There are so many wrongs to right. Yet among them, Carter is putting one ahead of all others: Violence and injustice against girls and women.
“This is going to be the highest priority for the rest of my life,” he said this week.
He’s doing it at the urging of wife, Rosalynn, and for his daughter, three granddaughters and five great-granddaughters. He says he wants them to have the same opportunities and security that men do
He’s doing it for the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, for those who have become ISIS militants’ sex slaves and for girls everywhere who can’t go to school. He’s doing it for the estimated 160 million babies aborted or killed at birth in Asia in recent decades because they were not boys. He’s doing it for American college co-eds and women in the military who suffer rape and see the men responsible walk free.
Carter also is doing it because of women he has met from places like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Some can’t go home due to the taboos and dangers facing them in male-dominated societies. Others go anyway, risking their lives.
“They’re the heroes,” the former President says. “And they inspire me.”
Scores of these “heroes” shared stories and brainstormed solutions this week at the Carter Center, the President’s namesake humanitarian and advocacy organization. The issues ranged widely, from income inequality to so-called “honor killings.” Yet the attendees were united in a belief that women should be on par with men, echoing Carter in his latest book titled, “A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power.”
He is making this the fight of his life, urging the conference attendees to be unrelenting.
“Let’s not abandon this,” he said.
‘Death is mercy, compared to the alternatives’
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Among other things, his organization has boys do chores like cooking, cleaning and farming. The idea is to make them respect the hard, important work traditionally done by women, and respect women more in the process.
“It’s not punitive, but transformative,” Njoya told CNN. “I call it human rights masculinity.”
For ‘your children and your children’s children’
While some go through life without really knowing someone of a different skin color, religion or ethnicity, nearly all of them will know someone of the opposite gender. That’s why the issue of women’s rights can’t be avoided. And for many men and women, it’s personal.
“Anybody that has a daughter or granddaughter knows how precious that person can be,” Carter said. “… And anybody who is interested in the future of (their) country or city that if they deprive half of their own citizens of an equal right to an education or an honest job, then their whole community is going to suffer.”
There are signs of progress, like the prominent global role played by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Christine Lagarde leadership of the IMF and Yousafzai becoming the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner. But for every two steps forward, it seems, there’s at least one step back, as evidenced by recent atrocities against women by Islamic extremists.
“Women cannot wait for change,” said Bolanle Makanju, the founder of a faith-based organization in Nigeria. “We’ve waited for centuries and centuries. We’ve got to push for it.”
It’s not just women. Carter is proud to be part of the fight. And, for all his nine decades on Earth, he seems to have the energy, capacity and motivation to do what he can to make a difference.
“That’s your children and your children’s children,” he said, arguing that everyone should be similarly compelled. “And action needs to be taken.”
