World Assembly for Women (WAW!) at Tokyo, Japan
The Government of Japan held an international conference called "World Assembly for Women (WAW!) on 03 December 2022. The theme for the conference was: "Mainstreaming Gender into a New Form of Capitalism”. It was a forum for discussions with invited leading figures and experts from overseas and Japan aimed toward creating a better society that realizes gender equality. The focus was particularly on the subtopic “New Form of Capitalism and Women”, and individual issues were discussed in break-out sessions. The morning sessions focused on the “New Form of Capitalism and Women,” with five break-out sessions to deepen the discussion. The afternoon sessions featured roundtables with panellists on the remaining subtopics. The conference concluded with a special “Youth session” to provide youth with the opportunity to speak out. Shuchona Chairperson, Ms. Saima Wazed was invited as a speaker for the roundtable discussion with fellow discussants "Session 7: Realizing a society protecting women’s dignity and pride". WAW's main discussion points under this theme were: • Preventing gender-based violence (GBV), supporting victims and punishing perpetrators • Addressing hardships faced by women • Women’s health and economy Ms. Wazed attended in-person and spoke about the issue of violence against women. She pointed out that although Japan and Bangladesh are very different in geography and culture, when it comes to violence towards women, the uncanny similarity is hard to not notice. She mentioned a lot of relevant statistics making the discussion more robust and informative. She further discussed the scenario in Bangladesh and the initiatives undertaken by the Government of Bangladesh to address the issues concerning violence against women, and protecting women's pride and dignity. She concluded her speech with recommendations for the way forward and suggested essential resources to help mitigate the matter in discourse. The recording of the session is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=b9NHpOBKOvw&feature=youtu.be
