ASHGABAT – Four young women and friends from Netherlands have a goal to pedal their way through more than 14,000 kilometers from Jakarta to Amsterdam to raise the awareness on women’s rights. When crossing the Central Asian countries, the founders of the “Ride for Women’s Rights” (R4WR) organization visited UNFPA office in Turkmenistan.
ASHGABAT – Four young women and friends from Netherlands have a goal to pedal their way through more than 14,000 kilometers from Jakarta to Amsterdam to raise the awareness on women’s rights. When crossing the Central Asian countries, the founders of the “Ride for Women’s Rights” (R4WR) organization visited UNFPA office in Turkmenistan to learn more about the women’s situation in the region and to share their experiences on women’s rights from the countries they have visited.
“During the ride that in total will take us 400 days, we have visited local women projects, which gave us the opportunity to talk to girls and women from different backgrounds,” said Carlijn Bettink, a graduate of Medical Anthropology and Sociology. During their ride, the girls have visited projects and programmes dedicated to empowering women, increasing their access to education, equality and family planning.
Monique van der Veeken, a R4WR member, considers her personal motivation for cycling such long distance is to experience other countries and cultures and meet special people who dedicate themselves to women’s rights. Through the stories she hopes to reach as many people as possible and to contribute to this battle for women’s rights.
In Turkmenistan, R4WR riders were received by UNFPA and UN Women staff. Ms. Bayramgul Garabayeva, UNFPA Assistant Representative gave a historical overview of the situation of women in traditional Turkmen society that had an impact on overall perception of gender issues in the society today.
Ms. Garabayeva noted that Turkmenistan became signatory to the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the most comprehensive international agreement on women’s rights, in 1997 and UNFPA supports the Government in carrying out the recommendations of the CEDAW Concluding Observations. The work includes engendering the legislation, gender mainstreaming in secondary and post-graduate education, increasing the capacity of the journalists to promote gender issues through mass media, among others.
UNFPA Assistant Representative also shared that in the beginning of this year Turkmenistan has adopted the National Action Plan on Gender Equality, which will help the government to make an additional step forward in advancing gender equality in all spheres of life of the country.
The R4WR founders shared that along their route they met many inspiring women, civil society and international organizations with so many interesting stories. The girls hope to share their stories through the photos and videos on their blog and website, so that the world hears their stories. “Because I believe it is unacceptable that there are still places where women live in disadvantaged positions, in comparison to men,” says Sophie van Hoof.
The group of cyclists aspires that their peers will see the relevance of the mission to all countries and contexts and will spread the idea and replicate the practice of “riding for women’s rights.”
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UNFPA: Delivering the world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
For additional information, please contact:
Ene Tuyliyeva, Advocacy Communication Associate
Tel: 425250
Web: www.unfpa.org.tm
