TWO AFRICAN women’s rights activists who were due to speak at an International Women’s Day conference in Croke Park yesterday were unable to attend because of difficulties obtaining permission to leave their countries.
Gambian Dr Isatou Touray, who is working towards the elimination of female genital mutilation, and Isabella Matambanadzo, a Zimbabwean feminist activist, could not attend the conference because of “visa difficulties”, the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) said.
A spokeswoman for the council, which organised the conference to celebrate International Women’s Day this Saturday, said it had only learned in recent days that the speakers would not be able to attend. The visa difficulties were not connected to any restrictions imposed by the Government, but related to delays and restrictions in the speakers’ home countries.
The Gambian embassy in London said yesterday that it had no knowledge of Dr Touray’s case, or of any other difficulties with its citizens entering Ireland. The Zimbabwean embassy, also in London, could not be contacted yesterday.
Academic and co-convenor of the Feminist Open Forum Ailbhe Smyth, who spoke in place of Dr Touray and Ms Matambanadzo, said she was “astounded and outraged” that the speakers could not get visas to travel.
“Every day women and girls are trafficked against their will across the world and women leave their homes and families to come and work for us so we can be better served. This is an issue we need to get angry about.”
The global recession would hit the poorest women in the world the hardest, Ms Smyth said. However, she said, it also brought opportunities. “We must crack patriarchy. There is a crack in the capital world system that is opening. Patriarchy is not yet beginning to crack in any significant way, but I want to see that crack grow and grow.”
It was the current system and current leadership which had created the economic difficulties, she said. “We have to look at how we are going to contribute to breaking the system. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but our elected leaders have fewer answers than anyone else.”
Irish women were also hard hit by the recession, NWCI director Joanna McMinn said.
“Economic recession affects women differently than men. At the moment men are suffering the greatest job losses. But women are more concentrated in low-paid part-time work and anecdotal evidence suggests they are being given shorter hours or being put on contracts where they are not entitled to maternity leave.”
Childcare costs had not come down in line with general reductions in pay, Ms McMinn said. “This makes women more vulnerable to being pushed out of the workforce.”
Women needed to have a role in finding solutions to the current crises, but were excluded from the financial and political decision-making arena, she said.
“Women make up more than half the world’s population, but only a fifth of the world’s decision-makers. The current debate has been dominated by men; with little or no focus on social solidarity, human rights and equality.”
The conference also saw the launch of a new publication from human rights organisation Frontline. Insiste Persiste Resiste Existe is a manual of security strategies for women human rights defenders. It contains personal experiences of women combating violence and discrimination in situations of conflict, violence and fundamentalism around the world.
