kirbygirl87
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Recently, we've seen an influx in harassment in Latin American countries against women. They have been disgraced, tortured, and made to feel as though their opinion means nothing to their government and the US as well.
According to the Christian Science Monitor, "Continued political wrangling is bad enough for democracy there and across Latin America. What’s worse is that the international community, including the Obama administration, is ignoring the widespread abuses of human rights in the coup’s aftermath. The brunt of these abuses is borne by the women of Honduras.
So far, Washington has failed to come to their defense even as the women’s efforts to promote peace and democracy have been met with systematic repression. Speaking out strongly and clearly against these abuses would improve Washington’s moral authority.
It would also signal to the rest of Latin America that the administration is serious about reestablishing US credentials as a defender of people, not just of political expediency."
WOW!
Political backgroundDemocratically elected President Manuel Zelaya was abducted from his home in June by military officers and escorted to Costa Rica. Riots ensued, but Honduran citizens then mobilized in an unprecedented peaceful pro-democracy movement to protest the coup and demand a return to constitutional order.
Women Leaders have been underfire, making up the majority of the resistance movement in Honduras, playing a leader in the role of civil disobedience and civil protection, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
So, women leaders have had enough and are fighting for their rights because no one else seems to one to help them in their struggle.
For their tireless and courageous support of democracy, they have received death threats and been attacked with nail-studded police batons, tear gas, and bullets. Detained by police or military for hours and even days without charges or access to legal counsel, women have been deprived of medicine, food, and water. At least two cases have resulted in death. Lawless violence against women has pervaded Honduras since the coup. As of August, women’s groups in Honduras have documented 249 cases of violations of women’s human rights, including 23 cases of beatings and sexual assault and seven gang rapes by police explicitly trying to “punish” women for their involvement in demonstrations. The number of femicides – the violent murder of women because they are women – has tripled since the coup, with 51 cases reported during the month of July alone.
With this news, How can we as American Citizens sit around and allow this sort of brutality and torture to happen to women in Honduras? Should we stand up for Women's rights or are we suppose to sit back and allow them to beat, rape, and deprive these human beings of normal life, or of life itself?
This behavior saddens and angers me and makes me feel as thought women, even thought they bare the backs of the world on their shoulder, are constantly underrepresented and not appreciated for the hardwork they do, by just being women.
This has rewarded lawlessness and brutality. “We urge you to condemn the orchestrated campaign of violence against women being waged by the current de facto regime,” four members of the Nobel Women’s Initiative and 175 other women leaders wrote in a recent letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. “Please step forward, as you have done elsewhere, and work to stop the violence now.”
According to the Christian Science Monitor, "With violations of women’s rights on the rise in the region, tangible action on her part would re-inforce the efforts of women everywhere working for equality, justice, and democracy.Much of the Honduran population and the international community view the November elections as illegitimate. The US needs to live up to the expectations the Obama administration has raised in making support for women’s rights a pillar of its foreign policy and stand with Honduran women in their fight for democracy and human rights."
My Thoughts...
It is a priority and a duty for us to stand up for Women's rights which are inevitably human rights. It hurts my heart when women are mistreated and abused based solely on Gender, it's so frustrating. We need to work together to make sure women have an equal voice in this world and this work.
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