While International Women’s Day is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women, we must not lose sight of the struggles ahead.
Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre Coordinator Shamima Ali stressed this in a statement yesterday as we mark International Women’s Day today, March 8, 2021 saying while our progress towards gender equality is still lagging, we need to scale up our public services to meet women’s rights and increase women’s participation at all levels.
Ms Ali said we must continue the collective action to demand for accountability for crimes against women and girls in the country.
“Inequality, climate emergency, COVID-19 and the rise of exclusionary politics have further exacerbated our vulnerability as a nation to address the serious violations of women’s human rights,”Ms Ali said.
She said violence against women and girls continue to increase and anecdotal evidence show this is because of the patriarchal society that we live in.
“We have a very patriarchal society that’s underpinned by religious and cultural attitudes towards women and their place in our communities.
“This is further exacerbated by lack of political will on part of government to commit to the issue of eliminating violence against women and girls. We have poor law enforcement, particularly around the area of gender-based violence.”
She said while we have good legislation and protection orders in place, we are not doing well at implementation level.
“Gender neutral laws and programs that are not rights based often act as a backlash for women.
Programs that are not rights based do not address the root cause of violence against women which is gender inequality.”
Ms Ali said we need to continue to advocate for more women leaders in government, parliament, on statutory boards and in leadership positions.
“We have the General Elections next year and more women need to contest the polls. We need to challenge the status quo and demand for inclusion, create an enabling environment, address inequalities, educate our women and girls and amplify their voices.”
“We have many women leaders in the world, in the Pacific and in Fiji. From my experience, effective women leaders are feminists who do not just accept the status quo.
“Feminist leadership challenges patriarchy, is fearless, is compassionate and leads with humanity, kindness and firmness.”
