Religious Discrimination Forbidden In N. Vietnam

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30219, 26 August 1963, Page 2

Religious Discrimination Forbidden In N. Vietnam

The religious differences currently disrupting South Vietnam are confined purely to that half of the country, according to Mrs Freda Cook, an English teacher working in Hanoi, North Vietnam. “The North Vietnamese constitution forbids any religious discrimination,” Mrs Cook said in Christchurch yesterday.

“Buddha’s birthday and Christmas Day are both national holidays. Buddhists are represented in the Government and in civic affairs. The Roman Catholics are a small community in Hanoi although there is a large cathedral, and as far as I know there is no Roman Catholic in the Government.”

Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, and rationalism were the three major philosophies in North Vietnam. The minority religions were Taoism and Animism, and there was some worship of past heroes. Asked about the prevalence of communism, Mrs Cook said that North Vietnam was not “anything like communist—-

they are merely building socialism.” Major necessities, such as coal and electricity, were State-controlled. Most of the new industries, particularly handcrafts and textiles, were run as co-opera-tives. Street traders also were in co-operatives, mainly for those purpose of price control.

New services were not State-controlled, but were influenced by the Government. Students were discouraged from listening to radio broadcasts received from outside the country, and were expected to listen to their national radio services. Criticism of public affairs was encouraged and was proving constructive, Mrs Cook said. Social Changes

Mrs Cook spoke of the tremendous social changes which had taken place in the last eight years, particularly in the villages where the peasants were encouraged to join co-operatives to improve their living standards. Farms were semi-mechanical and village boys were now able to study at a polytechnic college in Hanoi, and take improved methods back to the villages. The most interesting project had been with the minority mountain peoples, who had lived in extremely primitive conditions. An agricultural college had been instituted in a mountain province, where about 1000 persons aged between 18 and 20 learnt trades which included plumbing, road-making, brick and cement-making, and printing. The five-year courses were designed to raise the living standards to normal. The Women's Union of North Vietnam (which is not affiliated to the International Council of Women) was doing an “extraordinarily fine job” in social reform, Mrs Cook said. “Confronted with an illiterate, backward, unhygienic people, they have

instituted decent nurseries for all the children in Hanoi, and are seeing to the carrying out of new public sanitation regulations,” she said. Equality Gained

In recent years women had gained full liberty, and complete equality with men was written into the constitution. New marriage laws had only been put into effect in the last three years. They prohibit child marriages, polygamy and arranged marriages. A girl had to be 18, and a boy 21, before they could marry. The emergence of women was most notable in university life, Mrs Cook said. When she went to Hanoi three years ago, she had found the girls "shy and giggly.” They now took an active part in the co-educational system. Born in England, Mrs Cook has spent the greater part of her life in New Zealand. She was working in the Department of Education’s Correspondence School in Wellington when she heard that an English teacher was needed in Hanoi. For three years she has taught in the North Vietnamese Ministry of Education (teachers’ training college) and the Ministry of Foreign Trade. After three months’ leave in New Zealand, Mrs Cook will leave tomorrow, and expects to spend about two more years in Vietnam. She is collecting material for a book which she hopes to write about the country.