The other sisters in chains

Today more than any other time of the year, the world looks at the situation of women in certain cultures and countries. If half the women population has improved its position in society with the help of national legislations that recognise equality between men and women, the other half remains chained to medieval traditions where women existence is not even recognised.

What reminders have come out of the newspapers today? One is a collective call signed by well-known Swedish personalities urging the European Union to legislate harsher punishment committed against women in war-torn areas, such as sexual exploitation by peace-keeping soldiers in places like Bosnia, and the sexual violence committed by soldiers and militiamen against the women folk in places like Rwanda. It is now well-known that rape has become an instrument of torture in war zones. To stop sexual abuses of women in countries at war means that war itself has to be stopped. That in itself is a major agenda.

Putting aside the situation of women in war areas in Africa and the Middle East where sexual violence is a daily routine and focusing on women condition in peaceful modern societies, many women are victims of domestic violence - that is to say, violence in the hands of their nearest kin. The statistics on domestic violence is not going down. On the contrary, it has been steadily rising along with other social ailments related to unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse and the transplanting of medieval social and religious practices in European soil, where women are literally still in chains. How else would one describe a mask that shows only the eyes of the woman?

The other gender inequalities such as unequal wages between men and women, or less women leaders in the corporate world are daily fights to take up and chances are that, the social structures that create these barriers will eventually diminish. But the removal of chains imposed by religion and tradition is a harder challenge because it will question the men's superiority in these cultures. As for sexual violence in war areas, the agenda is stopping war itself. And that is the hardest challenge of all.#