I dedicate this article to sister Sophia Tesfamariam

Surprising news of the moment

“Mrs. Sophia Tesfamariam is entering Canada to conduct a fundraiser seminar for the benefit of Eritrean regime and military which will be held in Vancouver, B.C., on March 03, 2013. Sophia Tesfamarima should be Prosecuted for Wilful Incitement of hatred”; Posted on March 2, 2013 by Assenna

Quote of the day: If President Afwerki’s degree of Male Chauvinism does not wake up any female in the world on the question of gender equality in Eritrea, nothing will.

This article is a revised version of my old article in Assenna“Women in view of the Isaias regime”. I thought it was timely to bring it again at this point in our struggle where some Eritrean women are doing their best to assist AFWERKI at any expense including their self-respect.

Women in view of Afwerkism

In all democratic and most non-democratic social structures the concept of presidency comes in a package deal with how a president manages his family. A president’s capacity to manage a family is a litmus test as to how he would manage a government. First ladies play a big role in the socio-political conditions of societies because they appear to be the closest advisers of their husbands. A visionary first lady would most likely influence a president to whom she is married and this is the reason for why the mental fitness of ladies in this position is very important to the leaders’ performance in society. Presidential candidates must therefore expose their wives to the public and all sorts of questions from journalists either by default logic or by the rule. Like the presidential candidates, first wives go through publicized debates here in America and a candidate with the more touching wife most likely succeeds at the end of the day.

Obama would never have been elected without Michelle Obama’s educational and potential capacity, which was tested in the debate during the convention. This is because the American government is structured such that a first lady contributes about 25% of the president’s input to the society; meaning that first ladies are not only wives but have a job in a civilized society like America. Expecting women’s empowerment without the initiative or leadership of the first lady of a society is like expecting to make a forest out of a desert.

Although third world first ladies may not enjoy their power as much as in the west, their contribution in a society is mandatory by default logic; the reason Heads of State expose their wives occasionally through the media and in public speeches. Meles Zenawi’s wife was for example the leader in the fight against HIV in the country; every Ethiopian knows her name and her looks through personal appearances and the media. She had a big role in improving Ethiopian women’s issues and she was with him in many public speeches he did.

Simply speaking, it is the right of any society to know its first lady needless to say that a single president would have no chance of winning, at least in civil societies like the US.

Most leaders at minimum understand this mandatory process or protocol and try to deal with it appropriately. Even the most outrageous dictators have the tendency to introduce their wives to some extent whether by pretension or by obligation. This convention, however, does not work in Eritrea similar to the many other conventions violated by the unique president in Asmara. I stand willing to be corrected but I do not remember any occasion where the Eritrean first lady either appearing in ERITV or in any other media (of course there is none) to address national issues as her social status requires her to do so. I have never even once come across the existence of a first leady in Eritrea let alone seeing her participating in any communal activity in the president’s very long political career.

Although the president slipped out “Saba” as the first person that told him something related to his resurrection from his last year’s PSEUDOCIDIC (faking one’s death) experience, no one can certainly tell who the mysterious Saba was and that one leak remains to be the only time this president at least gave the idea that he This violation certainly reduces the president’s resources to manage the Eritrean society properly by at least 25% of the narrative.

Interesting is that women have been participating in any national struggle and in ordinary political platforms known to humankind. What makes the Eritrean women unique in this regard is, however, that they participated in the national struggle for independence at about 30% of the liberation Army composition. This puts them at the top of the list to date in this regard. This historical impact alone should have guaranteed them respect and gender equality without buts and ifs.

The question is how this reality reflects on their status under the Afwerki regime and what they are doing about it! I can only give my subjective opinion here leaving the rest to the Eritrean people and our women in particular with utmost respect to the few eccentric individuals in the resistance.

To me, the fact that we don’t know who the first lady is (what her name was and how she looks like) during the regime’s about 22 years of power not only violates our rights but also renders the Eritrean women irrelevant in society. President Afwerki could not have expressed his chauvinistic position against women stronger than how he completely isolated the first lady from the Eritreans and the world at large for such a long time. He could not have wondered around alone and boozing with his friends in bars (instead of doing what he wants to do privately) without jeopardizing the dignity of his wife and undermining women in general.

Besides, the president’s national policy where kids are snatched for slavery and that defenseless young Eritreans girls are condemned to be sexually violated at will in the SAWA rape camp directly affects women more than any other member of the Eritrean society.

Knowing that western women would have crucified the president for his ridiculous outlook of women; I challenge the female supporters of Afwerkism (extremely chauvinistic political philosophy) in general and particularly the attractive and educated members of the gender in the caliber of Sofia Tesfamariam on the question of their equality in the Eritrean society. Would not their blind support of the president imply their acceptance of humiliation and second-class citizenship in the Eritrean society? Are they really tantalized into assuming that they were liberated by the presence of the few submissive women in the Eritrean government? Should the Eritrean men respect the gender equality of women Afwerkists in the face of their infatuation with the gender-biased president? Can one respect another more than the person’s self-respect?