I have been taught differently by my family and society. While my parents who value education and equal status of human being regardless sex that brought me to today’s higher education the same as my brother, my society distracted me into a mixed environment where I have to always debate myself for any step to move forward. The mixed environment here i refer to the situation where people keep telling me to follow the old tradition, while another side contradict this practice.

Gender Perception in Cambodian Society

In Cambodia, a male-dominated society, females are more expected to conform to norm and tradition which placed women inferior to her male counterparts. There are various traditional codes of conduct for women as described in proverbs, folktales and novels, especially in Chab Srey, “Women Code of Conduct,” on how women should behave. Here are some excerpt of Women Code of Conduct:

Another flame is your husband who you stay with forever
You should serve well don’t make him disappointed
Forgive him in the name of woman; don’t speak in the way that you consider him as equal
No matter what happen we have to wait to listen with the bad word (even if he say something bad you have to listen)

“Women are supposed to stay at home, and always behave quietly and sweetly,” otherwise it will bring bad luck to family. Moreover, a famous proverb continually practice in Cambodia: ” A man is gold; a woman is a white piece of cloth.” When dropped into mud, piece of cloth never regains its purity regardless how much it is washed. However, the gold can be cleaned and shined always.

Interestingly, one reason for a lack of female participation in today’s labor market and higher education may stem from the old perspectives, which said it is useless or unnecessary to send the girls to school comparing to the boy; or the girls should not learn much otherwise they will know how to write love letters to the man; or the girl can just stay home and treat husband properly; thus no need to learn. All these concepts are rooted in Khmer society and disvalue women’s rights and dignity. Consequently, we hardly find women in higher positions of government or companies or any institution due to the lack of knowledge and opportunities, which is restricted by the family and society as the whole.

This old saying is truly reflecting how people perceive about women value and role. I have debated a lot with some male counterparts who most of the time they teased me not to study hard or pursue higher education. Their justification is the same thing to the old perspective that women are not supposed to learn a lot, since sooner or later she will become housewife or the proverb saying: “Women cannot do anything beside household work.”

Advancement of Cambodian Women in Modern Society

Regardless the old practices still exist, globalization and modernization have brought much change to Cambodian perception on women value. Due to political and economical evolution and the ratifications of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, regardless of sex, people deserve equal treatment and respect. Therefore, the recognition and respect of women’s efforts started. More importantly, economic reasons are another key lead to the change since the family cannot only rely on the man, but women also can contribute their income generation which contradicts to many old saying that women should only stay at home or women can only manage the household work.

We can witness in today society where women gain much status and play important role in social development. Among many women, the following are some model activists who do not only resettle social problem, but also take leading role in women empowerment regardless life risks:

Chim Manavy: the Executive Director of the Open Institute, a local Cambodian non-government organization established in September, 2006 with the main purpose to facilitate communication and knowledge sharing for women empowerment and social development in Cambodia.

Kek Galabru: President and founder of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) during the United Nation transition period. LICADHO is to protect human rights in Cambodia and to promote respect for civil and political rights by the Cambodian government and institutions.

Mu Sochua: The first woman elected to Cambodia’s parliament. Sochua has been targeted by her government for persecution and prosecution because of the feminist policies she has promoted.

Mam Somaly: Under her leadership, AFESIP employs a holistic approach that ensures victims not only escape their plight but provide therapy and education so that they have the emotional and economic strength to face the future with hope. Though, she has earned much respects, her efforts have resulted in death threats to herself and her family. Even worst, in 2006, her 14-year-old daughter was kidnapped by brothel owners, who drugged and raped her. This has not stopped Somaly Mam, but motivated her even more. Once, when asked why she continued to fight in the face of such fierce and frightening opposition, she resolutely responded, “I don’t want to go without leaving a trace.”

Nuon Phymean: She has over the past years offered hundreds of children working in Phnom Penh’s landfill a way out through free schooling and job training at her People Improvement Organization. She was one of the nominees for the CNN Hero.

What can be done for Women Empowerment and to increase the presence of women in prominent position:

First of all, I think education is the main catalyst for advocating social change. Education shape people’s attitude and skill in which they can utilize to achieve their goals. Thus, before anything else, access to education is a must.

Then, it required internal and external forces to integrate women in prominent positions:

Internal forces: Women should see themselves as the agent of change. Instead of blaming the social tradition or accepting the male-domination social trend, women need to shape their positive thinking and be confident in their ability. Also, women need to understand their desire and struggle to meet that demands. I simply mean that women need to be proactive and strive toward the goals.

External forces: It requires government and civil society including parents to promote gender equality and empowerment. Any policies (such as in education, health, economy and social affairs) to be proposed should address gender interests.

With his so-called morality claim, i would doubt if his proposal would effectively respond to the addressed problems. Instead, i could see two fallacies in his proposed idea:

Lack of Gender Promotion
Though he attempts to defend that girl curfew policy would help to promote girl morality, he  too far ignores the gender mainstream and misbelieve about girls‘ entertainment habits. His arguments was based on his belief that girls likely to appear at nightclubs or karaoke bars. It is doubtful of how many percents or girls he would witness? or whose girls he refer to? I supposed he may mix up with the club workers who somehow are young girls that most customers (the adult or middle age men demand so).

If he would promote girl morality by prohibiting them not to go out at night, it will bring another side of effect which girls’ rights to education, to mobility, or free will of her livelihood will be deprived. Some girls may still on her way at night from schools (english or other skill classes) or her working places to home. So with the governor’s proposal, it seem contrast to gender equity which government attempts to achieve.

Inconsistency of the problem and solution

His concern is that 16-year-old girls should not be allowed to visit nightclubs or adult entertainment areas which will harm to girl morality. If the governor wish to address this problem, his prohibition on the girls from mobility sound awkward. Alternative solutions he can suggest and must act on, as a governor, should be:

Strengthen the entertainment club rules: If there is already an existing rule which only adult (mostly above 18-year-old) can be allowed to enter the night club or other entertainment spots, it should be strengthened and monitored closely by the city hall or responsible agencies. By claiming to witness girls under 16 year old at nightclubs, it indicates the government agencies’ failures in strengthen its rules.

Establish more social infrastructure for children: As far as city development or beautification concern, the governors should establish more public spaces or parks where children can have their own entertainment zones. It apparently lack of public spaces while many adult entertainment spots, even gambling clubs, are allowed to rise. At the same time, the role of government is to provide safety to the children, so they better to take their patrols in banning girls to ensure social security from robbery, rapping, and other harms instead.

Morality through Education: Morality should be always started from education, not prohibition or government directive orders. There must be programs to educate children on how to act morally and behave properly since they were young. Also, parents will take much responsibility for this awareness. Thus, what the city hall can take their role in are to cooperate with Ministry of Education to strengthen the morality education and to organize community events where community members including parents, children can learn the morality awareness.

On July 17 2006, there was a news report on Honor Killing! This incidents occurred in Turkey:

“Kill yourself and clean our shame or we will kill you first”
“Families of disgraced girls are choosing between sacrificing a son to a life in prison by designating him to kill his sister or forcing their daughter to kill themselves”, once she was accused of shaming the family.

Again, the incident was reported on BCC News on Oct 12 2007: Honour crime fear of Syria women.

” But don’t come now, or the family will definitely kill you“

It show a conflict of culture set with universal declaration. According to the Universal declaration on human rights, mainly Article 2, 3, and 5 states that:

Article 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, [.....].

Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

How can we make the universal rights be a universal acceptance?
First, I am sure that political willingness and commitment to respect the universal rights will be the first prioritized, then it can be the basis for any local law setting. Law without implementation is useless. So, there is a need to disseminate and educate people, especially the executive branch. I agree that culture is a strong belief for which we find difficult to change.
Though, it is not static. It keep changing from time to time. Hence, once we agree to universal setting of human rights regardless of sex or other criteria, we can create a culture of human rights. Do not you all think we can have a culture of human rights?

What is Gender-Based Violation?

“Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life”. –UN Declaration on Violation Against Women.

Is Gender-Based Violation is private or public matter?

“Until recently gender based violence (GBV) was viewed as a private or family matter. However, there has been a shift in thinking in the last few years about this topic and it is now viewed as both a public health problem and a human right violation”. Practical Guide Approach to GBV/ UNFPA, Pilot edition 2001, NY

A role play of an Advocacy Campaign

Here is advocacy campaign presentation by diversified participants from the 2007 International Human Rights Training Program, organized by Equitas, Canada.

Your wife is not your property!!!
Please think “Your wife is your life partner”

Please respect her rights to say NO!!!

Police will laugh when a woman run to them and complained that her husband rapped her.
But it should not be fun at all. It is the appeal for help to stop Marital Rape!!!

Though public servants are elected and delegated to serve and protect the people’s interest, in most cases in Cambodia public servants work for their own interest, not for the people. This contradicts the univer sal slogan of “Government of the people, for the people, and by the people.” In Cambodia, we may say “Government of the party, for its officials, and by the people.” This is demonstrated in the case of the 12-year-old Siem Reap province girl who was allegedly raped by three police officers at their commune post. There seems no real commitment from either the provincial police or the court to perform their roles to bring the case to justice (“Police Yet to File Warrants on Alleged Child-Rapist” Dec 22, page 18). In many cases, justice can be bought for cash. In the Siem Reap case the father of one of the suspects tried to buy his son’s way out of trial by offering the victim’s mother $500. Is the girl’s virginity-in a society that treats virginity as the most important thing worth this amount of money? I appeal to officials and the courts to take justice into consideration, and to double the punishment for those officials who are part of the executive body who violate the law. Impunity must be abolished otherwise the rule of law will not be respected.

Chak Sopheap
Phnom Penh

In the movie, produced by Women Media Center NGO, it mentioned about a wife who was physically and psychologically violated by her husband. Though she was just dilivered the baby, she was rapped by her husband. At the meantime, the husband could not listen and feel her pain. Moreover, the husband tried to revenge his wife, who rejected not to sleep with, by bringing a prostitute girl to sleep at the house in front the sick wife. Without bearing more pain, the wife commited suicide, but she was survived by the commune chief and her neigbors. Though, the husband still could not see that he violated his wife’s rigths and denied that he motivated his wife to commit suicide. Also, he claimed to deserve the rights as a husband, while the wife dared to express her feeling that she could not bear the pain anymore. She expressed that she thought that the husband’s action and restriction her not to talk with other people or walk out of the house is a kind of love’s jalous . But now she realized that it is not the case.

From the story, it reveals that most vulnerable women keep burden the rights violation due to the thought that their husband’s action is a love force. At the meantime, it shows that psychological violation is invisible, but severe and longer pain than the physical violation.

The reason i share this story is that:
1. Short TV movie is effective tool to educate villagers.
2. With indirectly hightlight the role of commune chief in preventing domestic violation, it can contribute to good governace.
3. However, it still show that women issue is more often broadcasted by National TV program rather than other civil and political rights. Thought, we should use this opportunity to empower and improve women rights’s situation.
To find more how women media center help to contribute to women rights’s respect pls check http://www.wmc-cambodia.org/default.html