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 The
panel, "Male Involvement in Promoting
Human Rights for Women: Implications For
Beijing + 15," had a full house of
conference attendees and friends of the
presenters on Sunday, March 7, 2010 at
the United Nations' Church Center in New
York. Two QUEENS graced the occasion at
the United Nations' Commission on the
Status of Women's 54th meeting (CSW-54):
The Queen Mother of Harlem, Dr. Delois
Blakely, and the
Queen of
Holistic Health in Brooklyn, Queen Afua.
Queen Afua, who won the coveted award
for the
BEST
DOCTOR had a table set
up with her comprehensive formulas for
wellness as she distributed cards
promoting her new book,
Overcoming An Angry Vagina
(2010). She talked about her earlier
books to promote health and healing in
the communities of the world. People in
the audience were anxious to buy:
The City
of Wellness (2006).
It was particularly marvelous when she
mentioned that
President Barack Obama's campaigne for
"wellness,"
both before and during his tenure in
office, was similar to her health plan
for the "sacred women" who knocked on
her door searching for healing and
happiness. Queen Afua had the audience
chant "I can heal myself!" over and over
to empower everyone with the confidence
that the best life---good health---is
in our hands. People who tasted her
food for life (Green
Life Formula 1) said:
"The drink was deliciously nutritious."
Queen Afua is a great Ambassador
of Wellness promoting healthy living
and discipline as the cure for violence
in our communities.
Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury was
chair of the afternoon's event and the
panel, "Male Involvement in Human Rights
of Women: Implications for the Beijing
Platform of Action: 15 Years After." He
was the
Ambassador of Bangladesh to the UN
from 1996 to 2001. Two of the highlights
of his truly remarkable contribution to
the world community have been, first, he
initiated the proposal for the adoption
of the Security Council Resolution 1325
on women, peace and security on March 8,
International Women's Day 2000, as the President of the
Security Council. Secondly, Ambassador
Chowdhury proposed the Proclamation of
the UN international Decade for Culture
of Peace and Non-violence (2001-2010)
and chaired the UN General Assembly
drafting group for the preparation and
adoption of the UN Program of Action for
the Culture of Peace in 1999.
Dr. Eleanor
Nwadinobi, President of
the Widows Development Organization in
Enugu, flew in from Owerri, Nigeria
via
London to organize the forum, along with
Dr. Marie Umeh of John Jay College,
CUNY. Dr. Nwadinobi's presentation
about girls and women in Nigeria and the
challenges they face brought heartfelt
sighs from the audience. Her
presentation, "The
African Woman From the Cradle to the
Grave: How Can Male Involvement Improve
Her Life?" x-rayed the
crises of the girl child and woman
within the context of culture in Africa
and Nigeria in particular, where male
dominance, patriarchal systems and the
custody of cultural norms have
continually been identified as the
problem. Dr. Eleanor Nwadinobi, who is a
medical doctor healing the wounds of
women, and a law maker, gave her views
through the key hole from the other side
of the door by taking a peek
specifically at the role of men
in actualizing the ideals of women's
empowerment and gender equality.
Rev. Dr. Peter
Igwilo, Director of St.
Catherine's West Rehabilitation Center
in Hialeah, Florida, addressed the far
reaching damages and devastation the
family and marriage institutions
have incurred overtime, as a result of
imbalanced and unfair treatment meted to
most women in most societies and
cultures of the world, occasioned by
male domination and characterized by all
kinds of violence against women and
children. Rev. Dr. Igwilo, commended the
age long struggles by women, especially
since the Beijing conference, and
condemned all forms of mistreatment and
violence against women under any guise.
He recognized equality of all human
beings irrespective of sex or race.
His statement that "male domination in
history has not benefited men" drew
great applause. In fact, "Men are
the losers," he told an audience
of about one hundred people gathered
together in the Hardin Room at the
UN's Church Center in New York.
According to him, "male domination is
the greatest threat to male existence
and one of the reasons why "MEN
DIE FIRST." He
statistically cited the fact that there
are an overwhelming number of widows
than widowers in all male dominated
cultures of the world. Most men die
early leaving their wives and children
to enjoy the family wealth or suffer
untold hardship as the aftermath. He
questioned the audience about what
accounts for men dying first in most
marriage partnerships? He said that most
cultures placed undue burdens and stress
on men, calling them lord and master of
the house. Men end up becoming beasts of
burden and die early deaths. If the
men don't get their disappearing act
together, the number of early deaths
will continue to rise leaving their
children and widows at risk of poverty,
sickness, and extinction. Calling for
balance in the family roles and
responsibilities, he advised men to
allow women their space to contribute as
much as they can to the upkeep of the
family. This would enable both husbands
and wives to live for each other,
together with their children as much as
possible.
Building upon the gains of the Beijing Platform of
Action of 1995, the firebrand cleric and
academic also gave an ecclesiastical
recipe for reversing the trend which is
threatening a happy family life in all
the communities of the world, by warning
the audience that domestic violence
should no longer be considered a family
or private issue. Such statements serve
only as a ploy to cover up abuses
against each other. He reminded everyone
that the World Health Organization (WHO)
had since 2005 declared such violent
behavior as a public
health problem/issue. He further said
that women alone should not hope to
eliminate violence against women; it is
always a wrong strategy to attempt to
promote one sex or gender over another.
What unifies humanity is greater than
what separates women and men, he
averred. Domestic abuse or violence is
always larger than violence against
women. Therefore, it is unproductive to
attempt to pursue violence against women
in isolation of violence against other
members of the family.
Dr. Marie Umeh's
presentation,
"(Re)Defining
Masculinity: Male
Involvement in Eradicating Violence
Against Women and Promoting Human Rights
for Women," identified the problem
of gender discrimination as
a manifestation of sexism in America.
"The American women's movement for
equality has not been won totally," she
told the global group gathered before
her and the other panelists, "if the
high number of physical and
psychological violence against women in
both the private and public sectors is
anything to go by." Quoting
Jackson
Katz author of
Tough
Guise
(1991), she said that
men perpetrate 90% of the violence in
American society against women. She went
on to point out that the culture to
degrade and dehumanize women is a social
ill that demands a social response:
"If society's sex-role socialization
schema is a learned behavior, it can be
unlearned through gender-awareness
education, gender-bending workshops, and
the enactment of legislation for female
equality and equity."
Dr. Umeh gave examples of men who (re)defined
masculinity by taking a critical look
within, and becoming a part of the
solution by shedding the male
disguise of tough guys before they
adopted grassroots activism. Dr. Umeh's
profiles of exemplary men making
change included: the Vice-President of
the United States,
Joe
Biden, who sponsored the
Violence Against Women Act of 1994
which outlawed all kinds
of violence against women. Tony
Porter and Ted Bunch
co-founders of the organization,
A CALL
TO MEN,in New York were
also examples of honorable, respectful,
well-meaning men who have taken charge
of making a positive difference in
men and women's lives. Michael
Kimmel, an author and
activist, who globally works to engage
men in gender equality, also deserved
recognition. He is one of the founders
of the groups: "Santa
Cruz Men Against Rape,"
and "The
National Organization of Men Against Sexism." According
to Kimmel, "The answer to the problem of
sexism is feminism." Reverend
Dr. Floyd Flake of the Greater Allen AME
Zion Church in Jamaica,
New York, who built homes for battered
women and their children in his
district, was another one of the
pillars in our society whose grassroots
activism earned praise.
Bill
Gates of Microsoft Corporation, who
provided food, beds, medicine and
medical supplies for women and children
with HIV/AIDS globally, was one of
TIME
magazine's outstanding humanitarians. Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the
Grameen
Bank in Bangladesh, and
a
2006
Nobel Peace Prize
recipient was also recognized as an
activist who empower women in their
respective communities.
Dr. Beverly Frazier,
who teaches in the
Department of Law, Police Science and
Criminal Justice Administration at John
Jay College,
CUNY, addressed the problem of the high
rate of prison (re)entry among
African-American males in the United
States, especially in the New Jersey and
Pennsylvania areas. According to Dr.
Frazier, the role of the family in
ending this syndrome is one of the
solutions to the problem.
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