2' TALKING POINT is a new format produced by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. It presents a pressing issue or a news item developed with a personal touch by our AlertNet and TrustLaw correspondents, in two minutes or less.
In the last week of May, almost 5,000 people descended in Kualua Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, for the Women Deliver conference, possibly the largest gathering of people working on women’s issues.
KL is a modern, 21st century city. Behind me are the Petronas Towers, a glass and steel skyscraper complex that soars 88 storeys above the ground. And it’s surrounded by five-star hotels.
Here was a conference held amidst all these modern trappings, yet still having to talk about the same barriers and problems women have been facing for decades.
We’re still having to ask for equal pay for equal work, tell parents and communities not to abort female foetuses, not to kill girl babies, not to mutilate their genitals, and not to marry them off too young.
We’re still having to tell countries that handcuffing women to hospital beds as they recover from abortions or not supporting women living with HIV/AIDs are violations of human rights.
It’s not just happening in poor countries either. Reproductive rights are under attack in America and other countries. And just last week, here in Malaysia, a 40-year-old man accused of raping a 13-year-old married her, presumably to escape punishment.
Maybe I’m being overly pessimistic.
But really, in this day and age, why do some societies still see rape victims as impure but not consider rapists the same way? Why do countries still deny or punish women for abortions even when their lives are in danger?
Why do we still have to justify our existence, the way we think and dress, and the way we want to be treated?
