Cambodian women have made big advances in the last ten years, but they still have a long way to go before they enjoy the same freedom as men, speakers at a conference organized by the Ministry of Women’s and Veterans’ Affairs agreed last week.
Many Cambodian women don’t know their own rights and react to maltreatment and abuse as if it were normal, said Kek Galabru, founder of local human rights group Licadho. “Women accept that men will have many mistresses, that their husbands will beat us, rape us, rape our children,” she said after the conference. “It’s time to explain to women that this isn’t right.”
And women themselves in part are to blame for buying into old-fashioned ideas about their own abilities, Kek Galabru added. They lack the self-confidence to take leading roles in society, such as running for political office.
“They think it’s better that the man makes politics,” she said. “[They think] women are better at raising children.”
About 200 people, including students, government officials and women’s rights advocates, attended the conference, which was organized to discuss “Women 2000,” a June UN conference on women’s rights in New York.
Minister of Women’s and Veterans’ Affairs Mu Sochua said Cambodia has made enormous strides in women’s rights since she attended the last major UN conference on women in 1995.
Cambodian women still suffer exceptionally high illiteracy rates, endure domestic violence and have poor access to health care, she said, but those concerns are beginning to be addressed.
“The government recognizes the problems women are facing,” Mu Sochua said.
But Kek Galabru said although Cambodia has introduced laws protecting women and guaranteeing they are treated equally, those laws often are ignored.
Cases of rape and trafficking of women, for instance, often aren’t investigated diligently enough by authorities, she said.
“Having the laws and having no implementation is useless.”
the cambodia daily
Two weeks after the close of Olympic Stadium left thousands of recreational and national team athletes with no place to play, they are scavenging Phnom Penh’s scarce supply of alternate sporting facilities.
“It’s their own business. The public must find their own personal solutions,” said Bou Chum Serey, undersecretary general of Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, which is responsible for overseeing the stadium’s planned renovation.
Officials closed the national stadium in the beginning of August and with the exception of a handful of obstinate squatters, fence-hopping joggers and rogue swimmers, the facility is now empty.
Ministry officials have since found alternate facilities for national team athletes.
City officials had originally trumpeted the Old Stadium as a viable alternative for the public. But now the national teams are elbowing recreational athletes out of that location and other facilities.
“Before, the public could use the Old Stadium if the military wasn’t,” said Nin Phirum, a military officer working at the stadium. “Now the time is divided between the military and the national teams.”
The field and other indoor facilities at the Old Stadium will be entirely closed to the public until after the national sporting competition in December, according to Nin Phirum.
After that, playing time at the stadium will be shared by military and national teams, with the public getting the leftovers. Nin Phirum added that the public sometimes has to ask permission or pay a fee to use the field.
Since the stadium closed, people still come to play sports, Nin Phirum said.
Some schools like the Secondary School for Physical Education and Sport are now being used for national team practices.
And with the school facilities more in demand, the regulations governing their use are also changing.
Before the close of the stadium, the public could use the school between 5 am and 7 am, but now the national teams use it during this time.
