Women in Tibet Essay -- Birth Abortion Rights Inferiority Papers

Women in Tibet Although Buddhism embraces compassion as the means to end suffering, the Chinese occupation of 1949 used force and torture to manipulate the Tibetan people, despite the country’s strong pacifist beliefs. Chinese troops aimed to imprison anyone who demonstrates support for the Dalai Lama and often looked for excuses to make public mockeries of these people. In order to implement this idea of genocide in Tibetan culture, China used the practice of ethnic cleansing, or eliminating the Tibetan race; therefore, women were highly stigmatized because of their role in bearing children. Treating the victims as insects, the Chinese forced sterilizations and abortions upon the Tibetan women to ensure their extermination. Continuing to ignore all regulations to treat women as equal to men and to practice safe methods of birth control, China still sterilizes Tibetan women today, leaving them not only with the scar of their surgery, but also a lifetime imprint of the pain and suffering that the Tibetan people have endured for over fifty years. Although so much time has passed since Chinese troops first occupied Tibet, people around the world are starting to realize the horror of this situation as organizations have begun to take action against this dehumanization of Tibetans so that the suffering of these people can finally be eased. Throughout history, women have been viewed as inferior to their male counterparts; however, although Tibet claims to issue women equal rights, the gender gap vastly surpasses the differences seen in America. Even today, Western and Tibetan women are not officially recognized by the Tibetan government in exile, even though the Dalai Lama recently advocated the full ordination of women (Young, ... ...omen of the Himalayas: a journey of the heart, mind and spirit. Colorado Woman News, 13(5), 28. Ma, N. (1999). Tibetan women endangered. America, 180(1), 8-10. Nelson, S. (1999). Buddhist nuns delight crowd. Women’s View from Ethnic and Minority Press, 12(3), 12. Pinto, S. (1999). Pregnancy and childbirth in Tibetan culture. In K.L. Tsomo (Ed.), Buddhist Women Across Cultures: Realizations (pp. 159-168). New York: State University of New York Press. (1994). Tibetan women denied their reproductive rights. Women Envision, 9, 12. (1995). We are using the Beijing process†¦to make our voices heard. The Tribune, 53, 8. (1996). The world is still watching. Herizons, 10(3), 13. Young, S. (2000). Women changing Tibet, activism changing women. In E.B. Findly (Ed.), Women’s Buddhism, Buddhism’s women (pp. 229-242). Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publication.