Universities reopened Monday in Afghanistan after the long winter break. But the silent violence exerted by the Taliban regime against women darkens this day of return to the “abnormal”, because only men can now tread the threshold of institutions. The Taliban announced the end of higher education for women last December, after banning them from secondary school, public employment and even walking in the park.
Just to the west, Iran is the center of international attention and domestic revolt as hundreds of girls attending some 60 schools across the country suffer gas poisoning despite being simply and peacefully seated at their school desk. Mystery surrounds the origin of these vile attacks that have been going on since November, but there is no doubt that the sponsors of such a violent operation are targeting women’s education. Boys’ schools are spared. It’s downright revolting.
Even if immense progress has been made in terms of women’s schooling, UNESCO still considers it one of its biggest battles on a planetary scale, where more than two thirds of adults who cannot read are still women.
No matter how much we want to mark International Women’s Day from the angle of victories, the train of reality imposes its speed and forces the celebration into the mode of struggle and resistance. The failures, setbacks and delays observed around issues of equity and security force us to brandish the torch of denunciation. Always and again. Denounce, decry, deplore and claim: this is what women and their supporters do every day all over the planet. Their actions are not in vain, but they are above all necessary.
Fights are aimed at the safety of young girls and women, for example in those countries of the world where female circumcision is still practiced. Amnesty International estimates that each year more than 200 million women undergo some form of genital mutilation. Other struggles aim for respect for women’s right to dispose of their bodies as they see fit: last June, the Supreme Court of the United States revoked the judgment which had guaranteed for 50 years the right of American women to have an abortion in all safety, which is now in question. Every year, worldwide, 22,000 women die as a result of unsafe abortions.
It is not insignificant that this day highlights women’s rights, because in many territories around the world, laws exist – or do not exist – to undermine the condition of women. Domestic violence and rape not punished by justice; punishments provided for by law to punish women for crimes for which they are not responsible (the adultery of a husband, for example); honor crimes tolerated, even encouraged: the blacklist is long, and only highlights the work that remains to be done.
Closer to home, the recent squabbles between the various factions of the Quebec feminist movement have put intersectionality back in the debate, a theoretical debate that may however seem futile — my feminism is better than yours — in view of the battles waged universally on the ground. . In Quebec, some of these formidable warrior struggles are bearing fruit, whether one thinks only of the road traveled in terms of justice and sexual violence or even the inspiring ecofeminist action of Mothers at the front for the creation of a planet where it will be good to bring up his children.
Trails remain uncleared. The 67e session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the annual UN gathering on gender equality, opened this week with the theme “Innovation, technological change and education in the era to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”. While the digital revolution has created immense opportunities for women, it has also set dangerous traps for them, with online discrimination, harassment and violence that research and polls say is primarily directed against women.
In Ottawa, women rightly asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday to move forward with a bill aimed at countering online hate, of which women and girls are prime targets. They experience harassment, threats, sextortion, levels of misogyny that target their physical integrity. This often anonymous destruction remains unsanctioned, and cyber attackers spread their venom without fear of reprimand. A legal framework forcing web giants to evict troublemakers is becoming increasingly necessary.
The repression and oppression of women take the paths of modernity, and are reborn where we thought we had overcome them. Women at the front, you have not finished your fight.