The rejection of indigenous women to the uses and customs that discriminate against them grows

Carolina Gomez Mena

sent

Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday May 21, 2022, p. 4

Tlaxcala, Tlax., Indigenous women are increasingly aware of their human rights, and in this sense they reject those uses and customs that discriminate against them, agreed María-Noel Vaeza, regional director of UN Women; Leticia Bonifaz Alfonzo, expert of the Committee of the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (Cedaw), as well as Tarcila Rivera and Teresa Zapeta, president and executive director of the International Forum of Indigenous Women (FIMI), respectively.

Interviewed at the regional consultation on General Recommendation 39 of the Cedaw Committee on the rights of indigenous women and girls, Vaeza explained that we have to break that circle and Rivera said that change has been brewing for a few decades.

We have rebelled against practices that can be called traditional and that are at odds with human rights. I personally come from a culture in which parents decided who to marry, now the new generations are already deciding when and who to marry, and what they want for their lives and their bodies..

Bonifaz Alfonzo indicated that in general women suffer various types of aggression, but in the indigenous communities they also experience a specific violence, many times derived from uses and customs, which still leave them in the background.

The Mexican jurist expressed to the day that many they do not have political participation or the ability to defend their points of view, because they are silencedadding that the majority of land holders are men, which is why women are excluded from the assemblies.

Zapeta commented that already many parents they are learning and they are modernizing and they want their daughters to study and even become professionals. That is part of the change that we hope for, that we seek, and with Recommendation 39 (which is expected to come into force in October) we hope to envision better conditions for indigenous girls.

Vaeza explained that in the world there are 253 million indigenous women, and in the region there are more or less 50 millionso I trust that Latin America stepped strong in this consultation (which takes place throughout the world), and which will be binding, because it is part of the Cedaw.

He condemned early unions, on which UN Women and Unicef ​​are carrying out an analysis, since in some countries of the region they are rising, while in Africa they are falling.

He explained that in this practice Rape is mixed with poverty, for not being able to support the daughters, so the parents give them away. We have to stop that, especially in indigenous communities.

Regarding the limited access to land by indigenous women, Nadine Gasman, president of Inmujeres, said that the institute works with the Agrarian Attorney’s Office to support women in succession trials.

In 2020, through these trials, 800 women received their property titles; last year, 1,200, and this 2022 we hope there will be 5,000.