A quick glance at what President Arnoldo Alemán has done in his short time in office reveals that much can be understood under the broad rubric of a rollback of gains made under the revolution in terms of distribution of property, access to the political system, and so forth. This is clear, and obviously of tremendous concern. What is sometimes less obvious, however, is the parallel "rollback" taking place on what is more exclusively ideological terrain. The right wing in Nicaragua, particularly an especially conservative brand of Catholicism enshrined in the so-called "City of God" sect (that counts as members the Ministers of Education and Government, as well as the proposed Minister of the Family) is promoting a "new" morality that purports to exalt motherhood and the nuclear family, but recognizes little of what the historical reality of the Nicaraguan family has been and continues to be.
Since his election, Alemán promised to create a Ministry of the Family and, in emergency legislation on February 24, a bill was introduced to that effect. Representatives from the women's movement identified the following aspects of the legislation that they feel is of particular danger to women, children, and women's organizations in Nicaragua: 1) the definition of the family as a husband, his wife, and children (thus refusing to recognize the many and different forms of families that have long existed here); 2) describing women's role in the family in a very limited fashion, based on conservative traditions not necessarily relevant to some women's lives; 3) the loss of women's rights to make decisions about their reproductive systems and health; 4) the loss of important services intended for women and their children through the termination of the Nicaraguan Women's Institute (INIM) and the Nicaraguan Foundation for Children and Families (FONIF); and, 5) the loss of autonomy of the whole range of NGOs working with women and children throughout the country.
Language explaining the motives behind the Ministry of the Family states that "The base of the family is the couple, the man and the woman united by bonds of love in a generous, faithful, stable, and permanent relationship... The state recognizes that the mission of the couple...made up of two people of the opposite sex...by means of their union is to procreate children." With this definition stating that the family's mission is to procreate, the law denies the existence of any types of family rather than this rigidly defined nuclear one.
However, the nuclear family is simply not the only family in Nicaragua. A study done by the Managua-based International Foundation for Global Economic Development (FIDEG) found six types of family in Nicaragua other than the traditional nuclear family and notes that these six types of family are over 52% of all families in the country. In other words, less than half of all Nicaraguan households fit the definition of the nuclear family as laid out by the Ministry of the Family. FIDEG notes that nearly 27% of all families in the country are monoparental -- with the overwhelming majority headed by single mothers. Sofía Montenegro and María Teresa Blandón from the La Malinche feminist collective in Managua point out that Nicaragua signed the accords of the IV Global Women's Conference and the UN Conference on Population and Development which specifically indicate that diverse forms of families will be recognized by the state.
Another reality in Nicaragua is that many of those couples who are living in a nuclear family are not married--either by the Church or the state. Instead, they are in an union de hecho, or common law marriage. The proposed Ministry pledges to "promote the formalizing of these unions by means of marriage," which essentially imposes marriage as a requirement for families.
Feminist activists note that women here, who have struggled hard to gain a sense of self-esteem and a modicum of economic independence, would feel tremendous societal pressure to stay in destructive, violent households. The draft legislation says nothing about the serious problems of domestic violence, maternal mortality, and other concerns that affect women on a daily basis. Many women are distressed as well about the clear attempt of the proposed legislation to undermine INIM. Luz Marina Torrez, coordinator of the March 8 Women's Collective, puts it this way: "INIM has done a lot of work for women in the area of health and women's rights. If they just become a small office within the Ministry, this means a total reduction of the importance of projects for women, and only focuses on the role of women within the family. I'm not suggesting that INIM identifies itself with feminist objectives, but at least it recognizes the difference between being a woman and just being a mother. INIM is an achievement of the women's movement; they are government workers but they are also women working within the government."
A particularly controversial aspect of the proposed Ministry is its intentions to "supervise and coordinate" all NGOs working with women and children. This infringement on the autonomy of these groups has serious implications for the work of small NGOs like the women's centers and collectives scattered throughout Nicaragua, in both rural and urban areas. María Blas, a popular defender who works with the Lutheran Church, sees the imposition of the Ministry of the Family as a setback. "Organized women know that this proposed law does nothing for us but send us 50 years back in time. We will be subjected to the slavery of being kept in the home again, as a being who exists only to accept any kids that God decides to send her way. We are intelligent and independent people...I am against this law because I am part of that group of women who has fought so hard."