EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

by Colette Shulman

I am a great supporter of the United Nations, but I do not go to meetings there to be inspired -- all too often the delegates speak "diplomatese," that peculiar language of governments the world over. Imagine then my surprise on hearing inside the UN building a wonderful and truly moving presentation by girls aged l3-l8 from 8 countries who had come to New York for the annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women. In 1988 the Commission focused on the situation of girls around the world, and three other parts of the Beijing Platform for Action.

The presentation before a large audience was appropriately titled "Listen to Girls" and listen we did, raptly. Eight of the l5 girls each spoke succinctly and vividly and to the point about the issues facing girls in her country. Milena Silva from Brazil characterized the inequality of men and women as "one of the world's big problems." Girls' schooling gets interrupted and often they take to the streets ending up in crime and prostitution. When women are educated, she said, it benefits the whole family. "We must get over the myth that boys have to be strong and dominating, and girls just pleasing. Boys' hands won't fall off if they wash the dishes and girls can work at computers and be diplomats." Claudia Ahumada told us that in Chile people don't even recognize that girls have human rights, including the right not to be sexually molested. Rape is common, every year some 40,000 young teenagers get pregnant, many are expelled from school and others drop out ashamed because society tells them, it's your fault. Education and contraception are needed, but even more important we need cultural changes to strengthen girls' self esteem. Adeline Koay from Singapore said that girls without self esteem pass this deficiency on to their daughters -- "only when you learn to love yourself can you really love others."

Kanti Khadka reported that in Nepal 62% of girls are married by the age of l6 and too early childbirth accounts in part for the high maternal mortality rate. Girls there get little schooling and when both parents work outside the home, girls are expected to do all the housework in the early morning before going to school. Kemmeh Damba-Danjo said that in Gambia in Africa 70-80% of girls undergo female genital mutilation, usually of the clitoris. Most marriages are arranged without the girl's consent. She brought herself to tears recalling for the audience how her sister died in childbirth from rape and how she took over caring for the baby who died soon after. Kemmeh, still in high school at l7, looks after two of her dead sister's other children.

Someone in the audience asked, how did you girls get your very evident self esteem? Several gave credit to their mothers. An American girl said both her parents gave her "unconditional love and support -- my father was not like a stereotypical male." Others paid tribute to school and community for giving them encouragement and support. Another questioner, a teacher from Mali, said that from now on she is going to listen much more attentively to her own girl pupils. She asked the speakers what they intend to do to carry on their good work. The girl from Gambia replied that she wants to strengthen the school-community link by having her classmates write and stage little plays expressing their outlooks and needs, and inviting the townspeople to come see the play. Another said she wanted to become an advisor to girls in her country. Emma Mirzoyants from Yerevan told me about the two-year after- school leadership-training program called "Women of the 2lst Century" that is run by the Women's Council of Armenia. Emma is a graduate of that program and now she works as secretary for the Women's Council and encourages other high school girls to enter the program.

In conclusion, Janet Nelson, chief of the NGO (non-governmental organizations) section of the United Nations, took note of the sufferings that some of these girls have endured and of their courage in coming here to New York and sharing their thoughts and feelings with us. "We need," she said," to create strong national coalitions to put girls on the political agenda."

Coalitions have their beginnings in thousands of local activities focusing on girls, one admirable example of which is the magazine that girls and young women in Naberezhnye Chelny are publishing from time to time entitled "Devochki procyat vnimania" (Girls Request Your Attention). It is creatively laid out and illustrated and has down-to-earth useful and interesting articles on nurturing self-esteem, avoiding sexual assault, on contraception and family planning, interviews with women in different career fields, and poetry, and lots of other things. I love this magazine and I hope that as its initiators, its creators, move on in their lives and go their separate ways, they will bring new girls into the editorial staff and find ways to continue the magazine. It is a challenge with which Nadia Azhgikhina and I are not unfamiliar.