Opinion | Promotion of women’s rights: prosperity for all

By Bol Khan

OPINION – Promotion of Women’s Rights is prosperity for all in our societies. Women deserve to have an equal future; an equal future that is peaceful with equal rights and opportunities for all. However, unfortunately as we celebrate IWD 2021, there are cultures, norms, customs and countries that are still adamant, repudiating to promote women’s rights. These countries and cultures pose greatest risk against women and girls, globally. Women do not get enough chances in decisions making due to lack of political will from the sitting leaderships. Women and girls have no access to educational opportunities partly because of cultural, social and economic (political) reasons. Women are thought only as child bearing bodies and mere housewives. Women are thought as people without rights or voiceless people who cannot have share in families’ properties. Women are considered as objects to be beaten without resistance, opinions and helps from the authorities—the Governments. Women are only thought to be followers forever and not to be followed.

Therefore, let’s stand up, now, for women’s rights. Women’s rights deserve protection from all of us. Let’s join hands or work to ensure women are involved in power circles and in decisions making. It’s their inalienable right to be participating there. Explicitly, once women are in leadership they bring positive results. Women are peace makers. Women can lead well, better than the men. Let’s remove all risks against girls and Women.

Women’s Rights

Women have full right to be accorded equal dignity of the person with men. Women deserve equal pay while doing equal work with men. Women have rights to participate in public life. Women have rights to opinions, they have right to lead and sit around the tables with men where decisions are made.

Let’s challenge together all those cultural harmful practices and beliefs (stereotypes) against the women that are threats to gender equality. Let’s challenge leaders with lack of political will to bring up women. Girls’ child, too, must be allowed to go to schools so that they have equal opportunities with boys. Once, we successfully do this then we will have sustainable peace and development for all.

Gender and Equality

What’s Gender? Gender is a euphemism term for ‘sex’—male or female. It means both women and men; it does not mean women alone as many may think. And so, when we talk of ‘Gender balance’ we mean ‘gender equality’ indicating check and balance between both men and women. What’s Equality? Equality refers to equal enjoyment by females and males of all ages of rights, socially valued, goods, opportunities, resources and rewards. Gender Equality therefore in the society means that women and men must all be at the same range or level of representation in public domain. Gender Equality is 50:50 percent representations. So, let’s work to achieve gender equality,in the years to come, between women and men at decision making process. For instance, in South Sudan, the 35% quota the R-ARCSS allows as an affirmative Action was an attempt to promote women participation in public staffing. But, did this work? It didn’t happen to the extend we all expected. The R-TGoNU failed dreadfully to observe this quota in recent formation of the National, State and local governments.

Conclusion

Therefore, we urge South Sudan’s R-TGONU as well as other countries in the region to see to it that women are equally represented at the National, State and Local levels. Women’s involvement in economic, social and political decisions making process is a peace in itself. Women are kind-hearted and peace-loving human beings. And so, promotion of their inalienable rights is prosperity for all both in this country and in the world. Happy International Women’s Day 2021!

The author, Bol Khan, is a South Sudanese Human Rights and Peace Activist. He can be reached at khanrom8@gmail.com.

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