I believe that as 'outsiders' to a particular culture, if we feel women are being discriminated against, we can only try to enlighten those women about their rights and leave it up to them to decide what to do about their situation. Otherwise we are interfering and will end up causing more hurt and violence. We also need to involve the men otherwise they will be threatened by any change in their women.
Two very small examples: 1. I worked in a small rural development project in Swaziland where I was trying to uplift the women who bore the brunt of a weak economic system and were dependent on their men for money. One woman, Siphiwe, had a talent in sewing and started making dresses to sell through a loan with the project. Her husband was unemployed and an alcoholic, and when he saw her doing well and bringing money into the home for food, school fees and clothing, he became jealous and beat her up (to get them money for alcohol). At times Siphiwe became depressed and talked to me saying she should just give him the money because he was 'her boss'. I talked to her about the value of her new-found empowerment, but had no right to tell her what to do in her marriage. She continued making dresses and her husband continued beating her - and two years later she suddenly left the village. She had gone to live in another village nearby and using money from her sewing business set herself up with a chicken project. She decided when enough was enough and she empowered herself to make the change. 2. Another woman in the same village, Margaret, lived at home with 9 children. Her husband worked on the mines in South Africa, and made her pregnant every year when he came home for Christmas. She was scared to use birth control measures in case he accused her of infidelity or took another wife to have more children. She offered her services, initially as a volunteer, to run our first pre-school in the village. Knowing the poor nutritional condition of her family we fundraised and managed to get enough money to start paying Margaret a small wage. When her husband Justice was retrenched from the mines because of ill-health, she was worried that he would make her stay at home and stop working. Justice, however, came back and found all sorts of community development projects on the go, and saw that his wife was making a valuable contribution to the family's well-being. He applied for a loan after securing a contract to make bricks and build the first community pre-school and community business centre, and started a successful small contractor's business. They both continued with their respective work, and became key activists in the village's development. Janine Ward Oxfam GB South Africa ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
