CSW and Three Women Changing the World

International Women’s Day Part II 

Last time I wished you a happy International Women’s Day and asked if you would celebrate. Did you?

I honored the day by going to the Westport Library to hear Caryl M. Stern, the head of the US Fund for UNICEF, speak on the refugee crisis and its implications for human trafficking.

She made excellent use of a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate her message. Since I use PPT regularly for my book talks, I’m always interested in what others do.

Do you know UNICEF? It was started in 1946 as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund for children in Europe and China at the end of World War II.  It is still the UN agency focused on children.

She talked about the current flood of refugee. “This crisis is a humanitarian emergency of unprecedented scale — one that demands immediate action. Whether these children are migrants, refugees or internally displaced, they are all children first. They don’t get to choose where they are born. They need — and deserve — our help.”

Her dedication to the work of UNICEF is constantly renewed, she said. Recently she was in South Sudan with a mother whose child had just died from a preventable disease.

Caryl said she thought about her own children whom she took to the pediatrician whenever necessary, and was frustrated when she couldn’t get an appointment within an hour or two!

In South Sudan where this woman was, there was no hospital, let alone a doctor, within many miles. UNICEF is working to change that.

UN Women

UN Women of course has a different area of attention. For the next two weeks, UN Women will be closely involved with the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women, or CSW.

This annual two-week event at the UN starts on Monday.  The official schedule of meetings is impressive, with dozens of events.

CSW also has side events, some held at the UN and some nearby. On Monday I will go to one of the side events, “Enhancing Nigeria’s Women Participation in Peace and Security.”

CSW pays attention to the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. These were developed in the last couple of years to replace the Millennium Development Goals that had 2015 as their deadline. The new goals describe seventeen areas of attention for change by 2030.

Several relate to women and girls – improvements in education, lessening of poverty, better maternal and child health, to name a few.

From an organization called No Ceilings which looks at gender equality, Here’s a video that helps to understand the goals.

I love the great graphics. Do you?

Chimamanda and Le Monde

Chimamanda Adichie was in Paris recently where she spoke with Le Monde on feminism. Thanks to Ainehi Edoro for the connection.

Edoro says, “Chimamanda Adichie ‘has taken on the role as feminist intellectual.'”

The interview began with a journalist asking her what she would tell a Nigerian father. The questions continued – 10 in all. What would she tell a Nigerian brother, then a young Nigerian woman.

Then she’s asked what she would tell the president of a western country.

She says, “Stop thinking that gender problems only exist in Africa. It exists in your own country too.” Good for you, Chimamanda. So true.

Finally she asked what she would tell herself. Her answer? “As I become older there are things I want to be better at. I want to be better at forgiving people.” Good advice for us all.

Another Powerful African Woman

I’m listening to Nomad, From Islam to America, A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations. Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia, received refugee status in Holland and eventually became a member of parliament there.

The back of the Recorded Books CD package says, “In an effort to escape death threats and constant harassment for her outspoken criticism of Islam – particularly the treatment of women – Hirsi Ali left Europe for America. . .  Nomad is a frank and unflinching examination of the culture clash that will define the 21st century.”

She reads the book herself. I find her slightly accented voice persuasive and charming.

From time to time she talks about missing her homeland and Somali culture. Yet she questions the values that seem to hold people back.

A friend takes her to the iconic American city of Las Vegas. On the drive back to Los Angeles they visit a “ghost town,” restored to look as it did 150 years ago when it was a thriving part of the U.S. frontier.

She says the house in the ghost town was better equipped than her mother’s home in Somalia.

She thinks about the changes over the last 150 years in the U.S. She asks why there has been no change, no improvement, over a thousand years in her homeland in how people live.

She campaigns for change in how women are treated in the Muslim world as one way to bring about positive change.

But her question is more than just about Islam, I think. It is a challenging question, relevant to much of Africa and to the seventeen SDG’s with their focus on education, women’s empowerment, and changes in health practices.

What holds people back in Africa, or are they even held back? I’m sure some of the CSW events will touch on this question too.