Men Need To Change Attitude Towards Women, Girls: Akbar

Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Rosy Akbar has called on men to change their attitude towards women and girls. Minister Akbar made this comment while answering a question from the audience at the Parliament Speaker’s Debate held at the Grand Pacific Hotel, in Suva last night. The Speaker’s Debate was for the elected representatives, Ms Akbar, Deputy Chair for the Standing Committee on Social Affairs Salote Radrodro, Police Commissioner Brigadier- General Sitiveni Qiliho, Team Leader for Fiji Women’s Rights Movement Maraia Tabunakawai, Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma minister Reverend Iliesa Naivalu, and Speaker of Parliament Dr Jiko Luveni, to share their views and discussions in relation to women and violence. “It is about how our attitude is towards women and girls. If we continue to think that women and girls could be beaten up and assaulted , then it is our mind, our attitude that needs to be changed,” Ms Akbar said. “Women and men deserve to be treated equally. Forget about what they wear, what they do as it should not be a factor just because she is born a woman. There are good men who respect women and I respect those men. I request those good men to come forward and be a role model for our society.” Ms Radrodro said it could not be stated whether there was progress made in terms of the reality on the ground. “Because of the absence of statistics, we cannot say whether we have been successful with our awareness programmes or not,” Ms Radrodro said. “But women need to be strong and come forward to fight against violence and assaults. We stand to take our stand.” Brigadier- General Qiliho said: “Compared to 2015, we have more number of cases recorded in 2016 than the previous year. “I would like for women and children to come forward and report for violence against them so we could make our society a much safer place,” he said. Speaker of the Parliament Dr Luveni said violence was a major issues in the society and there was work done to eliminate it. “Violence against women and girls has negative consequences for women but also impacts on their families, the community and the country at large,” Dr Luveni said. Edited by Rusiate Mataika