Mosadi. The word Mosadi comes from the Tswana language of Southern Africa. It is the only word in Tswana for "women" and it means literally "the one who remains behind at home when men go to to work". The status of hundreds of millions of women around the world is summed up in that one word

Hundreds of women marched through the streets of Algiers on 8 March 1994. It was International Women's Day, and these brave people carried portraits of slain women and chanted "Neither veil, nor robe." They were defying an order from Islamic militants to either wear a veil to cover their faces in public or risk assassination.

Russian women banged pots in protest outside President Boris Yeltsin's office; in Germany, they used whistles and noisemakers, and blocked roads; in Cambodia, they staged a protest march; and in Paris, they hung a banner from the Eiffel Tower.

All around the world, women use the occasion of International Women's Day to focus attention on their plight; brides are still burned alive in India, young girls are sexually mutilated in rituals in Africa, female babies are abandonned in China, and, according to a 1993 United Nations report "no country treats its women as well as it treats its men."

The World Watch Institute goes into more detail: "Women lag behind men on virtually every indicator of social and economic status. Women everywhere work longer hours but earn less, despite the fact that they are responsible for contributing 40 to 100% of a family's income. Women have fewer opportunities for advancement through training and education." This is as true in Canada as it is in Malawi.

However, judged by Western standards, some of the most backward countries are those where Islam is a powerful force. Look at the case of Rosa Sajadi as reported in the Wall Street Journal in November 1994.

The 22 - year - old Iranian was married in the summer. By the time a reporter caught up with her a few months later she was sobbing uncontrollably in the corridors of Tehran's Vanak Square Courthouse. Beaten almost daily by her husband, Mrs. Sajadi had just been told by a court clerk that men may legally hit their wives. Worse, the young woman has no escape. In Iran, today, a divorce is virtually impossible for a woman to obtain without her husband's permission.

In the Algerian town of Mascara, a Muslim nurse was doused with alcohol and set on fire by her brother. He was furious at her for treating male patients. The Islamic Salvation Front is pushing to forbid women the right to work outside their homes.

In Syria, wife - beating is the most common means of settling quarrels in the home. This is the finding of Amal Abdul - Rahmin of the University of Damascus in a study she carried out in 1993. Ms. Abdul - Rahmin says that day - to - day life is reflected in one of Syria's most popular TV shows. In Ajneha (Wings), husbands are frequently shown beating their wives and treating them like a piece of property. Unlike Iran, though, Syrian women can divorce abusive husbands.

A young women calling herself Nada was granted permission to stay in Canada on compassionate and humanitarian grounds. Nada had been persecuted in her native Saudi Arabia for refusing to wear the veil or to obey other oppressive laws governing women's lives. The religious police, or Mutawin, patrol constantly looking for people breaking the strict code of behaviour. A woman without a veil or whose ankles may be showing beneath her long black robes will be criticized in public. A repeat offender might be jailed. And, it would be useless to try for a quick getaway from the scene of the "crime;" Saudi women are not allowed to drive cars.

Similarly, in Pakistan women are oppressed by the Hadood Ordinance, a stringent set of Islamic laws that was set in place in 1979. Among the Hadood's powers: when a woman alleges rape, she must produce witnesses of the penetration. If she fails to prove rape, she in turn can be charged with adultery. Further, a man's testimony in court is worth that of two women. Khawer Mumtaz is a rare individual in Pakistan -- a women's rights advocate. She says that: "In cases of rape, men invariably get off free. The result is an environment where men think they can get away with anything, even murder."

In neighbouring India, a non - Islamic country, the situation for women is, in some respects, worse. Member of Parliament, Geeta Mukherjee has been campaigning for women's rights for decades. She says that Indian "society is absolutely male - dominated. It is the men who decide how many children [their wives] will have, and whether any of them will be girls."

Now that the sex of a fetus can be determined, it is a common, though illegal, practice to abort the females. Others wait until the baby is born; if it's a female it's killed. A study in the southern state of Tamil Nadu found that infanticide (the killing of babies) has touched one family out of two. The situation is so bad that officials have placed white - painted cradles outside hospitals so that parents can leave their unwanted female babies -- no questions asked.

As a result, the ratio of males to females in the population is tipping ever more sharply towards men. In 1901, for every 1,000 males born in India there were 972 females. By 1991, the ratio had dropped to 927 females per 1,000 males.

While this imbalance is a problem, it's dwarfed by the scale of India's population increase. Each day, the country's population swells by 50,000. The numbers are rising so fast that the government has embarked on a sterilization program that some describe as barbaric. Officials are offered incentives and prizes to round up as many women as possible. Most women who undergo the operation have had three or more children and are sent to a sterilization camp by their husbands. The surgeons, who work with lightning speed, take about 60 seconds to tie a woman's reproductive tubes. The patient is then taken off the operating table to make room for the next one and given about an hour to recover before being sent home. Operations carried out in these conditions lead to problems. According to a UN study, half the women sterilized in the state of Uttar Pradesh suffered from side effects ranging from pain to death in some cases. In 1992, India sterilized four million people in this way, almost all of them women.

Also, in 1992, the United Nations came down hard on poor countries for their mistreatment of women. A major UN study describes women as the world's "wasted asset." The report takes aim at cultural attitudes that put little value on women except as producers of male babies. It goes on to say that the surest and quickest way for developing nations to prosper is to provide women with equal education and employment opportunities and access to family planning information and contraceptives. Says the UN: "Economic growth and improvement in the quality of life have been fastest in those areas where women have higher status, and slowest where they face the greatest disadvantages. This is not coincidental."

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. In Islam's holy book, the Koran, men are instructed to "live with women on a footing of kindness and equity." Try to explain, therefore, why men have used Islam as a way of oppressing women.

2. Organize an International Women's Day (held annually in March) event in your school. Pick an issue of importance to women in your community as the focus of your event.

Figure not transcribed Consult original publication

SECOND - CLASS CAPITALISTS

The women of Eastern Europe are suffering economically. The transition from communism to capitalism has hit women much harder than men. As overstaffed state enterprises cut back, it's the women that are laid off first.

Until recently, women in Central and Eastern Europe lived in countries where equality was state policy. They had a general level of education equal to that of men and made up half the labour force. Now, they make up the majority of the unemployed. Anna Giza - Poleszczuk, a mother of two in Poland says: "At the moment, this country is hell for women." She blames the return to power of the Roman Catholic Church for bringing back a male - dominated society in which men work and women stay home, keep house, and raise children. "The attitude is very strong in Poland now that women should be fired first and hired last," Ms. Giza - Poleszczuk says. "The old pattern of men being the breadwinners is emerging again, supported by the church."

WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT

Australia's governing Labour Party has vowed to make sure that women make up 35% of its candidates for Parliament by 2002. The party's national policy - making conference overwhelmingly supported the affirmative action quota. Women make up half the 17.8 million population but have only 24% of the seats in the country's federal and six state parliaments.

Almost a quarter of the 400 parliamentarians in South Africa's new National Assembly are women. And, there are equality clauses in the new Constitution and in the country's first Bill of Rights. Politicians routinely stress the need for "gender sensitivity" and every promise to end racism includes a pledge of non - sexism as well. However, there still are only two women in the 27 - member Cabinet.

A 1992 report showed that nearly 30% of governments worldwide had no women members at all. In most countries, women ministers were mainly entrusted with social services, health, and women's affairs.

THE VALUE OF A DAUGHTER

One woman in southern India summed up the position of her sisters: "Even a useless male buffalo calf fetches 100 rupees (about $3.50). A girl child means nothing but expense." Some Muslim families in India are solving this problem by selling their daughters to elderly Arabs as wives. In 1991, 13 - year - old Ameena Badruddin's father sold her to a 60 - year - old Saudi. The couple were arrested as they headed back to Saudi Arabia when an airline flight attendant noticed that Ameena was crying. Ameena's story was typical. Her father made $60 a month and had seven other children to support. He could never hope to come up with the $1,000 dowry needed arrange a marriage for Ameena with an Indian. The alternative looked attractive. An elderly Arab offered to pay $250 to be allowed to marry his daughter. With the generosity of an Arab son - in - law, a family such as Ameena's might be able to marry off the bride's younger sisters to Indian husbands.

However, such a marriage could be the start of worse trouble. Official figures suggest that 5,000 young women a year die because of the country's dowry system. A bride's family has to come up with a substantial payment to the groom's family. But, there are many disputes, with the husband's family complaining that the terms of a dowry promise have not been met. In thousands of such cases, the brides are killed often by being set on fire.

FACT FILE

In South Korea, where fetal testing to determine sex is common, male births exceed female births by 14%, in contrast to a worldwide average of 5%.

FACT FILE

In July 1994, the Indian state of Maharashtra broke with Hindu tradition and passed a law allowing women to inherit money and property. The state also announced a policy of reserving 30% of government jobs for women.

Copyright Canada and The World Jan 1995
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