Indian nun reports to UN on women rights

(Feb.24,2010): An Indian Catholic nun will be among representatives and officials at a UN meeting in New York, to review progress in providing greater equality for women. Nazareth Sister Ann Moyalan, who left New Delhi on Wed. (Feb. 24) for the March 1-12 meeting, said her presence at there, would be proof of what Catholic Religious have done for women’s liberation in India.
The UN-sponsored meeting aims to review progress that countries have made in implementing the September 1995 Beijing Declaration when representatives of 189 governments and more than 2,100 non-governmental organizations met in the Chinese capital of Beijing and charted a new agenda for women’s empowerment and equality. Sr. Moyalan said the upcoming meeting will study how the governments have tried to implement the Beijing declaration. The nun is attending in her role as a member of the UN-recognized NGO, the Charity Federation, which links up Religious congregations, who share the spirituality of St. Vincent De Paul.
At the New York meeting, Sister Moyalan plans to present the work that women, particularly Religious women, are doing for women’s socio-economic liberation and equality. The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Congregation Based in Kentucky, U.S. has worked for women’s liberation since it’s arrival in India more than 50 years ago. Sr. Moyalan hopes to widen her network with other people and organizations during the meeting days.
Sister Moyalan worked in Bihar villages in her youth, fighting witch-hunting, a practice that saw women, often widows, labelled as witches and killed. She now works in a slum in New Delhi, educating predominantly Muslim women and girls. The nun said getting the men’s support for women’s education is the biggest challenge.