Women and Human Rights

WOMEN & HUMAN RIGHTS

Endang W. Supardan

Human Rights is not a problem exclusive to women. It is, among others, the reason for our having women and men together study within our women’s project. Including it in the women’s project, we mean to stress a particular angle of exercising human rights, task for the total humankind, and for Christians specially.

AN UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN RIGHTS

We understand human rights simply as the right to be human, with one’s worth and dignity, seeking wholeness and meaning in life. Women are often denied such rights in our society.

In the traditional view women are seen as weak creatures, ornaments in the house, happy domestics who should not express anger, always look nice, etc. In addition, the feudal system makes women surrender to the man, who is the father, husband or eldest son who is the king or heir. In most of our society the feudal system has penetrated the rural areas, doubled with colonialism. This can be seen easily o be the case when the women have to plant and/or

reap in the field while the husbands play cards or drink.

In industry many countries still have discriminative laws that hinder women from full participation in productive work with equal pay. Where the equal pay for equal work has been guaranteed by law, the practice is still far from perfect. Companies for instance, prefer non-married women workers to avoid maternity leave compensation.

It is hard however to generalise on women’s issues of human rights or the issue of sexism in a global or even regional perspective, because the levels of consciousness of women regarding the reality of their oppression varies greatly.

THE REALITY OF OPPRESSION: HOW IS IT PERCEIVED?

Firstly, it is an oppression of the human being. As a human being under oppression, the feeling and experience of women is the same as others who are oppressed, whether the oppression is political, economic or racial, etc. Basically, it is the experience of having no worth and dignity expressed in the attitude of indecisiveness, apathy or the lack of courage to take responsibility, dependency, a weak character/personality, etc. In this sense the longing of women for liberation from oppression forms a part of the social longing for liberation of others. In this sense, the struggle to be freed from oppression as women is part of the total struggle of human liberation from racial, political and eon-omic oppression.

But there is another oppression which is caused because women are women. Thus, secondly, it is a sexual oppression. Women can be oppressed because they are women (sexual oppression) and at the same time oppressor (because they belong to the oppressor class in society); or doubly oppressed- sexual and racial/political oppression; or even more doubly. In all cases, it is more than the oppression of men in general, for the subjection of women to men is a subjection to a permanent status of inferiority.

From our Christian point of view, the problem of human rights for women is one which is an integral part of the theology for human liberation. God is portrayed in the Old and New Testaments as the Liberator, not just of one small group or nation but of all humankind. Christ has set the captives free and therefore, there is future and hope. In women’s liberation movement (in the west), there has been a lot of rejection of the Bible as the basis for theology

because of the patriarchal attitude which it reveals. Yet those who do Christian theology cannot abandon the story of Jesus of Nazareth. They find that they must make use the best tools of scholarship to wrestle with the texts and to find how liberation and universality apply to their own experience of longing and groaning for freedom (L.M. Russel, Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective- A Theology, p. 58).

Therefore, the theology of the human rights struggle for women has common themes with that of liberation theology, i.e. humanisation. Even if we cannot have a global definition of what it means to be human, as we cannot about what it means to be a woman, the social definition of human worth and dignity is important for every person seeking wholeness and meaning in life. On the level of personal relationships, Love, freedom and respect are seen to be basic needs 3f persons and people, i.e. being supported by a receptive society which enables participation as subjects in all aspects of life and not just as “things” the most important image of humanity for us is that of Jesus Christ who was incarnate in human flesh, so re know God’s intention for humanity. This living relationship helps Christian men and women to work for love and liberation in words and deeds.

THE OPPRESSIVE SYSTEM

The earliest state of humanity was believed to be that of the primal horde practising promiscuity. There was primitive matriarchy, which was not understood as female domination but rather a matrilineal form of organisation, where property was held in common and where there was an egalitarian relation between men and women prior to the development of class stratification. The woman remained in her own tribe and all children were counted as members of the clan. Men and women could mate and dissolve their relation freely without dependency.

The overthrow of matriarchy corresponds to the increase in wealth and the institution of private property. There, man wanted his children and especially his heirs to be recognised. The woman became art of the property for recognising his children.

Engels, who is one of the leaders concerned with women’s problems, takes this view and further says that Protestantism has a higher ideal in the form of love marriage based on emotional equality. But because t is still based on private property, it is devalued and becomes hypocrisy. This hypocrisy is dissolved in the working class, because they have not property to pass on. So he feels that economic autono-

my, as it grows and overcomes injustices in wages and working conditions, will be the basis of all other freedoms for women. In Russia and China before the revolution, however, was a different status of women than that thought of by Engels. They started from a direct enslavement of women. The Russian peasantry had a custom for the bride’s father to give the bridegroom a new whip, the symbol of the transfer of authority from the father to the husband. Women had no legal right to travel, work, etc. without the permission of the father or husband. In China women worked very hard, ceaselessly, could be beaten and killed and could not inherit property. Therefore liberation of women occurred in these places as an explosive eruption. Comparing the present status of women in these communities to their pre-revolutionary condition, the transformation in the status of women is a great social change.

There was a change later in Russia after the 1930’s. The status of women reversed to a more traditional concept of the family and woman’s role as wife and mother. Women were working more generally throughout the professions but were then handicapped by the task of housework which was not shared by the men.

This reversal did not happen in China. The lesson we can learn from China is that the traditionally subordinate groups have been encouraged to criticise tendencies to elitism. Students criticise teachers, children criticise parents, etc. This tends to create a revolution of consciousness which destroys the traditional orders of authority and also creates direct participation at the base.

In this connection we note the cultural psychology of housework. Women are not only exhausted physically from more and more never-finished housework, but this work of women, which is invisible and unpaid, is rationalised as a difference of nature and temperament, dictated by biology rather than an effect of a systemic work relation. There will be no liberation of women as a caste, until this invisible economic relation of women to men, and the cultural psychology it demands, are overcome. (Pat Mainardi, quoted by R.R.Reuther, New Woman, New Earth, p. 181).

In other words, the economic dependence is one of the basic problems posed in the demands for justice of wages and working conditions, genuine opportunities to earn. This should be underpined by a revolution in women’s and men’s consciousness and the cultural psychology in the area of division of labour.

SEXUAL EQUALITY: PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES

It can be noted that sexual equality before the law is been recognised legally by national political sterns as well as internationally by the UN. To mention some examples, we have the Constitution of India of 1949, People’s Republic of China 1954, Venezuela 1961 and by UN, of course, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was followed by conventions like Convention on the Political Rights of 3men, 1953, Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 1967. There are more conventions that explicitly mentioned this equality like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966, Proclamation of Teheran 1968; al-3 Equal Remuneration Convention 1951 by ILO, Convention Against Discrimination in Education in 1960, be. It is well known that implementation is the chief difficulty. The rules themselves sometimes contain serious exceptions- like “except provided by law” with no further law provided. In systems where rule of law exists, the enjoyment of rights might be curtailed by economic and social inequality. Moreover in a country which suffers from poverty and illiteracy as in the case of many of our countries in Asia, the courts of law seem remote from the peasants and legal services are expensive.

But most of the above mentioned is valid in developing countries like ours in Asia. As we see poverty and suffering, women and men are faced with the lack of rights which provide even the basic necessities in life and the right to determine the future by themselves. In many of our countries men and women are struggling against the oppressive system of militarism- which can mean literally military rule or a civil system using a military type of government. In such contexts, the struggle of women cannot be more than an integral part of the total struggle. The same applies for instance in ASEAN counties when there is a real desire to have a kind of SEAN product or marketing problem solved, we cannot do as we want. We have to consult with the transnational corporations in the area. This is the challenge to our nations. Together with this, our people have to see the oppression of the common people y those who happen to be in the position of authority. Again, the right to express oneself is denied especially where there is “national security” or development” to rationalise. It has really always been a practical problem to identify between whether in action is a human rights violation or a national security necessity. What we can hold on to is that the possession of rights brings responsibility. This

is the area where each person’s religious belief plays a role.

Thus, participation by women in economic, political and social aspects of the society is urgently needed. The idea of working arid discussing together with men should be continued and intensified.

We need to remember, however, that the act of struggling together, men and women, whether it is in revolution or in development does not guarantee a once-and-for-all solution to the sexual domination as long as the traditional value judgement of the society towards women-men relationship still exists. We have to accept though that the approach contributes tremendously to the goal of equality within a just-structured society, since in the act of struggling together and solving problems together, men and women adopt a genuine mutual respect for each other as human beings. It is hard and sacrificial work at the beginning for persons working towards this new women-men relationship in our societies, because the demand comes first at a personal level.

The women-men struggle on women’s issues then:

1) does not mean setting aside the core problem of feminism but realising that it is a problem of human beings, women as well as men, in discerning new insights into relationships. It means appreciating and solving the problems together.

2) means a strong invitation to men and women to take seriously the establishment of human rights and the effort towards human liberation.

3) means that we see the problem of society as one that can not be separated from feminism or vice-versa; putting the priority in the solving of the problems of the total society and at the same time nurturing new concept in the practice of doing the struggle together, giving space for the new consciousness to flower, for the new division of labour to be examined and re-examined, for the economic inter-dependence to be exercised.

4) means bearing in mind the call of God to men and women to have the rights as well as the responsibility.

WHAT CAN OUR SCMs DO?

This is the immediate problem-of our workshop. On the national level, can we urge or intensify:

1) discussions on human liberation and the issue of women within it? What shall be the forum? A workshop? Or start with the executive committee members?

2) the participation of the maximum number of women in committees, depending, of course, on the situation

of each national movement. This should lead to involvement in the leadership of the movement.

3) training our members through practice to about open criticism within groups and committees, to attack the area of attitudes.

4) discussions on academic freedom - to what extent and the implications.