Interview with Women's Rights Advocate, Halimat Oshun
- Victoria Okudoh
- Jul 20, 2018
- 3 min read
“We EMPOWER WOMEN by creating societies in which people of ALL genders are raised and treated equally”
-Halimat Oshun
(Women’s Rights and Peer Advocate, The Office for Violence Prevention, Victim Assistance & Education,
Rutgers University)
Background
Halimat is a graduate of Criminal Justice and Women’s and Gender Studies from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. She lived her teenage years in Lagos, Nigeria where she witnessed significant amounts of inequality against women. Her passion for women’s advocacy stemmed from these moments: moments when "she felt she shouldn’t be forced to do house chores just because she was a woman", moments when "she needed to put in extra effort just for her opinions to matter because she was a woman."
She has now dedicated her time to Peer Advocacy at Rutgers University. Halimat also had the opportunity of participating in the 62nd session for the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), a popular Women’s advocacy summit in the US
Share in some of the experiences she had at CSW!
What does women’s empowerment mean to you?
In the words of Audre Lord, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” Women need to FULLY attain equality, but this cannot happen if men are not brought into the conversation as well:
-Boys need to be EDUCATED on what is acceptable as far as privacy and sexual assault issues go…girls too! :
Sex education needs to be passed on to ALL genders, even in rural societies.
Ignorance is not and should not be an excuse for the over 300, 000 people that are sexually assaulted yearly in the US alone and thousands of similar cases in other parts of the world
**Spreading this awareness is the #1 key to preventing cases of assault that cause women to be emotionally and physically scarred for most of their life. As women, it is the key to preserving our self confidence and self-love which translate to our empowerment**
-Society needs to accept that men can in fact be sexually assaulted too:
The fact that the stats are generally lower for men than women should not shift our focus in any way. “What makes our stories more believable than men’s after all?”
Women equality would ONLY hold firm if these biases are quickly eliminated because women empowerment and feminism were created and rooted on “equality of ALL genders.”
Who are you? : Intersectionality vs women empowerment
I am an African Muslim Woman Feminist. I know that was very descriptive, but it brings me to key challenges most women face relating to ‘intersectionality’. I am certainly prone to discrimination as a woman, african and muslim in most societies of the world. The negative connotations associated with those descriptors themselves pose a unique challenge for me:
In most less developed parts of the world, I would have a hard time receiving a formal education because I am a woman; tagging myself as African in most circles make most people weary of how informed I could be; wearing my head scarf as a muslim woman makes some people uncomfortable.
Yes! These labels exist, but the point is: As women, how do WE live above them?
As a woman, what gives you a sense of fulfillment?
Wow! that’s a loaded question. I have come to realize that the only thing that gives me true fulfillment is finding happiness in WHO I AM as a person. This is very important because
self-love and self-confidence is an important ASPECT of being a woman.
Share some of the most pressing issues to you regarding gender inequality around the world
In most rural parts of the world, women have limited access to sanitary materials during their monthly period (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5482567/).
They walk several miles in the unsafest of conditions to get water and most times are assaulted on the way. Lack of these basic needs during this period also leads to young girls’ absenteeism from school. On average, they are absent from school for a period of 14-49 days in a 7-month academic year, 16-56 days in a 8-month academic year and 18-63 days in a 9-month academic year. As the years go by, they slowly become disadvantaged when compared to their male counterparts or fellow girls in urban areas. These girls are then soon married off in most societies (https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/25/health/sexual-harassment-violence-abuse-global-levels/index.html).
What’s next for you?
My ultimate life goal is to become the first female Secretary General of the United Nations. The UN was established ~70 years ago and still hasn’t had a female Secretary General. That challenged me! I want every woman to believe they can certainly reach such great heights in society regardless of their gender.
For now, I will continue pursuing my passion in women’s advocacy and working on getting into law school.
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