Women’s rights ought to be won

Taking the opportunity of the celebration of the 8^th of March, I would like to congratulate Mrs Nura Hussein of the ELF National Congress, Mrs Azieb Habtemariam and Mrs. Dalia Mohamed Ali of the EPM for being elected as members of the Leadership of their organisations and Mrs Mona Abdulkadir and Suria Osman for the leadership of “The Islamic Union of Eritrean women”. Their election is an honour to all women who are struggling for democracy, freedom and justice. I also salute every Eritrean woman who made great sacrifice to make Eritrea’s independence reality and who is struggling to free Eritrea from the Dictatorship.

In these two years the Eritrean women have started to participate better in ongoing struggle for democracy and justice than in the years before. In the ELF NC Congress of June 2004 the participation of women was satisfactory and in the Congress of EPM January 2005 was also satisfactory taking into consideration the time of its creation. Equally the participation of the Islamic women in the Congress of the Islamic Union for the Eritrean women in January 2005 was important step and brought two intellectual women as their Leaders, Drs. Mona Abdulkadir and Suria Osman. This shows that Eritrean women are becoming more aware that their right cannot be achieved in a country where the whole society is under despotism. Thus to achieve their right they must struggle hand in hand with the opposition organizations to uproot the regime and its vestiges to create a democratic Eritrea where equality and justice can be preserved.

We must have a strong presence as women in the ongoing struggle for democracy, justice, and peaceful coexistence and impose our selves through our struggle and our capabilities to achieve our right in the future Eritrea. It was not the first time women to be elected at the top, but it began in the second National Congress of the ELF in 1975, thus when Amina Melekin was elected as member of Revolutionary Council. After the Eritrean independence the dictator appointed several women as Ambassadress, even he appointed a women judge in the higher court of Eritrea, but this has changed nothing in the lives of the Eritrean women.

The real issue is not how many women are in the top, but how we can change the mentality of the society about a women and how we can impose ourselves to preserve our rights in the upcoming constitution. This does not mean that we have achieved every thing, but it is going to be a milestone to achieve it on the ground. Rights can be written in constitution but it may not be practiced, so it needs a lot of work to put it into practice. In the country where I live the equality of women is potted in the constitution but it has its shortcomings. Let me tell you an example, it may be four years ago I read in the local newspaper “ the Spits” that the women still get less payment than men. As it shows here even in the developed country, women have no equal rights on every thing like men. Would you imagine what our struggle would be in a back worded society like ours, when this is the case in the developed country?

We as Eritrean Women in Diaspora are not struggling for ourselves, even if it is not 100% our rights are better conserved in our host countries, but we are doing our part in the struggle for democracy and justice to free our people in Eritrea from the dictator and to achieve the right of women in Eritrea and to create a suitable environment for our people in the camps of Sudan to go back to the their country to live a dignified life in a democratic, peaceful and prosperous Eritrea.

The International Women’s Day offers the Eritrean women an opportunity to look back at the experience of women’s movements as source of stimulation out of which they deduce that their freedom ought to be won rather than being granted by grace of their oppressors. It is this lesson that the history of the International Women’s Day had bequeathed to posterity.

Glory to our Martyrs

Long live to the spirits of the 8th of March