International Women’s Day: Progress on Global Gender Equality — House of Lords, 2018-03-08
Topic: Civil Rights
Zahida Manzoor (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, who I know does a tremendous amount of work in the LGBT community. I thank the Government for making the time available for today’s debate, which demonstrates the importance they place on improving women’s lives in the UK and around the world History is littered with examples where those who have power do not want to share that power or have used it to disadvantage or exclude others. We have only to look back 100 years to the suffragettes to see the monumental struggles they went through to get the vote for women. Those struggles mean that women in the UK are now entitled to vote, have an education, work and have personal financial security. They can choose if, who and when to marry, and are liberated by access to family planning and health services. This is all underpinned by important equality legislation. I welcome these and many other improvements to women’s lives, and celebrate the huge progress made However, there remain ingrained negative cultural attitudes towards women, and disproportionately more to black and ethnic minority women. I have recently been asked to be a panel member for a documentary film directed by Nancy Buirski, "The Rape of Recy Taylor". Recy Taylor was a 24 year-old black mother who was kidnapped at gunpoint as she walked home from church. She was blindfolded and gang-raped by six white boys in 1944, in Alabama. Few women, particularly black women, spoke of such attacks for fear of their lives and the lives of their loved ones but Recy Taylor courageously identified her rapists The law failed Recy Taylor and white media outlets ignored her story. Sexual violence against women of colour in the 1940s went largely unpunished. As the director of the film says: "Back then, people recognized rape was a crime. Certainly it was in terms of law, but it wasn’t treated that way in terms of the culture. Men were taking advantage of women with impunity, and it was a legacy handed down from slavery, where white men owned their women slaves and their bodies" The issue of those who have power and those who do not is important. It is about not just legal rights but responsibilities, cultural norms and the social acceptance of attitudes. In Recy Taylor’s case, it took a powerful group of people to draw attention to those who had no power before people began to take action and the civil rights movement began Today, we have seen a wave of sexual assault claims against men in positions of power and gangs of men working together to sexually groom and abuse young, vulnerable girls in places such as Rotherham, Rochdale and Oxford. As a former trustee of the NSPCC, I know of the devastating impact these predatory behaviours can have on individuals and their families. So, culturally, has our society really moved on when sexual harassment and abuse claims are so prevalent? The answer has to be yes, because we have stronger safeguarding mechanisms in place today and more people are encouraged to speak out—and do so courageously. To that end, campaigns such as #MeToo and #TimesUp are significant. But many girls and women around the world cannot speak out; like Recy Taylor, they are given no voice. They have no education, no money and little or no say in what happens in their lives or their futures. Around the world we still have child marriages, the rape of young girls, and girls and women enslaved in prostitution and in enforced labour. Child marriage remains a huge issue for many in countries such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India and Afghanistan. Despite the welcome progress that has been made, as stated by UNICEF earlier this week, one in five children is married before the age of 16. Girls from the poorest families are the most disadvantaged and are likely to be married much earlier than their wealthier counterparts As part of the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, the UK provided technical input into the development of the Afghan national action plan to eliminate early child marriage. I would be grateful if my noble friend the Minister could give an update on that plan and any further work undertaken to eliminate child marriage there. It would also be helpful to understand how the Home Office and DfID are working together to eliminate child marriages in Pakistan for girls under the age of 16. That is because the Girl Summit charter in 2015 on ending FGM and child, early and forced marriage included the signatories of some Asian countries—Bangladesh and Nepal—but not those of Pakistan or Afghanistan, even though some individuals and NGOs from Afghanistan and Pakistan did sign the charter. However, it is very regrettable that some NGOs working with disadvantaged women have now been given three months’ notice to leave Pakistan. How are the Government monitoring this situation, and monitoring and progressing the support given through their aid in Pakistan, so that the work relating to enhancing women’s rights and lives is not further eroded Despite the Prime Minister making combating modern slavery one of the UK’s top foreign policy priorities, increasing numbers of girls and women are attracted by false promises of marriage and being trafficked into the UK and Europe for the sex trade and into forced labour. More needs to be done to stop this terrible crime, aided by more prosecutions and convictions of the smugglers. Tackling modern slavery is an enormous challenge but it also provides an opportunity for the international community and the UN system to show how it can come together to provide a co-ordinated and coherent response. I would like reassurance from the Minister on how this is being achieved from a UK perspective A UN report says that deep-seated attitudes of men towards women contribute to this problem. Are these deep-seated attitudes towards women to blame for the world's inertia when, despite significant modern technology, 300 girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria in 2014, and a further 110 girls from their classrooms only a few weeks back While the relationship between insecurity and poverty is obvious, our Government and the UN must seek to tackle instability and terrorism. Girls should not be at risk simply because they want an education. Like the Pakistani economy, the Nigerian economy will not flourish under the instability caused by terrorism and the poor education of girls. I am pleased that in January the Government published their fourth UK National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, announcing that championing girls’ education to promote global stability will be at the heart of UK foreign development. I welcome this, but I stress that there are two top planned spending programmes in Pakistan from DfID to the tune of £75.4 million and a further £43.9 million. How is this money being spent, bearing in mind the levels of corruption in Pakistan and the fact that certain NGOs are being asked to leave We are richer when we give our girls and women the opportunities to flourish; through our contribution to international aid we are keeping women around the world safer, healthier and better educated. As the noble Baroness, Lady Browning, said, we need to tackle attitudes and there needs to be much greater leadership if we really are going to make this work for girls and women. To that end, I urge every woman and man to do much more.