wus current affairs newsletter 3rd issue 2014-2015

lorem ipsum issue #, date

CURRENT AFFAIRS COMMENTARY

Some issues about Female Empowerment

Jeffrey Ip Cheuk Yan Current Affairs Secretary

Malala Yousafzai, the girl who survived the brutal Taliban attack as a result of her advocacy of female

education in Pakistan, had been awarded with the 2014 Nobel Peace prize. There has been outpouring of praise and admiration for the sixteen years old woman rights activist. Now, she becomes an inspirational icon for female education and more broadly speaking, for female empowerment. The writer found her story a good starter for more discussion about female empowerment in 21st century.

1

The steroid---Education Malala is an education activist. Before she was attacked by the Taliban militants, she had been writing letters to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the region anonymously, expressing her strong wish to go to school. In fact, provision of education to the disadvantaged group has always been the popular means of (female) empowerment. It is believed that proper and high quality education can help women assert their independence economically. And economic independence has positive ripple effects to other aspects of life including political participation

3rd Issue

World University Service, HKUB, HKUSU, Session 2014 – 2015 Newsletter 3rd Issue

2

activity and social status. Endowing women with income and property can empower them to make independent decisions and hence build up their social identity. On an individual level, it is easier for an economically independent woman to attain a more fulfilling existence. On a societal level, a well-defined social identity can emanate a sense of collective strength within the female community, and encourage more women to participate in the processes of political decision-making. Active female political participation will eventually shift our political and social institutions from a male


2

3

dominated setup into a less gender-biased one. It can be done by enacting more equal right legislations and encouraging more media attention on gender discrimination.

Nevertheless, the sole emphasis on female empowerment carries the risk of intensifying the confrontation of the sexes. Radical feminism is often the consequence. Radical feminists often view the traditional patriarchal social structure as a pure oppression of women rights. They also have the tendency to identify the two genders as two separate social classes in which the male gender always benefits from the oppression of the female gender. And they are dedicated to engage in a communist-like class struggle. The fact that these people raise the struggle against male chauvinism to an antagonistic level is very dangerous. It will cultivate a climate of gender-based hatred and violence. Some radical feminist organizations can easily take advantage of the pervasive social climate for their political gains. However, one should remember female empowerment initiatives are just the means of achieving the greater goal-Gender equality. Gender equality is not a zero-sum game. Men and women should work together to construct a society without gender bias and discrimination. Female empowerment without the participation of men can never be succeeded. Every politician must be aware of that. In her Nobel Prize speech to the Oslo's ornate city hall crowd, Malala promoted the universal education of all, not women alone.

4

Gender-based affirmative action The ultimate goal-gender equality is the end. But sometimes gender-based affirmative action is needed to achieve it. Gender-based affirmative action is referred to the effort, often by the government, to create opportunities in various aspects of life to the underprivileged sex (which is women). It is unfair to the male sex in essence. However, the theory is that if women are traditionally and institutionally disadvantaged in society, affirmative action may be needed in the first place to rebalance the power relations between the sexes, and to alter the perception of the public about male supremacy. Gender-based affirmative action is especially required in the less developed part of the world, which their political and social structure are traditionally designed to blatantly discriminate against women. As a result, many developing countries in Africa like Ghana and Uganda have been introducing affirmative action programmes to increase women political and social participation rate. In other more developed regions, gender-based affirmative action policies are also in place. In Japan, incumbent Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been campaigning for female empowerment by gender-based affirmative action. Gender quotas are proposed to be introduced for legislature elections and private employment to encourage women’s participation in the public sector and private industry. In other developed regions like Norway and Germany, voluntary quotas system is implemented by political parties.



3

5

Nevertheless, gender-based affirmative actions can be destructive to a society. In some developed countries, cases of reverse discrimination are heard which the originally disadvantaged sex exploits the affirmative action legislation to acquire favourable treatment in workplace or political arena. These countries often have more informed and empowered female population. If the affirmative action policies are misplaced or too radical, the male sex will feel like they are legally being discriminated against. Job and political opportunities are not fairly distributed and awarded in society, as corresponding to one’s ability. Ironically, gender-based affirmative action can often go against the spirit of gender equality and even produce a gender sensitive society. While the options of how to introduce gender-based affirmative action are not within the scope of this article, the writer feels worried that misplaced anti-discriminatory policies can be discriminatory in effect and turn genders against each other. Malala’s vision of an equal society is being utilized by radical politicians.

Is she a Poster girl? Any moral being will agree that Malala Yousafzai is an inspirational figure, the latest spokesperson for women’s rights. Media loves to describe her survival from the brutal Taliban attack as the triumph of gender equality. This may be right in some sense. But as the young girl getting more

6

media attention from the world, some may feel that she is an overexposed poster child of the west. In her home country Pakistan, she is even accused of helping justify the military actions by the west in many Muslim countries. And these western countries are seen by many to be responsible for the deprivation of basic human rights and deaths of millions of children in the conflicted regions. The writer does not intend to discuss the issues of western “double standard” and unjust wars. The question here is whether Malala really help promote gender equality and make her dream come true. It seems inevitable that this sixteen years old teenager can do nothing other than being an icon. Still, an icon does help to instill the concept of gender justice in people’s minds, and therefore compel the government to take real actions against sex discrimination. Malala should try hard to avoid the female empowerment movement she reignited from descending into an intermittent fashion. The western politicians may be hypocritical, but they still play an essential part in propelling the movement. With an international audience at her feet, she can easily motivate the poor and the oppressed in spirit. But after that she needs to do more. As one Pakistan newspaper headline reads: “Malala will be back as a Politician”, Malala should equip herself from the privileged UK education system and eventually free her home country people from oppression. Real actions only take place in politics.

Final words about Female Empowerment No one will question the righteousness of female empowerment and gender equality. But one should remember that every right comes with corresponding responsibility. Common sense will be that the originally disadvantaged sector, once empowered, will have to assume greater responsibility. In a family, if a woman is able to take up a job, she will be more responsible for the financial health of the family. This goes the same in society. And many congratulations to Malala Yousafzai.



4

1

In a time where many world debates and wars are

related to religion, it is essential for us to re-think on the genuine meaning of religion. Religion empowerment does not mean ruling out other believes. Oppositely, it can only be secured through acceptance, the ultimate purpose of having a religion.

Religion serves as the healing medicine to a lot of us who are spiritually hungry and eager to search for a shelter, like those divorced couples and traumatized sufferers from natural disasters. The collection of moral believes could also act as teachings to some of us, for example, prisoners, on how to walk on the right path. They would have a better view of what life should be like through reading bibles and listening to the sharing of the priest, recognizing themselves in the life maze.

Indeed, religion is a good innovation. But we have to be careful that development through time may gradually corrupt its original intention. Hoping to promote and secure its believe and influences, religion gradually transforms into a compelling system of believes that forces believers to say no to things that are against its faith. For example, Catholic believers discriminates against those who are homosexual and trans-genders. People may regard this as a way to secure their own catholic

Continued…

Religion Empowerment

Lee Ching Hin BBA (A&F), Year 1

Your Voice! Your voice! is where you can comment on current affairs related to the topic highlighted in each newsletter! If you would also like to express your special views on heated issues, please stay tuned with our mass emails and send us your commentaries accordingly. Prizes will be awarded if your commentary is chosen to feature in the next issue!

2

believes by excluding other non-Catholic believes. But there is one question that we have to ask ourselves. Does religion represent ethical standards? We do not actually own a reason to ban others’ believes.

We need to embrace diversity. Otherwise, religion becomes terrible. We already have a chance to glimpse through the terror when religion leaks into the ruling level and legal system. For instance, some Islamic believers develop into extremity and become so passionate that they rejects all other thoughts, especially those from the West. They think that Catholic and Christian ideas are poisons that would corrupt their own faith on Mohammad. Recent Nobel Price laurite- Malala Yousafzai, is symbolically an example of victim under religion dictatorship. We definitely disapprove it, right?



5

3

Religion is not something absolute. It is established through variety and diversity. The difference between a loyal and an irrational believer is that the former one knows how to accept others' culture and believes while standing firm to its own faith. After all, the reason for us to have a religion is not to claim power. It is a way for us to identify our own life goals and attitude. What would be the difference between those extremists and us if we attempt to rule out the possibility of acts deviating from our believe by using our religion power and influences? We are different only in the way of achieving mono-religion. We may not involve physical killings but we are murdering the thoughts of others.

Religion empowerment could, however, be accomplished if we could embrace other religions. Why? Because dictating believes could never really gain support from people. Only when people experienced and understood all the religions could they decide which believe are they going to place their trust on. Blindly excluding

4

believes is only an act showing weaknesses and distrust on certain faith. Only when you are unsure about something would you try convince yourself by restricting other possibilities. Therefore, being a sincere Catholic or a Christian, we need to accept others believes, rather than emphasizing ours and trying to make one religion to dominate.

Again, we return to the basic concept-diversity. Religion empowerment is all about interfaith harmony. It may be difficult to achieve because the way that a religion establishes is by followers’ support of its believe. What we could possibly do is to pause a moment form accusations and try to allow more rooms for others.



6

Empowerment and Human Rights Megha Ramesh

Law, Year 3

‘Empowerment requires the recognition that people are the prime agents of development and need to be part of the transformation of the structures and the overcoming of the obstacles that have created or contributed to poverty’

(United Nations Development Report, 2010)

Many of us are under the impression that our voice counts for nothing in the highly politicised world we

live in. Of those of us who do appreciate that we each possess intrinsic rights, most are quick to categorise themselves into a group that lacks empowerment, be it women, the poor or those with disabilities. This thinking only further entrenches the problem at hand. By compartmentalising people into different factions of society, we are yet to realise that the only way to truly achieve empowerment is by throwing away the distinctions we hold so dear and fight for universal rights. Efforts should be focused on how every person deserves the same opportunities in life, and it is our duty as humans to ensure that these rights our achieved even for those who we may not identify with ourselves.

1

Human Approach A human rights approach is ideal to combat these problems. In the case of poverty, for example, by reinforcing the understanding that human being’s inherent dignity cannot be taken away, it shifts the focus from poor people having needs to the fact that these people actually have human rights. In doing so, a human rights approach challenges the current inequalities in the distribution and availability of resources and forces a reconsideration of the power structure in place. This is true of “developed” countries too; the richest 20% of American families own 88.9% of all US wealth in 2010 .

2

Empowering Local Communities This approach also appreciates that empowerment should go beyond select members who have attained a distinct position in society. Instead, empowerment should trickle down to those of local communities and individuals, so that they know what their rights are and how to protect them. If you don’t realise you have rights, how can society expect us to fend for ourselves? Educating people about the rights they possess is fundamental to achieving widespread empowerment. International human rights organisations have identified this as one of their aims. To achieve this, some have identified that the empowerment of public defenders as a crucial mechanism to get through to local communities. Not many others will have such direct access, therefore public defenders automatically have



7

3

greater chances of educating communities than international organisation. An increase in claims and cases for these defenders will accelerate the rate at which many others realise that they too should fight for their rights.

Looking beyond our own rights Despite harnessing fame as an actress and fashion icon, Emma Watson was appointed as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador earlier this year. Although she has been an inspiration to many she addressed how some people question whether she has the qualifications necessary for this role in her speech at the launch of the UN HeForShe campaign:

‘All I know is that I care about this problem, and I want to make it better. And, having seen what I’ve seen, and given the chance, I feel it is my responsibility to say something’. Emma Watson rightly appreciates how she has been given ‘given the chance’ to speak about issues that are important to her. Such “chances” should be extended to all, so that any person can advocate their issue, even without fame. The fact that Watson considers it ‘her responsibility’ exemplifies how she believes that there are those who cannot make as big an impact. Though she cannot be faulted for her thinking, the ‘responsibility’ shouldn’t be just hers, but a global duty.

4

The fact that we each possess rights is but the first step. We also need to understand that we have a duty to fight for rights for others as much as our own. Watson again illustrates this in her UN speech. Even though she may have been referring to feminism in this instance, the principles encompassed are transferable. She appeals to men, and ‘formally invites’ them to involve themselves and show their support towards the feminist ideal, as it impacts them just as much as women. Similarly, individuals disregard many issues as they feel it has no relevance in their lives. Will every issue have a direct effect on each individual? Perhaps not. Indirectly, however, it can have a far greater effect than initially perceived. For example, disabled people’s rights are often neglected since the vast majority of people are lucky enough to be healthy. Some don’t even consider how the lack of opportunities among the disabled, until someone close to them acquires the label ‘disabled’. Consequently, it is vital for us to understand that empowerment lies in our fight for equal rights. They say knowledge is power; knowing we have rights that should be protected is the fundamental requirement to achieve total empowerment.

World University Service, HKUB, HKUSU, Session 2014 – 2015 3rd Issue