Ten years ago, 179 leaders at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo signed agreements linking women’s rights to the reduction of poverty – rights including receiving the same education as boys; playing a full part in economic life; being free from all sexual discrimination and violence; and having basic shelter. In the first of two programmes on the 10th anniversary of the Cairo Conference, Life visits women in four countries to explore what has, and hasn’t, changed.

Hina and her sisters

Ten years after Cairo, there’s been huge progress but it’s been uneven. Over half of all countries have adopted laws on women’s rights, ratified United Nations’ conventions, or established national commissions for women. While many countries have introduced laws to prevent violence against women, these are often not enforced.

In Pakistan, despite girls’ literacy increasing by eight per cent in the last ten years, one in two girls are still illiterate. ‘Purdah’, the practice of secluding women from the gaze of unrelated men, can confine many young women to their homes – uneducated, unable to contribute to their wider community. Hina lives in Koorangi, a poor industrial area of Karachi. The youngest of five sisters, she’s the only one to continue her studies to college level.

At 17, Hina’s now in her final years of secondary school. It was her mother who persuaded Hina to finish her studies.

Hina Iqbal

Hina explains: “My mother wanted at least one daughter to have a higher education. Before, to be honest, I wasn’t so interested but when I saw how keen she was, I also felt I must continue - at least up to twelfth grade. I wouldn’t be able to study further if my father was here – definitely not at college level. He was very strict about purdah.”

What has happened in Hina’s family is symbolic of the slow but steady progress made in the advancement of girls and women. Mary Robinson, Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and now Chief Executive of the Ethical Globalization Initiative, comments: “There has been progress at some level – mainly in getting the message out to women at grassroots level who, until this message comes to them, do not believe they have rights at all or that they have a right to equality, or that their daughters have a right to education, just in the same way as their sons.”

In Afghanistan, women are fighting for something even more basic – the right to shelter. As in other areas of conflict, four out of every five refugees here are women and children. Since the ousting of the Taliban regime, over three million Afghans have returned home – and not all of them have found a warm welcome.

Filipo Grandi of the UN High Commission for Refugees, Afghanistan, explains: “Many refugees indeed have no house anymore, their house has been destroyed or their house is too small because when they left their families were much smaller. In Kabul we have helped fifteen hundred families rebuild their houses.”

Maa Gul

Life found one returning refugee mixing cement with her hands. Maa Gul said she was building a house – but where were the menfolk? “There aren’t any so we have to work. I’ve just come up to the top of the hill to find a place to live. Our children are sick and other people here don’t want us to stay.”

Afghanistan’s new constitution states there should be no discrimination between men and women, but it’s going to be years for the message to take root.

Next Life travels to Kenya, where the balance of power definitely still rests with men. Wife inheritance is an age-old custom in western Kenya. The practice of another man taking on the role of husband to a newly widowed woman was originally meant to provide security for both her and her family. But now there’s widespread abuse of this practice and many women are refusing to be inherited - with harsh consequences, including: violence, ostracism and losing all their rights to land and property to their late husband’s family.

To formalise inheritance, women have to have sex with their inheritors. In a country where one in eight people are HIV positive, the pressure on women to be inherited significantly increases the risk of infection.

Rose

Rose Awino’s husband died of AIDS. “Although I knew, my elders didn’t know that my husband died of AIDS. They insisted that I was inherited. My brother-in-law brought an inheritor to me and we gave him alcohol to get him drunk. We went to bed and I put on a condom for him before we had sex. My son warned me about having a relationship with the inheritor because in our neighbourhood another widow had died of AIDS after being inherited.”

But despite ostracism by their in-laws and local communities, widows themselves are now forming groups to provide vital emotional and economic support to each other and their families. Rose explains; “Ever since I joined the women’s group I am more active and stronger emotionally because we share experiences and exchange ideas. We console and encourage one another as we work together to earn a living. We are very empowered by being part of this support group.”

Mary Robinson adds: “There hasn’t been enough attention to the importance of changing the property law and inheritance so that women have assets that can ensure a sustainable income, that can help them at times of crisis.”

But in Nigeria, one group of women at least is well and truly empowered. In the busy markets of Lagos, Nigeria’s capital, Temitayo Konu is one of hundreds of merchants who control tens of millions of dollars worth of trading across Africa. Six years ago, former lawyer Madame Konu, established her first stall in Oke-Arin market. She’s now reached the top rung of the country’s dynamic informal sector, distributing locally manufactured and imported goods across the continent.

The authorities say the traders don’t pay all the tax they should, and they won’t formally recognise the contribution the traders make to Nigeria’s GDP.

Mary Robinson points out: “Whether they strictly pay their taxes or not, the benefits are enormous. Research has shown that women are different kinds of consumers when they earn their livelihood. They invest more in their children, they invest in education, they invest in health of their children and it’s part of public goods if you like.”

Madame Konu

Madame Konu’s registered company has an annual turnover of around one billion naira – 7.5 million US dollars. But, she says, it’s not only financial gain that drives her. “I am interested in developing and bringing up youth. So they can be useful to themselves in the future. We have a problem now in this country whereby when they graduate, there’s no job. And what I’m trying to do is and to impart to them is that you can actually be anything you want to be.”

And Mary Robinson has a message for the male government officials who hesitate to admit women’s contribution to the economy: “It’s only by maximising the potential of the population as a whole that you will get full development and indeed sustainable development. What I think is still evident is that in the international financial institutions or in government there are not enough women who are leading the financial portfolios and who are able to make those connections effectively.”

TRANSCRIPT Read the full transcript of Balancing Acts