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As part of commemorating the International Women’s Day celebration on Friday, March 8, 2019, the Faith and Justice Network (FJN) of the Mano River Basin Countries in West Africa hosted a one-day Symposium for women and girls from several different faith–based organizations together with CSOs with the aim of denouncing violence against women and girls and stimulating a call for actions against perpetrators. Rape and sexual exploitation of girls is an epidemic in the Mano River Basin. For so long women and girls continue to suffer from different forms of abuse in Liberia and rape is one of the most inhumane acts perpetrated against women. It is unimaginable and unacceptable that with the increase in rape cases in Liberia, the national Legislature especially the Senate will want to go ahead and amend the rape law making it bailable says Rev. Dr. Tolbert Thomas Jallah, Jr. Regional Executive Director of the Faith and Justice Network.

To foster a just society, FJN brought together 25 female participants from several women and girls’ organizations at the Lutheran Church in Liberia Conference Hall under the theme Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change to achieve a planet 50-50 by 2030, with five prominent gender activists serving as main facilitators. The Symposium stimulated debates and discussions to find innovative ways and strategies for women and girls to secure a balance with men in the political, economic, and social space.

Speaking as the first facilitator from a Theological Reflection on the Topic “Intimate Violence and Sexual Assault, the Priest–In–Charge of the St. Pius Catholic Parish, Rev. Fr. Msgr Gabriel Juwle Blamo underscored the need for every set of the society ranging from the families, religious communities, schools, civil societies amongst others to collectively reflect on actions that will accelerate change in order to achieve a planet 50-50 by 2030.

He attributed cultural practices as a major reason why men treat women and girls so badly, emphasizing that men need to understand the importance of the human body of women.

The Catholic Priest outlined five important elements of the body that need to be understood by humans as a means of restoring justice for all.

Listen to him “One of the features of the body is the Law of Gifts. Today in our society, there are many people who approach relationships to seek their own pleasure without realizing that a human person is made for self-giving love and not for self-getting love. Self-giving love is to please and respect the person. This reflects the image of the Holy Trinity. Secondly,  Genesis 2:18 talks about the Original Unity. God said it is not good for Adam to be alone so he created creatures like trees and animals while the third element talks about the creation of Eve that brought joy to Adam. The emergence of Eve completed the equation of men and women flesh to flesh.

Father Blamo furthers” Original Nakedness, Adam and Eve were not ashamed before the devil came in. They understood the mutual meaning of the body, not until they were naked. Do those who violent women sexually see them as a person? Finally, Original Sin points out that those men no longer see women as gifts to be entrusted to them. We need to revisit our understanding of the human body of women.

Amongst the other speakers, Former Lawmaker, Hon. Josephine George-Francis, presenting on the topic “How to make Gender Balance as Essential for Economies and Communities to Thrive “mentions that the only way this can be achieved is when Liberian women develop the attitude of supporting each other.

According to Hon. George-Francis, if Liberian women were supporting each other, more women would have been in the legislature to pass many laws that would protect women from all forms of violations, adding that due to women’s selfish interest, they prefer supporting men who at the end inflict pains on them.

“The women of Liberia do not support each other; we gossip together but fail to gossip about the issues that are affecting us. We don’t need to burn tires in the streets before we can talk, 103 seats and only 11 women in the house. How will you get all men to decide your national budget? Ellen Johnson Sirleaf instead of supporting a woman candidate, supported a man, how can we succeed? The President of the National Farmers Union Association of Liberia asserted.