It is such an overwhelmingly prodigious opportunity for me
to attend an online course via Stanford University and be informed by different aspects of the
interconnectedness of women’s health and human rights; resulting in a wider understanding
of the term “Rights” what it aspire for and how does it get accomplished.
Devotedly going through this course (rather studying it) from videos, reading the amazingly acclaimed book “Outrage and Courage” and the discussion I had with some of the friends who are already enrolling on the course brought to my mind a lot of thoughts that might be unrelated to each other, yet very connected to the topic’s theme.
Below I would love to highlight some of these thoughts in points:
1) A year ago, on the roof of one of Texas’ biggest sports center, I joined a group of powerful Egyptian and American women to watch the movie “Girls Rising” celebrating Women’s International Day. It is an informative, educational documentary about the lives of impoverished girls living in countries (the film showcased Egypt, Nepal, India, Cambodia, Haiti, Ethiopia, Peru, Leone and Afghanistan) where education for girls isn't a priority; exploring that some of the segments deal with intense and disturbing topics including slavery, child marriage, rape, and human trafficking.
What disturbed me watching this movie were the disheartening facts that those girls couldn’t reach the full access for education (easily and sometimes not at all) due to the existentially fraught political/ cultural ideologies that their governments and societies follow.
For example (bringing this example due to my nationality associated condition), the story featured a young Egyptian girl falls prey to a violent sexual attack (been grown in an impoverished area and subjected to the insecure conditions of a country post revolution time) but, rather than become a victim, she becomes a superhero. Yasmin’s is the story of the triumph of imagination over a reality too painful to bear. But what startled me was how much the political condition of a country affected the girl and highlighted that apart from pursuing a hard-sought education like most girls her age in other developing countries, she is a fighting a battle that is unimaginably hard for even any three-times-her-age woman. Yasmin doesn’t even know her right to access to education or living safely, she is rather trapped to dismiss an unfortunate event from her memory that was carved because of the unstable times of her country.
This only managed to make me think of the links between developmental actions and activist acts promoting human rights. This case is not developmental; it is rather because Yasmin’s rights are not even acknowledged by her community.
2) What was mentioned in the “Health and Human rights” video that human rights don’t exist. They’re an idea. They are not tangible. They are a hope for many and they are a reality for some according to your social and economic tree. They are a political ideal that if everyone understands about the vision of the world where those ideas and ideals are available, then one can hope and aspire to have them. Also, the fact that governments can easily sign the agreement but lack the money, the infrastructure and the enforcement of law to implement the articles of these treaties to benefit the society shows a great of political corruption and how dirtily do politics affect a development and gaining rights for its citizens. Yet, hoping for a highly selective concentration from the NGOs (multinational, non-governmental ones) to address those pressing issues and how much a government is widely not acting as easily as signing on words and terms ratifying people’s rights on papers, recognizing that the glass is not as half-full.
I would love if we can pay some attention on how actually implement and what actions to take in terms of community organizations/ NGOs to identify the rights to the people on ground, and in rural areas rather that urban ones.
3) Presently, two-thirds of the world's illiterate population is female. This startling statistics paints a dim portrait of the effects of the gender education gap as a barrier to destroying global economic deprivation. The lack of access to education for girls serves as a breeding ground for pervasive forms of gender-based discrimination to thrive i.e. institutionalized sexism, legal sexual/domestic violence, teen pregnancy, human trafficking and early marriage.
I, earnestly, don’t fathom the institutionalized mechanism that lies within the hands of members of the developed world, recognizing they shall have a duty to ensure that policymakers of developing countries must execute the legislation if these governments themselves do not certify what they have undertaken infront of the whole international community. Meaning, there must be some other forms of galvanizing around it if there shall be no reaction from corrupted governments.
I believe i have more to comment on these issues in further posts. Keep Posted...or not.
Devotedly going through this course (rather studying it) from videos, reading the amazingly acclaimed book “Outrage and Courage” and the discussion I had with some of the friends who are already enrolling on the course brought to my mind a lot of thoughts that might be unrelated to each other, yet very connected to the topic’s theme.
Below I would love to highlight some of these thoughts in points:
1) A year ago, on the roof of one of Texas’ biggest sports center, I joined a group of powerful Egyptian and American women to watch the movie “Girls Rising” celebrating Women’s International Day. It is an informative, educational documentary about the lives of impoverished girls living in countries (the film showcased Egypt, Nepal, India, Cambodia, Haiti, Ethiopia, Peru, Leone and Afghanistan) where education for girls isn't a priority; exploring that some of the segments deal with intense and disturbing topics including slavery, child marriage, rape, and human trafficking.
What disturbed me watching this movie were the disheartening facts that those girls couldn’t reach the full access for education (easily and sometimes not at all) due to the existentially fraught political/ cultural ideologies that their governments and societies follow.
For example (bringing this example due to my nationality associated condition), the story featured a young Egyptian girl falls prey to a violent sexual attack (been grown in an impoverished area and subjected to the insecure conditions of a country post revolution time) but, rather than become a victim, she becomes a superhero. Yasmin’s is the story of the triumph of imagination over a reality too painful to bear. But what startled me was how much the political condition of a country affected the girl and highlighted that apart from pursuing a hard-sought education like most girls her age in other developing countries, she is a fighting a battle that is unimaginably hard for even any three-times-her-age woman. Yasmin doesn’t even know her right to access to education or living safely, she is rather trapped to dismiss an unfortunate event from her memory that was carved because of the unstable times of her country.
This only managed to make me think of the links between developmental actions and activist acts promoting human rights. This case is not developmental; it is rather because Yasmin’s rights are not even acknowledged by her community.
2) What was mentioned in the “Health and Human rights” video that human rights don’t exist. They’re an idea. They are not tangible. They are a hope for many and they are a reality for some according to your social and economic tree. They are a political ideal that if everyone understands about the vision of the world where those ideas and ideals are available, then one can hope and aspire to have them. Also, the fact that governments can easily sign the agreement but lack the money, the infrastructure and the enforcement of law to implement the articles of these treaties to benefit the society shows a great of political corruption and how dirtily do politics affect a development and gaining rights for its citizens. Yet, hoping for a highly selective concentration from the NGOs (multinational, non-governmental ones) to address those pressing issues and how much a government is widely not acting as easily as signing on words and terms ratifying people’s rights on papers, recognizing that the glass is not as half-full.
I would love if we can pay some attention on how actually implement and what actions to take in terms of community organizations/ NGOs to identify the rights to the people on ground, and in rural areas rather that urban ones.
3) Presently, two-thirds of the world's illiterate population is female. This startling statistics paints a dim portrait of the effects of the gender education gap as a barrier to destroying global economic deprivation. The lack of access to education for girls serves as a breeding ground for pervasive forms of gender-based discrimination to thrive i.e. institutionalized sexism, legal sexual/domestic violence, teen pregnancy, human trafficking and early marriage.
I, earnestly, don’t fathom the institutionalized mechanism that lies within the hands of members of the developed world, recognizing they shall have a duty to ensure that policymakers of developing countries must execute the legislation if these governments themselves do not certify what they have undertaken infront of the whole international community. Meaning, there must be some other forms of galvanizing around it if there shall be no reaction from corrupted governments.
I believe i have more to comment on these issues in further posts. Keep Posted...or not.
