Transcript
SHAMIMA ALI: No, not at all. You know these things have been happening for a very, very long time. Rape and sex-related crimes are very undercover, they hardly get reported and only now are they beginning to come out people are reporting. So it would stay very hidden before and there was a community of silence around this because most of it is committed by people the survivor knows - and a lot of those, about 50 percent, are relatives, so there has silence around protecting the perpetrator. But now, because of a whole lot of awareness and government taking up the cause and faith-based organisations, we've been working for over 30 years in this country and other NGOs and so-on. So people are getting the courage, they are accepting justice, the government has put some programmes in the village. A lot more awareness and a lot more awareness of their rights is encouraging people to report, but also encouraging others who are seeing these things happen because they are protected and so-on, i think this is what we are seeing rather than an increase. We have never done any converted studies. It's not about loving values, it's about the patriarchal systems, it's about gender, it’s about inequality, and this is why we have crimes against women and children.
DON WISEMAN: What do you think Fiji has to do to overcome this?
SA: Well it's Fiji, it is other parts of the Pacific, it's other parts of the world, also. But I think Fiji is in a good place at this point in time for everyone to coming together. But everyone has to be on the same page. We have to share knowledge, we have to share information. We have to look at evidence-based research, not only here, but globally, done by the UN development agencies around this area. And then we have to start strategizing. But what is happening is that everyone wants to do this work, but we're not on the same page. We have different ideas about how it happens and we want to prevent it and if we want to bring about any control, then we have to look at the root causes, which is often imbedded in gender inequality, patriarchal systems, the inability for service providers and law enforcement to respond appropriately. These are the things that we have to look at in a way that is inclusive of everyone, in a way that we're not looking at each other and blaming each other. And also authorities have to come to the table without fear of being criticised and things like that. They are some of the challenges we do have in this country.
