Almost Done with CSW

Today was jam-packed with sessions and learning moments. It was also my last full day at the United Nations Headquarters. This morning I attended my first official meeting at the Commission. It was interesting to hear the each country's delegates report on their status, priorities, strengths and suggestions. As the meeting is three hours long, I only stayed for about 1/3 of it. I was able to hear from representatives of Lithuania, Germany, Ecuador, Ukraine, Malaysia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Japan and the Philippines.

The next session I attended was Social Inclusion for Women Being Independent. It was preceded over by H.E. Mr. Yashisa Kawamura Ambassador of Japan. The main thing I learned from this session was that a Japanese woman must have her own money and home to have a room of her own. The Japanese have devised guiding questions to apply to the problem of gender inequity as it relates to managing assets. I appreciated the effort to have an outline to go off of to measure change. One of the most relevant questions I thought they asked was:
Do men and women have equal ownership rights to immovable property=lands, buildings and houses?

My third session was my most personally relevant of the day! Journalism and Empowerment of Women: New Challenges in the Digital World. According to the International Media Foundation, 2/3 female journalists have been digitally attacked online. 1/10 have been physically attacked, 7/10 have experienced a digital attack in the last year and 9/10 said they were more concerned about being digitally attacked over physically attacked. 1/3 young female journalists have considered leaving the profession over the attacks.

The panel featured the creator of the French #MeToo movement, as featured on TIME magazine, the host and co-producer of The Young Turks (the largest digital news show in the world), the head of All digitocracy ( a political digital media outlet for minorities) and a well-known freelance journalist. The women each told harrowing accounts of abuse due to their professions. Everything from "deep fake" pornography, vandalism, physical assault, harassment of their families to murder and rape threats.

They emphasized the need to remain online for their work and reasons of accountability and resilience. They choose to not rely on the government but rather privatize their personal lives, ensure their voices and being heard and work for protections beyond blocking.

I also later attended a session on Women's Leadership, Empowerment, Assess and Protection in Crisis Response that was sponsored by the National Council for Women in Egypt.

Quote of the Day: Why is it when the dissenting opinion is from a man, they are a worthy opponent or at worst-a hated equal? But when the dissenting opinion is from a woman, they are a simply a feminist bitch?