16 Days - Day 6: Les Droits de l’Homme
Posted by Ann Jones on November 30th, 2007
 Village women attending this meeting to learn about GBV’s Global Crescendo project objected to the presence of a male translator on the grounds that “men lie.” Photo: Ann Jones |
| The International Rescue Committee is working with writer, photographer and long-time women’s advocate Ann Jones to give women in war zones an opportunity document their own lives with digital cameras and make their voices heard. Ann is blogging from West Africa, posting new photos and stories each day for 16 days, starting November 25 — the kick-off of “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.” You can catch her earlier posts here and sign up to get e-mail alerts about new posts at theIRC.org/join16days.
Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire “Men lie!” the old woman says. The men at the meeting laugh. The stony-faced village Chief cracks a smile. But the women aren’t laughing. They support the old woman’s objection to their exclusive meeting being translated by a man. I’m reminded of Afghan women who told me they want to learn to read so they can see if the Koran really says what mullahs and husbands say it does. Here in Cote d’Ivoire, a world away from Afghanistan, I find the same suspicion among women that they’re being conned.
I’ve come to this village with my Ivoirian colleague Tanou to invite women to participate in our special GBV project called Global Crescendo. But we’ve walked right into this persistent dilemma. Tanou and I explain our project in French. Often, when my feeble French fails me, I switch to English and Tanou provides the French. Then a man from the village takes over, translating from French to the local language. He seems to be a nice guy, a local official who assists other IRC programs as well, but the women are skeptical nonetheless. The old woman’s attitude suggests: “You can’t fool me with your bright yellow IRC T-shirt. The fact is, men lie.” The man offers to give way to a woman. That’s when we learn what he must already know: that among the forty or fifty women crowded onto the steps of the chief’s reception house, there is not a single one who speaks French.
Among Cote d’Ivoire’s population of more than sixty different tribes and tongues, French long ago became the common language of commerce and politics. Even in rural villages, many men speak French. The fact that women do not reflects their long exclusion from public life. And it means that all the information they get, including what they need to know to make sound decisions about such personal matters as their own health and reproduction and the wellbeing of their children, comes to them from the mouths of men. Women have been bamboozled, and they know it. Take human rights, for example. In French that’s “les droits de l’Homme”—the rights of man. Spelled with a capital H, the word Homme is meant to include both genders; but when the phrase is spoken, the capital letter conveniently disappears. Men produce a literal translation. IRC field agents leading “sensibilisation” discussions astonished villagers with the news that “Homme” in that phrase about droits includes “femme” too. Les droits de la femme? Impossible! Even women think “the rights of woman” were invented by the IRC. But they like the idea. Les droits humaine.
Still we’re stuck with this male translator to explain the Global Crescendo project. It will go on in their village for the next five weeks. It’s meant to give women a chance to document their daily lives, their problems, their consolations and joys. It’s meant to give them time and space to talk together and come up with an agenda for change. It’s meant to give them a chance to make their lives known to people in other lands, all around the globe, through the IRC website and exhibitions. But how? They are to document their lives with digital cameras that I will give them and teach them to use. How many have used a camera before? We call for a show of hands. None. Most have never seen a camera before.
I show them mine—a little digital point and shoot, just like the ones I will teach them to use. I snap some shots and show them the camera’s viewing screen—displaying images of themselves. Amazed, they gaze at one another, eyes darting from the screen to the faces of the women represented there. Fingers point. Smiles erupt.Who would like to join in? There’s no more discussion. They get it. A camera. Pictures! No translation. The hands go up. |
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November 30th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Every picture tells a story - thank you for crossing the language barrier and allowing us to see the world through their eyes.
November 30th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Thank you for all you do to help these woman. May God and the Angels surround in the powerful light of love and protect you and all that you do. A thousand blessings. Beverly
November 30th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
This is wonderful work you are doing. I have forwarded this on to people I know locally. It gives one hope when you see the smiles on the faces of these women.
November 30th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
I just wanted to say thanks, for what you are doing, i read gladly everything. Thank you for letting us know.
November 30th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
I like the idea of giving women a way to discuss and document their concerns, but when they do come up with their agendas for change, will you also document those agendas and the subsequent challenges and successes they experience as they attempt to effect change? I’m very interested in understanding when this awareness-raising does and does not serve as a catalyst for change, what makes that next step possible and what inhibits it.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
It is sad to me what women must endure all over the world for so many centuries.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Hi Anne,
I am also distrustful of the men there just from the information that I am getting from your blogs; So I can understand how the women there feel.
I think that this is utterly ridiculous that villages, towns, and cities have not tried to elevate their women. Wouldn’t the men want their women to be able to even speak the language of the country in the event something happen to him.
In my own religion the mother is honored, and there is a saying that is “honor the wombs that bore you”
More men need to be part of the outreach that is going on. The women that they are abusing, are someone’s daughter, sister, mother, friend. At one time she is the one that these men that abuse them once spoke sweet words to. She is not their personal punching bag, the babysitter, housekeeper, cook, or a tool just to relieve themselves in. She is a Woman that should be respected within her home and within her community.
I am trying to understand the men too, that they may feel less than a man due to living conditions, inability to provide sufficiently, or angry because he can’t protect his family.
I’m no specialist, I care,and I just wish that an intervention could also take place among the men, so that while she is growing so could he.
November 30th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
These are wonderful stories to hear about. I’m always thrilled when women come together and recognise their common experience, their sisterhood. I believe this is the only way the world will eventually change - through the consciousness of women.
December 1st, 2007 at 1:22 am
I love the photo of Georgette Gnogbo. Despite all they’ve been through, these women still smile, it’s amazing.
Good luck with the camera project - what a chance for them to share their lives - it will be so empowering for them.
December 1st, 2007 at 4:23 pm
This is really wonderful.
Thank you!
December 3rd, 2007 at 4:38 am
Its sad to see my fellow men treating there wives like animals
Johnson Langat
kenya
December 3rd, 2007 at 5:18 pm
What you are doing will plant seeds and raise consciousness in men’s hearts too. It will help in the evolution to equality for women, even against great odds and entrenched customs for the differnent cultures in the Ivory Coast and Africa in general.
December 4th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Thank you, everyone, for reading Ann’s blog and for all of your comments and questions. Ann wishes she could respond to each one, but the project is keeping her very busy. She wanted to be sure to address some issues of general concern that were raised by Clare McCamy and Tom Vitale among others. You’ll find her latest responses here.
Kate
theIRC.org