The UN designated Oct. 11 as the first International Day of the Girl Child, calling on countries to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face. It also expressed the hope that countries around the world would promote the day and celebrate it each year.
The UN said that paying increased attention to the needs of females can spur economic growth and help eliminate poverty. Allowing women to take an active part in decisions that affect them is an integral part of breaking the cycle of violence that affects females and further developing and protecting their human rights.
Unfortunately though, our government has been slow to respond, despite petitions from the Garden of Hope Foundation and many individual women.
Vice Premier Jiang Yi-hua (江宜樺) decided to hold off on deciding whether to declare a “Taiwan Girls’ Day” and asked whether Taiwan would need a special day for males if one was allocated for females. He also questioned whether such a day would become too commercial and even said that Taiwanese females already have it good, questioning the need for any such day at all.
The Garden of Hope Foundation has held the Annual Formosa Daughters event for 10 years in a row. This year we also hosted the Asian Girls’ Rights Campaign, which brought together 80 organizations from 15 countries representing 100,000 females from across Asia.
In contrast, our government has missed an opportunity to lead Asia in establishing a special day for females here in Taiwan, which is highly regrettable. Government support would send out a statement while also showing resolve to pay more attention to women’s issues.
If we take a look at their personal rights, their rights in the media, their rights to health, personal safety and their educational rights, it is easy to see that many young Taiwanese females grow up suffering from discrimination.
Many babies are selected for their gender and many females are never born. The media creates negative self-images among females and this has severely damaged the self-esteem of countless women.
To cater to media-generated stereotypes as well as warped male concepts of female beauty, many women blindly accept ideas like fad dieting and cosmetic surgery. Many young females also get illegal abortions and give birth to unreported children, which can endanger their health. Indeed, the personal safety of females is an area that is one of the biggest challenges of all.
The main reason for these problems is because, from a young age, Taiwanese females are never treated in a fair and serious manner and grow up facing discrimination at home, at school and in broader society.
Many young Taiwanese females develop a negative self-image as a result and related problems such as prostitution, sexual harassment, sexual assault, teenage pregnancies, eating disorders and cosmetic surgery are rampant. Taiwan needs a special day for females and we also need the government to show its resolve, to treat females better and to empower them.
I would like to tell all females in Taiwan not to despair if our country does not care about our needs and is unwilling to give us a special day of our own. We can all cheer now that the first International Day of the Girl Child has been held.
I would also like to encourage every female in Taiwan to declare that she will live a better life and that one day we will have the final say in establishing a special day here in Taiwan for females.
Chi Hui-jung is executive director of the Garden of Hope Foundation.
Translated by Drew Cameron
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry