5000 years of Ethiopian eve

Ethiopian women figure prominently in biblical events. Two notables were - Sephorah - the wife of Moses, and much later, Makeda or the Queen of Sheba. It seems Ethiopian womanhood spans the mists of time. It is now over 4,000 years since the watering well where Moses met his beautiful Abesha wife and 3,000 since Solomon impregnated his exotic Ethiopian queen to establish his African dynasty.
25 years ago, the Ethiopian woman and man were librated from feudalism, which may have left us with a measure of salvageable heritage and historical relics but was certainly the darkest period in Ethiopian history. The yoke of feudal serfdom and perpetual poverty fell more heavily on the Ethiopian woman, making the era doubly miserable.
Currently, the rights of Ethiopian women in terms of constitutional guarantees and gender sensitive legislation have never been more respected as we enter the new millennium. This reality must be seized upon by women today in order for their daughters to live fuller lives tomorrow.
The minimum but open ended quota in national and regional parliaments and the growing number of women in increasingly senior positions at all levels of state are signs of societal maturity. Vanished is the feudal mindset of the master and slave, which was not only a centuries old policy of state, but also of married chambers and family relations.
Let us not forget that there are still, even in urban areas, families in which a separate, richer meal is prepared for the man of the house.
The true measure of gender equality is only when the very notion of gender based discrimination becomes meaningless. There are nations where parliament comprises of over 50% women. We have seen women prime ministers and presidents, even in Africa, but have noted that having a woman at the very top does not mean women in that country enjoy equal rights as men. Far from it.
Women should make the effort to tell apart the token gestures that are politically correct but in the end, do not empower them. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are profound examples of countries that seemed to have broken the gender gap by electing women leaders. Nevertheless, Pakistani women are stoned to death for some medieval ritual such as honor killings.
India's rural poor females are hardly accorded human status as widows still fear being put on their dead husband's funeral pyre. Bengali women are the sub-continent's worse off - married young, giving multiple successive births and scraping a living from the soggy, dangerous delta.
Compared with women in many nations around the developing world, Ethiopian women enjoy to a certain extent, more social and political freedoms. This is a result of decades of struggle. It is opportune at this point to mention that Ethiopia has a direct historical link with the international women's rights movement.
The 19th century's first suffragette movement was led by none other than Sylvia Pankhurst, grandmother of the renowned Ethiopian studies scholar Professor Richard Pankhurst.
This remarkable British woman did not only fight against gender discrimination and the rights of women voters, but was also vocal against Italian aggression against Ethiopia.
The struggle for comprehensive equal rights is a long hard road yet to be traveled and much is expected of a specially professional women who by virtue of being educated are tasked with improving the lot of their disadvantaged sisters.
Women's empowerment, it must be realized, cannot take place without the honest and willing participation of men at all levels. Men must make an effort to place themselves in women's shoes and try to imagine how terrible discrimination really feels. It is a two way street that would ultimately empower the entire nation. May this last March 8 of the 20th Ethiopian century lead us into a period of equal rights general prosperity and peace for all human kind.