November 14th through 17th 2008 at AWID. What a week!
This past week has been a rich cornucopia of exposure, experiences, education, energy, emotions, etc. Where to begin?
I’ll start with lamenting the fact that I couldn’t be in three places at once. I had the tough choices of the Feminist Majority Foundation Women of Color Creating Change conference at Bennett College in North Carolina http://feministcampus.org/leadership/NorthCarolina_WOCC/wocc_agenda.pdf , the Sister Song National Membership meeting www.sistersong.net in Atlanta Georgia, and the planning meeting of the Women Won’t Wait Coalition www.womenwontwait.org combined with Association of Women’s Rights in Development Conference www.awid.org, both of which were in South Africa. I ended up choosing the latter due to a variety of factors, but with great regret in missing both of the former gatherings, as they were both critical opportunities to link with sistren with whom I share common purpose, linked missions, and much love!
Anyway, that aside, I had an amazing experience engaging with the group of 2000 women’s rights activists from all over the globe, both in formal spaces–caucuses, workshops, receptions, etc, and in informal spaces– in hallways, over lunch, or standing in line for translation equipment. J I both participated in the programme put together by AWID, which brought us all together, as well as my own ‘agenda’ of continuing to showcase through recording on the blog and video-log the views of women of color across the world on US policy, the outcomes of the recent elections, and accountability for the new administration looking forward.
Equipped with my video camera, I interviewed 17 women (I wasn’t too aggressive and only interviewed women whom I knew, or others who were recruited by friends) from India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Japan, Senegal and Uruguay. Some women were clearly caught up in the spirit and their interviews were largely enthusiastic rallying cries for Obama. J Many, I daresay most, were quite concerned about unrealistic expectations and emphasized caution and patience as the new team takes office and gets settled in. Almost all welcomed the change and made reference to how the global opinion of the United States had dipped so low in recent years especially. Several expressed pride in the US for reaching the point where we were able to make what they regarded as a very valuable and worthy choice. Some women spoke of race relations in the US and mentioned how they thought this was a sign of welcome progress. Yet others spoke of how this election was a harbinger of expansion of opportunities as well as an encouragement to their children that anything is possible if one put one’s mind to it. Issues that were important to the women with whom I spoke were the war, the economy, democracy and governance, and of course, women’s rights, including abortion and other reproductive justice issues, HIV&AIDS, and violence against women. These concerns were certainly partially reflective of the purpose of the AWID gathering and thus who would be drawn to such a space. Video clips of these interviews can soon be found at WOCU’s You Tube Channel. www.youtube.com/womenofcolorunited I have a bit of an upload backlog but hope to have all posted in the next 24-48 hours.
I attended sessions on LGBTQI issues, movement building across borders organized by Las Petateras, www.justassociates.org, holding governments accountable for commitments made on women’s rights organized by Women Won’t Wait, www.womenwontwait.org), religious fundamentalism in Latin America organized by Red Lationoamericana de Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir http://www.movimientos.org/remte/show_text.php3?key=703 , challenges and successes of feminist movement building organized by Global Fund for Women Grantees www.globalfundforwomen.org ,) feminist movement building in the context of globalization organized by Articulación Feminista Marcosur http://www.mujeresdelsur.org.uy/, African women’s leadership on climate change organized by Women’s Environment and Development Organization www.wedo.org and Toward building a Queer and LGBTQI Women Movement in the Arab World organized by ASWAT–Palestinian Gay Women. http://www.aswatgroup.org/english/
On the last day of the conference there were two sessions on LGBTQI issues and both were emotionally charged. The first was on homophobia. What was disturbing was the hostility that was leveled at the LGBTQI participants from some of the women in the room. Of course, I wasn’t so surprised that these sentiments exist, as that this way of thinking was so strident within some of the participants at this particular conference, which I had mistakenly perceived as being more homogenously open and affirming. Naïve, I suppose, given the vast diversity in interpretations of feminism and women’s rights. Some of the comments/questions by participants were, “Didn’t you grow up with a religion?” Or statements were made such as, “you should want to have children since everyone dies.” Or, “The kind of sex you have spreads diseases.” Even the most stoic of the gathered women were driven to tears by what transpired.
The second session was a LGBTQI panel of women from various Arab nations including Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine. The women talked about their lives of being unable to be open about their sexuality because of running the risk of family rejection, societal ostracizing, or even death at the hands of radical fundamentalists. One woman talked about needing to find justification for moving out of her parents house before she was married. She also spoke with somewhat grim humor about the lies she tells every day and the gymnastics of having to remember each lie and build upon it and not get tripped up on some forgotten detail of a story she has spun. Throughout the presentations, particularly the South African Sisters in the room would often break out in a chant of encouragement when a particularly trying testimony/anecdote was being shared. The constant refrain was Amandla! (Power!) Awethu! (To the People!)
During the course of the discussion, one woman stood and said that as a Muslim she wanted to be clear that not all forms of Islam are radical and that this needs to be kept in mind so that Islam is not automatically equated with extreme fundamentalism.
I videotaped a compelling testimony from one woman from Iraq which I had planned to share on the WOCU You Tube Channel. However, it was later stated that the women on the panel were sharing under conditions of anonymity which were negotiated with AWID. Unfortunately, an overeager member of the press corps published an article in an albeit leftist newspaper in Lebanon, which shared information given by one of the panelists, Nadine, in an earlier session. The journalist used her family name at grave danger to Nadine and now she has to deal with the ramifications of the situation with the assistance of her network and AWID who will work together on damage control. The hope is that articles published in the left leaning newspaper would fly under the radar of both her family, as well as the fundamentalists who may seek to do her harm. Again, like the situation I shared last month re the Nicaraguan sisters at the Americas Social Forum, this points up the risks faced by those who seek to publicly defend human rights.
Regarding other activities, one afternoon there was a march against violence led by the One In Nine Campaign. The One in Nine campaign www.oneinnine.org.za is based in South Africa with the title referring to the average proportion of survivors who actually report rape. I also did a small video of that demonstration, which you can find on the You Tube Channel (but beware of terrible videography issues in advance). There is also a movie clip of a speech given by a Zambian activist named Mariama Banda, who does work on violence against women and HIV and AIDS with the Women Won’t Wait Campaign. www.womenwontwait.org Also there is footage of the festive dancing at an African Feminist party which took place one evening where a good time was had by all.
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