WUNRN
Sexist Laws Still Thrive
Worldwide
Zambian women at a rally
demanding equal political representation. The United Nations says that sexist
laws worldwide violate international conventions and treaties. Credit: Richard
Mulonga/IPS
By Thalif Deen
UNITED
NATIONS, Feb 18 2015 (IPS) - A rash of sex discriminatory
laws – including the legalisation of polygamy, marital rape, abduction and the
justification of violence against women – remains in statute books around the
world.
In
a new report released here, the New York-based Equality Now has identified
dozens of countries, including Kenya, Mali, Iran, Saudi Arabia, India,
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Bahamas, Malta, Nigeria and Yemen,
which have continued with discriminatory laws in violation of international
conventions and U.N. declarations.
Antonia
Kirkland, legal advisor for Equality Now, told IPS, “Our report highlights a
cross-sample of different sex discriminatory laws from a range of countries,
which harm and impede a woman or girl throughout her life in many different
ways.
“We
urge not only these countries – but all governments around the world – to
immediately revoke any remaining laws that discriminate on the basis of sex, as
called for in the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action.”
In
2000, she said, the U.N. General Assembly reaffirmed the urgency of doing this
by setting a target date of 2005.
“Although
this was not achieved, we are encouraged by the U.N.’s continued reflection of
this priority in the development of a post-2015 framework,” she noted.
This
year the United Nations, spearheaded by U.N. Women, will be commemorating the
20th anniversary of the historic Beijing Women’s Conference, taking
stock of successes and failures.
The
new study identifies dozens of discriminatory laws, either in existence, or
just enacted.
In Malta,
if a kidnapper “after abducting a person, shall marry such person, he shall not
be liable to prosecution”; in Nigeria, violence “by a husband for the
purpose of correcting his wife” is considered lawful; in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, “the wife is obliged to live with her husband and follow him
wherever he sees fit to reside”; and in Guinea, “a wife can have a separate
profession from that of her husband unless he objects.”
Sanam
Anderlini, executive director and co-founder of the International Civil Society
Action Network (ICAN) told IPS hypocrisy and double standards are pervasive –
not just about the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW) or the Beijing Plan of Action but also about the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which all countries have signed.
She
said the problem is exacerbated by a lack of equality in basic terms – for
example there is no equal pay in the United States. Also, the fact that so many
countries refuse to live up to their own commitments means the bar is lowered
constantly or remains forever low.
“We
have to call it what it is – universally sanctioned sexism,” said Anderlini,
who was the first senior gender and inclusion adviser on the U.N.’s standby
team of expert mediation advisers (2011-2012).
She
said cultural excuses are given to block changes in the laws in each context,
but given how pervasive it is, “we have to be frank – it’s sexist and it’s
about power.”
Meanwhile,
the report also points out that, as recently as last year, Kenya adopted
a new Marriage Act that permits polygamy, including without consent of the
first wife.
Mali
revised its family code in 2011, rejecting the opportunity to remove the
discriminatory “wife obedience” and other provisions that were found in the
1962 Marriage and Guardianship Code, while Iran’s new Penal Code of 2013
maintains the provision stipulating a woman’s testimony to be worth less than a
man’s.
Equality
Now’s Kirkland told IPS sex discriminatory laws are in direct violation of the
equality, non-discrimination and equal protection of the law provisions of the
major international treaties and conventions.
There
is no good reason why those countries highlighted in the report – as well as
many others – are yet to reform their laws, she added.
Women
and girls must have their rights protected and promoted and an equal start in
life so they can reach their full potential, she said.
“Without
equality in the law, there can never be equality in society,” Kirkland
declared.
Currently,
the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women is
meeting in Geneva, as it does periodically, to review reports from several of
the 188 States Parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women.
At
the current session, the Committee of 23 independent experts is reviewing the
implementation of CEDAW by several countries, including Azerbaijan, Gabon,
Ecuador, Tuvalu, Denmark, Kyrgyzstan, Eritrea, and Maldives.
The
discriminatory sex laws cited in the study also include Kenya’s 2014 Marriage
Act, which says, “A marriage celebrated under customary law or
Islamic law is presumed to be polygamous or potentially polygamous.”
An
Indian act from 2013 states, “Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man
with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.”
A Bahamian act
from 1991 defines rape as the act of those over 14 years “having sexual
intercourse with another person who is not his spouse”, thereby permitting
marital rape.
In Yemen’s
1992 act, Article 40 suggests that a wife “must permit [her husband] to have
legitimate intercourse with her when she is fit to do so.”
In
the United States, a child born outside of marriage can only be granted
citizenship in certain cases relating to the father, such as, if “a blood
relationship between the person and the father is established by clear and
convincing evidence” or “the father (unless deceased) has agreed in writing to
provide financial support for the person until the person reaches the age of 18
years.”
And
in Saudi Arabia, a 1990 Fatwa suggests: “women’s driving of automobiles”
is prohibited as it “is a source of undeniable vices.”
Asked
whether countries practicing discriminatory sex laws should be named and
shamed, ICAN’s Anderlini told IPS it is time for an annual report card of
countries – to show clearly where they are on the hypocrisy scale vis-ŕ-vis
gender equality in actions and changes evident in the lives of women and girls.
She
said public statements, rhetoric, pledges and even ratifications are
meaningless if there is no action and more importantly more positive outcomes.
“Why
not have an ascendency process – like joining the European Union – where
countries get recognised based on demonstrable actions [or] outcomes, not just
what they say or sign?” she suggested.
Anderlini
also pointed out that, sadly, progressive voices just don’t care enough or
understand the political repercussions enough to act; or they have such an
Orientalist view of women in developing countries that they minimise and
marginalise their role.
But
the extremists get it, she said – they understand women’s power and influence.
That’s why they are killing the ones who speak out and are actively recruiting
young and older women into their fold.
“And
too often those who oppose equal rights will claim it counters their culture or
traditions – but it’s hypocritical and inaccurate.”
She
pointed out that a close look at the history, religion or traditions of many
countries provides ample evidence of women’s rights and equality. But that just
gets erased away by those – typically men – who interpret and recount the past.
Islam
for example, said Anderlini, not only states that women and men were created
equal but specifically calls for equal rights to education and pay, among other
things.
“Or
when we think of land ownership, it was Victorian colonialists who imposed
their version of inheritance laws – property goes to the eldest son – on many
countries where collective ownership and matrilineal systems were in place.”
Never
in the history of humankind has culture been static, she said.
Furthermore,
she claimed, the same people and governments who decry equal rights for women
as foreign or Western or colonial or immoral or ask for ‘patience’ or cultural
sensitivity “have no qualms using Western medicine, weaponry, technology,
education, media and probably Viagra and pornography.”
These
have a far more damaging impact on their culture or going against religion and
tradition than giving women the rights to inherit land, get equal pay for
equal work, pass citizenship to their children, “or, dare I say, drive,” she
concluded.