Women’s Day

Today was International Women’s Day.  This is a big deal in Cameroon.  All across the country, women wore their dresses made of special women’s day fabric.  There was a parade (“march-past”) in the morning like the one on Youth Day, followed by celebratory lunches.  Women eat and drink and laugh with their friends and, for the day, forget about housework and childcare.  This is her day.

A coworker explained that Women’s Day was never a big deal until Chantal Biya decided that it was important for women to be recognized, and now it is celebrated annually.  And there was a certain lightness in the air today, a certain grace extended in the constant call and response of, “Happy Women’s Day!”

Still, one woman we know of demanded why she should celebrate.  Every other day of the year she’s a slave, she said, so why should she be appeased with one day to let loose, when tomorrow a woman’s husband can beat or kill her if his breakfast isn’t hot?

The coworker asked if we celebrate in the United States, and we told him no.  Because, though still in some ways imperfectly, women in the States can expect far greater measures of equality than are dreamt of here.  Our marriage, unusual at home, is astonishing here.  We both work, and we both cook and clean and do the laundry and the shopping.  We both get a vote, and decisions are only reached with consensus.  Yes, some men still only speak to Jack, but they watch the women in their lives who watch with open admiration when, instead of piling things on Kiyomi’s head if her arms are full, Jack takes half the load.

Over the last couple weeks, and from this day on, for the immediate future, we’re wearing yellow ribbons as part of an initiative to support more women on councils in the Northwest.  The goal is modest enough, with an aim at just 30% of councilors being women, while women make up 52% of the population.  We were encouraged to see yellow ribbons all over town today!

And we hope we’re doing our part, too, as we continue to have upwards of twenty students at our twice-weekly literacy class!  We’re just about to wrap up vowels, and already see women who came in a month ago hesitant even to pick up a pen, now sounding out words and filling in missing letters, and asking for longer class periods.