Carmona: Are women their worst foes?

“Women must encourage, inspire and uplift each other by their words, deeds and actions, demanding respect and not disrespecting each other,” their Excellencies said. “It is becoming the norm for women to engage in denigrating each other on social media and even mainstream media and other females and even the men in our society look on and simply laugh.

This must not become the standard of our social dialogue.” The duo said women must be their sister’s keeper and offer encouraging and inspiring words to other women engaged in critical analysis, and must speak out against social injustices facing women and young girls.

“Cohesive and collective collaboration between and among women of the world, can create that tour de force needed to effect that revolutionary, transformational change that every society seeks.” The couple urged men also to take up the mantle of fighting for women’s empowerment. “Women’s empowerment is not about emasculation or challenging or testing the innate strength of our men folk. It is a unifying force based on what is fair, just and real for a society to progress.” The statement supported female advancement at home, in the education system and in the professional realm. The Carmonas cited United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres IWD message to urge support for the progress of women via both official governance structures and intrinsic tenets of our daily lives.

By using not a “male standard” but the standard of our own humanity, women should be enjoy equal participation, opportunities and access in economic, political and public life, said the statement.

The Carmonas urged protection for women’s safety, including sparing girls from child marriage. TT can only boast of being civilised if it meets United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 5 to treat its women and girls with the same dignity, equality, respect and honour as its men and boys.

“This means ending child marriages; protecting our women and girls against all forms of discrimination and abuse including domestic violence, human trafficking and other forms of suppression; and providing our women and girls with equal access to quality education and healthcare. “It means, in Trinidad and Tobago, individual and collective leadership in showing, by action and example, that in the atrocity of inequality and scant disregard for women and violence against women, there exist no grounds for tolerance, lame excuses or skewed reasoning.”