East Africans need to accord women the respect they deserve in all aspects of life, a member of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has said.

Dr Odette Nyiramirimo told The New Times that women and girls were still being treated unfairly and excluded in most East African Community (EAC) partner states.

"For instance, when a family’s income reduces, you find the girl is the first to be stopped from continuing their education and instead asked to do domestic chores while their brothers are kept in school. That shouldn’t be the case; all children have equal rights,” she said.

Nyiramirimo, a former Rwandan social affairs minister, and Senator was speaking during an exclusive interview on the sidelines of an EALA session at parliament in Kigali earlier this week.

She cited a recent survey by EALA across the EAC member states which found that women were still excluded from several areas, adding that only Rwanda had made significant progress in promoting gender equality. "We found that the girl child is by far still lagging behind. We need to do something about it; we need to act quickly.’’

Her comments came in the same week Rwanda launched a series of events to highlight the issue of gender based violence dubbed the ‘16 days of activism against gender based violence’.

"It was also established that girls and women are often harassed by their relatives, including in some cases thier fathers, as well as friends and colleagues because they are deemed weak, and are to be controlled and owned,” she said.

"This shouldnt be the case, women are not tools and should not be looked at in such light,” she added.

The EALA member also urged women not to underestimate themselves, adding that they are as good enough as any other human being.

A recent report by the World Economic Forum ranked Rwanda the best place in Africa to be a woman, and sixth in the world, only behind five Scandinavian countries.

Rwanda is one of the two countriesworlwide besides Bolivia -- with a women dominated parliament, while the country has also made gains in gender quality in other areas such as education, land ownership and inheritance, health, among others.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw