By JOEL BRINKLEY
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Ing Kantha Phavi is an impressive woman. She's a medical doctor, a specialist in tropical diseases, but also Cambodia's minister of women's affairs.
Male-hierarchical societies dominate Asia, and Cambodia is no exception. In this region, women's affairs offices are generally show-piece ministries. Presidents and prime ministers parade their women's affairs ministers before visiting Western leaders as unconvincing demonstrations of their interest in gender equality.
If Ing were the sort of person who could accept that, her ministry would fit nicely into this paradigm. But she's not. Still, her challenges are Herculean. As she told an interviewer last year: "When you come up against these male dinosaurs, do you sometimes feel like giving up? I feel like giving up always."
Nonetheless, four years ago, she pushed a bill through the national assembly that, for the first time, made it illegal for men to beat their wives and children. Domestic violence is an endemic problem here. Arguing for the legislation then, she cited statistics showing that almost one-quarter of the nation's women are beaten or otherwise abused by their husbands - sometimes even murdered. But that's a family matter, the male legislators argued. Why are you bringing us another one of those liberal Western fads?
"They treated me like a revolutionary," she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment