Canadians must join the fight for women's rights in Africa

Canadians must join the fight for women’s rights in Africa

11 November 2011 One Comment

Domestic abuse victim Aberash Hailay/africanfeminism.wordpress.com

By Samuel Getachew

The best place to find Canadians at our best is often in the rarest of places. It is in the villages of Africa, helping distribute the most basic necessities of life or in the most dangerous of places in times of war keeping peace as envisioned by our Nobel Peace Prize winning Canadian Diplomat, Lester B Pearson generations ago.

Whether we are New Democrats, Liberals, Greens or Conservatives, we have always worn our great mutual citizenship in our heart and, as Bono, reminded us, “The world needs more Canada”

As an activist, I have tried to live the great words of John Diefenbaker taken from the Canadian Bill of Rights of 1960 to heart – “I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind”.

As much as the issues at home concern me a great deal, as an immigrant, I am often taken to heart what happens to a country I left as a young man generations ago. My home country – Ethiopia – has been through war, famine, successive broken governments and civil unrest.

However, the issue that has concerned me a great deal in recent weeks is the story of a young woman named, Aberash Hailay.

Aberash Hailay was a successful public servant. She held the position of an Ethiopian airline flight attendant in a country that holds the occupation in very high esteem. On September 19^th of this year, a week after the Ethiopian New Year’s (Ethiopians follow the ancient Julian calendar), she became a victim of a horrendous crime. Her ex-husband of seven years stabbed both her eyes with a knife.

Even though doctors in Addis Ababa and later in Thailand tried to retain her sight back, it was later ruled out the chances of survivability. According to witnesses, she was subjected to “multiple stabs in many directions which made it near impossible for surgeons to even sew shut the gaping socket which once housed her eyes”. She was a young woman in her 20s and in the prime of her life, lost both her eyes. Her struggle is a larger representation of real everyday stories we often hear about the lack of equality for women all over Africa.

How does a story so far removed from my and many Canadians’ everyday reality affect us? For myself, it has motivated me to study law in human rights and fight for the rights for girls and women in Africa. For other Canadians? It is my hope that we continue to look beyond our own backyard to celebrate the unique qualities and characteristics that have made our Canada different than most countries.

A great friend of Ethiopia, former Canadian ambassador David MacDonald, once shared with me a story of how Canadians contributed to the betterment of Ethiopia during the famine crises in 1984. As an emergency coordinator of the Canadian effort, it almost became a challenging task to handle thousands of requests of simply, “Tell us what we can do to help.” People like Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and Liberal MP John Godfrey literally rented planes to help deliver food.

I have seen the image of the then Canadian Foreign Minister Joe Clark break down in tears when he was shown images of starving children at Addis Ababa International Airport by the great CBC journalist Brian Stewart.

History has recorded that Brian Mulroney made foreign aid and development the central goal of his administration after the Ethiopian famine along with fighting apartheid in South Africa.

One of the more respected NGO’s in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association has a simple request from all citizens of the world. The request is have us sign the petition “Ethiopian Government to oppose violence committed against women.” According to the esteemed group , “Her wounds and her pain are symbolic of a dysfunctional society stained by the tears and blood of countless women whose cries and plea have often gone unheard and silenced by the taboos of culture.” The petition can be found on www.change.org

It just might be our most powerful contribution to fight all kinds of ills in Ethiopia. As former Ottawa mayor Marion Dewar, used to say, “To end global poverty and injustice, we need to recognize and nurture women’s leadership.”