In news report ‘Meet the new urban woman,’ Phnom Penh Post reporter Kate Evan started the lead sentence: ‘a new kind of woman is emerging in Phnom Penh.’ Reading this article, I delved into Cambodian history, which echoes how a good woman should behave until recent day. The news article describes a story of new trend-setter Sophea and code of conduct of Cambodian women.
At age 25, Sophea paves the way for many women to not look at old tradition in one angle, but also to view modern day as an advantage.
“We have mobile phones, the Internet, email - everything is so much more modern now… In the past, parents wouldn’t allow girls to go out after dark. But now, girls go out until eight, because they have to study English.”
Holding master degree in Khmer Literature from the Royal University of Phnom Penh, she can run three jobs, speak fluent English, and is unlike her sisters and other young Cambodian women across the nation by not falling into a situation of arranged marriage. She successfully managed to marry her lover she met at university.
Her life story is probably one among a hundred thousands. The reporter wrote “yet women like Sophea are a tiny minority, and their lifestyles are only possible in Phnom Penh. Rural attitudes are years behind those in the capital.”
What is freedom and liberation?
It lies as far as back to the 1848s that code of conduct for Cambodian women and men was introduced, and still being taught by family and school in this 21st century. The news article goes on to explore this new trend vs. Women’s Code of Conduct, Chbab Srey in Khmer. “The code is a rhyming poem instructing women how to behave in their marriage, within their family, and in the community.” For Sophea, she insists that follow Chbab Srey completely inhibit a woman’s ability to be independent. “If you follow Chbap Srei to the letter, you will never get a job, you will never see what society is like,” said Sophea. Admitted that she manages to do all traditional roles the way other Cambodian women do, but does not need to follow the code of conduct to be a good wife. “I am responsible for the household - I cook, I clean. You know what to do, without letting Chbap Srei rule your life” she added.
This conduct also attracted attention of United Nations Committee regarding women’s rights. “According to Kantha Phavi, many Khmer men - and women - do not believe beating one’s wife is a crime.”
In this new era, yet, most women are entitled to follow footsteps of their husband regardless of wrongdoing. Every major decision making is up to men. One piece of the code reads “women are supposed to stay at home, and always behave quietly and sweetly.” The code also instructs woman to respect her husband as if he is untouchable. “If you are not afraid of your husband, conflict will ensue, your reputation will suffer, and cause disruption.”
If a husband becomes angry with his wife, she should “retire for the night and think about the situation, then speak softly to him and forgive him.” If a man takes a mistress, she must calmly “allow him to wander where he wants, and he will return to her.”
However Sophea admits she is quite different from most Cambodian girls.
The code derived from King Ang Duong, who ruled Cambodia from 1848 to 1860. According to Trudy Jacobsen, Australian academic: “the Chbap Srei were an idealized set of rules describing how elite society should operate, not how it actually did. However, by the early 20th century, Ang Duong’s reign was seen as something of a golden age, when the country was free of colonial subjugation by French, Thai or Vietnamese occupiers. Literature from that period, including the Chbap Srei, was republished, and seen as reflecting uniquely Cambodian social mores.” It lies back to the 19th-century that the version of the code for male, Chab Bros, can be found in that Khmer rich literature. Yet women are more serious than men. In a due to release book Lost Goddesses: Female Power and its Denial in Cambodian History, author Jacobsen wrote that “women are the ones wearing traditional costumes, and who are expected to retain knowledge of traditional dances, while the men wear western business suits.”
Rural and urban woman in Cambodia is quite different from one to another in term of perspective and lifestyle. It is possible that rate of dropping out of school of provincial girls is higher than that in urban areas whereas security and economy, in average, is not very comparable. Many Cambodian families cannot economically afford to keep their daughters in schools, and as cultural gender biases favor the education of boys over girls (in Portable Document Format), many young girls drop out of school after primary school.
In a society where there is only educated men, it is not different from a man has his right hand trained, and the other one does not function well. A reasearch report by the World Bank indicates that 42 percent of women over 25 have had no schooling, compared with 20 percent of men.
In research ‘How does spousal education matter? Some evidence from Cambodia’ by Sophal Ear with Tomoki Fujii (in Portable Document Format), it pointed out that:
If you educate a boy, you educate a man.
If you educated a girl, you educate a family.
And a family passes on what it learns to the next generation.
“We have just implemented five years of gender policy, and are working solidly to promote women’s status in Cambodian society, in policy, law and legislation,” Ing Kantha Phavi, Minister for Women’s Affairs said.
For Cambodian girls, education is antidote to poverty and sexual exploitation
In Prey Veng province, Seng Srey Mach, a girl of fifteen-years old, had to drop out of school due to financial matters in family. “I used to cry when I saw my friends on their way to school,” Seng Srey told.
And Kantha Phavi believes that “the Women’s Code of Conduct is an obstacle to development for women.”
I agree utterly with the points in this article. Khmer women must be educated, so as to enable Cambodia to utilize her other hand that has been made cripple for centuries.
[...] 8 Mar 2006 Happy Women’s DAY Posted by mungkol under Photography , Thoughts and Feelings , Cambodia If you educate aboy, you educate a man. If you educate a girl, you educate a family. And a family passes on what it learns to the next generation. – Read more from Tharum [...]
Tharum:
Thank you for this post. It is so true - education for young women in Cambodia is antidote to poverty and explotaition. That is why we are sponsoring Leng Sophorath for college there.
Thanx for the article - it’s funny how universal these problems are - of course emancipation is certainly more developed in Germany and most young women are at least as well educated as men (our cries for more emancipation will sound feeble and unimportant compared to cambodian ladies efforts and struggles), and still they are often paid less than men for the same work and inspite of their equal or better education they are hindered to progress in their career because they are expected to stay at home to look after the kids instead of sharing this responsibility with the child’s father. You will never change biology - the mother will always be a woman
but don’t forget that it takes two to have a baby.
Keep up the good work, Tharum!
Women of the world - unite!