Soeung’s Story – Cambodia

Women Peace Makers engages young people throughout Cambodia with on-site trainings and social media campaigns as part of its Gender and Peace Leadership Program. The program equips these young people with mediation and leadership training to promote peacebuilding and gender equality in their communities. Soeung C. Chhayheng is a 25 year old from Pursat Province who participated in the program.

I used to be confused with the term gender as well as the definition of sex. I thought that gender meant elevating a girl’s rights or any type of activity where to allow women to get more opportunities than men. Also, I was insensitive to gender issues and was not mindful at all to the feeling of others. However, after going to WPM’s Gender and Peace Leadership Campaign, each lesson hit me so hard that I felt like I should be slapped a thousand times for what I thought and did before.

I realized that sometimes my actions constitute harassment toward woman. The lessons from WPM’s campaign impacted me immensely. I have now begun to pay more attention to what women go through. I learned about the unfairness and inequality that girls face, and I also feel the need to speak up and protect women’s rights. For example, I have become more aware when people make jokes about women, especially sex workers and women who work in KTVs.¹ I have tried to advise these boys to respect her as human being and must not harass or abuse her.

Another example is when girls are not allowed to go out at night. Previously, I thought woman should not go out late for her safety reasons. Yet, now I think it’s not about her but it is about the men themselves. A woman should be able to feel safe wherever she goes and not be treated in a restricted way as such. It is a matter of educating men to respect women so both of them can reach their full potential. In our society, we should change our perception on this issue and rather say, ‘Don’t prohibit your daughter to go out but prohibit your son from abusing women.’

Not only that, I also became more attentive to think of the next generation, imagining what it would be like if I had a daughter. What parents impose to their daughter can be unreasonable and may block their daughter from achieving her full potentials. With my education, I can and will provide more opportunity for my daughter to grow. I really want to contribute to gender equality by promoting women rights within a group of friends who seem to not respect woman. I actually want to educate them so that they can understand more about gender equality, instead of treating women as an object or a toy to entertain themselves. What’s more, I previously hated people who identified themselves as LGBTQ for no reasons, because I thought people should only be boy or girl and nothing else. But then I realized that sex is a biological concept and gender a social one, and that there is nothing wrong with a different sexual orientation. I began to understand that I don’t need to hate and that they have a difficult time just to be themselves. I asked myself, ‘WHY? Why do I have to hate them?’ if only we can see each other as human being, we will be able to live freely, equally, and peacefully.

Kudos to WPM activities! The strategies of using experiential learning outdoor through camping in the nature and art performance are very effective in telling the story of gender inequality in a touching way. One other activity that impacted me was the peer-experience sharing through speak-out session and forum theater – allowing the participants to express themselves and act out the gender issues while the audience would seek out solutions. The campers shared their real life experience and actually listened to the real cases. Hearing such personal experiences gave me a clearer picture and touching my heart.”

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You can hear firsthand about Women Peace Makers’ work to empower women, advocate for children and ethnic minorities, and promote peace and conflict resolution at two Pangea Giving events this October.

Voices from the Field: Cambodia’s Women Peace Makers
Co-hosted by Pangea Giving and Global Washington
Wednesday, October 17, 3 – 4 PM | Global Washington, Westlake Center
RSVP here

Building Peaceful Communities in Cambodia
A Conversation with Suyheang Kry, Executive Director of Women Peace Makers
Saturday, October 20, 10:30 AM – 1 PM | Douglass Truth Branch of Seattle Public Library
RSVP here

 

¹ KTVs are karaoke venues where female attendees are often the victims of sexual and emotional abuse and violence.