October
is always a very interesting month for the female folk. It is that time of the
year when the world pays close attention to various issues affecting women! Itisfor
instance the breast cancer awareness month,
(every October 11 is the International day of the girl).But also because
there was random and particular coverage of general issues affecting women in
the world- the so-called ‘women issues’- in the media. In my country, we had
four pages of a key national newspaper dedicated to the International day of the girl, with the role of my first lady in
these celebrations carefully highlighted. I bet feminists that campaigned for
such focus five decades and more ago were smiling in their graves and the
living felt rewarded. Among the issues randomly covered in the media was ‘the
Taboo menstruating in India’ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia and street
harassment in New York http://time.com/.
Both
articles confirmed that every October is indeed a month for the female folk. The
articles only highlighted the issues that women confront everyday, in different
societies. Issues that have been normalized and will only receive focus in
October next year-if at all. I do appreciate the focus but it is all a
half-baked cookie. For instance, since it was the breast cancer awareness month,
women got discounted pap-smear tests and free breast cancer screening in
different hospitals in the city. This was a great initiative but it ought to be
conducted through the year- considering that a majority of Kenyan women cannot
afford such tests. Also, are such testing centers like this available in the
village? Not really.
This
is my way of saying that October is a blessing in disguise for women issues, but
it is also over-rated causing it to be a challenge. The real challenge is as a
result of setting aside a particular month for women issues-Women concerns continue
to lag behind the global and national agenda because they are separated from
society issues. October has almost become like December, the Christmas-month or
the Ramadan month. Like these religious months, it is easy to postpone women
issues until that time of the year- despite the fact that most women are
affected by most of these issues through out the year and the issues are
intertwined in other society issues. If this remains the case, women and their fundamental concern swill remain at the bottom of critical agenda and will be kept waiting
for another October before these issues are raised again (okay I may sound extreme
but this is the reality).
In
turn, men that occupy key decision-making posts will never understand the need
to put these issues on whatever agenda. Men will still not understand why
sanitary towels should be made free or cheaper for girls. They will not bother
to understand certain diets for female teenagers in high schools.Sex and
reproductive education in mixed schools will remain a topic that teenage boys
giggle about. As for the women, they will remain apologetic for their anatomy,
and elderly women will continue speaking in hushed tones when discussing the
female body. Sex and everything else it comes with like condoms and
contraceptives will remain ‘the sweetest
taboo’- to never talk about until marriage. If the October hype continues, we
will never have male feminists that understand gender inequalities and strive
to address them in our society. We will
continue to have bitter female feminists that campaign for the wrong causes and
often bring their understandable emotions to dealing with issues affecting
women.Then, sadly, we will never be the kind of feminists that Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie hoped
for. Check the video below or visit this link here.
