Federation of Cuban Women: Reasons to Celebrate?

Federation of Cuban Women: Reasons to Celebrate? / Yaremis Flores
Posted on August 30, 2013

HAVANA, Cuba, August, 2013 www.cubanet.org – At age 16, every girl who
is part of an "integrated" and "revolutionary" family, automatically
becomes a "federated" woman. Perhaps, like me, the only memory they
retain of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) is when a neighbor came by
the house to collect the dues.

On August 23rd, the only state organization that "defends" the human
rights of women celebrated its 53rd anniversary. At the time, extensive
articles in the official press accentuated stories about Heroines of
Labor, including a female crane operator, among others.

They stuck to those cases of women who were able to overcome the
barriers of sexism, but as usual this is a government strategy to hide
those Cuban women who are victims of discrimination and of domestic and
institutional violence.

Recently, Cuba was examined by the Committee against Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW, for its acronym in English) and the FMC was
challenged about the absence of complaints on this issue.

As noted by one of the experts, "the absence of complaints does not
always mean the absence of problems; sometimes it's because of fear and
various other reasons that women do not get around to making the complaint."

In fact, Cuban women do not recognize the House of Guidance to Woman and
the Family, nor the FMC, as potential organizations to resolve their
problems. This is demonstrated by the low numbers provided by the State
regarding assistance to members of the Federation in cases of violence
between 2006 to 2008.

Eloísa Ricardo, after a history of mistreatment and abuse by her former
husband, a government official, looked in vain to the FMC. On the other
hand, Mrs. Regla Bárbara complained to the Federation, and received a
response letter sending the case to the Prosecutor's office, which is
standard practice.

The FMC reached this anniversary under the disappointed and concerned
gaze of international bodies such as CEDAW, for failing for, so many
years, in getting the Parliament to pass a specific law protecting women.

By Yaremis Flores

August, 27, 2013

From Cubanet

Translated by: Tomás A.

Source: "Federation of Cuban Women: Reasons to Celebrate? / Yaremis
Flores | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/federation-of-cuban-women-reasons-to-celebrate-yaremis-flores/