The Sisterhood Network in collaboration with Action Aid, Serendip Guardians and the Kingdom Culture Church kicked off the 16-days campaign to end Gender Based Violence (GBV) in Nagaland with a signature campaign calling to ‘End Gender Based Violence in the World of Work’. The campaign was initiated during a program held at Kingdom Culture Church in Dimapur on Monday, November 26 (Photos Courtesy Akum Jamir)
Sisterhood Network, Action Aid, Serendip Guardians, Kingdom Culture Church come together for 16-days of activism for gender just society
Morung Express News Dimapur | November 26 The Sisterhood Network in collaboration with Action Aid, Serendip Guardians and the Kingdom Culture Church kicked off the 16-days campaign to end Gender Based Violence (GBV) with a signature campaign calling to ‘End Gender Based Violence in the World of Work’. This was also the theme of a program held today at the Kingdom Culture Church here to bring forth the issues involved in the process to end GBV that has become a trend in Naga society. “With the rise in cases of Violence Against Women, it is timely to come together and raise our voices against this during the annual fortnightly campaign instated by UN Women,” explained Azungla James, Director of Sisterhood Network in her welcome address for the initiation of the signature campaign. The signed flex banner and papers will be submitted to the offices of the Prime Minister of India, Nagaland State Commission for Women and Nagaland State Department of Social Welfare. [caption id="attachment_422110" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
The 16-days campaign to end Gender Based Violence (GBV) in Nagaland was initiated today with a signature campaign calling to End Gender Based Violence in the World of Work by the Sisterhood Network in collaboration with Action Aid, Serendip Guardians and the Kingdom Culture Church. Seen here is the group participating in the initiation program held at Kingdom Culture Church in Dimapur on Monday, November 26 (Photos Courtesy Akum Jamir)[/caption]
16 Days of activism against GBV is an international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls. The campaign runs every year from November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to December 10, Human Rights Day.
The program today heard a prayer from Pastor of Kingdom Culture Church, Visasier Kevichusa, a song titled ‘Skyscraper’ by Eva, with the event chaired by Arenzungla Jamir.
The Morung Express encapsulates some of the realities and perspectives shared at the program.
K Ela
“Let us make our homes safe for women and girls who work for us.” This appeal was made by K. Ela, Director of Prodigals’ Home, while noting how women of all classes, in all social sections, professions and persuasions face violence and abuse. “Your home is the workplace for women and girls, and it is the unsafest place where we treat our women and girls as bonded labour, as slaves,” lamented Ela.
The “bitter reality” of it all is the “cruel violence” that women meet out to the women and girls in the domestic workspace making women both victims and perpetrators of Gender Based Violence (GBV). “Stop this!” said Ela. “If you cannot protect them, you cannot protect yourself.”
While there is no policy to protect workers in the house, there are policies and mechanisms to protect women from sexual harassment at public workplaces. The Director of Prodigals’ Home called for government offices and companies to effectively implement these policies for protection of women in the workplace. “Not implementing these policies is a way to say that you are indifferent to the plight of the weak and vulnerable. Being silent is being complicit to GBV,” Ela reiterated.
As remedy, she suggested that the 16-days campaign be turned into an everyday campaign, that women be economically empowered, that a collective voice is raised against GBV, that people in privileged positions do more than the underprivileged can and that men also stand up to protect the rights of women and girls.
Holitoli Aye
Naga women national workers have worked just as hard as men or even more—gone to China to bring back arms and given birth in jungles—but not a single monolith till date has been dedicated to them.
Annoyed, Naga National Worker, Holitoli Aye, wondered why women are not allowed to handle national and public affairs even as they get the same treatment as men during training or on field.
“Women get beaten with sticks just like men during training but when it comes to taking part in the Indo-Naga negotiations, we are given the same old excuse of ‘language problem’,” said Aye highlighting how women national workers have been kept out of the political negotiations because they are unable to communicate in English or Hindi. “We told the male leaders that we will take language classes but to no avail.” Till recently, women workers were denied ceasefire photo identity cards. “At least take us to Delhi and recognize our contributions,” she urged Naga national groups.
“Many roadblocks have been created to hinder the growth of women and seize power from us. But we have the blessing of refusing to be complicit in the crimes of our male national workers,” asserted Aye.
Vanthunglo Murry
While walking in Kohima town one day, Vanthunglo Murry, Value Education Trainer at LFHSS, suddenly felt her cheek being pulled. It was a police officer. When she objected to the harassment, the officer’s colleague asked her not to make a noise because a woman should not raise a voice, or give her opinion.
“But I raised a voice because choosing to be silent is to choose not to change anything,” said Murry while sharing two harassing experiences she faced in Kohima. “In our society, men are allowed to make fun of women’s personal and professional choices, our looks, our opinions,” she noted, maintaining that children as well as elders should be taught about such injustices—that women’s lives and bodies are not for the “cheap entertainment” of men.
Murry affirmed, “We affect change every time we speak up. Sexual harassment at the workplace should not be tolerated, nor should the bullying of women leaders. We build a healthy culture every time we say NO to Gender Based Violence.”
Rini Ghose
What is the psycho-social impact of Gender Based Violence (GBV) on women and society? A crushed self esteem, prolonged sadness, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder leading even to suicide—some of the weights due to which women are unable to report violence against them to the legal system, or live a fulfilling life, presenting the aura of a GBV-free Nagaland. These factors were explained by Rini Ghose, Director of Serendip Guardians, an organization in Dimapur working on mental health issues.
Not only are the effects of GBV far reaching on women but impact children even more. “Children who witness violence go through the same experience as children who undergo violence,” Ghose noted explaining the effect adult domestic violence has on children.
Ending GBV and Violence Against Women (VAW), however, have a long way to go as they are not fully recognized and talked about; they are addressed in ways that focus more on the behavior of victims than perpetrators.
“To end VAW, we need a paradigm shift in how we talk about GBV and VAW to also include men. Unless they speak about it, the society will not take it seriously,” said Ghose.
Theyiesinuo Keditsu
Patriarchy is as oppressive of men as it is of women. It imposes a male identity that requires a man to control a woman while making women the property of men, finally rendering the patriarchal system flawed. With this introduction, Theyiesinuo Keditsu, Assistant Professor of English at Kohima College and Poet, read out two powerful poems from her recently released book, ‘Sopfünuo,’ published by Heritage Publishing House.
“For Naga women, home is the workplace which makes mothers the largest workforce in our society,” observed the poet between her poems, Sopfünuo II and Words. She said that girl children learn to speak before boy children—an ‘evolutionary trait’—yet, as both grow up, “women are asked to shut up quicker than men.”
“As a community,” she proposed, “we must teach our girls to speak as much as they would like to and boys to listen as much as they can.”
M Sashi Jamir
What does Naga patriarchy look like, questioned M. Sashi Jamir, Associate Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at the Oriental Theological Seminary. There are no women in the Hohos and certainly none in traditional bodies like the Putu Menden. “We cannot even dream of having women in these bodies,” said Jamir painting the picture of patriarchy in Naga society.
“When men shed tears, they are termed ‘girls’ as though weakness is a trait of women,” he remarked. Yet the burden on women to bear the weight of society is so large, even women who have made it into professional fields today are expected to come back home and render home duties. “Mothers-in-law expect their daughters-in-law to be subservient to the husband and family.”
The notion of equality—at home and in public affairs—can be brought about when “Naga male leaders in Hohos, other organizations or even the Chief Minister of Nagaland talk about respecting women. At home too our boys should be educated to treat sisters as equals,” stressed Jamir.
Most of all, “we must learn to read our scriptures correctly.” For him, “we have let our culture and patriarchy interpret the scriptures, interpreting women to be men’s servants.” Contrarily, the academic noted, the Old Testament mentions the Hebrew word ‘Ezer’ or ‘Helper’—the role allotted to women—31 times, “16 times used to describe the quality of our living God, that is, God as our helper in achieving works we cannot complete by ourselves.” This interpretation elevates the status of women.
“We should let the scriptures transform our culture not the other way round,” maintained Jamir while calling for all voices to become one to end Gender Based Violence.
