International Viewpoint #202 • March 18, 1991 begun working for Thai migrant women going to Japan to work in the sex industry. From this organization a new group "Friends of Thai migrant women in Asia" is going to be formed in 1991. Our group, the Asian Women's Association, has a fund to work together with them, and to make Japanese women aware.
As far as Thai women sent to Europe are concerned, the Thai Women's Foundation is doing support work. "Empower" is another committed group, organizing the bar girls in Patpong, the internationally known sex zone.
In the Philippines, the national women's group Gabriela has a project on prostitution. In South Korea an antiprostitution bill was proposed in the congress by the female vice-president of the major opposition party. In Chejudo Island, am international tourist resort heavily trafficked by Japanese men, after investigating the kisaeng tours, young women formed the group "Women and Democracy" and succeeded in closing a notorious kisaeng house.
In Taiwan, the Rainbow Project was started to protect especially young girls from the mountain tribes from the cruel treatment they receive in the city brothels. This is the underside hardly seen in this shining example of a successful economy - an economy that victimizes the weaker sectors. • In what Asian countries is the women's movement strongest?
First India, because politically they have more freedom than other countries. And their religious traditions of Hindu and Islam, which are very oppressive to women, combined with the severe poverty of the poor rural and ordinary women,
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have brought out such a large number of women's groups, so many you cannot count them, with their own network and strong magazines. The variety, creativity, and power of these women's movements are really overwhelming. The next, perhaps, would be the Philippines. The women's movements are closely connected to the national struggle. The large coalition of women's groups, Gabriela, is made up of over 100 groups, women workers, farmers, urban poor, intellectuals. I would also comment on the strength of the women in South Korea. The long struggle under the dictatorship brought out so many women who risked their lives, so now they continue to fight and are not afraid of going to jail.
Japanese women have much to lear from other Asian women's movements. Still many Japanese look down on their Asian sisters, and maybe they have "pity" for them. From the Asian women's point of view, Japanese women look very oppressed and manipulated. They wonder why Japanese women don't get angry. It is not Japanese women but other Asian women who are much stronger, are much more vocal, and much more courageous. • They feel pity for the Japanese women?
Yes. Many women visiting Japan comment that Japanese women seem to them to be just like robots. They don't have their own opinions at all. They are manipulated by the media, the consumer cult ture, by the very disciplined and controlled education. "How dehumanized" - that is what they say.
So in the coming decade of the
1990s, what are the issues and strategies that the Asian women's movement should concentrate on?
One thing is that they should confront the type of development strategy that promotes strong consumerism, with only material things being important. Asia used to have a very rich spiritual culture, but because of this economic development, Asian women are losing their spiritual culture. So we should look at our own positive spiritual tradition.
Also, Asian women should have some kind of organization or network to fight together. Usually, Asian women have been divided because of the colonial bond with their former colonizer, so that Indian women know more about English women and Indonesian women have stronger ties with the Dutch women. They don't know each other. Regional consciousness should be strengthened. And already there are many attempts in that direction, with many meetings, workshops, and conferences being organized that cover subjects such as migration, human rights,
ASIA / GULF WAR
Blood and oil