The place of a woman is in the kitchen. Really?

What are you doing in Parliament, Hon. Sandhya Boygah, if the place of a woman is in the kitchen? “If the job of the housewife is to cook, work in the kitchen and she also has to welcome guests at home and cook for them”? (sic), you are certainly in the wrong place. You should be at home cooking, cleaning the house, doing the washing up and wait for your husband to come back home so that you can serve him first, attend to him while he is eating and be the last one to eat.

You may have “heartily thanked the Minister of Finance to have thought about the housewife”(sic). I am sure the Minister of Finance is intelligent enough to know that bringing down the price of cooking gas will not only bene- fit the “housewife” but the whole family. “God bless the Honourable Minister” (sic). By the way Boygah, we have stopped using the word “housewife”. Please add the word “house director” or “house manager” in your dictionary as hopefully this might help you the next time you talk on women. Although according to you a man is “the head of the house and the woman the heart of the house”, I am sure the Minister of Finance will agree with me that a woman apart from being the house manager is also the Minister of Finance in the house. If she does not control the budget the whole family may die of starvation. No wonder women are always being criticised by their male counterparts when it comes to women in politics. With Parliamentarians like Boygah, I cannot blame them for calling women “vases à fleur”. Being a “vase à fleur” in Parliament is your choice Hon. Boygah, but for God’s sake do not put all women in the same “vase à fleur” as you. Gender activists are working hard to break stereotypes and taking women out of the box. Instead of giving a helping hand, you are not only putting them in a “vase à fleur” but closing the lid of the flower pot.

“Being a ‘vase à fleur’ in Parliament is your choice Hon. Boygah, but for God’s sake do not put all women in the same ‘vase à fleur’ as you.”

We are no longer in the Stone Age when men went out hunting to bring food so that women could cook to feed the families and the communities. Stop adding salt on the wound and denigrate women to an inferior status and confine them to the domestic space. Women have rights although they may be in opposition to your traditional and patriarchal values.

It is true that women continue to face tremendous barriers to be able to succeed. Women have limited access to productive resources such as land, finance and information and are disproportionately affected by poverty, violence and discrimination. Bringing down the price of cooking gas can bring some relief to the family budget but it will certainly not solve all the problems women face. It is a well-known fact that compared to men, women tend to spend more of their income on family needs such as food, medical care and schooling.

There are so many women and men out there who are breaking stereotypes. We now have women getting higher salaries than their husbands/partners. These men not only appreciate but are prepared to help with household chores as this is helping to have a better quality of life in a healthy environment in the household. Have you not seen men cooking, cleaning the house and feeding children, Boygah? When we bought a new washing machine my husband not only taught me how to use it but helps with the washing up although he is disabled and can use only his right arm.

Although still marginalised on a wide variety of issues including poverty and gender-based violence, modern Mauritius has brought profound transformation in the lives of women. Very slowly we are seeing the erosion of traditional segregated sex roles. Girls are doing better than boys in education. The percentages of women in posts of decision in the public sector have increased dramatically. Men have understood that if their wives are getting better salaries than them, they too must make the effort and understand the socioeconomic development and transform cultural attitudes towards gender equality

By telling us that the place of a woman is the kitchen you are not only pointing your finger at men to tell them that they have no right to cook and help with household chores, you are also blaming Sir Anerood Jugnauth, Prime Minister of Mauritius, Boygah. The Prime Minister signed the Sustainable Development Goals in September 2015. Goal 5 is a standalone goal to achieve gender equality in all spheres of life and this is what the Executive Director of UN Women, Dr. Phimzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said at this historic moment of the signature “We are pleased with Goal 5 which deals with key barriers of gender equality and women’s empowerment and points us to the action required. Clearly to achieve Agenda 2030, we must achieve substantive, transformative and irreversible gender equality and women’s empowerment. This means making choices that focus on universal, strategic, bold structural changes — changes that must also be rights-based. Goal 5 says we must end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls”.

Media Watch Organisation Milestone

The following books produced by MWO are being used widely for vulnerable women, men and children as well as training materials:

• Les Leker Koze/Speak Out/La Parole Liberatrice – a series of personal testimonies of survivors of gender violence and abused children;
• Zanfan Lalimier/Children of Light- a book with DVD on an empowerment programme through art therapy for needy and vulnerable children;
• Mirror on the Media- Monitoring the media from a gender perspective during the 16 days campaign against gender violence;
• Know your Rights – a compilation of laws relating to women
• Kontabilite en Kreole – a training manual to build the capacity of men and women who are in small businesses to do their basic accounting. MWO trained women in three regions of Mauritius. In February 2012 the course was done in the Mauritian Prison for prison officers and prisoners (both male and female). Some of them said “had we received this course we would never have found ourselves in prison.”

The Future is today

It is a sad day when a country with one of the strongest traditions on democracy fails to sign the SADC gender protocol because of its laws on child marriage.

In June 2016 the SADC Gender Protocol Alliance under the aegis of Media Watch Organisation and Gender Links facilitated a one day National Workshop with Government officials and NGOs to work on the updated version of the SADC Protocol prior to the Senior Officials and the Gender Ministers meeting from 20th to 22nd June in Botswana. Nobody from the Ministry of Gender attended the workshop. The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development adopted in 2008 has now been aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Beijing Plus Twenty and the African Agenda 2063. It is accompanied by a strong Monitoring, Evaluation and Results (MER) framework.

Mauritius did not sign the Protocol because of the words “affirmative action” which is against the Constitution. The Protocol went through different drafts when Mauritian Senior Officials and Ministers had the chance to highlight this anomaly but it was only on that day of 18th August 2008 that the then Prime Minister, Dr. Navin Ramgoolam, refused to put his signature on the Protocol.

At a technical meeting in October 2015, Mauritius showed positive signs as affirmative action was changed to special measures. But at the Botswana meeting the Permanent Secretary and the Gender Minister signalled that Mauritius will not be able to sign as 18 years is the minimum age permitted for child marriage in the revised Protocol. SADC Gender Ministers took a firm stand on child marriages at their meeting in June 2016. The revised SADC Gender Protocol highlights that no person under the age of 18 shall marry. This removes the previous qualifying clause that made this subject to national laws. But the Civil Status in Mauritius highlights that “A minor over 16 and under 18 can contract civil marriage with the consent of his/her parents.” The Muslim Personal Council forms part of the Civil Status Act as there is a Muslim Personal Law which makes it difficult for the Prime Minister to sign the Protocol unless laws are changed.

ADDING INSULT TO INJURY

Child marriage has been the focus of several campaigns, especially in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. UN Women played a role in lobbying for new law to raise legal age to wed and have worked with traditional leaders to annul marriages. Recently Malawi Chief annulled 330 child marriages before the age of 18.

The Prime Minister of Mauritius, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, adopted the SDG in New York on 27th September 2015. This was a historic moment as the SDG is a promise by the Government of Mauritius to reduce inequalities among its citizens. Goal 5 of the SDG is a standalone goal to achieve gender equality in all spheres of life. Women represent more than half of the population of Mauritius and yet among a few of the problems women and girls face are: child marriage, violence, rape, incest, maternal mortality, gender wage gap, political gap, early pregnancy and illiteracy.

Knowing the commitment of the Prime Minister on gender issues, we urge him and the Attorney General to look into the civil status act on child marriage.

To add insult to injury according to the World Health Statistics 2016 which focuses on the SDG, Mauritius does not seem to be doing well. From 70 women on 100,000 who died while giving birth we are not at 73. No woman should die while giving life. The under-five mortality rate is 5 per 1000 live births. Deaths due to HIV/AIDS have gone up dramatically per 100,000. We are now 5.5 compared to previous statistics of 1.0. Deaths due to tuberculosis among HIV have also gone up from 0.53 to 1.2.

Women have rights and this must be embedded across legal systems as well as proactive measures. It is important to note that at the Botswana Meeting Gender Ministers recalled activities on Combating Trafficking in Persons especially women and children. And yet in Mauritius the 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report highlights Mauritius as “a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. Girls from all areas of the country are induced or sold into sex trafficking, often by their peers, family members, or by businessmen offering other forms of employment. Taxi drivers allegedly introduce child sex traffickers to victims with whom they engage in commercial sex acts.”

DIRT UNDER THE CARPET

According to a survey done by Gender Links in June 2016 about 93% of respondents, mostly NGOs and Government officials, said they do not know what trafficking is let alone knowing if there are laws in place to protect victims.

Mauritius may have the best laws but if they are not implemented with proper monitoring, evaluation and good structures put in place, we will keep putting the dirt under the carpet. The Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act of 2009 prohibits all forms of trafficking of adults and children, prescribing penalties of up to 15 years’ imprisonment for convicted offenders. The Child Protection Act of 2005 prohibits all forms of child trafficking and the Judicial Provisions Act of 2008 prescribes punishment for child trafficking offences of up to 30 years’ imprisonment.

For once let us think about the future of our girls and women and work hand in hand. The future is today. Together we can “End all forms of discrimination against women and girls; eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation”. (extract from Goal 5 of the SDG)

Government has promised to reduce inequalities among its citizens comprising women who represent more than 50%.