“We empower women and girls to guarantee that they are valued and can thrive in their communities. We ensure that Ethiopian women know and exercise their rights, and that they are treated with the respect and dignity they deserve”
The battle for the rights of women and girls is a fight against the root causes of inequality –buried within existing economic, social, political and ecological systems.
Such inequality can manifest in dangerously physical ways. Harmful customary practices, such as female genital mutilation (FGM), are perpetuated as they are passed down from generation to generation. Young women and girls are still subject to abduction and physical abuse because it is considered ordinary practice.
GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE DOES NOT STOP AT THE PHYSICAL.
We perceive violence as being enacted by robbing women and girls of opportunities for education, denying their rights to earn their own livelihoods and become independent, silencing them in social and political systems, and creating environments that make their work more dangerous—or precarious, if a blind eye is turned to environmental sustainability.