Ladies only bus service launched in Delhi
Posted: October 2, 2012 Filed under: Asia | Tags: Delhi, female transport, India, Ladies buses Leave a comment »Last week, the Delhi Transport Corporation has launched special buses for ladies and driven by women too. Why special ladies’s transport lines? To provide a safe and comfortable journey!
From The Hindu : “Delhi Transport Minister Ramakant Goswami said barring the drivers, who at the moment at men, these buses would only carry women. “As such, we have also deployed women conductors in them.” The Minister said these buses would seek to serve women passengers during the office rush hour and that is why, to begin with, their services are being operated to and fro 11 important commercial centres across the Capital.”
Some more pictures about public transports exclusively reserved to women on Women around the World Facebook Page
Qui est Aung San Suu Kyi?
Posted: June 30, 2012 Filed under: Asia, Portrait of the month | Tags: Aung San Suu Kyi, Birmanie, Junte, prix Nobel de la Paix Leave a comment »Qui n’a pas entendu parler d’Aung San Suu Kyi, cette remarquable et courageuse femme politique birmane?
Quelques points clés pour comprendre son parcours, son emprisonnement, son engagement pour la démocratie et la liberté en Birmanie et dans le monde.
Née le 19 juin 1945 à Rangoun, elle devient très vite une figure de l’opposition non violente à la dictature militaire de Birmanie. En Septembre 1988, Aug San Suu Kyi participe à la fondation de la Ligue Nationale pour la Démocratie. Elle en devient la première secrétaire générale et un symbole pour la liberté politique. Cependant en juillet 1989, elle est arrêtée par le gouvernement militaire qui lui propose la liberté si qu’elle quitte le pays. Elle refuse. Elle est alors mise en liberté « surveillée ». En 1990, la junte militaire, suite aux manifestations du peuple, met en place des élections générales, qui sont gagnées très largement par le parti d’Aung San Suu Kyi avec 58,7 % des voix et 392 des 492 sièges de l’assemblée. Alors qu’elle doit prendre le poste de Premier ministre, la junte militaire annule le résultat des élections. La Communauté internationale est indignée!! En 1991, Suu Kyi reçoit le prix Nobel de la Paix qu’elle n’ira chercher en Norvège qu’en juin 2012! Elle est en effet assignée à domicile dans sa villa de Rangoon jusqu’en 1995. La junte militaire l’assigne une seconde fois à résidence en 2000 pour la libérer finalement en 20o2. Le Conseil d’État pour la paix et le développement (SPDC0 l’arrête une troisième fois en 2003 et l’assigne jusque 2008. Aung San Suu kyi a passé en à peu près 15 années assignée à résidence.
Comme le souligne Human Rights Watch: “Le gouvernement militaire, toutefois, a utilisé un incident étrange au cours duquel un Américain a traversé à la nage un lac proche de sa maison en mai 2009 comme prétexte pour la traduire en justice – pour la première fois durant ses périodes de détention. Elle a été condamnée à 18 mois supplémentaires d’assignation à résidence. Les procès politiques en Birmanie sont conduits par des juges qui ne sont pas indépendants, et les procès ne respectent pas les normes internationales de procès équitable. « Aung San Suu Kyi est passée constamment de la détention à la liberté et vice-versa depuis plus de 20 ans », a commenté Elaine Pearson. (Birmanie : La libération d’Aung San Suu Kyi ne doit pas occulter le sort des autres prisonniers politiques)
Aung San Suu Kyi est finalement libérée le 13 novembre 2010 puis élue députée le 1er avril 2012 lors d’élections partielles remportées par son parti. Le 13 juin, Aung San Suu Kyi quitte la Birmanie pour la première fois depuis vingt quatre ans s’envolant pour l’Europe. Après une visite en Suisse, en Norvège, au Royaume-Uni, c’est en France qu’elle décide d’achever sa tournée européenne. Dans les jardins du ministère des Affaires étrangères, elle plante avec le Ministre Laurent Fabius symboliquement un “arbre de la liberté”. (un magnolia grandiflora de 3,5 mètres de haut).”Pour nous, vous êtes la dame des Droits de l’Homme”, a lancé Laurent Fabius en louant “sa résistance morale et physique”. Aung San Suu Kyi a chaleureusement remercié la France pour son soutien.
Photo poster par l’artiste Shepard Fairey
The conditions of Women in Japan
Posted: May 16, 2011 Filed under: Asia | Tags: contraception, domestic violence, Japan, Japanese women, work Leave a comment »After a great deal of research and holding personal interviews with Japanese women, it appears that the current situation in Japan for women is very complex. Three key aspects seem to be important to come to terms with in order to understand the condition of Japanese woman: work, contraception and domestic violence.
First of all, the situation of women has improved since the end of World War II, mainly due to equality within the education system. Consequently, more and more highly educated women have worked and become more financially independent than was the case before the war. It appears as well that there is a correlation between working and women getting married later and having fewer children.
Work
In 1985, Japan adopted the Equal Employment Opportunity Law that prohibits gender discrimination in respect to recruitment, hiring, promotion, training, and job assignment. However despite that law, the professional reality for women has continued to be such that it is very hard for them to have both a work life and a private life (husband and children). “Japanese work customs make it almost impossible for women to have both a family and a career,” said a Japanese women employee in an article issued in the New York Times in 2007 (Career Women in Japan Find a Blocked Path). Moreover they do not have access to high and managerial positions. By 2005, only 10.1% of women have a management job in Japanese companies and governement according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), a United Nations agency. In contrast, 42.5% of managerial jobs in the United States are held by women.
Another study made in 2009 by Catalyst shows that in 2007, Women in Japan earned only 65.3% of men’s earnings at the same positions. (ILO source). The labour ethic in Japan is known around the world to be very intense and hard-working. Therefore if a company expects its employees to work 15 hours a day, it is impossible for women to lead both a work life and a family life. As a result, Japan ranks as the most unequal of the world’s rich countries according to the United Nations Development Program’s “gender empowerment measure,” with a 38th place, just above Bangladesh and far below European countries or the United States (Women’s Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap). Another women, a trained engineer points out that “I still have to prove all the time that a woman can be president”. Thus it appears that the situation is very hard for these women who want to work and reach high positions to think about marriage or to have and raise children.
Contraception
Whereas the oral contraceptive pill has been allowed and commercialised for decades in Western countries, Japan legalized it in June 1999, only twelve years ago. It may seem surprising from such a modern and industrialized country. Though, despite this new method of contraception in Japan, only 1.3 percent of the 28 million Japanese females between 15 and 49 years old take advantage of the availability of this technology, compared with 15.6 percent in the United States, according to the United Nations (Japanese women shun birth control pill). Conservatism and fear for their health (weight gain, infertility) look to be some of the explanations for the recalcitrance of Japanese women to take the pill. On the other hand, condoms are the leading method of birth control, as 80% of women say they give prevalence to condoms. And some doctors explain that if more women go on the pill, the percentage of HIV-positive patients might increase, as they will stop using condoms.
Domestic violence
Domestic violence is a serious issue in Japan. In 1998, a survey conducted by the Prime Minister’s Office showed that one third of Japanese women had experienced domestic violence in their lives. Therefore in 2001, a law came into effect to punish abusive husbands. However in spite of that law, domestic violence in Japan increased 11.7 % in 2009 to 28,158 reported cases in that year (Domestic violence in Japan hits record high in 2009). Unfortunately, most women beaten by their husbands feel too weak to leave their home, either because they do not have economic power, or because they still live in a very conservative house.
An Al Jazeera’s documentary from Tokyo on the women who are speaking out about the problem:
Japanese women still live within an oppressive society. As it was shown in this article, women still suffer from domestic violence, and keep trying to reach managerial positions at work and raise a family at the same time. They try to be a good wife and a good mother. However regarding the domestic violence, more and more women have started denouncing their husbands or partners and make domestic violence a public issue and not the shameful issue it used to be. Besides, women have begun to live their lives as they wish in a independent and free way by affirming their own rights. Japan still needs to raise public awareness of the concept of equality of men and women in order to move towards better conditions for women.
