Name: Syona Arora

Year: 2015

Major: Anthropology/Gender and Sexuality Studies

What’s happening? We’d love to hear how your internship is going! At AWARE Singapore (the Association of Women for Action and Research), I’m working in the Research and Advocacy department. Specifically, I am working on AWARE’s Shadow Report for the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). I am researching stereotyped gender roles in social and cultural contexts in Singapore. Additionally, I am arranging local workshops and national conferences for collaboration between different organizations who will attend a UN CEDAW Session in 2015 and organizing a lobbying and public campaign to raise citizen and government official awareness about CEDAW.

Working on CEDAW is my main project, but I have also assisted with research for Singapore’s rationale for both ratifying and placing reservations on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Of course, working at a gender equality advocacy group also means smashing the patriarchy on a daily basis (hence the Death to the Patriarchy printed t-shirt made at SHATTER, an event hosted to shatter gender stereotypes and take a stand against gender-based violence).

Why I applied for my internship: I have always had an interest in women’s rights and gender equality. Applying to this internship gave me the opportunity to put practical research skills to good use.