Doing gender justice in Uganda

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LEILA ULLRICH 23 July 2015  - The efforts of NGOs and international organisations to gradually nudge post-war northern Uganda towards a ‘gender just society’ ignore the fact that gender equality also has real enemies.‘The microcredit was the biggest benefit I received. It gave me dignity and made merespectable. I can even afford to make myself beautiful. Without that, I couldn’t have found a husband. Nobody wants to marry a woman who was raped, but he finds me beautiful because I can take care of myself.’So reads the statement of a female survivor of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) who had received economic assistance by the Trust Fund for Victims (TFV), an international organization (IO) that helps the victims of the 20 year civil war that raged in Northern Uganda between 1987 and 2008. The TFV’s report claims that SGBV survivors said that this assistance helped them to see themselves as ‘real women’ again.When I asked a gender specialist what survivors like the woman quoted above mean when they say they feel like ‘real women’ again, she replied: ‘For her, this is the idea that she can be seen in her society as a woman who has value; now for better or worse this means that she can find a good husband. Her value as a woman is determined by her desirability to men. Well that is the same in a lot of cultures including mine [USA]. For her, this made her feel normal again.’This reply left me somewhat puzzled. Does that mean it is pointless to change features of sexist culture in Northern Uganda, which we have not managed to eradicate in ‘Western’ societies? Or does it imply that the ideas and aspirations of SGBV survivors should guide our understanding of what ‘gender justice’ means after war?The transition from war to peace often has complex and contradictory consequences for women. On the one hand, research suggests that women’s experiences of SGBV are frequentlycontinuous: while violence against women peaks during times of conflict, it persists after conflict, especially in the form of domestic violence. In a study on female survivors of conflict-related SGBV in Northern Uganda, 90 out of the 97 survivors interviewed said that they still face the same threats of sexual violence as in the past.

IN LEBANON,MANY REFUGEE GIRLS CHOOSE TO MARRY OVER POVERTY

Pressured into marriage by her parents as part of a desperate effort to survive, Safia has given up on the dream she once had. “I wanted to continue my education and my life,” the 16-year-old, who is married to Omar, a man nearly a decade older than her, told VOA. “I wanted to be a teacher, but my ambitions don’t exist any more.” Safia is one of a growing number of refugees in Lebanon for whom finding a husband was not a matter of choice but of economic necessity. Torn away from their livelihoods and homes by war, families struggling to provide for their children have, in recent years, increasingly looked to marriage as an answer. And with bride and groom sometimes no older than their early teens, the dangers for those involved can be high.

Foreign ñews: 'Care system sent me to 39 different children's homes and I was raped 3 times before 16'

Danielle McKinney was taken into care aged 11 after school teachers saw belt lashes on her back when she was getting changed for PE

Danielle McKinney is now studying a degree in child protectionA former children’s home resident has lifted the lid on her years in care, after being sent to 39 different placements and raped three times before the age of 16.Danielle McKinney, who is hoping to study for a degree in child protection, has revealed grooming and sexual abuse which was rife.Speaking on BBC West Midlands Inside Out programme, she is doubtful that the situation has improved for those being looked after by Birmingham City Council.The hard-hitting interview comes at a time when the council is one-year through a three-year improvement plan to turn around the failing child protection service.In 2013 the department was branded a ‘national disgrace’, reports the Birmingham Mail.PAFailings: Birmingham Council HouseThere had been a series of preventable child deaths including the notorious cases of Khyra Ishaq and Keanu Williams - both killed at the hands of their parents despite being known to social workers.An extra £30 million has been ploughed in to the service and Government troubleshooter Lord Norman Warner was brought in to oversee improvement. His report is awaiting publication.

Foreign news: For native women, high price of rape goes untold

There's no way to quantify the damage, but tribal leaders estimate it's in the billions. "It happens every day in every native community; it's that common," says Jodi Gillette, former special assistant on Native American Affairs to the White House.24 The Cherokee Nation has begun an advertising campaign to encourage native women to seek help.Credit: Photo by Suzette Brewer STILWELL, Okla. (WOMENSENEWS)-- For six years Brendan Johnson served as U.S. attorney for the State of South Dakota.During his time as federal prosecutor, Johnson says fully 100 percent of the women and girls engaged in the sex trafficking industry were victims of rape and-or sexual abuse earlier in their lives."We had an underage girl from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota who was picked up in Sioux Falls and wound up in a sex ring," said Johnson, who is now in private practice, in a phone interview from his office in Sioux Falls, S.D. "She was a single mother and had not a penny to her name, which is very common.

KIDNAPPERS, RAPISTS INVADE IMO COMMUNITY IN NIGERIA

The People of Eg­belu Nguru com­munity in Ngor Okpala local gov­ernment area of Imo State are now living in constant fear as suspected kidnap­pers and rapists have in­vaded the community.Saturday Sun gathered that suspected kidnappers have turned the commu­nity to their operational base as no week passes without reported cases of kidnapping and victims being raped by some gang of criminals in the com­munity.It was equally learnt that the hoodlums had even overwhelmed the lo­cal vigilante group and the police in the area as they move about with impu­nity.The indigenes of the community who pro­tested yesterday over the activities of the criminals lamented that they now live in constant fear as the crime rate in the commu­nity is alarming.