History was created in Timor-Leste this year, when women were elected to village councils for the first time. Maureen Bathgate met some of the inspirational women who have broken new ground.

Some of Timor-Leste's first woman village councillors, (back row from left) Maria de Fatima, Ana Maria Pereira, Feliberta de Jesus, (Front row from left) Celesthina Madeira with daughter Christiana Madeira, Cariana Barreto Amaral and Aliansi Feto Distict Coordinator Avelina da Costa.
Photo: John Sones/OxfamAUS.

It's not often you can say that you have been a part of history, but that's just what happened for 90 women who became the first women to be elected onto their Suco (village) Councils in Timor-Leste's Cova Lima district earlier this year.

The Timor-Leste Government paved the way for this change in 2003, when it passed an electoral law which provided two seats on each council specifically for women and enabled women to stand for any other positions, including village chief.

It's a big change for Timor-Leste, whose culture and customs are traditionally patriarchal. Previously, men occupied all community leadership positions in rural villages and women had no voice in decision-making.

In order to encourage as many women as possible to stand as candidates in the 2005 elections, we joined forces with local partners Fokupers and Aliansi Feto, to conduct a series of workshops to encourage women to become leaders in local government.

In Cova Lima District, more than 5,000 women from all seven sub-districts attended these workshops, receiving information on their right to stand as candidates and what the nomination process involved.

From this, 400 women registered as candidates, with about 80-90% participating in subsequent candidate training sessions on running election campaigns, planning and having community discussions.

At the Suco elections in May 2005, 90 women were elected as Suco Councillors, an average of three women per village. In the village of Fatululik, Lucia Guteres was elected Cova Lima district's first-ever woman Suco Chief from a field of five candidates, including men.

Cariana Barreto Amaral was elected as a Suco Councillor in the village of Matai, near Maucatar, after initially attending one of the workshops. As a mother of three young children, she now fits the twice-monthly council meetings and other councillor commitments around her usual work caring for her family, cooking meals and doing household chores.

"There has been some negative response from the men in the village. They say that the woman councillors are not able to do anything for our village, but we say that we can do something very important for our village as a councillor," Cariana says.

"The biggest problem is domestic violence. Domestic violence is very threatening everywhere, especially our district, every day. If there is any conflict between husband and wife, sometimes the men just protect their fellow man. So if the woman has problems with her husband, I want to help my fellow women to resolve their problems."

Feliberta De Jesus, who was elected as Suco Councillor for Suai Loro, says childbirth difficulties was one of the many things she wished to address in her role as councillor. "Sometimes the women are far away from the health centre and they get problems when delivering children. They cannot go to the health centre for many reasons, because lack of information or maybe lack of transportation," Feliberta explains.

"As a woman and a councillor, if some woman or some mother has to deliver children, we are the ones linked with the health centre and we can give information to help the mothers."

Aliansi Feto District Coordinator Avelina Da Costa says that traditionally, women's needs had been neglected in their villages, largely due to the men's monopoly on councils.

"As councillors, if these women are very active and help their fellow women, then maybe these positive activities can encourage other women to become candidates in the next election," Avelina says. "In the next five years, I believe there will be more women involved in every structure in government in Timor-Leste."