Offener Brief eines Männerrechtlers aus Kenia

Hört man die Medien und die hegemoniale Genderszene zur Situation der Geschlechter in afrikanischen, asiatischen oder südamerikanischen Ländern, dann stößt man unweigerlich auf die immer gleiche Geschichte von Frauen als dem unterdrückten Geschlecht – noch viel mehr als bei uns, wo das Leben von Frauen ja ebenfalls kaum erträglich ist, während Männer ständig im siebten Himmel schweben. Von einer bisexistischen Gesellschaft, in der beide Geschlechter Nachteile zu erleiden haben, hört man, wenn es um Entwicklungsländer geht, kaum ein Wort. Warum also bilden sich dort Männerrechtsgruppen heraus? Klar, phantasieren Feministinnen, die wollen halt ihre "Pfründe" nicht verlieren. (Offenbar halluzinieren sie Millionen afrikanischer Männer in den Führungsetagen großer Konzerne.) Worum es den Männerrechtlern in Wirklichkeit geht, schildert der Kenianer Stephen Kamotho in einem offenen Brief an die männerpolitische Website A Voice for Men:

There is a misconception about gender relations in the developing world. Consider that the view you have of the developing world is mostly the portrayal of the western media. This is the same media that discriminates against men in the west, so you can be sure the bias extends to foreign lands.

(...) Men and boys in the developing world are increasingly being marginalized by feminist government policy and laws. Most of these laws are usually well-meaning but have a negative impact on men and boys. This is caused by the premise on which they are based – this is the biased premise that African tradition is biased against females and in favour of males. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is BOTH males and females are equally positively and negatively impacted by tradition and culture.

Consider a popular traditional community like the Maasai. What happens in this culture? Girls are frequently pulled out of school and into forced marriages to old men, usually as second or third wives. This is true, backward and oppressive. So we have clauses against that in our penal code. In this same Maasai community, boys are frequently forced out of school to undergo traditional rites of passage. In these rites, boys are forced to hunt and kill lions and wild animals usually at great risk to their own lives. They are also taught how to fend for the community as husbands, fathers and generally protectors. After that, few of them return to school. They are taken into child labour to look after community livestock and property. These are what are called "morans" (warriors). Ironically, nothing is mentioned of these boys who drop out of school, into child labour, and have their lives endangered as a routine. This is viewed as normal or even commendable. This creates a false stereotype that makes negative male traditions tolerable. Unfortunately, there are no laws against these things. Gender researchers and reporters never look into them and therefore you have never thought of the plight of the African boy child. This situation no doubt influences your view of gender issues in Africa. You might therefore think feminism is justified here, but not in the west.

Another issue we face in the third world is that we are mostly financially dependent on the developed world, which of course is dominated by western countries like US and UK. The west influences immensely our legal and social system through NGOs, funding and such. So you have many NGOs pushing for women’s and girls’ rights and ignoring men’s and boys’ rights. By this I mean groups like Oxfam. I know of men’s rights groups which have been denied funding by western financiers who insisted there isn’t a need to pursue men’s rights. Why would African men need rights, they are traditionally privileged, right?

Hier findet man den vollständigen Brief, der mehrere Forderungen enthält, wie eine fairere Geschlechterpolitik umzusetzen wäre.