Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiCoup's Impact on Honduran Women
Ms. Magazine's inaugural cover featured President Obama in Superman pose, ripping open his suit coat and dress shirt to reveal a T-shirt that proclaims: "This is what a feminist looks like." Photoshop tricks aside, Honduran women need this to be true. They need the Obama administration to fully grasp the plight of Honduran women and their families and act decisively on their behalf.
Since the June 28, 2009 coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya from office, the de facto regime has tried to stanch the flow of incriminating information coming from Honduras. But human rights organizations and grassroots delegations keep working to focus the Obama administration's gaze on the dire situation, particularly for Honduran women.
Mourning, Organizing
The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) began investigating abuses immediately after the coup, searching hospitals and jails. Their July 15 report documents 1155 human rights violations during the first two weeks of the coup. These include 1046 illegal detentions, 59 beatings, 27 assaults on reporters and the independent press, and four executions. Three of those killed are named: Isis Obed Murillo Mencías (19-years-old), Gabriel Fino Noriega (radio-journalist), and Caso Ramon Garcia.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued their first and most comprehensive report on the Honduran crisis on August 21. Consistent with COFADEH's findings, the IACHR charged the coup government with "disproportionate use of public force, arbitrary detentions, and the control of information aimed at limiting political participation by a sector of the citizenry."
A scant six weeks after that IACHR report, at the end of September, the National Front Against the Coup in Honduras (FNR) estimated more than 100 coup fatalities — an appalling escalation.
But if the violence appalls, it is not unprecedented. During the 1980s, the Battalion 3-16 death squad was responsible for forced disappearances, detentions, and torture in Honduras. COFADEH warns that members of the Battalion are returning to positions of power and influence. A particularly notorious Battalion leader, Captain Billy Joya Améndola, is now special security adviser to "Interim President" Roberto Micheletti.
And it should be noted, the notoriety of Battalion 3-16 reaches back to the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA), where 19 Battalion members were trained, as were the generals who deposed President Zelaya.
Gender Violence
Women often pay a special price during military conquests, and Honduran women have paid dearly for demanding a return to democracy. The IACHR notes that, "in the context of the demonstrations and the repression and detentions carried out by police officers and members of the military, women were especially subject to acts of violence and humiliation because of their gender."
Salvador Zuniga, of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), believes the June coup was prompted in part by a socially conservative religious reaction to feminist organizing around reproductive rights. "What I can say is that the feminist compañeras (companions or comrades) are in greater danger than any other organization," he says.
A young mother named Irma Villanueva made her own story public in mid-August. She told Radio Progreso how she had been arrested at a recent demonstration and then raped by four policemen. One of the rapists implied they were punishing Villanueva for her political activity: "[N]ow you're going to see what happens to you for being where you shouldn't be."
Villanueva is not alone. Honduran Feminists in Resistance, a group formed immediately after the coup, reported to the Latin American Herald Tribune on September 3 that they had documented 19 cases of rape committed by Honduran police. Honduran feminists believe that this number is probably conservative.
Yet despite and perhaps because of all this, Women's Human Rights Week was vigorously observed in Honduras in August. An international fact-finding mission participated, speaking with representatives of the European Union and United Nations in Honduras, local authorities, lawyers, academics, human-rights workers, and popular organizations. The mission reports that, according to the special prosecutor for women, 51 Honduran women were murdered in the month of July; the mission calculates that "femicide has increased by at least 60 percent."
Women Respond
The Feminists in Resistance wrote Obama a rather "tough love" open letter in July. "Mr. President, Honduras was among the countries in the world that saw with great hope your arrival to the presidency…We applauded your expressed desire to establish [a] new type [of] relations with the region." But six months and many deaths later, their great hope is on hold. There is suspicion of U.S. actors, rogue or otherwise, having been complicit in the coup. At the very least, the Feminists in Resistance see the Obama administration's response to the coup as weak and "leading to a situation of violence in our country that we do not deserve."
And U.S. activists have appealed to Secretary of State Clinton as an advocate for women. Women of Steel, an organization within the United Steelworkers, wrote Clinton on August 31, asking her "to denounce this violence (against Honduran women) just as you have recently denounced such violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo."
Clearly, the Honduran crisis is a real opportunity for Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to prove their human-rights and feminist mettle. Conversely, a failure of resolve toward the illicit and abusive coup regime could do lasting harm to Obama's and Clinton's political credibility — and cost many more Honduran lives.
12 Comments so far
Show AllWomen: Saviors of the world economy?
By Kevin Voigt, CNN
October 26, 2009 -- Updated 0154 GMT (0954 HKT)
A shopper exiting a mall in China, where females under 35 are boosting domestic consumption.
A shopper exiting a mall in China, where females under 35 are boosting domestic consumption.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* The earning power of women globally is expected to reach $18 trillion by 2014
* That's more than the estimated GDPs of India and China combined
* Women consumers are most frustrated with financial service providers
(CNN) -- The largest growing economic force in the world isn't the China or India -- it's women.
The earning power of women globally is expected to reach $18 trillion by 2014 -- a $5 trillion rise for current income, according to World Bank estimates. That is more than twice the estimated 2014 GDP of China and India combined.
For companies, the growing economic power of women would seem an obvious market to capture. But according to a global study by the Boston Consulting Group, women feel at best underserved by companies, and at worst ignored.
"The current way companies appeal to women is to take a male product and paint it pink," said Michael Silverstein, a partner at BCG and coauthor of "Women Want More," a book based on the study results.
He points to Dell Computers ill-fated "Della" Web site launched in May. Aimed at generating more interest with female consumers, "Della" was dropped after a backlash of criticism that the site was patronizing (example from an article on the site: "You'll find netbooks can do a lot more than check your e-mail.")
"Women found it insulting," he said.
For women, the worst offender is the financial services industry. The BCG survey of 12,000 women in 40 regions around the world found that financial services -- such as providing ibanking, investment and insurance products and advice -- are worst at connecting with female consumers.
In doing so, the industries risk alienating the greatest growing spending bloc on the planet, Silverstein argues. Whether in the workforce or not, women are increasingly the drivers of consumer spending. Women globally control $20 trillion in annual consumer spending; by 2014 that could climb to $28 trillion.
The current way companies appeal to women is to take a male product and paint it pink.
--Michael Silverstein, a partner at BCG
The economic story of burgeoning economies such as China is also the story of "factory girls," young women who have found new spending power as a result of new economic opportunities. Despite the financial crisis, domestic spending in the first nine months of this year was up 15 percent, driven in large part by women under the age of 35, said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group.
"Women are starting to make as much, if not more, than men, especially in third and fourth-tier cities," Rein said.
Hidden in the bad news of unemployment in the most recent U.S. labor report was a historic statistic that underlines the growing importance of "womenonics" -- for the first time, the number of working women in the world's largest market was virtually equal to the number of men. By the end of the year, working women in the U.S. are expected to outnumber men.
That is not to say women have reached workplace parity in the U.S. -- women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar men do. And the ranks of female CEOs are still thin. "Most of the big companies are worked by men, for men," Silverstein said. "Only 38 or so of the top 400 companies are run by women."
He recalls a meeting with the head of a large U.S. bank and the female head of investment banking. "He was your classic bankers, in his 50s, being very dismissive of the ideas (of capturing female consumers)," Silverstein said. "She was practically banging her fists on the table. Afterward he said, 'Back off baby, there are bigger fish to fry'."
The trouble for women -- be they working women seeking small loans or entrepreneurs trying to attract venture capital -- is a problem of access and information, said Teri Cavanaugh, head of strategy for the Global Banking Alliance for Women.
"Men in business have mentors; women don't," she said. "Women really want to have relationships with their bank, information and advice ... but banks are not geared that way."
While women in developed markets bemoan disconnect with financial services, in the developing world financial programs aimed to lift families out of poverty are focused on women. Microfinancing gives small, short-term loans almost exclusively to women, because studies show women are most likely to invest in the welfare of the family and -- importantly -- pay loans back on time.
"One of the most difficult things about being poor is that your income is lumpy," says Sarah Mavrinac, a former INSEAD finance professor and president of Aidha, a Singapore group that aids immigrant workers. "It's $10 one day and then nothing for a while. Microfinance helps ensure that food still appears on the table for the children when income dries up periodically."
Even immigrant workers who have a steady income have trouble getting help from banks. When Mavrinac approached banks to encourage savings accounts aimed at migrant workers, the banks weren't interested. "They aren't interested in short-term savings or high transaction accounts," she said.
Last year, cash remittances to home countries from migrant workers was more than $300 billion, according to the World Bank. And even though they make on average less than men, the majority of the cash was from female workers. "Banks are clearly missing out here," Mavrinac said.
I have lived and worked in Honduras and other Latin American countries. The suffering of women in Honduras did not start and will not end with the issue of Zeleya's presidency. They face the same issues throughout the region. While I have my own opinion on the many issues facing Honduras, thse are issues that Honduras must face and solve themselves. Zeleya is only one of them. Allowing either the US or any other country to dictate terms is wrong. Hopefully, both sides will put forth candidates in the upcoming elections that the country can rally behind. With new elections hopefully the rights of women can again become a major issue and not pushed to the back burner.
"Clearly, the Honduran crisis is a real opportunity for Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to prove their human-rights and feminist mettle."
______________________________________
Either I'm becoming more sensitive to this, or there really ARE more and more articles written in the present but reflecting an odd lag in perception.
The Nobel Committee may as well have been down in a Biosphere all year; CD publishes articles almost daily in which pundits claim Obama is on the verge of some momentous opportunity, or equally on the verge of letting some momentous opportunity slip away.
The rhetorical hook of the "critical moment" is becoming a more interesting artifact than the putative crises hung upon it.
Team Obama has been content to let Zelaya and the people of Honduras twist slowly in the wind since the coup, except for some listless and feeble finger-wagging towards the coup leadership.
Why is it hard for me to believe that Obama and Clinton's hearts are burning-- or are even capable of being kindled-- over the plight of women in Honduras, Afghanistan, or anywhere else? Excluding, of course, wherever they and the female members of their immediate families happen to be living.
· Yr Obd't Servant
"Women often pay a special price during military conquests..."
The men do the fighting, bleeding, and dying but the women pay a special price? This is a gender biased article. Could we get some numbers on the Hondorun men so that we know for sure that it's the women more than the men who suffer the most? Fewer women go into fighting than the men and some women societally pressure their men into combat or else. Where's the mourning for men?
I get that but on the same token do you really think soddamized male victims feel any better about it? Reporting too much of one gender over the other isn't helpful.
Hmm... I can see why, even if you were an Earthling, you'd still be a bachelor.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Both men and women in Honduras are victims. To say that women are the biggest victims is to say that all people are created equal but some people are created mroe equal than others.
About my name, I like it and I'm a proud 39 year old bachelor. Better to be strong and single than risk losing my strength to feminism tickling me out. Can't be too nice in serving those who bite my hands that feed.
The situation will worsen, as the talks/negotiations have broken down.
They are over, and Pinochetti continues to run out the clock.
Sometimes I wonder if things will really change for women. Since the beginning of time we women have been seen as nothing but property and not as human beings with rights. Will women's cries for help continued to be ignored and nothing changes? I am afraid the answer is yes, women will continue to be raped and no one will really care enough to speak up and fight for women around the world.
The worst thing about reading this article is realizing that we aren't far from the same situation in the US.
For the life of me, I cannot understand the right-wing fear of women's freedoms.
q
I refuse to have anything to do with the corporations behind this coup. No more bananas for this kid.