These Our Islands: Reading Irish and UK Sexual Oppression within the Context of Globalisation.

national | politics / elections | opinion/analysis

Tuesday November 14, 2006 17:17

by C Murray

Or: A Giant Red Herring.

A five judge panel yesterday returned a two year old child to her natural parents after an
appeal which saw the child's removal from the couple whom had adopted her from the
age of three months.

The Media stated the Judge's decision was based on the primacy of the family within
the Irish Constitution.

The Natural parents are now married and therefore are considered in Irish law to be the
traditional or natural family.

In the Upcoming, indeed, present general election campaign the Fianna Fail/ PD state
have sought to Polarise the electorate through the decision to run a Constitutional
Referendum on the rights of the child in tandem with a general election campaign.

The State in both it's forms: the present and the previous administration have for nine
years ignored the rights of the child through the consistent impoverishment of a
State dedicated to keeping an eye on numbers and figures and collectively refusing
to address the issue of the traditional notion of family within the context of wider
women's rights. We have come a long way in relation to female reproductive rights
in this country but the FF/PD administration has collectively refused to enshrine the right
to safe and legal abortion within the national context nor have they addressed the issue
of women's right to privacy and bodily integrity within any protectional framework.

The nexus for creating a rights-based advocacy in children's issues cannot be achieved
by upholding a traditional view of family which is based equally in the Monotheistic
interpretation of woman as biologically pre-determined and morally passive. There
is no dialogue within the Roman Catholic Church which dictates this determinism
through a male hiearchical dogmatism. Traditional gendered roles will become more deeply
polarised when any attempt at addressing women's imprisonment within the Irish
Constitutional definition of family is set against the State's perceived liberal agenda within
the context of civil law. The biggest failure of this Government has been the failure to
create a space for dialogue over the last nine years which would remove the gendered
role of both male and female within the context of globalised monoculture and Monotheism.

An Irish solution to an Irish Problem- ignore it.

In the context of equality for children within the role of the traditional family, this government
are creating an underclass of female citizens who will continue to adhere to Church/State
gendered definition on reaching their majority, which by the very definition of woman in
Irish society she is ,through church morality -a helpmeet and the emotional centre of the
family.

Almost as appalling as the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill which is constitutionally
Challanageable because it is not gender neutral!

In the Global Context the interference by the forces of traditional values into the
Legislatures of Poland and Nicaragua are perpetuating female Sexual oppression
by forcing a constitutional amendment on accepted and limited female reproductive rights.
All abortions are criminalised in Nicaragua including medical abortion for ectopic
pregnancy:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6089718
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/79311

The incoming president of the EU: Chancellor Merckel intends to put God in the centre of
the federal constitution, she has been in discussion with Pope Benedict the XV1 on the
issue has as been Cherie Booth QC and chair of Barnado's UK.

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/78467

In Britain Geraldine Smith MP sponsored EDM calling for the review of the abortion Law
and the Tory party under David Cameron promises to put female reproductive rights
back on the electoral agenda. (their curtailment)

In the globalised context the perceived failure of the neo-liberal agenda is underscored by the
return to and obvious media- directing of the 'necessitious' return to traditional family values:
Those espoused by the twin hegemonies of Undemocratised Church and the of the Nuclear
Family -as a unit of consumption and stability espoused by the Capitalist right.

In none of this action and reaction to failed neo-liberal policies have the people who would
form the heart of that traditional concept of family been a part of the dialogue.

Yesterday five judges underscored the primacy of the family within the Irish Constitution.
The traditional definition of family is therefore the one that this Referendum will refer to
and within that context and the fast-approaching election there is simply no reference to
basic rights to privacy and bodily integrity of the woman:- but to her gendered role of
biological determinism.

There is no framework or context for a referendum. Another slap happy attempt to polarise
a jaded and pissed off electorate- like decentralisation.