Tonga MP calling for reserved seats for women

Transcript

AKOSITA LAVULAVU: With Tonga right now I'm actually working on a private bill at the moment on two reserved seats for women. I believe that it is very important for women with the constitution and the law right now, women are given the opportunity to run as candidates, but I think that it's important that women are empowered and also at the same time, people in our country are educated as well as our leaders, are well educated of empowering women in to such leadership roles. I believe one of the barriers of women trying to get into parliament is the mindset we have in Tonga. In our culture in Tonga, the mindset or mentality we have is that a women's place is at home, a women is supposed to be at home taking care of the children, taking care of domestic duties and people are just so very used to hearing male voices on radio, in parliament and they just believe that a woman's place is at home and not in parliament and that's a mindset that I believe we have to try and change in the future because I believe it is very important that women do have a place or have a seat in parliament because there are various issues that women care about. Security issues is a very important issue and that is something that women would often care about because women are often more secure than men. I have nothing against men or male members but I just believe that it is important. It is also important that we have females supporting women, that's another barrier is that women are not supporting women in political roles and I believe that we need to educate and support our women into supporting other women into leadership roles. I think that's something I'm working on and it is very important, attending various conferences and workshops, everyday I learn that it is important that a woman has a seat in parliament and I'm working on that with other male champions currently in parliament, in the Tongan parliament right now.