|
|
|
AFRICA
|
|
|
WESTERN
ASIA
|
|
|
ASIA
& PACIFIC
|
|
|
LATIN
AMERICA & CARRIBEAN
|
|
|
EUROPE
& NORTH AMERICA
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
POSTED MAY 30, 2000
Cultural
Boundaries & Cyberspace
by Najat Rochdi
| |
On Thursday, June 1st, I will join
more than ten of my colleagues--from Muslim and non-Muslim
countries alike--to discuss how the new technology can help
strengthen women’s leadership in Muslim societies (see
the Womenswire calendar for details).
In this one
day, myself and my esteemed colleagues have the unique opportunity
of raising consciousness and understanding of a medium that
still has truly revolutionary potential.
As I write, the Internet remains the
fastest-growing communication tool in the history of humanity.
Yet, more than two-thirds of the world’s users are based in
North America and Western Europe. And, everywhere, most of
those users are men. In the Arab world, this gender gap is
even worse. By 2003, there will be approximately 12 million
Internet users but only a fraction will be women. Now, more
than ever, Arab and non-Arab women must band together to undo
these disparities. We must expand Internet resources to reach
the poorest of the poor and develop training tools to enhance
women’s leadership skills.
I don't think that the technological
obstacles for Muslim women are much different from those faced
by women in other contexts. Everywhere, the story is the same.
There is a lack of education, access to computers, affordability,
training and computer literacy for women. For non-Muslim countries
from Asia to Africa, the problem of communications access
and affordability is center stage. In every corner
of this planet, women’s activists do battle with the degrading
depiction of women and girls in the explosion of on-line resources
for pornography and pedophilia. This is related to a general
lack of leadership, governance and democracy in the world
rather than to the specific issues facing Muslims.
However, the unique issue before Muslim
women is that of fundamentalism. What the Internet promises
is the opportunity to use the new technology to project an
alternative image of Islam. It is the image of a tolerant
religion which has always encouraged men as well as women
to ask for education. This could be an empowering statement
for Muslim women who, like everyone, are bombarded with images
of Islam as a religion of terrorism and of violence against
women. The Internet offers Muslim women and men the opportunity
to overcome the false propaganda of Islamic fanaticism, which
seems to be the version preferred by the Western media.
All of this is not to say that we Muslim
women don't have a lot of real problems and unique constraints.
Our problems have a lot to do with the aversion to granting
us equal rights. Much of this is linked to the culture of
machismo in Muslim countries where women are only valued as
mothers and caretakers. We are still not valued as clever
and accomplished people on our own accord, outside of the
influence and tutelage of a father or a husband. This relates
to a lack of trust in women and our leadership potential in
both civic and political spheres.
It is this work of fighting for our
rights that Muslim women are still working on but we’re making
progress through the power of our own accomplishments. In
the meanwhile, the Internet can help us convince the world
and each other that we are not at all doomed to suffer and
be silenced and that this is not the message of Islam.
Internet Technology (IT) is a wonderful
way to energize an alternative forum for lobbying and activism.
In one second, the Internet and new technology can reach the
entire world. IT is a powerful instrument for spreading positive
information and generating the attention and urgency required
for progressive change.
It is very important to depict Muslim
women accurately as successful and uncompromising activists,
well educated and viable economic and political agents. And,
most importantly, the Internet offers the opportunity
to show that many Muslim women are living their everyday lives
happily and with integrity--making their own choices with
respect to their culture and values.
Najat Rochdi is President
of Morocco’s Internet Society and is an adviser to her country’s
Minister in charge of Internet Technology (IT). She will be
a panelist at the symposium organized by the "Women’s Learning
Partnership." Rochdi has also been appointed by U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan to advise governments on IT for economic
and social development.
|
POSTED APRIL 8, 2000
Equal
in Death
by Feryal
Ali Gauhar
Another
death, another battle fought, another conspiracy against the fragile
foundations of a state going nowhere.
I am writing
from Lahore, Pakistan, a city which lives under a constant pall
of dust and gloom. I am keeping myself focused on the conditions
of women's lives which remain deplorable despite the variables in
our political system. For the next several years, I shall be traveling
throughout the country as the Goodwill Ambassador for the United
Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). While my colleagues meet in New
York in preparation for the U.N.'s June review of the 1995 Beijing
Women's Conference, I am checking in from the Global South-working
furiously towards the achievement of our movement's agenda of sustainable
development and full equality for women and men worldwide, including
Pakistan.
The murder
of one of the lawyers defending the deposed Prime Minister of my
country (Nawaz Sharif) has raised the usual questions, prompting
the now familiar frenzy of rhetoric and protest. Whether we will
get answers to this latest spate of violence is a question everybody
asks. Whether violence has inserted itself through the many fissures
in society and made itself comfortable in a state of lawlessness,
feeding off of ancient notions of honor and revenge, is a question
that needs to be asked.
What lurks
beneath the apparent complacency of a society which seems to have
resolved its many problems with a nuclear test and many threats
of war? What is this which allows for the brutalisation of mind
and body and soul, and then claims a special place in the hearts
of the men and women who stand naked except for the Muslim veil
of honor?
A year
ago, Samia Sarwar, a young girl, was murdered in her lawyers office.
She was shot at point blank by a man brought into the office by
her mother. Her crime? Seeking divorce from a man who had virtually
abandoned her and her children, seeking to make sense of a life
which had been controlled by the straitjacket of patriarchal norms.
This was not just another death in my country, it was one of the
hundreds of killings justified by that vague notion of honor, that
thinly disguised dagger of hatred and intolerance. While
women's and human rights activists cried themselves hoarse, the
National Assembly was quick to dismiss the uproar as the mere rumblings
of Westernized women parading around in jeans, seeking to subvert
a centuries old tradition. So, what is this tradition that lets
men murder their women, lets them wipe their bloodied hands against
the many folds of their venerable attire, and then allows them to
declare that they have avenged themselves, that they have restored
their sullied honor?
In
a country where death stalks the streets and rests itself along
the crumbling walls of ancient forts, a woman's life is worth only
the price of her hymen, that delicate piece of membrane which lies
between honorable virginity and immoral promiscuity.
Yet when
a defense lawyer is killed, the state is shamed, especially as a
visit from the U.S., the world's policeman, is just in sight. When
a woman is killed, burned to death, stabbed a hundred times, buried
alive, no one is shamed, for this is a land where shame and honor
are as inconstant as the many political configurations which decide
the fate of its citizens.
On March
12, 2000, just a few days after several luke-warm celebrations of
International Women's Day, the current government of General Musharraf
has declared that honor killings be treated as a crime and that
the offenders must be punished through due legal process. As the
world's women meet to gauge their government's progress on the historic
Platform for Action, adopted in Beijing in 1995, women's activists
in Pakistan are waiting with bated breath to see if the General
will keep his promise and give Pakistani women the right to a life
of dignity and justice. This is just the beginning of a very long
journey where the notion of a nation's honor and its shame need
to be addressed and redefined if Pakistan is to make its way into
the comity of civilized nations where women are declared equal in
life as well as in death.
Feryal Ali Gauhar is currently
producing a film on honor killings in Pakistan.
POSTED MARCH 8, 2000
Letter,
Spirit, Action
by Anaga Dalal
| |
I confess. I did not attend the 1995 Beijing
Women’s Conference. I was 25 at the time, living
a carefree life in Manhattan. But my commitment to social
justice for women and girls worldwide was always firmly in
tact. Then and now, I was a feminist activist committed in
mind, body and soul to the women’s movement. I just didn’t
know how to get involved. This is precisely the challenge
of the women’s movement today. Without a place for young women
and girls the much touted global women’s movement risks being
sidelined.
The June review of the historic 1995 Beijing
women’s conference offers the prime opportunity for women’s
activists around the world to reach out to young women and
girls in their communities and beyond. True, lasting change
comes from within and once the letter, spirit and action of
global women’s advocacy makes room for every member of "half
the world’s population," then change from the outside is bound
to follow.
Letter
The often jargony language of global activism—in the form
of onerous policy talk—alienates. What we need is reporting,
writing and policy dialogue by women from every strata of
society. Once the energy of everyday activism is used to focus
and inform us, we reach more people—young and old. Conversation,
after all, is the true currency of progress. And it is the
goal of "WomensWire" launched on International Women’s
Day, 2000, to make the proceedings of the United Nations and
international women’s NGOs as accessible and relevant as possible
to women of all stripes, ages and backgrounds. Today, on International
Women’s Day, the United Nations Economic and Social Council
(UNESCO) has called for women to take charge of the media.
WomensWire is taking that challenge and attempting to carve
out an alternative space for news, views and information as
women’s lives once again hit center stage in the U.N.’s global
policy theater.
Spirit
One year ago, on International Women’s Day 1999, UNIFEM sponsored
a global video conference that sought to raise awareness about
Violence Against Women. Throughout the often painful recounting
of the horrors meted out to women, there was an air of courage,
strength and hope. At the end of the morning, a group of girls
filled the auditorium with joyful and touching songs. I’ve
never left a women’s meeting as lifted up as I did that day.
I believe that every women’s rights outfit has the obligation
to include this spirit—in every article, in every meeting
and in every treaty or policy document. And it is through
this spirit of girls and women both young and old, that the
forward momentum of the women’s movement will make this century
ours.
Action
This is the fun part! Through soon to be launched chat rooms
and bulletin boards, WomensWire aims to bring you the interactive
tools that will make the Beijing Plus Five review and women’s
global activism in general, accessible as you seek to improve
the lives of women in your community. Stay tuned for opinions
by girls’ rights advocates, women from every corner of the
world and tips, tools and strategies from seasoned activists.
WomensWire will also provide an extensive listing of events
up to and including the June review as well as the latest
news and analysis from the conference with suggestions on
how you can take action to make a difference.
Anaga Dalal is Editor of WomensWire.
Do you agree with this article? Would you
like to share your feedback on this edition of WomensWire
or on the website in general? Send an e-mail to anagadalal@yahoo.com.
|
|
