The
other day the office was calm and as usually I was skipping through a pile of Dominican
newspapers to finish the daily press analysis. Basically, I am responsible to
mark all articles remotely interesting for the embassy or covering Germany in
general. Suddenly, my boss was standing in front of me and I nearly fell of my
chair while burning my tongue on a mouthful of hot coffee. I always listen to
salsa music when doing the press research and I did not hear her coming in at
all. The proposal she had for me, I can happily say, would soon develop into
one of the most interesting days of my entire internship. She, together with
the department of economic cooperation, proposed that, if I am up for the
challenge, I could attend tomorrow's gathering of the World Bank. Hello?! Of
course, I agreed to do this! It meant a great deal to me that she actually
thought me capable to represent the embassy and I would be able to gain incomparable experience with one of the most influential international organizations of the world. Some mails were sent back and forth and at the end of
the day I was given a huge file on the current project. So, there I was, Mrs.
Lisa casually preparing to go to the World Bank gathering covering gender
violence, women's rights and the overall situation of women in the Dominican Republic
(DR).
Women in the Dominican Republic
Most
of you guys are probably unfamiliar with the general situation of woman in the
DR. Although, you might have heard something about sex-tourism or machismo
somewhere, I advise you to take a look at the following references to better
understand the specifics and get some background information.
Check out this news coverage of a protest against domestic violence and feminicidos in Santo Domingo from Octobre 2012 (Spanish). All women wore bridal dresses and a black veil, the traditional sign of grief.
Information in English:
DR1
news overview on: Machismo in the DR
For those of you fortunate enough
to speak Spanish:
ProFamilia Website (most active and leading NGO on sexual and reproductive health service)
In
summary, there exists a visible progress to improve the
situation of woman and getting gender violence on the political agenda. This
can be seen for example with the newly established law on femicides (I don’t
know if that’s even an English word: a feminine homicide???), sexual education
campaigning and increase media coverage as well as awarenes within civil society groups. Yet, many women fear the reprecussions of reporting violence and do not even try once it happened. This behaviour is supported by an insufficient legal system and machismo culture.
I
am not a Dominican, nor am I a scholar specialized in women rights or gender
studies. However, I have lived in this fascinating country for 4 months and I
think I am able to form my own opinion. First of all, I think
of myself to be a more or less free and empowered woman. I have been educated
in a liberal western democracy and I like the idea that strong woman are able
to realize their full potential and capabilities. Basically the sex shouldn’t
be that big of a deal as long as you take an educated and enlightened decision
that reflects your free will. … Oh what a perfect world! You could be a super
awesome career power business lady/man, raise your own kids and take care of
the family or maybe even do both things at the same time. Unfortunately, as always,
this maxim might be far from reality. Some tough, life-changing decisions are
not always taken knowingly and depend on the individuals and the situation. You might
suddenly find yourself bringing your son to school while you actually wanted to
finish your degree first before even considering kids but that one night you
were drunk and the guy was so cute…. and so on. Well, that’s life and it’s a
bitch at times. The important thing is that you have the possibility and
education, if you act stupid anyway, well, carpe diem!
A Selection of Anti-Violence campaigns and protests
The World Bank meeting:
The
meeting took place in the office of the IMF and World Bank in Santo Domingo,
which are both located in the fancy 'Novo Centro'. Fresh Orange Juice, Coffee
and breakfast snacks had been prepared for everybody. Hence, I would return for
the food any day! I was really tired because I was up late since I had to read up
on the current project after salsa class. That morning I wore one of my best business-lady
outfits, to feel extra confident, and I prepared a list with Spanish words I
could casually throw into the discussion if necessary to seem super cool. I had
to present the German project in front of all these people in Spanish but I was
feeling a little sick after all. My thoughts kept on spinning around Günther Öttinger
and Guido Westerwelle’s embarrassing English. (Both are German politicians that
cannot speak English well but, due to the nature of their job with the foreign
office, have to use English occasionally. This language dilemma usually ends in
national embarrassment.) I was really nervous when I entered and suddenly
remembered my ‘International Negotiations Course’ at University. We all pretended
to be the Council of Europe, representing different Member States of the
European Union while discussing the accession of Serbia and Turkey. At that
time we were all making fun of the pompous talk and the beating around the
bushes during the sessions. Well, right now, there weren’t that many countries,
only Germany, France, the US; Spain and the EU External Action Service
representatives with their respective advisers and development cooperation
institutions (I hope I have not forgotten anyone). After a some awkward small
talk the meeting started with presentations by the
Dominican ministry of health as well as education, followed by a contributing
presentation by ProFamilia (see above). I don’t want to repeat myself. Basically they
were elaborating on the situation of women and gender violence in particular
concluding that the development of the judicial system to better include crimes
of gender violence such as rape as well as educating policemen and doctors to
detect and treat these crimes appropriately are the next necessary steps to
tackle the problem. You can find more general information about gender and the
role of women in the DR in the links above.
Do
you think those are the best steps to decrease gender violence in the short-
and long-term? Post your opinion in the comment section!
Afterwards,
it was my turn to represent our project, as did the other participants. I was
getting sweaty hands during my talk and I stuttered a little but I managed to
complete everything which made me feel really proud of myself. It was a lot of
talk, as I remembered it correctly from my Negotiations course but what amazed
me were the possibilities of bilateral cooperation that evolved. If countries
are able to cooperate, the impact and power they have is astonishing!
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