Mainstreaming gender issues in the Burmese refugee camps
By Moo Ko Htee
Life for all refugees is difficult. After
making the difficult journey from their
homelands where they were persecuted to another country seeking asylum, the journey to safety and a life with dignity rarely ends there. Refugees are often further marginalized in their country of asylum, treated with distain by the local authorities and population, and in the case of the Burmese refugees in Thailand herded into too small, fenced enclosures like animals. Despite this, a semblance of a normal life emerges, however, as traditional life has been violently disrupted, violence has ebbed its way into life in the camps, placing women in a precariously vulnerable position.
...the
journey to safety and a life with dignity rarely ends
there.
Traditional village life cannot continue in the camps. The hardest hit by this, are male members of the community. While women are still able to fulfill some of their traditional roles, such as taking care of the family home, the men have lost their ability to provide for their families and have become completely dependent on international organisations. In some ethnic groups from Burma, there is a great sense of pride in being able to eat food that you have grown with your own hands. However, in the camps families are dependent on humanitarian assistance to sustain them: food rations, building materials, health and education. Furthermore, there are few employment opportunities, and for those who have these opportunities they still rely on organisations to provide basic necessities as their income is not enough to support a family.
As a consequence many men feel that they have lost their dignity. Combined with the constant idleness and the fact that this protracted situation has no end in sight, alcohol and drug addiction has emerged among members of the refugee population, which in turn creates undue strain on family structures and in some instances results in domestic violence and sexual abuse.
Whilst abuse does occur within the refugee community, women are also vulnerable to abuse from local authorities. As women are dependent on international organisations for food, basic necessities and other assistance, this can create an environment where female refugees are vulnerable to exploitation in exchange for assistance. Instances have been reported in the camps with regards to resettlement applications where female refugees are promised to be “moved up” on the list for resettlement in exchange for sexual favours or threatened to be taken off the list if no favours were given by local authorities. Given the isolation of the refugee camps, limited access of international organisations to these sites and the fact that it was the local authorities who were there to supposedly protect the refugees were the one’s exploiting the situation, it placed the women who were propositioned in an especially vulnerable situation with few avenues to turn to for help.
Despite the knowledge of the abuse, within the camps a culture of impunity exists among the local authorities. Issues with local authorities are difficult to raise, due to the power they have over the refugee population and fear of retribution. Even where there are clearly defined processes for addressing issues, refugees are still very hesitant to follow them out of a genuine fear, but also due to the fact that in the past these processes have not proven to be effective. Situations have continued even when refugees have raised very real issues and consequently they do not trust these systems.
However, the refugee camp’s leadership structures, which are made up of refugees, often do not fully represent the community. As there is a lack of female representation in these structures women’s issues are often not formally brought forward within these committees and are not seen as being important for the whole community. However, as women comprise of more than half the Burmese refugee population in Thailand, the outputs of these committees fail to meet the needs of the refugee population. If the refugee committees reflected a more emancipated approach to equality in representation, there most likely would be a more realistic opportunity to address gender inequality within in the refugee population.
However mainstreaming gender in the camp is difficult. Arguments are made that it is the women who are at fault because they do not take opportunities or assistance offered to them and that they are content with the situation because they do not speak up. Others say that this is against the tradition and culture and is just a foreign idea aimed at colonizing their traditional culture. Religious beliefs often perpetuate inequality due to the belief that God deemed one gender superior to another, for example, men are more important as God created women from men by using Adam’s rib to create Eve. Others argue gender fatigue, saying that they have heard so much about it, that it has been addressed and no longer needs any attention.
That said there are organisations trying to address this issue and to empower women to take a more active role in their own lives and in community life. These organisations working with women in the camp, especially those led by local women themselves have made great leaps forward. For the most part, women are very aware of their rights and have a genuine understanding of them. There have been initiatives to make women more self-sustainable through income generation programmes for instances where hand woven products made by the women are exchanged for necessary items, such as baby kits. These organisations also do advocacy and lobbying work with male members of the community and with camp leadership structures to try and bring forward the voice of women who, in the past, have been excluded. These efforts aim to empower women so that they have the capacity and confidence to participate in all sectors of camp life, and to create the space for them to contribute.
However, this is difficult task, as it involves breaking down long-held cultural perceptions – some of which people are not willing to genuinely address. Instead delaying tactics are used often, such as: we will take action in due course, but the time is not right yet; discussions of the problem without turning discussions into action; tokenism; undertaking initial efforts and then shelving them and creating initiatives that are destined to fail, for example establishing a committee that can never meet or appointing a person with no power or ability to achieve change.
While the women in the refugee camps are doing what they can to survive and potentially overcome some of these hardships, they cannot do it alone. Sadly, while some members of the refugee committees and population are genuinely unaware of the additional hardships women face, others, who potentially can help, are aware but pretend not to be. It is easier to awaken those who are genuinely asleep, than those who are pretending to be. By strengthening and including all sectors of society, including women, it will create a truly participatory community – something that the people of Burma say that they want. If the people of Burma are serious in their desire for a participatory community this creation cannot wait until the regime in Burma is gone. The change needs to begin today. It is time for all those who are asleep, including those who are only pretending to sleep, to be awakened once and for all and to take those scary steps forward. It is time to stop talking about a better future and to make that change today.
To read the other articles in the March 2008 Newsletter please click on the links below:
...the
journey to safety and a life with dignity rarely ends
there.
