WUNRN
WUNRN notes that it has been the
primary force of WOMEN ADVOCATING FOR GIRLS that has driven the Nigeria
Abducted Girls story throughout the world, encouraging women to be aware, sign
petitions, pressure government leaders and representatives to take action. In
the meantime, why is it a challenge to see now, today, the frequency of Syria
women and girls in media, to be aware how the natural disasters as the
Philippine Typhoon and the Afghanistan Landslide CONTINUE to AFFECT
WOMEN - and see in pictures..... long after the publicity has moved on. It is
not easy to see media coverage that enables us to feel the anxiety and pain of
Ukraine women and girls, regardless of their political sentiment. Women feel
together, mobilize together, fill the gaps of vested interest media and
political silence/inaction. We women respond to desparate gender human
rights needs, for each other, for the world of women and girls.
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WE LIVE IN A WORLD THAT DOES NOT
ENOUGH VALUE WOMEN & GIRLS - LOOK AT THE MEDIA - LOOK AT THE MALE POWER
By Rosjke Hasseldine - Women's Power Circles -
May 2014
At
this time in the world, it is particularly and glaringly obvious that
we are living in a world that doesn't nearly enough value women and girls.
If we did, the recent examples would not have happened AND continued. Or,
they would be nonstop front-page news until an answer is found and changes are
made.
Why has it taken two weeks for the international community and the media to
significantly, comprehensively report that in Nigeria more than 200 girls were
kidnapped and sold into slavery just because they dared to go to school?
Why,
as Nicholas Kristof author of "Half the Sky" said in an interview,
are the lives of these girls not treated with the same urgency or value as
those who have supposedly died on the Malaysia Airlines flight 370? Why
has the recovery of these girls not been given the same media attention and
resources?
Why
has the American university campus become unsafe for women? How have the
universities been able to silence the growing epidemic of rape and sexual
assault suffered by female students? And why are they only now starting to do
something when they are being named and shamed? Why is the well-being and
safety of female students less important than a university's reputation?
Catherine MacKinnon writes in "Are Women Human?" that every year in
America about the same number of women are killed by men they know and love, as
those who died in the terrorist attack on the NYC twin towers on 9/11. Why are
the lives of these women deemed less valuable than those who died in the twin
towers? Why aren't these repeated attacks on innocent women being given the
same resources that America uses to prevent terror attacks? Aren't the lives of
women worth that?
The answer to all these why questions is - this is what sexism does! It seeps
into our foreign policy, the media, religion, and organizations and it creates
a justification for ignoring one, two, and then many female voices because
making money, securing their reputations, and believing in sexist doctrines is
much more important than the life of a woman or girl.
These examples may feel disconnected from our individual lives, but they're
not. There is a direct connection between women being undervalued and women
internalizing this attitude and undervaluing themselves. There is a direct
connection between women's freedom and human rights not being respected and
women tolerating relationships and work places where their needs and voices
aren't heard or valued. These Nigerian girls are our sisters because when one
woman or girl isn't valued it affects all of us. When one female life is
valued, all female lives are valued.
Rosjke Hasseldine