Exploiting Women’s Rights to Spread Hatred Against Men: Argentina as an Example
By: Dr. Abdelaziz Tarekji
Researcher in International Human Rights Violations
12/4/2023
Firstly, it should be understood that exploiting women’s rights to spread hatred against men or any other gender is morally, legally, socially, and ethically unacceptable. Everyone should work together to achieve gender equality and justice, promote respect, tolerance, and dialogue instead of hatred and discrimination.
Therefore, I believe that writing a newspaper article on this topic helps raise awareness, encourage discussion, and speak out about this important issue that undermines the foundations of societies and gives extremists and those who exploit women’s rights to practice racism, hatred, and discrimination, taking advantage of legitimate laws to protect their activities.
The article can shed light on this phenomenon and motivate society to take action to combat it and work to provide a safe and fair environment for everyone, especially for the principle of equality between women and men based on rights, respect, and communal living.
Gender equality (between women and men) lies at the core of human rights values and the United Nations. Equality and non-discrimination are fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter, adopted by world leaders in 1945. They are also an essential part of international human rights law under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948.
The prominent document in the history of human rights declared that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and that “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” This literally means that women and men are equal in rights, duties, and everything in life, unlike some institutions and feminist movements that promote hatred against men and exploit laws and legislation to spread these toxins that destroy societies.
Going back to history, when the international women’s movement began to gain momentum in the 1970s, the United Nations General Assembly declared 1975 as the International Women’s Year and organized the first World Conference on Women, held in Mexico. Then, at the invitation of the conference, the years 1976-1985 were declared as the United Nations Decade for Women. In 1979, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, often referred to as the international bill of rights for women.
The Convention explicitly defines discrimination against women in its thirty articles and provides a national action plan to end this discrimination. The Convention targets culture and traditions as influential forces in shaping gender roles and family relationships and is the first human rights treaty to emphasize women’s reproductive rights.
Five years after the Mexico conference, the second global conference on women was held in Copenhagen in 1980. The conference’s program called for stronger national measures to ensure women’s ownership and control over their property, as well as improvements in women’s rights regarding inheritance, child custody, and loss of nationality.
Achieving gender equality is the primary goal pursued by democratic countries to ensure women’s rights and equality with men worldwide, which is why deep legal and legislative changes were needed. Although most countries in the world have included equality between men and women in their legislative constitutions.
The first requirement for the effective guarantee of full enjoyment of human rights for women and men alike is a comprehensive understanding of social structures, standards, and social stereotypes, as well as power relations that do not only determine the framework of laws and policies but also the economy, social dynamics, family life, and community life. This indicates that communities are the basis for the launch of rights, not the destruction of communities, as is happening in our present time.
Rights that are inherently essential and that cannot be dispensed with to help human beings live a dignified life are the rights that guarantee us full potential for development and investment in our human qualities and the intelligence, talents, and conscience we have been endowed with to meet our spiritual and non-spiritual needs. They are based on the constant human aspiration for a life characterized by respect and protection of the inherent dignity of every human being (woman, man, or child).
Women and men are two essential components of society who work together in building and advancing it, each with their own positions and roles in life. These roles can be adjusted to match the development of a society’s culture, with each culture respecting rights and equality that aligns with the nature of the earth, life, and population.
However, some institutions and associations (governmental and non-governmental) have exploited women’s rights to achieve various goals, the most significant of which is spreading the idea of hatred against men. This exploitation has not stopped at associations but has also been perpetuated by some political parties with the help of some judicial authorities, imposing strict laws and judicial decisions that are justified under the pretext of “suspicions or fears” against men. These laws aim to break the dignity of men and their professional and intellectual future, as well as the future of their children, all under the guise of protecting women from domestic violence. In reality, this diminishes the human value of women, and it should be noted that violence is a dirty and reprehensible crime from all angles that possess human, ethical, cultural, and religious values.
The exploitation of women has not stopped at this point. If this was the action of some institutions that claim to defend women’s rights, then another form of exploitation is practiced by the majority of political parties in the world. They have beautiful and ornate speeches in their literature about women’s position in public work and society, stating that they do not differ from men in rights, duties, and equality. However, when we delve into the application, we find a different reality. Speaking about women’s role and rights has become a crossing card to obtain a certificate of civilization, openness, and pretending to apply absolute democracy.
For example, in this article I will mention some of the incidents that I witnessed personally in Argentina, where some government institutions, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, organized some celebratory songs that described men as “stupid” and “criminals”. Some even gave priority to “dogs” over men, and incited women against their husbands under the pretext that women in Argentina have absolute authority and credibility before the judiciary and police, while men (no matter their academic or social level) are considered “liars” and subjected to the most egregious human rights violations in the name of local legislation, even without any evidence of guilt.
In some countries of the world, and especially in Argentina, institutions and associations have ignored the fact that equality is the foundation of women’s rights in the constitution and in international and local laws. The basic idea of protecting women’s rights is based on the prohibition of discrimination between men and women, and discrimination and lying in reports of unknown sources on justice is a crime punishable by law.
Just for clarification: I do not justify any acts of violence that some fools or mentally ill people may commit against women, and according to my Arab culture, (anyone who attacks or hits a woman is not a man).
I believe that these institutions and associations (governmental and non-governmental) that misuse laws for women’s rights and protection, have a primary goal that is far from advocating for rights or protection from violence. In reality, their objective is a systematic propagation of hatred against men. This can cause a serious collapse in societies in the long run, and can also deepen the gap of violence and increase the rate of crimes committed by fools against women. Moreover, it leads to the feminization of society, especially in cases where children pay the price in these events between women and men, resulting in a corrupt society in every sense of the word.
Some institutions and associations (governmental and non-governmental) in Argentina, for example, use their messages to the judiciary or political authorities based on texts from the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women” or local legislation based on this convention. I can assure you that the majority of those who run these institutions do not have the legal capacity to interpret international or local laws and regulations.
Here, I want to say to them, based on my humble experience of 19 years as a human rights and women’s rights defender, that various international instruments for human and women’s rights contradict the principle of discrimination on the basis of sex or gender. This is in line with the universality of human rights as affirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (that every individual is entitled to the rights and freedoms without discrimination of any kind). It is clear that “sex” is explicitly mentioned as one of the prohibited grounds for discrimination among humans.
The different documents that were issued during women’s conferences, especially the “Beijing Declaration,” included recommendations to protect women from violence without discrimination against men or promoting hatred towards men. The United Nations also appointed a special rapporteur on violence against women in 1994 with the aim of issuing reports and recommendations to governments focused on describing and analyzing patterns of violence against women and ways to address it without discrimination against the other party or defaming it with offensive terms, as is sometimes the case in feminist events in some countries, including Argentina.
Based on this, there are some recommendations that governments can follow in addressing the exploitation of women’s rights to spread hatred against men and institutions that some use political platforms, including:
Establishing and developing strict laws that prohibit the use of women’s rights to spread hatred against men, criminalize any activity aimed at stirring social division, and hold perpetrators of such acts accountable as a crime punishable by law.
Strengthening oversight of institutions and associations that use the concept of protecting women from violence as a means to promote hatred, extremism, racism, and discrimination, curbing their activities, and punishing any violations of the criminal laws in force.
Put an end to the hands of corrupt and racist individuals in decision-making positions in political, municipal, social, judicial, and security centers and appoint people (men and women) with pure legal expertise.
Collaborate with international organizations and relevant entities to improve the monitoring of institutions and associations (governmental and non-governmental) that use incitement and hatred in their activities, and develop strict international standards to identify entities that adhere to ethical and legal standards in their practices.
Raise public awareness of the danger of using women’s rights to spread hatred against men, and the need to embody tolerance and peaceful coexistence between genders and different communities.
Enhance the teaching of legal, ethical, and social values in schools and universities, and encourage all stakeholders to commit to ethical and humane values in their daily practices.
Work towards achieving comprehensive development and improving the standard of living for all, which contributes to reducing the economic and social pressures that may drive some individuals to commit any violent crimes against women, and to tighten legal penalties for perpetrators of domestic violence who are proven to be involved in it with solid evidence.
And most importantly, ministries of justice and public prosecution in democratic governments that respect the application of law should intensify their guidance to pressure judges and courts to listen directly and quickly to victims of domestic violence or those involved in domestic violence or violence against women, and not to make arbitrary judicial decisions without verifying the accuracy of the source of information, which contributes to the destruction of families due to wasting time and professional bureaucracy (Argentina is a clear and realistic model).
