A few weeks ago, March 8th, was International Women’s day. This was a day where women all over Fort Dauphin held a special parade celebrating women, and showing women marching together in solidarity and celebrating each other in. These parades took place all over the country, and it’s quite common for different organizations, groups, and companies to get together and have outfits, dresses, or in my case, a lambahoany which is pictured in my main post. A lambahoany is a printed cotton lamba typically featuring a proverb on the lower border of the design. The lambahoany is the most commonly worn type of lamba and usually made of printed cotton that is sewn together, similar to infinity scarves. There are many are many uses for them and are often wrapped to attach a baby to the mother’s back, light blankets, sheets, to name a few.
It was amazing to see women come together and empowered and not only know their strength, but show their children, family, friends, and community just how powerful women are. Every where you went, you would hear shouting, “Tratry ny fety ny vehivavy!” translated as, “Happy International Women’s Day!” from sellers, fellow teachers, students, and other women.
International Women’s day is a day when women typically get the day off of work, as a show of appreciation, while the men still have to work. Many times leading up to this day, I was asked by men, “why don’t we get a day off?” to which I would respond everyday is a man’s day, an it’s important to recognize the work a woman does, cause more often than not, it goes unnoticed. The men in my community continued to work, and helped with their partner’s usual chores, also realizing and supporting how much work and effort a woman does.
This parade was full of energy and loud music, dancing, and excitement. We marched from one part of town to the end, all in solidarity, all marching together with our work. Each of us were grouped together, all wearing lambas or matching dresses, and as the parade came to an end and our work places were being called out, the day wasn’t over yet. There would still be a few hours of speeches and awards to give before the event ended. Women teachers from my school, as well as the wives of the teachers soon gathered for some snack brochettes and juice, recharging before we parted ways.
Sadly, as much as I wanted this week (and post) to be full of inspiration and positivity, reality hit. Going forward, the next part of this post may be quite gruesome and not uplifting. I want to preface by saying this is from my views and experience alone, and does not reflect on another Volunteer’s experience as a female living in (Southern) Madagascar or anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately, I live in an area surrounded by verbal and sexual harassment, which I would say, I deal with on a weekly basis which can be really discouraging at times. A few days after International Women’s Day, right after the entire community came together to support women, I was at a bar, which is usually empty, but for some reason, it was quite busy, with some friends, catching up after a long, stressful week when I got grabbed by the crotch by a local man who was clearly intoxicated. Not 2 minutes had passed when another man did the same thing. This happens from time to time especially when I’m walking around the market, and usually I am quick to jump in and start yelling and lecturing them on the inappropriate nature and actions. Just as quickly as they grabbed me, the were gone. Throughout the rest of the night, there were more and more drunk men, and this time I was very quick to react, trying to convey certain unseemly behaviors are not ok, under any circumstance.
I want to say not every man behaves like this, but it only takes 1 out of every 5 to ruin your week. In the past year and a half living in the Deep South, I have experienced unwanted touching, verbal harassment, as well as various types of catcalling, the last two of which I’ve become quite impervious to and have gotten good at tuning out. Verbal harassment can range from the usual “ttsssstttttt,” which is a version of whistling, having screams of, “I love you,” to way more inappropriate language which I don’t feel comfortable typing. Other harassment has ranged from trying to be forcibly kissed, grabbed by the breasts or privates, hand holding, and at times sniffing.
Like I said, not all men are like this, but it’s common enough to where it does affect me at times. I’m very lucky as I have an extremely strong support system and have found ways of coping and talking with friends. When the bad days outweigh the good days, that’s a problem, but 21 months in, I have found good enough strategies, friends, and a way of positively dealing with the stress and anxiety that comes with harassment.
Harassment is quite common anywhere, but for some reason, I happen to get quite a bit of it during my service. I have seen this happen to not only just me, a foreigner, but other foreigners, as well as other local women too, so I’m not a special case. Because harassment isn’t often talked about, most women I have seen affected by this, often ignore it, or me, I often yell at them or choose to stay silent, depending on the circumstances like if I’m followed in numbers for example. This can happen while I’m walking to the market, going to the beach, sitting at the beach (which is when I get the lurkers, who seem to enjoy just staring at me from behind a bush), and even while teaching at times. It does become quite problematic, with good reason, and to regain composure, I will do something fun for myself, which I am lucky enough to have a nice French influence of assortments, wine, cheese, massages at nice hotels, so I can reset and refresh. I also have gotten into the habit of doing something physical or mind, body, soul related like Insanity workouts and yoga so I can trick my mind into having a better day, even with the bad days. I have incredible circles of friends who get it, and fully understand this way too common issue and often offer great solace and distraction. But ignoring and and not fully dealing the instances can only go so far. The biggest and most impactful way to solve anything is through education. And that’s exactly what I did.
After discussing with my local American Corner in town, I decided I really wanted (and needed) to present a session on respecting women, and the impact their behaviors have on a woman. To convey the message, and have it hopefully stick, I had a powerpoint, real life scenarios, do’s and don’ts, “What would you do?” questions, as well as reviewing key vocab words pertaining to objectification, harassment, and the importance of “no means no.”
While going over how even though culture is different, it is never ok, no matter what to harass someone. I commonly gave the example of what would they do if they saw a man treating their mother, sister, or daughter, in such an offensive way. What I felt like was repetitive, seemed to finally get through the room filled with all but 4 women.
One of the last discussions we went over during my session was about how men usually eat first before anyone else. In Malagasy culture, it is quite common to feed the man first before anyone else during mealtime. I asked why and a female student answered, “because the man went out and worked and it shows him respect.” To this I replied, “and what makes you think YOU aren’t worthy of respect?”
This session was very near and dear to my heart and is an emotional topic to talk about. With International Women’s Day being a few days prior and being harassed a lot lately, I really wanted to put together an event on respecting women. Whether or not every student retained any of my session, as long as I got through to one person, I did what I intended.
I finished the session with a final thought, hopefully impacting them in some way: if a man enters a room full of women, he is happy. If a woman enters a room full of men, she is terrified.
And with that, to leave on a bit of a more positive note, as hot season is nearing a close, the sunsets are still as beautiful as the first time I saw them in Fort Dauphin. I love this place with all of its beauty and still find it hard to believe my service is almost coming to an end with a little bit of 5 months more to go. That being said, stay tuned for the yet to be recorded tour of my town and marketplace.
It's a Mad(agascar) World 