Silent
No More
Reflections on the International Women’s Day
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Ælfwine
Mischler
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13/03/2003
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International Women's Day in Multan - 8 March 2000
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Can
one person make a difference in the world? Of course s/he can, but
only if one works with others. The old adage "united we stand,
divided we fall" was never more true..
Now,
with the international effort to stop the US-led attack on Iraq, and
with all the marches and demonstrations and petitions and
statements, each person, united with others, can make a difference.
I
am just a one example of how one woman joined with other women and
men united in a cause to make a difference.
Here
is my story.
The
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) held a UN General Assembly
Special Session on Children in May 2002, with the heads of state of
many nations coming to sign the final declaration, “A World Fit
for Children”. (The Special Session was originally scheduled for
September 2001, but was postponed after the attack on the World
Trade Center.) This declaration was several years in the drafting,
and non-government organizations (NGOs) concerned with children's
issues were invited to participate in the preparatory sessions held
in New York.
The
declaration itself, though not legally binding, shapes the policies
and budgets of signatory nations, especially in developing countries
that receive assistance from the UN and its various bodies.
The
early drafts of the declaration were based on a Western perspective
of the issues and needs of children and contained articles and
phrases that conflicted with Judeo-Christian-Islamic morals. For
example, it called for an end to early marriage but condoned
pre-marital sex among adolescents. It called for encouraging
adolescents to use condoms to stop HIV/AIDS, when it is known that
condoms are not effective. It called for children and adolescents to
have a right to sexual and reproductive health care and services,
which government delegates admitted was “UN-speak” for access to
abortions. There was no mention of parents and their rights and
responsibilities in the early drafts.
When
Muslim and Christian NGOs got wind of this, they worked to change
the wording of the document by participating in the preparatory
sessions and lobbying with governments.
From
Kitchen Sink To UN!
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Gathering of local women on International Women's
Day
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In
January of 2001 I was just an American housewife living in Egypt,
doing occasional free-lance editing of books or research papers. My
friend was working with the International Islamic Committee for
Woman and Child (IICWC) and
asked me to correct the language in some documents they had. These
were a Critical Review of the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and alternative text
of an early draft of A World Fit for Children.
My
education is in English literature. I’m good in language and
grammar, but this was quite new to me. There were some technical
terms to learn, and I didn’t feel I really understood what was
going on until after two members of the IICWC returned from the
Second Preparatory Session that was held in New York in January or
February. They brought with them a new draft of the declaration, and
this time I was called in not just to polish but to help others
draft alternative text.
We
members of the committee read the text carefully and added or
deleted as we saw fit. Other members in other countries did the same
and e-mailed their versions to us. Our team incorporated the various
proposals into one text.
The
draft was originally in English, but once it was translated by the
UN and put on the Internet, our bilingual team inserted the proposed
changes into the Arabic text. Then we had a day-long discussion with
some legal experts on the finer points. Most of this was in Arabic,
but I attended so that we could immediately incorporate their
recommendations into the English version.
The
Committee then asked me to write a research paper on the negative
effects of television on children. It had been many years since I
had been in college and written any papers! And I had to do my
research on the Internet, which was quite new to me at the time but
is almost the only source of information for some topics. So I spent
many hours at the office getting information and then writing a
coherent paper.
I
didn’t know at the time that I would also be asked to read the
paper at the conference. But the Committee needed me and my language
skills as a representative. So in less than six months I went from
the kitchen to the UN!
Working
Together...Building Coalitions
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Local Women celebrating International Women's
Day
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The
Third Preparatory Session was held in New York in June 2001. The
IICWC served as an umbrella for 18 Islamic organizations that
participated as the Coalition of Islamic Organizations (CIO). The
Committee held a panel discussion on the issues of concern to us in
the document, as well as a presentation on the plight of Palestinian
children.
During
orientation on the first day, I learned that the NGOs’ most
important task was to lobby the official delegates to change the
wording of the declaration. All the panel talks and workshops were
nothing if the delegates didn’t change the document. This was by
far the most difficult task for me personally.
Each
person in the CIO also personally contacted the delegates from her
own country. I met with a member of the US Permanent Mission to the
US for coffee, and she was very responsive to my views. Although my
NGO was not based in the US, I believed that the views I expressed
regarding the declaration would be shared by the vast majority of
Muslims in America.
Other
tasks included attending talks and workshops held by other NGOs,
both those who supported or opposed our demands. This gave us the
opportunity to raise questions and suggestions and voice our
opinions. One NGO in particular, United
Families International, which supported us on many issues, held
a talk each morning that provided useful strategies and
encouragement, as many of us were new at this.
When,
after a few days, another draft of the declaration became available,
two committee members and I locked ourselves away in our hotel room
with a laptop computer to go over the text carefully and recommend
changes once more. It was an exhausting few hours of intense
concentration to get our comments printed and distributed quickly.
When
we left New York at the end of the week, we did not yet know what
difference, if any, we had made. The final text was up to the
delegates of the nations.
We
spent the summer contacting many people in government and the media
regarding the declaration. My role in this was minimal because the
IICWC focused on the Arab countries. But at the end of August, my
friend and I flew again to New York to try to lobby the delegates
once more, who were gathered again to thrash out the final wording.
Our access to them was limited, however, and we cut our stay short.
Did
we accomplish anything in the end?
Yes!
The
final declaration includes a lot of language that recognizes the
rights of parents and the role of religion. Sex education and
reproductive health care for children is to be consistent with
national laws, religious and ethical values and cultural backgrounds
of the people. It is enough that the Child’s Rights Caucus, which
was behind most of the most objectionable clauses, found the final
declaration disappointing.
What
did I do? Not much different than the things I do in my editing.
Thinking. Writing. Correcting grammar. Some public speaking, which
I’ve always enjoyed. But because I did it with others, it
accomplished something.
Each
person can make a difference, indeed.
