Rabuka’s comments ‘rhetoric’

THE Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) coordinator, Shamima Ali, says comments by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka on women’s rights were mere ‘rhetoric’.

In his message on International Women’s Day, Mr Rabuka highlighted that the Coalition Government will advance the progress of women and girls in every facet of development in the country.

While speaking during the Pacific Recycling Foundation’s launch of a report ‘National Mapping Exercise for Collection Pillars of Recycling in Fiji’, Ms Ali said the conversation of topic in Fiji right now was about women’s leadership.

“We are talking about women’s leadership and courage,” she said.

“Today (yesterday), I saw the Prime Minister of this country talking about women’s rights.

“I find a lot of this as rhetoric, the attitudes towards women, so women feel happy about themselves, but actually, we are still struggling to achieve the rights.

“I know these are sometimes uncomfortable issues to talk about.

“Some of you might be following what is happening to the Minister for Women right now, and how she’s been treated and maligned and how she has been systematically targeted to be taken away from leadership roles.”

Ms Ali said women in Fiji needed encouragement instead of being led down.

“We’ve got one of the lowest rates of women’s representation in Parliament.

“If you’re doing it to her (Ms Tabuya), do you think other women will put up their hands?

“No, when we want women’s leadership, we have to ensure we provide an enabling environment.

“Because the playing field is not level at all.

“We live in a patriarchal world. “There is a lot of gender discrimination, gender inequality, underpinned by very high rates of violence against women.

“The last prevalence study showed that 64 per cent of women in this country undergo sexual, physical, and emotional violence.

“And when we’re talking about the 44 per cent of women in the CPR community, there are a lot more vulnerable, and we can imagine what is happening there.”