An interview with Samaneh Shibani, a women’s rights officer at the European Disability Forum, about political participation of women with disabilities.
Samaneh Shabani works at the European Disability Forum (EDF), as Women’s Rights Officer.
I met Samaneh to discuss about the political participation of women with disabilities. We talked about the work of EDF’s Women Committee.
Samaneh’s has worked on gender and disability, and wrote a book on domestic violence against women with disabilities and access to justice in Iran.
EDF’s Women Committee and representation
The Women’s committee is responsible to promote rights of women and girls with disabilities. They collaborate with movements such as the European Women’s Lobby and the European Coalition to End Violence against Women and Girls.
The role of the Women’s committee is to mainstream the gender perspective in all the activities of the European Disability Forum (EDF).
The Women’s committee has 13 members and 4 observers from different organisations from all over Europe, including Senada Halilčević.
“We represent people with visual impairment, physical disabilities, hearing disabilities or intellectual disabilities. The idea is that all of those different groups are well represented.”
All the different groups of people with disabilities need to be represented because they have different priorities. Each member is responsible for different topics: violence, employment, inclusion, accessibility.
The Women’s committee also represents mothers of persons with disabilities. They know a lot about disability because they often take care of their child with a disability.
The role of EDF’s Women Committee in promoting political rights of women with disabilities
Every 10 years, EDF publishes a Manifesto on the Rights of Women and Girls with Disabilities in the European Union.
Samaneh is working on the third Manifesto, for this year.2023, that will be on leadership and empowerment.
Women with disabilities share their challenges, needs and ideas about different things, including political participation and self-advocacy.
There is a lack of data when it comes to disability and gender. It is difficult to find data on women with disabilities in political participation, and even more for women with intellectual disabilities.
Giving women with disabilities a voice is a priority of the woman’s committee and to make people understand that women can participate actively in society and political life.
“In some countries, women still don’t have equal rights in political participation.”
Although countries should ensure equal political rights here are still many challenges and obstacles. Some European countries do not recognise people with intellectual disabilities the right to vote or run for the elections. They are often fully or partially deprived of their legal capacity.
“When it comes to disability and gender, there are big challenges like accessibility, lack of reasonable accommodation, discrimination, and inequality in general. In the case of people with intellectual disabilities, but also have denial or restriction of legal capacity”.
In many countries, women and girls with intellectual disabilities cannot participate and represent themselves in the public life. Even where voting rights are guaranteed, women with intellectual disabilities face intersectional discrimination and stereotypes.
For Samaneh it is very important to talk about the stereotypes and challenges that women with intellectual disabilities face.
“Women with disabilities face more violence or forms of hate speech when they act as politicians and activists.”
She reported an example of hate speech from 2018, when a male politician from Iceland made comments about a female colleague with a disability.
Samaneh explained how male dominancy still exists and that it impacts women disabilities in many ways:
-Stereotypes result in a lack of awareness in the society.
-Expectations towards people with intellectual disabilities are low.
-Women with intellectual disabilities are often treated as children, regardless of their level of education or experience.
-This has an impact on the vision women with disabilities have of themselves, for example they may think they are not qualified enough.
“Their behaviour and the way of their life is different and it’s just the diversity. This does not mean that they’re missing something, or that they are not qualified. This is not the case, and this is really the misunderstanding among the society. When we say somebody has an intellectual disability, society believes we cannot count on their ideas.”
The consequences of the lack of presence of women with disabilities in policy and decision-making positions and in organiszations promoting human rights are that as long as women with disabilities are not activeactively involved, their concerns will remain unheard.
“The concerns of women with disabilities wouldn’t be reflected, so we’re simply missing part of our society. We need to give voice to them, to talk about their needs and their concerns from their point of view with a genuine voice and not a voice coming from other people.”
Democracy means that everybody has their voice. People with disabilities are part of the society and shouldn’t be marginalized.
“Nothing about us without us”
Samaneh gave some tips for girls with disabilities who want to work in politics and leadership.
She spoke about the importance of being active in networking.
Being included in organizations of people with disabilities will give the chance to have enough support and network to go further to express ourselves.
It also helps feeling understood when facing challenges and discrimination.
Samaneh’s words should be heard by all women and girls with disabilities, and by everyone:
“When we are together, we have stronger voice.”