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Chad |
WOMEN
Are townswomen doing anything to support their sisters who live in the
countryside?
If Rural Women’s Day is anything to go by — not much!
Throughout October, there were conferences, seminars, and festive occasions organized in Chad, dealing with women’s position in society. In Chad, celebrations for World Rural Women’s Day were held in Mailaw, south of the capital, and following this, people began to ask: «What are our townswomen doing to help women living in the countryside, when it comes to improving their lot?»
In 1999, Chad’s government established Rural Women’s Day to be celebrated on 15 October. A laudable initiative, but unfortunately this day is rather an occasion for urban women to sing their own praises rather than concern themselves with the needs of their rural sisters. What’s been achieved during the past four years? Not much: A weekly market in Kakalé Mbéri; a village pharmacy in Meskiné; financial help given to the women of Ngatoya, another small village; some house improvements in Linia.
World Rural Women’s Day is a United Nations’ project and came into being because rural women are living on the margins of society. Truth to say, Chad’s record is pretty poor considering the importance of the occasion. After all, the opening of a weekly market in a village presupposes there’s a need. You don’t have to be a minister, let alone a woman living in a town, to decide that. To embark on any home improvement programme without first showing rural women how to use the improvements correctly, is a complete waste of time. Also, has there been any follow-up to this exercise? Various national and international organizations injected considerable sums of money to finance Rural Women’s Day. But townswomen, little prepared to work for its success, waste these resources in organising folklore presentations, pompous festivals. They buy gleaming cars, consume exotic drinks, deck themselves out in cloths and flags over-printed with the images of women members of government. And this on Rural Women’s Day dedicated to improving the lot of rural women!
You can understand the reasons why, for the past twenty years, there’s not been much progress made to combat discrimination against women, and any progress made is at a snail’s pace. Instead of getting down to tackling such issues as reducing mother-and-child mortality rates (cf. The Bamako [Mali] Declaration), Chad’s townswomen, who should be the ones spearheading improvements for their rural sisters, content themselves with hollow speeches which completely ignore the real problems — problems which include access to healthcare (urgent obstetric cases); providing good clean drinking; and education. All these needs are wishful thinking for rural women. As we begin the third millennium, Chad’s women nomads still continue to drink with their cattle at streams and pools, thus exposing themselves to cholera, malaria and other such diseases. Rural Women’s Day should also be concerned with these nomadic women’s lives.
Discrimination
There’s so much discrimination against women taking place, you can understand that in establishing Rural Women’s Day, the authorities wanted to improve the situation. For example, how old should a young women be, before getting married? This illustrates clearly her place in Chadian society. A survey carried out by the Chadian Association for the Study of the Population, states that the lower age limit for marriage was never fixed. The criterion is puberty. A girl who has arrived at puberty is regarded as a fully-developed woman and must get married as soon as possible in order to avoid premarital sexual intercourse, which goes against the family’s honour and carries the risk of unwanted pregnancies. The young woman’s virginity must be safeguarded.
It’s all part of society’s makeup and is capital both for the family’s honour and for the amount of dowry to be paid to the girl’s parents. In plain language, the Chadian woman is nothing more than a machine for producing children. The arrival of children is one element in assuring the family’s stability. So where lies such notions as the mother’s health or family planning? What’s been said above assumes more importance in rural areas than in an urban environment.
Other forms of discrimination relate to women’s social status, and this is royally ignored by townswomen who, according to Mrs. Yvonne Yankal, «are more interested in jollification and travelling to Western capitals for their private needs». That’s why, any action taken on behalf of rural women, must in part, be taken over by competent women’s associations who really understand rural women’s situation and needs.
The CELIAF
One such association is the Association of Women’s Liaison and Information Groups (CELIAF). CELIAF provides training courses on topics such as the importance of establishing registry offices (for births, marriages and deaths); informing women about their civic and political rights, matrimonial rights, laws of succession, and violence against women. They undertake studies on subjects relating to rural women and environmental protection, the impact of economic reforms on the relations between men/women, domestic problems, maintenance allowances and marital violence. Another is the Association of Women Lawyers of Chad, also a member of CELIAF. In its activity report for 2000-2001, the Women Lawyers Association indicates that each year, it received between 100 and 150 requests for assistance, with approximately 80% of cases taken to court. Such activities are to be encouraged instead of earmarking millions for inappropriate festivities, at the expense of women who daily live in abject poverty.
The government must stick to providing the necessary legislation and leave the practical organisation of dealing with matters relating to the living conditions of rural women, to civil society. The well-to-do women speak, beg and travel in the name of rural women, without really looking into the insecurity of rural women’s lives. In other words, they do next to nothing to help their sisters in need.
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