WOMEN

A few years ago, I was on assignment in Kyrgyzstan for the World Bank. There we had all the banking leaders from the 6 nation region, and I was working to teach and help them create new systems of bank risk, loan analysis, and restructuring of bank systems.

For many, this was the first time they had been able to leave their home nation and interact with bankers of other nations. It was a dynamic and exciting event to see these bankers, men and women, interact, exchange ideas, and gain hope for banking reform concepts to take home to their nations.

One of problems the bankers faced was ancient local traditions that persisted to stop progress, at every level of society. I learned about some of the challenges women in business faced in that region. Many of the successful bankers, were women, who had worked and fought to gain the respect as business executives. Because, for a woman to achieve success as a business executive, many cultural obstacles presented themselves.

In Kyrgystan, for example, the tradition of kidnapping a woman and making her a wife, still exists. A farm boy, or a boy from the mountains will decide that it is time to go into a town or city, and "find" a wife. He may pick a girl, at random, off of the street, or in a shop. Normally he will take 2 or 3 of his male friends, and they will physically force the girl into a vehicle.

There she is taken to a building where the boy's parents, aunts, and grandparents wait. They force the girl into a room, and spend hours, day and night, as a captive, telling her that she has been "betrothed". The moment that they force a wedding scarf on her head, she is committed to the marriage ceremony. A girl will resist, sometimes for hours, but after 18 or 20 hours of constant pressure from older women, she normally "breaks".

Then she is married. The man takes her back to the farm, to tend animals, or to the mountains to herd his sheep or goats...and in 9 months, they have their first child. The moment she becomes pregnant, the man considers her his permanent property, because in his mind, no other man would want her...and even the husband often turns his back on her. A pregnant woman is not considered as "appealing" as another. While she is "his property", her value changes...she has become an object to give him a child...it is different than being the "love of his life". She is often trapped for life.

If she is lucky, she will learn to love him. But if she had ever intended to go to university, or go into business, medicine, law or government, her opportunity is lost forever.

Vijay Joshi, of the Associated Press recently posted an article from Kuala Lumpur, about systematic discrimination against women in Asia. He cited the following examples:

• Afghanistan, in the Herat region, hundreds of women set fire to themselves to escape forced marriage and violence in the home
• Australia, according to a U.N. survey revealed that 36% of women there reported domestic violence, and it was the leading cause of premature death and ill health
• Nepal, reported high numbers of rape by "Government security forces"
• Bangladesh, reported 153 women attacked with acid between January and October 2004 because of refusal of women to marry or provide sex
• China had forced abortions and sterilizations to enforce the governement "family planning policy"

Amnesty International (www.amnesty.org) reports similar problems in India and Cambodia. Consider the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of cases that are never reported. Lives simply hurt or changed, because of primitive and backward attitudes.

It was with these thoughts, that I learned to appreciate the courage and determination, of women, who have made themselves successful. Who have somehow fought through the problems of poverty, and ignorence, and who have "risen" to become successful executives, politicians, and leaders in the world. They often exemplify "success" as is defined in the introductory article.