Monday, October 31, 2011

Not Just a Woman's Struggle...

Of late, I've been reading about so many issues that have affected me...women and children's rights being violated, famine, violence, flood victims in several countries, even the juvenile crimes going on in major streets that I could not imagine my own children who are much older would even think of doing.. All of these issues have somehow touched a chord. I keep being thankful at how blessed I am that my children have never experienced poverty, violence or even wading in muddied flood waters. For weeks I couldn't find the right words to express what I felt.

A few days ago I read Nicholas Kristoff's tweet on New Zealand being the first country to allow women to vote and I thought, "Women always seem to have to fight and struggle to be given what they rightly deserve in society." There are so many things limiting women because of religion or culture that have to be changed by society. I can understand that these things may take years to evolve but it always has to start somewhere to make people aware that the rest of the world may consider some of society's beliefs and practices violative of human rights.

I can recall how much I reacted reading news some time back about a judge confirming that it is lawful for a husband to slap his wife for buying an expensive abaya from the money he gave her to buy one. My blog had all the !!! and ??? questioning how there can even be such a law...but sadly there is. Or women arrested for driving...that again elicited a lot of !!! and ??? from me especially since I've been driving a car since I was 18. Or of a mass prayer held to celebrate Women's Day but only the country's female leader was allowed to enter the place of worship because women were not allowed inside to join the celebration. I personally would have reacted if I were the female leader...

If these things are deprived of women in some societies even today, I can see how much struggle women have to go through to fight for our rights to be equal as men in society. It is good to know though, that women's organizations have been getting support from various sectors in society to be recognized for their true value and contribution to the human race.

In the Philippines, history points to women forming a Suffragist group as early as 1897 to be able to particiapte as voters and in other organizations that were male-dominated. In 1937 a law was passed allowing only 300,000 women to vote but it was only in 1943 that full suffrage to women was given. Now the right to vote is almost universal and it was not just the women's struggle but that of societies who were open to change for the better, and to recognize the true value of women...