A New Century for Timor Leste - A WOW! e-Brief

 

OVERVIEW OF THE SITUATION OF WOMEN IN TIMOR LESTE

By Kylie McBride, WOW! summer intern

Photographs by Linda Jo Stern/World Neighbors

The almost 1 million people who call Timor Leste home have a history of colonization and occupation, which continues to present challenges for the East Timorese. The island’s natural resources were exploited commercially for centuries, and some of the other legacies of colonialism that many former colonies face are shared by this new country, including political and cultural struggles concerning language and religion. Timor was occupied by the Japanese during World War II, reoccupied by the Portuguese following the war, and later occupied by the Indonesians.

The island of Timor is located 400 miles north of Australia and is home to both West Timor, which is Indonesian, and Timor Leste. On May 20, 2002, Timor Leste, also called East Timor, became the first new country recognized in this millennium. Timor Leste is divided into two parts, with the Oeucusse district, a Timor Leste enclave within West Timor, having historical roots to Timor Leste. This is where Portuguese colonists first settled in Timor.

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Timor Leste’s history of occupation, exploitation and unrest has left the East Timorese with huge challenges in terms of building and rebuilding basic infrastructure and systems. The region’s lowest per capita income in the world is coupled with a situation in which “life expectancy is short, education levels are low and a high proportion of the population live below the poverty line,” as the Timor-Leste Human Development Report 2006 notes.

Today, Timor Leste has one of the world’s highest fertility rates and at the same time has one of the highest maternal mortality and infant death rates. An East Timorese woman in rural areas can expect to have 7 or 8 children during her lifetime. In comparison to Timor Leste’s fertility rate, its close neighbor Indonesia has a rate of only 2.54. Only 43 percent of Timor Leste’s women have access to care during pregnancy and only 23 percent of births are attended by skilled health care workers. As a result of this and other factors, 800 per 100,000 women die from pregnancy-related complications. 

Currently, Timor Leste is experiencing a shortage of doctors and technical expertise in health care. Because of this, the health care sector in Timor Leste is experiencing several problems and constraints, such as a lack of awareness of health problems, particularly among women. Food scarcity further contributes to the high rates of malnutrition and the unequal distribution of food and health care in the family that favors boys. Malnutrition among mothers and children has long been common in the country. A 2002 World Health Organization survey estimated that almost half of children under the age of five are underweight and do not reach their full growth potential and that 35 percent of mothers are underweight and malnourished. Additionally, only one-third of the East Timorese population has access to improved sanitation and only 52 percent to treated water sources.

The literacy rate in Timor Leste is only 58.6 percent, with that number being considerably lower for women and girls. UNICEF estimates that 60 percent of women and girls are illiterate. According to UNICEF, Timor Leste has a net secondary school attendance rate of only 27 percent for boys and 18 percent for girls. The high level of illiteracy, combined with a lack of skills, restrains economic and social development.

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Domestic violence is highly prevalent in Timor Leste, and approximately 51 percent of married East Timorese women report feeling unsafe and in danger of being harmed in their relationships. The 2006 human development report actually states that “around half of women in intimate relationships suffer from some form of violence.” The economic security offered to women through the traditional custom of barlaque (bride price) in reality means that at marriage a woman simply moves from her father’s domain of power, influence and control into the domain of her husband and his family. This process, in effect, excludes her from access to basic economic, social, and political rights and contributes to the cultural belief that women are the property of their husbands.

Timor Leste is also experiencing an increase in sex trafficking, with approximately 250 documented sex workers in the country, mostly from the country itself, Indonesia, China, Thailand and the Philippines. The vast majority of foreign sex workers in Timor Leste came because they were promised better pay and because of the attraction of earning U.S. dollars, Timor Leste’s currency. According to the Alola Foundation, which is a local organization founded by Timor Leste’s First Lady and dedicated to stopping the trafficking of women in Timor Leste, almost all sex workers in East Timor engage in prostitution as their sole source of income, and almost all have children to support.

Despite these experiences and ongoing challenges, the people of Timor Leste have made some progress and face an exciting new century filled with the possibilities of self-government and freedom from foreign powers. As the Timor-Leste Human Development Report 2006 notes, “the people of Timor-Leste have made impressive gains, particularly in social and political developments. This is largely due to their own efforts. They survived centuries of colonial rule, overcame a 24-year occupation, and became independent only after enduring phenomenal suffering and making tremendous sacrifices.” The programs World Neighbors is currently implementing in this country will contribute to helping its people, and especially its women and children, have a healthier and better future in the twenty-first century.

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For Timor map only: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

 

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