A limited space to march

Yes, the women in their pink hats – marching in Washington, in other US cities, and in other Western capitals around the world – are making a valid point. Of course they have a right to control their lives, their bodies, what they say or what is said to them. The sexism and sheer crudeness employed by Donald Trump during his campaign was, to use a mild word, vile. His ‘locker room’ jokes were unacceptable and it is not hard to understand the anger and outrage that has fuelled the collective action that is taking place right now.

Collective action, through our recent history, has been fundamental to change.  This is why the march by millions of women is important – it signifies just how far women in the US and the Western world have come and how determined they are to speak up for their rights.

But perhaps we need to see a different kind of collective action. If we look at the map of the world, women in America, and most parts of the West, cannot claim they lack fundamental rights. All of them have the right to vote, the right to speak, the right to liberty – and when this is curtailed in some way, they have the right to contest such actions in a court of law.

Far graver than the offences the women agitating against Trump are campaigning against occur each day in other parts of the world. In Saudi Arabia, women cannot vote, cannot drive, cannot leave the country or even the city that they live in unless accompanied by a male relative and are supposed to cover themselves from head to toe from a very young age.

In Iran, similar dress codes prevail. In India and China, female infanticide has created an unbalanced population in many regions. In Pakistan, domestic abuse, honour killings and the use of women to settle scores between men still continue. In Mali and other North African countries, young girls suffer the brutality of female genital mutilation. In the Congo, the rape of women is endemic and many women infected with HIV are abandoned and left to care alone for children. In Guatemala, a new culture of rape directed against the poorest of women has taken birth and women from Bangladesh, Nepal and other countries are victims of large human trafficking rackets. In many underdeveloped countries girls as young as eight or nine are sold into the sex trade and many others across the globe suffer violence just as grotesque and just as brutal.

Unlike American women, these victims truly do not have the ability to speak for themselves. There are few men in their countries who will do so either. Law, tradition and lack of social and economic rights for women keep them pinned to the lowest possible status in society.

Compared to their suffering, the cries of American women in their pink garb and holding their placards – many directing abuse against Trump and men in general – seem more like whining. Of course, their fears are legitimate. It is also extremely encouraging to see that thousands of men joined their cause and spoke up for their protection.

But if we are to speak of defending the rights of women truly, then the empowered women and men of the US, who share a similar worldview, need to speak out for those who cannot – for the oppressed women of Afghanistan who are denied literacy, for the women in Middle Eastern countries who simply have no voice even within their own legislatures and for women who are still stoned for any interaction with an unrelated male. Surely, it is not only the women of the US who deserve rights. These women have in fact already acquired them. They have gained the right to speak against oppression and to defend themselves. Yes, it is unfortunate they should have to do so against a sitting president. But at least they are able to claim their right to speak and in the most direct fashion, demand that their grievances be addressed.

A universal movement on similar lines, bringing together all those who stand for equal rights for everyone, regardless of gender, can be more powerful. It can boost morale and provide more support to the feeble attempts by women at seeking equality in an uneven society in the developing world. Perhaps the women marching on Washington and those joining them in other places would consider making this their crusade. What they suffer is minuscule compared to so many others. Yes, the misogyny of Trump and his team needs to be fought. It needs to be battled. But perhaps this can be best achieved as a wider battle which also takes note of the situation of millions of other women scattered across the globe.

In many cases, poverty, which is directly linked to American policy, has a role to play in their deprivation. It is an established fact that poverty hits women and children the hardest of all. The battle we are seeing in Washington should then not be limited to that country alone. The wall that Trump is trying to build around the US needs to be brought down. The world, after all, is one place, one planet – turbulence in a single part affects all the other parts. The Syrian war is an example of this.

And those lashing out against the chauvinism of the new American presidency should not forget that they, as educated people who are not prevented from coming out onto the streets or from shouting slogans, also need to stand for others. The true triumph would be if women, and men with them, stood together to make this possible and to work for the uplift and rights of women everywhere. Women after all, form one half of humanity. They also bring forward into the world all of humanity. It should therefore be a basic understanding that women everywhere need to be given the authority to do what women in America are doing today – to speak out, to lash at and to demand fairer treatment. This should not be a call only reserved for women in the Western part of the world. Others too seek precisely the same right. They are much, much further away from it.

Millions of women around the world are unable to write out a placard or to read out a slogan. They are held back in patriarchal societies which frown at the very idea of women in public places. When we have the kind of globalisation that is constantly spoken of today, there should also be an effort to look at matters from a global perspective. If the millions marching in the US were to march for the world and persuade others to join them, we would have a movement with much greater meaning.

This is in no way to undermine the efforts that have been organised in the US. Those behind the marches deserve applause and appreciation as people who stand at the vanguard of a society unwilling to accept injustice and the simple brutality of gender-biased language. But perhaps these people can also use their power for a wider cause, and in doing so educate the often isolated people of the West about precisely what happens in other places and precisely why women from these countries who do choose to fight are so often vilified or even killed. We have examples of this from around the world.

The marches in Washington are a time for all women, indeed all human beings, to stand together and speak up for those who cannot.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com