Women in Asia, Africa still in slow lane

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.