Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-13-Speech-3-158"
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"en.20020313.6.3-158"2
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".
I must warmly congratulate Mrs Izquierdo Rojo on her excellent own-initiative report, compiled as a result of the hearing on women and fundamentalism held on 23 January 2001. Everyone agrees that fundamentalism can appear in many guises. It can be religious, political or ideological. We do not stress often enough that women are the chief victims of fundamentalism and that this state of affairs frequently arouses utter indifference.
While the European Union has to condemn this phenomenon in third countries, it must not presume to lecture the rest of the world, because it is confronted with fundamentalism within its own territory. This is confirmed by the massive floods of e-mails that have inundated Members of the European Parliament and in which we are being urged to reject this report on the grounds that it is ‘a threat to the dignity of women and to the right to life of every human being until his or her natural death’.
On the contrary, I support the demand contained in this report for promotion of equal rights for women, particularly the right of women to exercise control over their own bodies and to decide when they wish to start a family, to determine their own lifestyle and the nature of their personal relationships. It appears equally imperative that the Member States should adopt legislation outlawing any practices that endanger the health or the physical and mental integrity of women, such as female circumcision.
Who could fail to recall the human misery into which the Taliban plunged the eleven million women of Afghanistan in 1996? Imprisoned behind their chadors, deprived of education and care, subjected to public floggings, they endured an existence beyond the bounds of human dignity in order to survive. It is our duty to exert pressure on the new government in order to ensure that the political wind of change sweeping through Afghanistan is translated into a genuine improvement in the position of women.
The struggle for the recognition of women’s rights should be an integral part of the foreign policy of the European Union. I am thinking here of the way in which we implement the MEDA programme and the Lomé Convention. The human rights clause is too often allowed to remain a dead letter for fear that its implementation would jeopardise the success of particular economic or trade agreements.
Mrs Izquierdo Rojo has given us many avenues to explore in the fight against fundamentalism. The main line of approach I wish to highlight is that of the secular state, in other words the clear separation of religion and public affairs. This is a fundamental principle. In addition, the modernisation of political life must mean granting women their rightful place in the machinery of public administration."@en1
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