Letter to Jeremy Corbyn on women-only carriages

On women-only carriages

Dear Mr. Corbyn,

As one of your suporters and as a woman, please let me give you my feedback on your idea above. In a short sentence, my feedback about women-only carriages is, "Forget it!"

The idea to make public transport safer for women is noble and I appreciate it. The same strategy is being used in Indonesia - the country where I grew up - and it works well today. It would not work here. (http://gu.com/p/4bzfb?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other)

Why? Because in Indonesia, it is still common and considered alright for a pervert to grab a woman's breast or buttocks in public. Believe me I grew up there, and the first lesson my father gave me in my puberty year was how to defend myself against perverts, how to use my knee as a weapon etc - I spare you the rest of the details.

The UK today is much better than that. Yes there are still sexual harassments and abuse, but not as blatant. Women here are also more aware of their rights. We do not need protection in the form of separate carriages like in Indonesia. Within 10 years of living in the UK, I never needed to use my knee as a weapon of self defense or walk with my hands folded to prevent any pervert to grab my breast. 

I believe that women in the UK today are powerful enough to prevent and to report harassments if it happened. I deeply moved by your brotherly gesture to protect us women, but I think we are good in this area. 

Maybe what we need is a more aware and sensitive or empathic police force, so that victims - regarsless of their genders - feel safe to report crimes and later to testify. We learn from historic sexual abuse cases how the law enforcement dismissed victims' evidence and how some women suffered! We need to make sure that our law enforcement understand how it feels to be a target or to be victimised. 

Empathy should be taught and discussed in training courses for public servants. The stiff upper lip bureaucrats need to learn how to make a crying woman feel accepted. Feeling is not a sin! Now this, would be a positive change that we women need from you. 

That is my feedback for you. I hope you will become the leader of Labour and in 2020, Prime Minister. My motherly instinct says that you do care. Thank you

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Here is the email reply that I received not long after my letter:

Hi Adeline, 

Thank you for your email regarding women only carriages.

 

Jeremy was approached by members of the public, campaigns and organisations with the idea and has decided to open it up for wider discussion. Women only carriages is not a policy proposal, as the media are reporting today, but simply something Jeremy is willing to explore due to demand. 

I recommend having a look at the policies on ending street harassment that Jeremy is outlining here: http://www.jeremyforlabour.com/end_street_harassment. Policies include but are not limited to a 24/7 police hotline for sexual harassment and assault, more rigorous legislation for licence holders when harassment occurs on their premises and comprehensive advertising campaigns. 

 

Thank you for your input, it is exactly what Jeremy was hoping to receive and I will now feed it into our policy making process. 

 

Thank you again for taking the time to get in touch. 

Kind regards,

Team Jeremy

Birthday Party and International Women's Day 2014

I went to a birthday party today. The little girl is turning two, her mum is my good friend. I thought shopping for a birthday present was going to be fun. I was wrong.

I went to three shops for the right present. I did not know how difficult it would be to find good quality educational toys and books for a girl. Years ago when my son was a toddler, there seemed to plenty of books and toys that would stimulate his young curious mind. From dinosaurs to space shuttle, from police cars and trains to aeroplanes and ships.That was in late 1990s.

I don't know why book publishers today have to write "for boys" and "for girls" on the cover?! I absolutely hate this! I hate the fact that producers and publishers dictate us consumer. I would buy books for boys if it were for my own daughter, but as this is a birthday present for my friend's daughter, I could not risk it. 

Another thing that made me angry is that books for boys have all the exciting titles like "I dream to be a fireman", "When I grow up I'm going to be an astronaut". Books for girls? "I dream to be a fairy", "Handbook for little princess", "Disney Princess dressing up activity book"...

For goodness sake, this is 21st century and they expect girls to have unreal occupations like fairies and princesses while boys fly aeroplanes and wear all the cool gears?! At least my grandmother's occupation as a housewife in 1940s was a real occupation! Be a fairy?! I am sure what the industry meant to say was, "Dress like a fairy (and buy our range of fairy dress and accessories)."

I ended up buying her a set of building blocks and a book about fireman - I was tempted to write "firewoman" with permanent ink but I did not. Though hoping that her parents would read her my card, I did write this, "Happy birthday my darling.  I wish you will reach your stars. Dream high. Be a fighter pilot, be an astronaut, be anything you can dream of. And don't you sit around just waiting for a prince to come, that is yucky yealks!" 

     

I am glad the little girl lives her building blocks. During the chaos of the party - including the time when a little boy decided to pour washing up liquid into the fish pond causing lots of adult got wet in operation saving nemo - the little birthday girl happily built her own tower.

Happy International Women's Day!