Women's Views on News |
- UK to help Syrian refugee girls
- Peace women’s Gaza visit blocked
- New campaign to fight racism against migrants
- Men: speak up for gender equality
| UK to help Syrian refugee girls Posted: 19 Mar 2014 08:50 AM PDT
In the last 3 years, more than 100,000 Syrians have been killed in the country’s civil war. Four million have been displaced within the country and two and a half million people have fled the country. Almost half of the refugees are girls and women, and another quarter are boys under 18. But although we may be familiar with casualty numbers or with images of battles and refugee camps, there is one aspect of the story that has received less attention: the child marriage of refugee girls. Life as a refugee is tough enough: you are exiled from your home, far from loved ones and living in poverty and insecurity. For young girls, life as a refugee can be particularly tough. According to a recent UNICEF report, one in five Syrian girls in Jordan is forced into an early marriage. An earlier report last June by UN Women gave an even higher figure, as it reckoned that half of Syrian refugee women and girls in Jordan had been married before the age of 18. UNICEF figures from before the crisis state that 3 per cent of Syrian girls were married before the age of 15 while 13 per cent were married before the age of 18. So, although there is a precedent for child marriage in Syrian culture, the UN's recent figures would point to a significant increase in early marriage. Why is this happening? Part of the reason is security and the threat of sexual violence. Three-quarters of Syria's refugees are women and children, so many families are without male protection and find themselves vulnerable. Mariam, for example, who was interviewed in this report by Al-Jazeera, said that marrying her daughter was a way to protect her from the rumoured rapes and kidnappings in the Za’atari camp in Jordan. The Atlantic reported similar reasons for early marriage among Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Another part of the reason is economics. The extreme poverty refugee families face narrows down their options. According to Justine Greening, the UK’s International Development secretary, male Syrian refugees have trouble finding work and supporting their families. Arranging for a young daughter to marry is one way to obtain a small dowry and to ensure that your daughter is provided for. Refugee families without male adults are even more vulnerable. IRIN interviewed a Syrian refugee mother in Jordan, Um Sarah, who arranged marriages for her 14 and 15 year-old daughters because she could not support them. But the dowry obtained from a fellow refugee may be quite small. There are reports of non-Syrians going to camps to look for brides and offering higher dowries. And several recent articles point to a trend of sexual exploitation of young Syrian girls by foreigners, who 'marry' them but disappear once the marriage has been consummated. And if he stays? It is hard to overstate the impact that child marriage has on young girls and on their lives as women. As well as the obvious trauma of having to marry as a child, girls are at greater risk of suffering complications in childbirth or pregnancy, which could leave them unable to have children in later life. Child marriage is also associated with a higher risk of domestic abuse and of long-term poverty. Earlier this month the British Government announced that it will host a Girls' Summit to tackle the issue of forced marriage among Syrian refugee girls. By encouraging its partners to fund programmes for unemployed Syrian male refugees, the UK hopes to decrease the economic pressures that push refugee families into marrying off their daughters as children. The Department for International Development (DFID) also announced a £5.95million grant for Doctors of the World, to provide healthcare support, which includes specialised care for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. The Syrian crisis has now entered its fourth year. And for the sake of these girls – and indeed of all Syrian citizens – it must not enter a fifth.  |
| Peace women’s Gaza visit blocked Posted: 19 Mar 2014 07:30 AM PDT
Members of an international delegation attempting to travel through Egypt to Gaza for International Women's Day were deported from Egypt recently. The purpose of the delegation was show solidarity with the women of Gaza, to draw attention to the unbearable suffering caused by the ongoing Israeli blockade, to educate people back in the laureates' home countries, to push for opening the Gaza borders – and to take solar lamps to help people cope with the electricity shortage. Among the delegation of 100 women were Northern Ireland Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire, American human rights campaigner Medea Benjamin, and Northern Ireland human rights advocate Ann Patterson. "We were refused entry and given no reason by Egyptian authorities," Mairead MaGuire said. "It is a sad day when Egypt refuses entry to peace people and is complicit with Israeli and US policies in continuing the blockade of Gaza." Nobel peace prize winner, Medea Benjamin, who had travelled alone, said she was assaulted and injured by Egyptian security officials, deported to Istanbul, Turkey, on March 4 and was hospitalised overnight in Istanbul until her flight to the US midday on March 5. Gaza is under a tight Egyptian-Israeli blockade and the people of Gaza are reeling from a series of blows that have led some analysts to say that it is facing its worst crisis for more than six years, putting its 1.7 million inhabitants under intense material and psychological pressure. The effects of Israel’s continued blockade on the civilian population of Gaza has been exacerbated by mounting hostility to Gaza’s Hamas government from the military regime in Cairo, which sees it as an extension of Egypt’s deposed Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptians have virtually cut off access to and from Gaza, and as a result Gaza is facing crippling financial problems, power cuts, fuel shortages, price rises, job losses, Israeli air strikes, untreated sewage in the streets and the sea, internal political repression, the near-impossibility of leaving – and a new political isolation. Before Egypt’s military ousted Morsi on 3 July, an estimated 1,200 people a day used to cross the Egypt-Gaza border at a place called Rafah, which was Gaza’s main window to the world. Since then, the average number of permitted travellers has only been 250 each day, if Rafah is open at all. At this article’s writing, Rafah had been closed for six consecutive days. This also affects people needing medical care. Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, told Reuters that 1,000 individuals a month require medical care in Egypt or other countries because of the shortages and other difficulties in the Gaza Strip. While foreign physicians often travel to Gaza to bring vital supplies and provide care, these days they aren’t being allowed in. “Until June, we had received 60 delegations of doctors who performed surgery on 1,000 patients. No delegation has arrived since then,” Qidra told Reuters. The deported delegates had planned to travel through Egypt to be a part of the Code Pink contingent of an international coalition of 100 women travelling to Gaza to witness the hardships facing the residents, deliver humanitarian aid, and call attention to the need for a longer-term strategy to achieve peace and justice for Palestinians. Code Pink is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end US-funded wars and occupations, to challenge militarism globally, and to redirect the country's resources into health care, education, green jobs and other life-affirming activities. Maguire has now been deported to London. She has been unreasonably arrested or detained for her involvement with the Free Gaza movement several times. But despite continuous efforts to prevent her from travelling to the region, she remains actively involved in the Free Gaza Movement and believes that both Palestinian and Israel women have crucial roles to play in the peace process.  |
| New campaign to fight racism against migrants Posted: 19 Mar 2014 04:41 AM PDT
A new campaign has been set up to combat racism against migrants in the UK. The Movement Against Xenophobia (MAX), was launched at a conference in London last weekend to counter what supporters call 'the vicious anti-immigrant discourse of mainstream politics'. MAX aims to build a coalition of organisations and prominent individuals to combat the 'increasing hostility, discrimination and intolerance towards immigrants.' Its supporters want to raise public awareness in the run-up to the European Elections in May and the General Election in 2015. The conference featured sessions on the Immigration Bill, reporting immigration and migration and climate change. A steering committee was elected and the conference adopted a Policy Statement pledging support to migrants and calling on the media and UK government to ditch sensationalist rhetoric and adopt immigration policies based on human rights and need. MAX is supported by human rights lawyer Louise Christian, MPs Caroline Lucas and Jeremy Corbyn and journalist John Pilger. Over 80 organisations have already become affiliated. Saira Grant, legal and policy director of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said the event had been a resounding success, and around 150 people had attended. "It was a much needed forum for a discussion about immigration, rather than the sad xenophobic discussion we have seen though our media." She said the main aim of the campaign between now and the General Election was to try and change the tone of the public debate to make it more fact based. "We don't want immigrants to be made the scapegoats. "We will be actively opposing the Immigration Bill and working really hard to show how it will negatively impact society. "We want ordinary people to engage with the facts on immigration and not the myths," she said. Grant said MAX was keen to broaden its coalition. It has published a model resolution for trade union branches to affiliate. It is also seeking support from faith, student and community groups. Grant said the media would also be a big part of MAX's work. The campaign is already working with the NUJ to try to improve the way journalists report immigration. "Everyone is doing amazing work in disparate ways, but we need an organisation that can pull it all together so we can work more effectively," she said.  |
| Men: speak up for gender equality Posted: 19 Mar 2014 02:40 AM PDT
On the eve of International Women’s Day, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN under-secretary general and the executive director of UN Women, posted a powerful open letter urging men and boys to stand alongside women in the fight for gender equality: Dear Men and Boys of the World,  |
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