To all women: Please Read

A heart-wrenching excerpt from Rina Jimenez-David's article in the Inquirer entitled "Faces of Women in the Tsunami"

" Debra Yatin, who is Unifem gender advisor for relief and recovery efforts in Aceh, pointed out that the disaster has had "different impacts on men and women." Culture and socialization played a big part in making women and girls particularly vulnerable, she said. In a conservative Islamic society, said Yatin, girls are "not encouraged to engage in physical activity." Thus, many of those killed by the huge waves were women and girls who didn't know how to swim or even how to climb trees. But even if they were fortunate enough to survive the water, so many women, said Yatin, were seen "running back to the water to look for babies, the aged and the disabled members of the family."

In the wake of the disaster, when time came to count the number of fatalities, the gender dimension of the crisis came out in stark relief. Yatin cites the count in one district which had 5,500 inhabitants before the tsunami struck, and only 750 survivors afterwards. But of these, only 40 were women and girls.

Other factors contributed to this lopsided death toll. "The tsunami struck on a Sunday," said Yatin, "so most of the women and children were left at home while the men were out in the coffee shops. Thus, when the waves struck, the men were able to help each other while the women and children were isolated at home, without recourse to rescue."

ABOUT the most heart-rending aspect of the tragedy in Aceh, said Yatin, were the judgments rendered on those who perished.

The women victims, pointed out Yatin, were dressed mostly in dresses and saris of flimsy material that could easily be torn off their bodies. Thus, in the aftermath of the tsunami, "many of the bodies of women that were found on the ground up to weeks afterward were naked."

Muslim clerics later preached that the tsunami was an "act of God," with some pointing out that it was a punishment on women who were wearing "loose clothing." These conservative clerics then began to fulminate on their view of "woman as the original sinner who brings tragedy down upon society."

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Damn those clerics. And damn the patriarchal society for doing more harm than good this time. Shit I'm depressed, and infuriated. Ugh! :S