Stephen Sefton, Tortilla con Sal, April 18th 2021
Internationally acclaimed novelist and inveterate liar Gioconda Belli has published an attack on Nicaragua's policies of gender equality, claiming they are unfair towards the country's political opposition which she supports. Her argument appeared in Confidencial, the US-government funded psy-warfare outlet run by Belli's fellow scion of Nicaragua's US-owned oligarchy, Carlos Fernando Chamorro. Jorge Capelán has already demolished Belli's lies here. Belli's hypocrisy is so egregious we're making her text available in English so people can see for themselves what to think of Belli's despicable, class-based, anti-woman cynicism. Belli's remarks make clear more than ever that she and the other leading figures of Nicaragua's opposition are unprincipled opportunists whose main aspiration is to serve their US and EU bosses as neocolonial overseers mismanaging Nicaragua on their behalf . As Jorge Capelán notes, "Absolutely no one in the "woke" circles of the US Democratic Party or EU country Social Democrat party imperial progressives would dare to claim publicly that it makes no difference to women having, by law, 50% representation in government ministries, lists of electoral candidates and in oversight of electoral processes... Belli is not a fighter for women's rights, nor are people in North America and Europe that claim to promote progressive causes but who support people like Belli in Nicaragua".
But see for yourselves...
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False quotas for women
Gioconda Belli, April 15, 2021
https://www.confidencial.com.ni/opinion/cuotas-falsas-para-las-mujeres/
The FSLN's electoral reform is aimed at undermining the already existing organization of the parties, forcing them arbitrarily to incorporate women
In world statistics, Nicaragua appears as an extraordinary country in terms of women's participation in decision-making positions. I think it comes in fifth place, just below the Scandinavian countries. These numbers reflect a fiction created by the Ortega-Murillo regime. They are manipulated statistics similar to those of COVID managed by MINSA; they lack any base in reality. There are women appointed to public office in Nicaragua, but they are just pieces on an illusory board. They are so irrelevant that the population does not even know the Ministers' names. Lacking authority and autonomy,they carry out "orders from above," .
The reform to the Electoral Law that the National Assembly proposes to approve in the next few days, with no consultation and following orders "from above," imposes a mandatory 50% female quota in all structures of the electoral process. This demand aims at undermining the already existing organization of the parties, forcing them to incorporate women for no good reason.
Of course I agree that there should be women in electoral structures, but demanding a 50-50 in terms of gender representation is an artificial measure that assumes a reality far removed from our own.
Women have not only been marginalized from many spheres of society because of the machismo inherent in our development, but also because in the current organization of work and society, we bear the full responsibility for the caring functions within our families and homes. Women are responsible for feeding and caring for children; they are the ones taking care of the elderly and the sick. They do arduous, daily work whose value is neither recognized nor remunerated. The work of caring has impeded and, in many cases, truncated the education of the female population.
There are many young women in universities, but few of them, once they get married and have children, are able to take jobs requiring them to leave their homes from 8 am to 5 pm. Those who do so depend on other women, family members or hired women, who do the housework and child care or care of the elderly. Consequently, in a country where care work is considered "women's work" and where men feel demeaned if they cook, wash, iron or take care of the children, it is an illusion and a political trick to demand parity in electoral structures. Without parity in care work and housework, the truth is that this kind of parity is impractical.
On the other hand, and this is the case even in countries like France where political parity was attempted, there is a perception among women, unfortunately true, that entering politics exposes them to constant deprecation. The present organization and culture of the political classes is inimical to female presence, so women lack incentives to get involved. Many prefer the anonymity of their daily lives to being in the position where they will either be poorly paid or just there "for ornament", as is the case of those who currently hold "leadership" positions or posts just so that the incumbent vice president can showcase Nicaragua as the egalitarian country it is far from being.
There is no doubt that Nicaraguan women have stood out for their presence, courage and energy in our country's struggles, but this power is moral, rather than real.
For all these reasons, the demand for parity of this arbitrary, restrictive and intimidating Electoral Law that the regime wants to impose, only seeks to sustain the mirage that in this country women enjoy conditions that allow us exceptional social and labor mobility.
It is enough to see the high rate of femicides, the horrendous crimes against women, the widespread persistence of sexual abuse, domestic abuse, and the rate of teenage pregnancy (the highest in Central America) that exists in our country, to realize that here talking about parity in the electoral structures is just another argument to disqualify and hinder the electoral tendency of the opposition.