Views about gender equality

Sunday February 15h 2009 there was an article in the Finnish national newspaper Helsingin Sanomat about the Taliban in the Swat valley of Pakistan. According to the article people in the area are to listen to the radio daily and follow the rules of how to behave. The rules are set by the Taleban. One of the rules is to not let girls go to school. First idea that came to my head was: why are girls and women seen as such a threat in some cultures?!

I got one answer from a dedicated female muslim, Ms. Raquel Evita Saraswati from the United States, who states in an interview in Helsingin Sanomat on February 21st 2009, that "The Koran engourages towards gender equality, but women as a group are seen as second class citizens amongst the islamists and fundamentalists, and in areas where these groups are in power, women are in great danger. Gender and sexuality are questions of life and death for muslims". Ms. Saraswati states further that all of the violent customs that a large number of women are exposed to are ways to suppres women in the name of religion.

Interesting contradiction concerning gender equality appears by viewing another headline in Helsingin Sanomat on February 14th 2009 about a female terrorist killing tens of people in Iraq. The headline of the article started with the word “Femaleterrorist”. I could not but wonder, if I have ever seen a headline “Maleterrorist”. This lead me thinking about the transparent, yet very meaningful “gender equality in terrorism” concerning acts of violence: the act has been especially meaningful, even especially brutal if the perpetrator was a women.

Is violence than more extreme when done by a woman? This particular individual of whom the article was written about had put a bomb under her clothes and exploded herself in a tent full of women and children, resting while participating in a pilgrimage. Had she been a he, they would’ve addressed him as a suisidebomber.

Islam is not the only religion that doesn't value women equally with men. There are male priests and other employees in some perishes in Finland, who refuse to work side by side with female priests. In March 2009 a few middle aged youth workers in a perish in Finland were permanently fired from their jobs because of their gender-discriminative convictions.

Back to the Taliban in the Swat valley, the fact that they so desperately want to stop girls from getting an education, is almost as if they acknowledge the fact, that giving girls and women access to education does benefit the person in question, as well as the entire community significantly. Endless efforts on making education possible for all people, universally, is a tremendously important task.