Women in Asia, Africa still in slow lane

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

When the Asia-Africa Conference in 1955 attempted to lay the foundations for freedom, justice and equity in Asia and Africa, it had little to say about including women in the process.

Fifty years later, women in Asia and Africa remain the least prosperous and least powerful group in society, and are discriminated against in almost all aspects of life.

In Afghanistan, for instance, despite the ousting of the Taliban, the status of women continues to be low, and their rights have been seriously affected by over two decades of war.

Afghan Minister of Women Affairs Massouda Jalal said at a workshop on Tuesday that unlike in many countries, Afghan women die sooner than men, at an average age of 44, and their capacities to live meaningful lives have been seriously curtailed by continuous warfare.

"The great majority of our women are illiterate -- one woman dies every 30 minutes while giving birth. They lack economic skills and capital, and experience violence and human rights violations in ways that women in many countries never experience," Jalal told participants at the Asian-African Workshop on the Role of Women and Youth in Furthering Asia- African Cooperation.

Things are better in the Philippines, where net employment has increased, and women's civil, economic and political rights have been formalized.

However, obstacles remain in terms of, for example, economic empowerment, access to and utilization of basic social services, women's political representation, and violence against women.

In other Asian countries, Vietnam has been quite successful in promoting gender equality, which has resulted in a significant improvement in the role and status of women.

The Vietnamese presentation showed that the country continued to rank first in Asia for women's representation in the National Assembly, with 27.31 percent. The literacy rate among women, who makes up 50.8 percent of the population, is 90.9 percent at present.

Women's economic power and participation in economic activities have also increased, thanks to legal regulations obliging the names of both husband and wife to appear on land, house and property certificates.

However, like many woman in the region, Vietnamese women continue to face challenges in the form of gender stereotyping, preferential treatment for males and limited opportunities to access the benefits of science, technology and information.

Aside from the challenges faced by women, Tuesday's workshop also highlighted the problems faced by young people, who, together with women, represent more than 65 percent of the total population of countries in Asia and Africa.

Data from the Office of the State Ministry for Women's Empowerment shows that some 133 million young people in the Asian and African countries are illiterate, with most of these being girls.

The youth unemployment rate stands at 41 percent of the world unemployment rate, and some 238 million young people live on less than US$1 per day.

The health of young people, meanwhile, is alarming, as an average of 6,000 to 7,000 young people are being infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) every day. Girls and young women continue to face violence, as well as a lack of access to reproductive health services.

The participants at the workshop called for a strategic partnership to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and young people in the countries of Asia and Africa.

This would include the creation of regional and inter-regional linkages through information communication technology, sharing expertise and experiences, identifying cooperation frameworks and models, and promoting the activities of non-governmental organizations.