Women Are Genie in the Bottle

Business

Good governance can be said to be a situation where there is participatory decision making, justice, transparency, accountability and mutual respect between the leadership and the governed leading to peaceful coexistence and equitable distribution of resources. You see why the gender issue is taken so seriously by serious-minded humanitarian and development agencies is because gender sensitivity goes a very long way to promote good governance. The creation story in our major religions give women second place to men. In fact it appears as if the creation of the woman was some kind of after-thought. I am sorry if you think I am blaspheming… but you and I know that this is the fact. Look, just forget those rights protagonist who will tell you that we were all born equal. Does this word equality really exist? See, do we have to wait for two thirds of the world’s population to die fighting for equality before we know they are all wrong? How do you explain why Libyans should continue dying because they want a few leaders out of their way? Oh now you see the point…cutting your nose to spite your face? Oh no, I know what you are thinking, but that does not actually matter just now. In Sierra Leone our precarious heritage seems to continue hunting us for a very long time indeed. It really takes a whole lot of political will and attitudinal and behavioral change to get things right with this gender thing. I am sure you know what I am getting at. Sierra Leone was one of the countries on top of the hunger list in 2009 and perhaps lingering there still or so. One important reason for this is the gender inequalities especially literacy and access to education, income-earning opportunities for people who spend 70% of their income on food. On this hazardous journey of life I really think everybody should be placed on the same footing…what Dr Thorpe would want to call a level playing field. Talking about this level playing field, is there actually one in real life? See what incumbency did to the Ugandan election. Never mind we will save that for another day. You might be wondering what all this has to do with the genie. It has. History, male chauvinism and culture have connived to put our female folk in the bottle like a genie. You see someone needs to get them out of the bottle and allow them freely to be at par with males in all spheres of life. Genies are said to be spirits with strange powers. I think women share the powers that genie have. Only that in this case I am not sure they are very much aware of their powers. This is why I think they are in bottles. They need to be taken out to explore their powers. Now the big question is who will get our females out of the bottles. Let us take politics. How many women hold very high positions? Yes there are quite a few indeed. We are doing well but I find the pace is snail-like. Can you imagine since 1957 when Madam Ella Koblo-Gulama became the first elected Member of Parliament, we have not made much progress. In fact in the whole of the North we have never had a female Paramount Chief, even in our dreams and non-fiction. Do you see how enormous the problem is? Now where do we start when in parts of the country the idea of women becoming chiefs at any level is not encouraged? They are even barred. You remember the case in Kono and Kailahun. These are a wee bit of the problem that keeps our women in bottles like genie. How do we get over male chauvinism? Naturally men, who are enjoying command and control, will definitely not want to let that go. Definitely those who wield a lot of power are definitely not the ones to invite you to take some of those powers. Do you see Colonel Gadaffi cannot let go power and will die fighting to keep the status-quo? Imagine even after 40 years he has not had enough to let go. Over here also many people in governance sometimes seem to demonstrate pass I die attitudes.If men in power do not want other men to have power, how much more women? You see we have a real problem on our hands. Ah, I almost forgot, in neighboring Liberia, a female challenger has declared she is gunning for the Liberian Presidency. Oh how sweet that will be for Africa. For a female to hand over power to another female! What a record in Africa that will be. Let us take the issue of education for women. A whole lot of factors militate against females getting right through the educational ladder unhindered. Major among them is early marriage and unwanted pregnancy. These days parental control or oversight for their up and coming girls has been long eroded. In cases where both parents get too tied up with their jobs and become mere wage slaves, where is the time for monitoring? In many rural areas school girls get pregnant and have children like flies with no compunction. Sometimes the girls seem to like getting pregnant and delivering their babies. You see here there is no priority placed on education. There is virtually no competition among the kids to achieve higher heights. In fact in some communities there are not many educational icons among the women folk that they could admire. There is so much backwardness in some of the rural areas in particular. Now take this early marriage thing. In quite a lot of societies, it is so common that it is no longer any big deal. It appears quite natural. Although a lot of sensitization has gone on reducing it in some areas, only few traditional rulers have had the undertaking to minimize early marriage. Tell me who really protects our children in those remote areas where poverty is more than a norm. If you work in some of the rural areas you will actually feel pity for girls and people who are still giving birth to girls. The poor working condition of the teachers in remote areas is not helping matters. You have teachers they call Community teachers. These are the ones taking care of by community members and not paid by government. School kids support their teachers in different ways like making farms for them, cooking and other domestic chores. Yes the Child Protection worker will tell you that all these situations should not warrant anybody to impregnate a school girl. The unfortunate thing is that the reality speaks something far remote from this. In leadership the situation for our women folk is no better. I however hasten to say that in terms of voice and space things are slowly improving but the rate is not enough to help the situation. When it come to violence in politics, definitely women shy away since they are not physically up to the mark . This of course is not their fault; it is just their biological make up and general chemistry. One thing we need to always know is that no one can tell his or her story better that the same gender. You have to draw your own face, otherwise if someone else does, you will not recognize it. Until women begin to write their own history, tails of valor will always depict the male folk as the brave man. With the world hectically moving things right, we better remove our beautiful genies from their bottles and make them spark. What do you think? By S. Beny SAM

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