Written by Maria Murerwa, delegate to the 57th Commission on the Status of Women from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find part one of this post here.
There were so many highlights for me during CSW I find it hard to choice which ones to write about. As a young Rwandan woman, I was so proud to have my country represented and for me to be able to attend their events. Rwanda is doing amazing work in promoting gender equality. Professor Shirley Randell spoke on the “global perspective on violence against women: in the case of Rwanda.” Her presentation focused on education programs that are provided to women, girls, boys and men at the grassroots level about how they should be part of ending GBV. They are educating girls in secondary schools to start to envision and plan for their future at the same time providing literacy programs for illiterate women. Programs like these will help empower women and hence preventing GBV.There have been economic empowering opportunities for women in Rwanda. Before the 1994 genocide, women had to have permission from their husbands to start a business, but today many women especially young women are taking part in entrepreneurial opportunities without the consent of husbands, fathers, bothers. Even though women contribute to the growth of the country and its economy, they still find it hard to get things like loans compared to men, except the paydaynow loans without credit checks. However, I must say that I am so proud of my country and how much has been achieved. The government is very supportive of gender equality in Rwanda; in fact it would have been almost impossible if it wasn’t for the government support and the large group of female legislatures (56 percent). Women are now part of decision making at the local, national, and even global levels.
While most men still wrestle with the concept of gender equality and gender balance, a network of Rwanda “MenEngage” believes that a “new positive masculine identity is needed, one that does not depend on superiority over women.” I am happy to know that men are getting together to form a movement that is fighting the ideas that lead to GBV.
More on creating positive masculinity, The Men’s Story Project is an organization based in California that works with men on break the silence. When I first hear what this woman was doing was quick to judge because it seemed like it was taking the focus away from the reason we were there, VAW not men. However, the more I listened and with the videos of the men telling their stories, I was so glad that someone was working with me. We saw some videos of men telling their stories through poems, songs acts, and this made them talk about things that might have hurt them when they were children, violence that happened to their mothers, something that may still happen to them or things they have done to others due to social, economic class or sexual orientation. This project is a good reminder to society that violence against women (VAW) does not only affect women, but also their children, and those children can grow up to be violent on other women in their lives.
This was an amazing experience for me. I am very grateful to have been part of it, thanks to the LWF Women in Church and Society desk and the Lutheran Office for World Community for giving me this opportunity and thanks to all the women and men who are working hand in hand to end this horrific epidemic. Violence against women should be eradicated, and it will take girls and boys, women and men working together. Let’s all together break the silence, take a step towards education and don’t let anyone tell you “you can’t” because you are a woman. Together we can…
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