My hope is that you’re asking yourself “you mean to tell me that the blame is all on the female, the victim?? That the victim has provoked the Rape and even welcomes it?” Well, police officer’s spokeswomen Wendy Hleta reported that miniskirts or “half-cloth” make it easier for a rapist to Rape a woman.
Let’s stop right there-
So the reason Rape exists is because females are the ones welcoming the Rape? Not this diseased criminal who clearly has some sort of psychosis for thinking such an act and acting upon it? I think something is wrong with this statement. What’s worse is the underlying hypocrisy evident in Swaziland, as females regularly entertain the king through ritualistic dances showing their entire anatomy! In fact, females as young as five years old partake in the Umhlanga - Reed Dance, where naked they lay reeds in front of the King and Queen Mother (Reed Dance).
This is a country that faces several cases of sexually violent acts against women. In fact roughly half of females between infancy to 24 years of age have experienced some form of sexual violence (Statistics-UNICEF)  Female rights are very limited in the country; even access to land/property is controlled by males/husbands according to the 2006 constitution.  But government still has the audacity to blame females! In a country which measures a female as Labolo (bride price) in exchange for cattle, females are discriminated against and abused as children.  
I just hope that these women find some sort of solace and that we continue to be a voice for them - since their own voice is threatened with illegitimate measures such as this ban.

By: Juliet Abdeljawad

Congolese army and rebel fighters accused of mass rape and looting (News & Media -United Nations Radio)

We are the backbone of society—yet we are truly at the background of many societies.

I am afforded many rights and blessings; thankful to my American Upbringing I have lived a dichotic lifestyle. When I hear the U.S. Army, Navy, American Foreign Policy the first thing I think of is that I’m safe. Sadly this is not the case for many like me, many women that is.  

Recently, in the Democratic Republic of Congo women have been the victims of human right violations.  These violations are degrading, derogatory and disheartening to truly learn of.  Women amounting to a total of One-Hundred and Twenty-Six victims were sexually harassed, violated and raped.  

Take a moment to reflect on that---

In less than two weeks, ten days to be exact, at minimum 126 women lost a right that they had and were insulted, ridiculed and used.  What makes matters worse is that these women suffered silently, as coverage of this mass rape failed to transmit over our popular media outlets.  

Over ten days they were victims, and not one voice resonated through.  

Then I look back and I reflect on how thankful I am to feel safe, and have some of my basic human rights afforded to me.  Although, women around our nation face these acts of violence and injustice there remains one major difference between every act– The Perpetrator.  

These women were victims of those who were supposed to protect them, their own Congolese Army Soldiers. Amidst battles against rebels within the country, women were made victims instead of being protected.  It is a shame to see that women experience these atrocious acts every day and even more so when the country that they live in, supplies their very own enemies.

I encourage you to read more at News & Media - United Nations - Democratic Republic of Congo. Learning brings awareness, awareness leads to advocacy, and advocacy brings change.   So BE that change.
By: Juliet Abdeljawad