Miami Student

Issue date: 3/7/08 Section: Editorials

Nicholas Kristof's March 4 visit to Miami University highlighted a subject not often discussed on this campus-women's rights in an international context. Speaking after a recent trip to Africa, Kristof underscored the enormous obstacles that stand between women and their equality in underdeveloped and developing countries. In the same vein, Miami students will get the chance to engage the issue head-on when 11 female international studies majors leave March 8 to travel to a conference in the United Arab Emirates' capital city of Dubai. There, they will present and discuss issues with other women from 85 countries around the globe. The Miami Student editorial board believes this type of conference is a critically important first step for students to address issues of discrimination against women.

Sexism, both codified and informal, is still extremely prevalent. The two largest countries, China and India, embody massive issues of discrimination affecting all levels of society and government. China's one-child policy was an example of legalized discrimination, while remnants of India's caste system illustrates a lingering psychological problem for a society that has favored males for generations. The rise in sex trafficking and female deaths, due to discriminatory negligence, illustrates a core mistreatment of women that is simply not addressed by the governments of developing and underdeveloped countries. Across the Middle East, women are still forced to cover every inch of their skin and are subservient to men under the guise of religious practice. These are hardly isolated incidences that demonstrate a global pattern of discrimination that leads to numerous deaths and abuses each year.

This editorial board believes that having gained a foothold in the Middle East, these Miami students should seek to use their time in the region to talk to women within the country and gain a wider perspective under the banner of expanding knowledge of female leadership. It would be all too easy to let this experience pass by without seeing how easy it is for countries to host events like this to divert attention from questions of their own domestic actions and freedoms.

The next important step is to use this extraordinary opportunity to bring the lessons learned back to campus and then engage with the community. New activism that deconstructs sexism is a necessity in the United States just as much as it is abroad. Caring not only about local equality, but the equality of each individual across the globe is a concept that our generation must embrace. This campus can become engaged in any number of ways, including individual donations or loans to women who are looking to start an entrepreneurial venture. Those students going to the conference are making an excellent foray into unkown territory and setting an example for others who may tackle such an issue. However, gaining an international perspective on the issue of inequality is the first step toward accurately defining and attempting to solve the remaining ills of the world.

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