By Mariela Jara
CUZCO, Peru , Oct 6 2022 – “My father was very ‘machista’, he used to beat my mother… It was a very sad life,” said Dionisio Ticuña, a resident of the rural community of Canincunca, on the outskirts of the town of Huaro, in the southern Peruvian highlands region of Cuzco more than 3,000 meters above sea level.

Today, at 66 years of age, he is happy that he managed to not copy the model of masculinity that his father showed him, in which being a man was demonstrated by exercising power and violence over women and children.”I have been married to my wife Delia for 35 years, we have raised our children and I can say that you feel great peace when you learn to respect your partner and to show your innermost emotions.” — Dionisio Ticuña

“Now I am an enemy of the ‘wife beaters’, I don’t hang out with the ones who were raised that way and I don’t pay attention to the taunts or ugly things they might say to me,” he said in an interview with IPS in his new adobe house, which he built in 2020 and where he lives with his wife and their youngest daughter, 20. Their three other children, two boys and a girl, have already become independent.

In this South American country of 33 million people, tolerance of violence, particularly gender-based violence, is high, and there is a strong division of roles within couples.

A nationwide survey on social relationships, conducted in 2019 by the governmental National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI), showed that 52 percent of women believed they should first fulfill their role as mothers and wives before pursuing their dreams, 33 percent believed that if they were unfaithful they should be punished by their husband, and 27 percent said they deserved to be punished if they disrespected their husband.

The survey also found that a high proportion of Peruvians agreed with the physical punishment of children. Of those interviewed, 46 percent thought it was a parental right and 34 percent believed it helped discipline children so they would not become lazy.

Katherine Pozo, a Cuzco lawyer with the rural development program of the Flora Tristán Peruvian Women’s Center, told IPS that masculinity in Peru, particularly in rural areas, is still very machista or sexist.

“The ideas acquired in childhood and transmitted from generation to generation are that men have power over women, that women owe them obedience, and that women’s role is to take care of their men and take care of the home and the family. This thinking is an obstacle to the integral experience of their masculinities and to the recognition of women’s rights,” she said in an interview at her home in Cuzco, the regional capital.

Dionisio Ticuña, a resident of the rural community of Canincunca, in the Andean region of Cuzco in southern Peru, stands in front of his new adobe house, built in 2020. At the age of 66, he has achieved the tranquility of a life without machismo, which he experienced as a child in his family. CREDIT: Mariela Jara/IPS

Based on that analysis the Center decided to involve men in the work they do in rural communities in Cuzco to help women exercise their rights and have greater autonomy in making decisions about their lives, promoting the approach to a new kind of masculinity among men.

In 2018 the Center launched this process, convinced that it was necessary to raise awareness among men about gender equality so that women’s efforts to break down discrimination could flourish. The project will continue until next year and is supported by two Spanish institutions: the Basque Agency for Development Cooperation and Muguen Gainetik.

IPS visited different Quechua indigenous villages in Cuzco´s Andes highlands to talk to farmers who are working to shed gender prejudices and beliefs that, they acknowledge, have brought them unhappiness. Now, they are gradually taking significant steps with the support of the Center, which is working to generate a new view of masculinity in these communities.

“I have been married to my wife Delia for 35 years, we have raised our children and I can say that you feel great peace when you learn to respect your partner and to show your innermost emotions,” said Ticuña, a participant in the initiative.

“Being head of household is hard, but it doesn’t give me the right to mistreat. I decided not to be like my father and to be a different kind of person in order to lead a happy life with her and our children,” he said, sitting at the entrance to his home in Canincunca.

Hilario Quispe, a farmer from the Secsencalla farming community in the town of Andahuaylillas, in the Peruvian highlands region of Cuzco, poses for a photo with his wife Hilaria Mena. For him it was a revelation to understand that the tasks she performs at home are work, and his commitment now is to share them. CREDIT: Mariela Jara/IPS

Recognizing that women do work

Hilario Quispe, a 49-year-old farmer from the Secsencalla community in the town of Andahuaylillas, told IPS that in his area there is a great deal of machismo.

In his home, at 3100 meters above sea level, he said that he has been able to understand that women also work when they are at home.

“Actually, they do more than men, we have only one job, but they wash, cook, weave, take care of the children, look after the animals, go out to the fields…And I used to say: my wife doesn’t work,” he reflected.

Because of the distribution of tasks based on stereotyped gender roles, women spend more time than men on unremunerated care tasks in the household.

INEI reported in 2021 that in the different regions of the country, Peruvian women have a greater overall workload than men because the family responsibilities fall on their shoulders.

In rural areas, women work an average of 76 hours per week, 47 of which are in unpaid activities involving work in the home, both caring for their families and their crops.

In the case of men, their overall workload is 64 hours per week, most of which, 44 hours, are devoted to paid work.

Saúl Huamán is a family farmer in the rural community of Secsencalla. He recognizes that machismo is still a daily reality in Peru’s Andes highlands regions, but he strives to demonstrate day by day that he can be different and can achieve a life based on respect with his partner and their six-month-old son, Luas. CREDIT: Mariela Jara/IPS

Breaking down stereotypes

Pozo, with the Flora Tristán Center, cited data from the official report that found that in the countryside, married women spend 17 hours a week in kitchen activities and men only four; in housekeeping seven and their partners three; and in childcare 11 and their husbands seven.

Quispe, who with his wife, Hilaria Mena, has four children between the ages of six and 17, said it was a revelation to understand that the different activities his wife performs at home are work.

“If she wasn’t there, everything would fall apart. But I am not going to wait for that to happen, I am committed to stop being machista. Those ideas that have been put in our minds as children do not help us have a good life,” he remarked.

The department of Cuzco is a Peruvian tourist area, where the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu is the main attraction. It has more than 1.3 million inhabitants, of which 40 percent live in rural areas where agriculture is one of the main activities. Much of it is subsistence farming, which requires the participation of the different members of the family.

This is precisely the case of the Secsencalla farming community, where, although the new generations have made it to higher education, they are still tied to the land.

Rolando Tito sits next to his mother Faustina Ocsa. He believes that men can experience their masculinity differently, without machismo or violence, with equal relationships with women. The university student is also actively involved in agricultural work in his rural village of Secsencalla, in the Andean region of Cuzco, in southern Peru. CREDIT: Mariela Jara/IPS

Rolando Tito, 25, is in his third year of systems engineering at the National University of Cuzco, and helps his mother, Faustina Ocsa, 64, with the agricultural work.

“I want to better myself and continue helping my mother, she is a widow and although she was unable to study, she always encouraged me to do so. Times are no longer like hers when women didn’t have opportunities, but there are still men who think they should stay in the kitchen,” he told IPS, with his Quechua-speaking mother at his side.

Sitting by the entrance to the community’s bodega, which is often used as a center for meetings and gatherings, with the help of a translator, his mother recalled that she experienced a lot of violence, that fathers were not supportive of their daughters and that they mistreated their wives. And she said she hoped that her son would be a good man who would not follow in the footsteps of the men who came before him.

“I have learned about equality between men and women,” her son said. “For example, I am helping in the house, I am cooking and washing, that does not make me less of a man, and when I have a partner I will not have the idea that she has to serve me. Together we will work in the house and on the farm.”

Brian Junior Quispe, a 19-year-old from the community, who is about to begin studying veterinary medicine, said he now knows that “men should not take advantage of women, but rather support each other to get ahead together.”

The same sentiment was expressed by Saúl Huamán, 35, who has become a father for the first time with his baby Luas, six months old.

“Now I have to worry about three mouths to feed. I used to be a machine operator but now I only work in the fields and I have to work hard to make it profitable. With my wife Sonia we share the chores, while she cooks I watch the baby, and I am also learning to prepare meals,” he says as his smiling wife listens.

Pozo the attorney recognized that it is not easy to change cultural patterns so strongly rooted in the communities, but said that it is not impossible.

“It is like sowing the seed of equality, you have to water and nurture it, and then harvest the fruits, which is a better life for women and men,” she said.

By Jan Servaes
BRUSSELS (IDN), Oct 6 2022 – “If all I knew about Africa were from popular images, I too would think that Africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals and incomprehensible people, fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and AIDS, unable to speak for themselves”. This quote from the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is in the introduction to Dipo Faloyin’s book ‘Africa is not a country‘. It summarizes Faloyin’s book nicely.

Born in Chicago, raised in Lagos and currently based in London, Nigerian Dipo Faloyin is a senior editor at VICE, the online news service founded in New York in December 2013, which distributes documentaries daily through its website and YouTube channel. VICE promotes itself as “the definitive guide to illuminating information” about “under-reported stories”.

Africa is bigger than Canada, the US and China combined

Africa is big, about 30 million square kilometers, just under twice the size of Russia or bigger than Canada, the United States and China combined! This is not clearly visible on most world maps due to the common use of the Mercator projection. It makes countries near the poles appear larger and those at the equator smaller. However, Africa is a rich and diverse place. It includes more than 1,500 languages and 16 percent of the world’s population.

Repeated stereotypes

“Always use the word ‘Africa’ or ‘black’ or ‘safari’ in your title,” Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina suggested in a 2005 satirical essay. He scoffed at the repeated stereotypes in international coverage of Africa.

Faloyin also argues that there is rarely a balanced or nuanced view of Africa because clichés about poverty, famine and disasters dominate the reporting and Hollywood romance about Africa.

‘Powerless victims’

These writers criticize international coverage of Africa for its emphasis on the suffering of powerless victims. This is spiced up with the occasional celebrity visit or a beautiful shot of wildlife. In doing so, they point to the absurdity of reporting that attempts to capture a vast continent of more than 50 countries in broad generalizations.

Above all, they disdain what is often called Afro-pessimism. This is the tendency to depoliticize stories in sub-Saharan Africa and reduce them to hopeless humanitarian crises or harrowing images.

“Africa Rising”

While the wars, famines, plagues and epidemics were the only ‘news’ from Africa for years, a ‘new’ story has been added for some time. In May 2000 there was the famous front page of The Economist portraying Africa as the hopeless continent; in 2011 this image was replaced by a cover full of clear skies and with the headline ‘Africa Rising‘.

Time magazine followed suit with a cover of the same title. Suddenly the continent is buzzing with mobile phones and energetic companies. Michela Wrong called this the new mandatory slogan in the New York Times of March 20, 2015, now that “it is fashionable these days to be upbeat about Africa”.

Incomplete and inaccurate

“This book is a portrait of modern Africa that pushes back against harmful stereotypes to tell a more comprehensive story — based on all the humanity that has been brushed aside to accommodate a single vision of blood, strife and majestic shots of rolling savannahs and large yellow sunsets. . It will unspool the inaccurate story of a continent dragging this bludgeoned narrative towards reality,” Faloyin states explicitly on page 7.

The danger of a neoliberal agenda

The problem is that all reductionist stereotypes are incomplete and inaccurate. And in particular, the latest characterization of Africa as a place full of entrepreneurs, complete with its own ‘silicon savannah‘, has other problems.

In a part of the world that continues to face staggering levels of inequality, there is a danger that Africa will get too close to a neoliberal agenda and goals. Whatever successes the new companies may achieve, there is not much evidence of a trickle-down effect for those at the bottom of society.

Of course, there are success stories in many places that demonstrate the capabilities of developing African economies. Some countries in Africa, such as Benin, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Tanzania or Rwanda are currently among the fastest growing economies in the world. But the ‘Africa Rising’ stories ignore the plight of those who are still far behind in societies that, outside the family or immediate community, don’t offer much of a social safety net, which in most Western societies (to some extent) is visible.

We can therefore sympathize with the plight of Africans who board rickety boats and try to build a new life abroad. Yet it is well known that the so-called economic migrants seeking a better future across the Mediterranean are not the ones at the bottom, who could never afford or even consider such a journey.

Colorful and sometimes funny

“Few things unite the continent more in frustration than the comically inaccurate way Africa and its people are portrayed in popular culture. It’s at times deliberately dismissive, often nonsensical and occasionally inadvertently hilarious” (p. 199).

Faloyin has a smooth pen and colors his book with several well-chosen examples. He examines each country’s colonial heritage and explores a variety of topics, from describing urban life in Lagos and the lively West African rivalry over who makes the best Jollov rice, to the still lingering case of stolen art treasures in Western museums — “90 percent of Africa’s material cultural legacy is being kept outside of the continent” (p. 258) — to the story of democracy in seven dictatorships and the dangers of stereotypes in popular culture.

Africa is home to 54 countries, including island nations along the coast of the continent. These countries are home to diverse groups of people who speak different languages and practice a wide variety of customs.

Take Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa. More than 250 different ethnic groups live among the population of more than 200 million inhabitants. While English is the official language of the former British colony, the many languages of ethnic groups indigenous to the West African nation, such as Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo, are also spoken. In addition, Nigerians practice Christianity, Islam and indigenous religions.

So much for the myth that all Africans are the same. The most populous nation on the continent certainly proves otherwise.

Or take Egypt. In particular, the country borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Red Sea to the east and Israel and the Gaza Strip to the northeast. Despite its location, Egypt is often described not as an African nation, but as the Middle East – the region where Europe, Africa and Asia converge.

This omission stems mainly from the fact that Egypt’s population of more than 100 million is strongly Arab – with a small minority of Nubians in the south – a drastic difference from the population of Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to scientific research, the ancient Egyptians – known for their pyramids and advanced civilization – were biologically neither European nor Sub-Saharan African, but a genetically distinct group. These people are located on the African continent. Their existence also reveals the diversity of Africa.

The ‘white savior’

Occasionally, the image of the “white savior” also sneaks into Faloyin’s story. Sometimes rightly so, as the West is presented as a ‘white savior’ during the colonization and partition of Africa on 15 November 1884 at the Berlin Conference in the absence of any African representation: “Only 30 per cent of all borders in the world are in Africa, yet nearly 60 per cent of all territorial disputes that have made it to the International Court of Justice come from the continent” (p. 46).

The more recent search in 2012 for Joseph Kony of the Lord’s Resistance Army is also discussed in detail. Faloyin sarcastically concludes: “The White Savior Industrial Complex is not about justice. It is about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege” (p. 79).

Reprehensible paternalism

The continued affirmation of a paternalistic and ignorant perspective, be it the helpless savages or the noble poor, is fundamentally reprehensible and will not lead to satisfying contributions of any kind in the long run. All the more so since, as Howard French also argued, Africa has been the hub of the machine of modernity for Europe.

What’s the remedy?

But Faloyin also falls short. “While Faloyin excels at articulating the complaint (about the white savior), he has little to offer as a remedy to a problem rooted in a centuries-old global power imbalance. Fairness dictates, too, a recognition that intellectual laziness is hardly the white man’s exclusive preserve,” adds Michela Wrong in The New York Times of August 31, 2022.

Myths and stereotypes

Our views on groups of people stem from socialization, including our parents, peers, national culture, subcultures, and especially the mass media. This is called implicit or unconscious bias. Everyone makes these generalizations, and they help and protect us in this complex world.

They are too simple and mainly based on group membership based on limited characteristics, such as age, a physical characteristic, gender, race or nationality. Generalizations can be helpful, but stereotypes are dangerous.

Based on oversimplified, fixed assumptions about groups of people, stereotypes are often ‘justified’ within social systems, to cover up deeper myths. Africa has been the target of an unfathomable amount of stereotyping, which has led to the widespread belief in much false information.

Many myths about Africa go back centuries. In modern times, new stereotypes about the continent have emerged. Sensation- and simplification-oriented news media continue to associate Africa with famine, war, poverty and political corruption.

This is not to say that such problems do not exist in Africa. Of course, they do. But even in prosperous countries, poverty, abuse of power and chronic diseases play a role in daily life. While the African continent faces enormous challenges, not every African is in need, nor is every African nation in crisis.

Reference:

Dipo Faloyin (2022), Africa is not a country. Breaking Stereotypes of Modern Africa, Harvill Secker, London, 380 pp. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/444389/africa-is-not-a-country-by-faloyin-dipo/9781787302952

Jan Servaes was UNESCO-Chair in Communication for Sustainable Social Change at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He taught ‘international communication’ in Australia, Belgium, China, Hong Kong, the US, Netherlands and Thailand, in addition to short-term projects at about 120 universities in 55 countries. He is editor of the 2020 Handbook on Communication for Development and Social Change
https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-981-10-7035-8

IPS UN Bureau

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By Zofeen Ebrahim
Karachi, Oct 6 2022 – It has taken four years for some politicians to oppose a landmark law protecting the rights of transgender persons, saying it’s against Islam and the country’s constitution.

“This is an imposed, imported, anti-Islam, anti-Quran legislation,” said Senator Mushtaq Ahmed, a Pakistani politician belonging to the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), spearheading the campaign. “The West is hitting at the two strongest institutions of the Muslim Ummah – the family and marriage; they want to weaken us,” he told IPS from Peshawar, adding that this will “open the road” for homosexuality and same-sex marriage. 

According to Ahmed, for the last four years, the government, with support from non-governmental organizations, was “shamelessly pushing the agenda of Europe and America,” terming it “cultural terrorism.”

Other politicians have also joined in voicing their concerns. For instance, PTI senator, Mohsin Aziz, said transgender people were homosexuals, and “Qaum-e Loot” referred to homosexuality introduced by the people of Sodom. “The longer we take in making amends, the longer the wrath of God will be upon us,” he added. He is among those who have recently presented amendments to the law.

“Using religion to stoke people’s sentiments sets a very dangerous precedence,” warned Shahzadi Rai, a Karachi-based transgender person. “Spare us; our community cannot fight back.” 

Rai asked that the issue not be seen through the “prism of religion,” adding, “even we do not accept homosexuality.”

Physician Dr Sana Yasir, who has a special interest in gender variance and bodily diversity and offers gender-affirming healthcare services, said there was no mention of homosexuality in the Act.

“The right-wing politicians need such issues to keep their politics alive,” said Anis Haroon, commissioner for the National Commission for Human Rights, which was part of consultations on the Act and fully supported it.

Ahmed had presented certain amendments to the Act last year, and earlier this month, he introduced a brand-new bill for the protection of khunsa, an Arabic word he said was for people “born with birth defects in the genitalia.” If passed, the Act will apply to the entire country and come into force immediately. 

In the proposed bill, khunsa is defined as a person who has a “mixture of male and female genital features or congenital ambiguities.” The person will have the right to register as a male or female based on certification from a medical board.

“I studied the old law for a good two years after it was enacted; held discussions with many jurists, even international ones, medical doctors, religious scholars. Based on the information gathered, I came up with amendments to the 2018 law,” Ahmed said, defending his stance and explaining why it took four years to oppose a law passed by a two-thirds majority in the Senate and the Parliament. He has also filed a petition in the Federal Shariat Court against the 2018 Act.

The right-wing Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI-Fazl) and parliamentarians belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have also voiced their concern and opposed the 2018 act. 

“Allah has just mentioned sons and daughters in the Quran; there is no mention of another gender,” said PTI’s senator, Fauzia Arshad, speaking to IPS. She has also presented amendments to the Senate’s standing committee on human rights.

The country’s top religious advisory body, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), has also termed it unIslamic law.

“We respect the rights of the transgenders given in the 2018 Act, but when it transgresses beyond biology, and psychology and sociology come into play, we have reservations,” said Dr Qibla Ayaz, chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology, talking to IPS from Islamabad. He also said the council was never approached when the bill was debated.   

The law, instead of defining gender, has defined gender identity: A person’s innermost and individual sense of self as male, female, or a blend of both or neither, that can correspond or not to the sex assigned at birth. It also refers to gender expression: A person’s presentation of their gender identity and/or the one others perceive.

 JI, meanwhile, has defined gender as a “person’s expression as per his or her sex which is not different than the sex assigned to him or her at the time of birth or as per the advice of a medical board.”

“We do not believe in self-perceived gender identity of a person and are asking for a medical board to be constituted to ascertain that,” said Ahmed.

Arshad endorsed this: “The sex of a person is determined from where the person urinates and should be determined by a medical board.”

“Self-perception of who you think you want to be, and not what you are born as is not in the Quran.”

“CII has some reservations about the self-perceived identity,” said Ayaz.

To rule out “real from fake” transgender people, Ahmed’s bill has recommended constituting a gender reassignment medical board in every district, which would include a professor doctor, a male and a female general surgeon, a psychologist, and a chief medical officer. 

“Any sex reassignment surgery to change the genitalia will be prohibited if the person is diagnosed with a psychological disorder or gender dysphoria,” he said. Arshad agreed with this view.

“A medical board can help people figure out their gender identity by offering them personality tests and blood works. They can help decrease the intensity of gender dysphoria by offering non-medical and medical interventions,” said Yasir. 

But the board cannot reject someone’s “experienced gender,” she asserted.

Yasir added there was no mention of a geneticist, a psychiatrist, or those trained in transgender health on the board.

Healthcare professionals argue that constituting medical boards in Pakistan’s 160 districts is nearly impossible. The complex issue requires genetic testing (from abroad), which is expensive for a resource-stretched country like Pakistan, and meticulous diagnosis by scarce experts. 

The trans community has rejected the option of the constitution of a medical board outright. 

“We will never allow anyone to examine us,” said Bindya Rana, a Karachi-based transgender activist and founder and president of Gender Interactive Alliance (GIA). “We know, who we are, just like the men and women in this country know who they are!” 

If this debate has done one thing, it is to validate and increase transphobia.

“Harassment, discrimination, and violence have increased due to the negative propaganda led by Jamat-e-Islami,” said Reem Sharif, a trans activist based in Islamabad.

“A week ago, one transgender was murdered. The alleged murderer is behind bars, but during interrogation, he told the police that he was on jihad as killing transgenders would take him straight to heaven. He is sure he will be released and will finish off the job,” said Rai.

She also recalled the horrific attack on three well-known transwomen in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swabi two weeks back. “They received several bullets, but fortunately, all survived,” she said. The attack spread panic and fear among the community. Rai said the transphobia was “contained, but now it is out in the open.”

“There is a definite backlash,” agreed Lahore-based Moon Chaudhary. “Ten days ago, in Lahore, a few trans persons were publicly harassed at a posh locality. They were forcefully disrobed, asked about their gender, and then raped,” she said.

According to Aisha Mughal, the “more visible trans activists” like her, are increasingly feeling vulnerable. “Bullying is going on, and people are openly threatening. She gets scores of text messages from unknown numbers referring to her as a “man,” causing “mental torment.”

Rai said she feared for her life since she was actively participating in defending the law on various TV channels, and participating in debates organized by clerics. “I’m worried and have told my flatmates to be vigilant and take extra precautions in letting in their friends.” 

Transgender activists are also fighting on another front – cyberspace. 

“I am being misgendered on national television; then the same clips are shared on social media, which go viral. I am accused of being a man and feigning as a woman,” said Mughal. She said some are provoking people to go on a jihad against them and setting a “dangerous precedent.”

“I thought I was strong and would be able to handle online abuse, but it is taking a toll and affecting my mental health,” Rai admitted. For instance, of the 900 comments on a video clip on social media, 600 were abusive. There were some that were downright violent in nature, calling for her murder or burning her to death. “My photos are being circulated with vulgar messages attached,” she added.

Although Rana admitted the campaign against the 2018 law has brought “irreparable damage” to the transgender cause, she is confident the newly-presented bill by JI was just to create a storm in a teacup and will not see the light of day. 

“All that we worked for, for years, has come to naught,” she lamented. While the law prohibited discrimination against transgender persons seeking education, healthcare, employment, or trade, Rana said, “we never benefitted on any score” except the right to change the name and gender on the national identity card, the driving license, and the passport. For us, even that was a big win,” she said. About 28,000 transgender persons had their gender corrected. But now, even that right is in danger. 

Ahmed said his struggle would continue. “If the khunsa bill finds no takers, we [JI] will take it to the Supreme Court of Pakistan and start street protests,” he warned, adding: “It’s a ticking time bomb!” 

IPS UN Bureau Report

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