In certain professions in Montenegro, there are no women with disabilities at all, warned the Association of Young People with Handicap (UMHCG).
The Executive Director of that Association, Marina Vujačić, said that women with disabilities all over the world face multiple and severe forms of discrimination based on gender and disability.
"Women and girls with disabilities are often the last in line to receive the necessary support for education, employment, appropriate general health care services. Women and girls with disabilities are the last to be able to overcome poverty and achieve a productive and fulfilling life, explained Vujacic.
This, she stated, is particularly worrisome given the concentration of women with disabilities among poor and rural communities in developing countries.
"In many developing countries, opportunities and accessibility for girls and women with disabilities are extremely limited, which means that they are often completely dependent on others for their basic existence," said Vujacic.
According to her, stigma, ghettoism and prejudice against that group because of their gender, disability, or both, are at an extremely high level, and women with disabilities more than anyone else are ashamed of themselves because of the relationships of the family, the environment and the whole society.
Vujacic reminded that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognizes the challenges faced by women and girls with disabilities, and calls on states to take measures that guarantee the full and equal participation and enjoyment of human rights and basic freedoms for both women and girls with disabilities.
The Convention also recognizes that women and girls with disabilities are often at greater risk, both inside and outside the home, of violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation.
"However, domestic legislation, strategies and other policies often forget about girls and women with disabilities and almost never foresee measures to equalize the opportunities of women with disabilities in society. Although they do not have adequate conditions for education, employment, social and political activism, on the other hand, just like other women, they have their 'desired role' in the house, apart from the very important role of wife and mother," said Vujacic.
She said that International Women's Day should not only be an opportunity to celebrate and mark, and thus to erase what was or was not done during the year to women, including those with disabilities.
"It must be a day, like any other, dedicated to calling on the authorities to start an initiative, implement concrete measures and provide equal opportunities and chances to women with disabilities to get an education, get a job, work and live in a dignified way," she stressed. Vujacic.
As she said, women with disabilities are not encouraged to realize themselves as mothers, to engage in entrepreneurship, let alone politics or any other public activity.
"Even, what's more, from many of those activities, which put physical appearance and attractiveness in the foreground, they are completely excluded and neglected, often forgetting how precisely women with disabilities have changed society and the very view of disability throughout history," said Vujačić. .
That is why, she believes, it is high time for the state and society to stop justifying themselves with tradition, culture, historical circumstances and habits.
"And to start taking responsibility for those next to us, whom we only call the fairer and fairer sex," concluded Vujacic.
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