NEWS

Blogging our Way to 2015—Complete with Flash Mob

by Joan Bazar, Personnel Committee Chair, Communications Committee Chair

Clacking castanets in Madrid’s central square, 74 international members of WILPF chanted “Peace and Freedom . . . No War . . . the World We Want!”  The Spanish Section hosted February’s International Board meeting and choreographed our flash mob. Activists from 27 nations shared ideas and experiences during three days of intense work.

Ria Kulenovic (US director of operations), Catia Confortini (US representative to the IB) and Abigail  Ruane (US rep to UN meetings in NYC) stayed up until 2 am every night, texting reports to the WILPF-US blog, Facebook and Twitter. They shared news about possible collaborations with other WILPF Sections including the Americas Working Group's plans for a Latin American regional meeting to address such mutual concerns as militarization and the war on drugs.   

The six European Sections have met twice, taking a stance against the award of the Nobel Prize to the European Union and addressing the arms trade, the economic crisis and social justice issues. Along with women around the world, African Sections celebrated One Billion Women Rising, which was sparked by gender violence in the DR Congo. Sections in India and the Philippines are campaigning against nuclear plants.

Delegates brought resolutions on a peaceful transition in Nepal assuring right of women, and concern for Palestinian prisoners. Catia and the UK rep worked with WILPF Pakistan on a resolution opposing drone warfare. Abigail presented the US Earth Democracy proposals (the Precautionary Principle and Guardianship for Future Generations) to the Environmental Working Group.

Petra Totterman Andorff called for all WILPF members to assist in preparations for our 100th anniversary celebrations at the 2015 Congress April 22-25 at the Peace Palace in The Hague and an International Conference April 26-29 open to the public. Contact our IB Rep Catia [catiacc@gmail.com] to volunteer to raise $1,000 or join one of the international committees and the US Communications Committee (communications@wilpfus.org] to gather histories of WILPF members.

Also present from the US were Nancy Ramsden, international treasurer; Joan Bazar, convenor of the International Communications Committee, Bibiane (Aningina) Tshefu; NY Metro Branch; and Linda Belle, Jane Addams Peace Association executive director.

The International Board has invited US Section President Laura Roskos to serve on an ad hoc committee addressing possible restructuring of WILPF moving into the next century.

Image credit: Photo by Catia Confortini, Flash mob brings WILPF International message to Puerta del Sol, Madrid's central plaza

Encounter With Courage on the Road Less-Travelled
 
Before this UN Practicum in Advocacy began, I had no inkling of what my experience would be. Upon arrival to New York, it soon became apparent to me that I was surrounded by other dynamic women whose experiences spanned a wide range of areas including women’s rights, human rights, community organizing, public health access, training, among others. On the first day, as I walked from one session to another, I remember equating my experience to that of a child in a candy store because of all the opportunities available for me to learn about violence against women. Except…… there was nothing “sweet” or trivial about the topics that exposed the unimaginable violence that women face and the structures of violence and power that continue to perpetuate injustice and violence against women and girls everyday all around the world. This week has also been a rollercoaster of emotions for me as I attended some of the most intense sessions on violence against women. As I listened to each of the speakers, I found myself unable to breathe at certain points….feeling the pain in my chest as I attempted to breathe in unison with the women who shared their stories of pain….perhaps this was my attempt to empathize and stand in solidarity with them. From these women, I also learned to exhale when they triumphantly shared ways in which they and their communities refused to be known only as “victims” but also as women who dared to say “Not one more” would be violated!
 
The recurring message from the sessions I attended was the courage of women activists who braved the repercussions of taking the road less traveled in order to speak up against gender-based violence and injustice. Specifically, I was impacted by the stories of women who have experienced violence and who continue to fight back and ensure that not only will nobody ever violate their minds, bodies, and souls again but also that women and girls will be free from fear, violence, and injustice. It is from these women that I learned that courage involved: action against the very perpetrators that violated them; sharing their stories of personal encounters with violence so that the audience could understand the enormity of the problem; using legal channels to seek justice for communities ravage by war and violence; advocacy and activism even in areas where the structures of violence punish those who speak up; and the courage to create alliances with male activists who understand that women’s rights are also human rights.
 
I would like to highlight three instances of courage among the many I encountered this week where the women redefined their experiences with violence from one of victims to that of advocates and activists. My first encounter with courage was Istarlin Ismail, a Somali immigrant in the Netherlands, who exposed the reality of transnational violence against women in the form of female genital mutilation (FGM) amongst immigrant populations in Europe. She had undergone FGM when she was a pre-teenager in Somalia and stated that the need for social acceptance and the pressure to conform to a traditional practice had resulted in years of psychological and physical pain. Having moved to the Netherlands as a refugee, she encountered FGM in the refugee community and realized that it was a practice that was carried across borders into the new host country without the knowledge of the Dutch government. She started the East African Women African Sky organization that uses women’s personal stories to pressure the families and the Dutch government to eradicate the FGM practice on girls and women. She concluded her presentation by emphatically saying, “It is too late for me because I have already been mutilated. But it does not have to be too late for our girls who still need to be saved from the practice. And that is why I continue to fight!”
 
My second encounter with courage began with this quote, “Women's bodies have become the battlefield and all the women have become potential victims of violence.” This was a statement made by Julienne Lusenge, an activist in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). She talked about the war that continues in the Eastern part of DRC between the government and rebel groups that has killed approximately 6 million people and displaced 800,000 people. Women in DRC continue to bear the brunt of the sexual violence and rape from the armed soldiers. DRC is also called “the rape capital of the world” because of the devastating numbers of women who have been raped during the conflict. Julienne stated that women, including her, woke up every day in DRC with the dark fear of insecurity and that they could be raped at any time. The courageous women in DRC, in partnership with some civil society organizations, have organized activist groups to call for the protection of women and girls and the prosecution of the perpetrators. “For without justice for the victims and survivors, there can be no peace,” Julienne stated. This activism has resulted in women going back into the hotspots of violence in order to provide health, psychosocial, and legal services to women and girls who are stuck in the cycle of violence. The unfortunate result in some instances is that these activists encounter physical and sexual violence again at the hands of different armed soldiers and rebels. Julienne challenged the members of the audience into action by stating, “When you use your cellphone today, pause for a moment and consider that the phone call you are making is made possible through the drops of blood and tears of women and girls who suffer sexual violence and rape during the conflict over the Coltan mineral that is used to manufacture your cellphones.” As I stare at my Sony Ericsson cellphone, I realize that I too am complicit in this conflict because I benefit from the use of Coltan in my phone and I therefore have been challenged to courageously speak up and act against the violence in the DRC before it’s a phone call too late.
 
My last encounter with courage was at the International Campaign against Rape and Sexual Violence presentation featuring a panel of women activists from Burma, Egypt, and DRC. The speaker from Egypt was Hania Moheeb, a prominent journalist in Egypt. She shared with the audience that she was sexually assaulted by a group of men at Tahrir Square during the height of the Arab Spring in Egypt. In a firm clear voice she stated that it was important that someone of her public stature honestly state that she had been a victim of an organized politically-backed gang that had raped numerous women during the revolution. She stated that she was not afraid to die but was afraid for the safety of her family…..and yet she continued to speak up against violence using the media as a channel to get word out both nationally and internationally. She stated that unlike other men in Egypt, her husband had stood by her publicly and declared that it was time to protect women against violence and to prosecute perpetrators. This act took courage because, according to Hania, most of the men in Egypt would have been too afraid and ashamed to associate with an “unclean” woman. The result of this activism was public outrage and the organization of activist groups of older women and young men who confronted men who tried to assault women at the Square. This story began with one brave woman who dared to share her story of sexual assault and ended with a triumphant mass movement to end the violence and protect women and girls from future injustice and violence.
 
Now that I am back in Georgia, the challenge has been placed before me to seek ways to be courageous enough to walk on the road less travelled through activism and advocacy. The toughest part will be for me to challenge myself and open my eyes wider so that I can see the explicit and implicit injustice around me, to stop and listen even in the silence for voices of victims and activists around me, and to open my heart and mind to understand what needs to be done to end violence against women and girls. As Hellen Keller once said, “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”
 
By Catherine Odera
2013 UN Practicum Participant
 
 
 

Because Love is a Form of Activism

While many of the sessions at CSW57 have shared critical information such as program

best practices, prevention strategies, and evaluation results, there are a few that

have pushed me beyond simply intellectual engagement. Two sessions ignited my

passion for activism through performance, writing and film. Lately, I have been

knee-deep in deadlines for papers, projects, family crisis, wedding planning and

preparing to defend my M.S. project in Conflict Resolution this May. Consequently, I

have felt severed from my work as an activist.

 

Monday's session "Women and Violence: Human Rights Activism through Arts and Film,"

sponsored by Women's UN Report Network and the Women News Network, was by far the

most powerful session I attended. For two hours, we watched trailers and sample

reels from documentaries about the Comfort Women of WWII, rape prevention in Haiti

in the aftermath of the earthquake, and "It's a Girl!" A young woman from the UAE

also shared her short film about her experience as a survivor of molestation. Within

the span of two hours, my emotions went through multiple states. Starting with

shock, depression, and numbness, and then slowly escalating to anger. I sat with the

anger for quite a while and let it manifest into action, or at least, my intent for

action. I felt inspired and empowered to do something. I was on the cusp of a

transformative experience.

 

Fast forward to Wednesday afternoon. I hustled over to the Taipei Economic and

Cultural Office (after quickly stopping at an epic comic shop I discovered along the

way) for the 2:30 session. "Performing Arts Workshop: Preventing and Responding to

Violence Against Women," led by the Sistren Theatre Collective. It proved to be

exactly what I needed to catalyze the type of creative action I had seen in Monday's

session and offered a space for me to perform activism in a way that I had not felt

called to in months.

 

We were assigned groups and asked to share stories about how we have seen or

experienced violence in our lives, and then to write a scene, a poem, or a letter

and then perform our piece on stage. My group wrote the letter. I felt nervous as we

formed a line on stage, having written separate short pieces to weave together for

the performance. I looked to the line of women beside me, they were all looking at

me, since I was the first person. An older woman nodded at me and smiled, and I

stepped forward. "This is an open letter to all perpetrators of violence against

women. Why? Why did you chose me..." And as each woman claimed her space to

question, grieve, rage, and inspire, I realized that this is what nourishes me. This

is what I need as a scholar, an activist, and as a woman to heal and advocate for

others.

 

Last night, our group was prompted to craft a statement on the work that we have

done in our communities to address gender based violence, and to speak about the

work we hope to do. Inspired from the performance session, I chose to use poetry as

my medium for expressing my work. I've also started a blog on creative activism, and

would like to invite you to check it out: http://irbatgirl.wordpress.com. Below, I

leave you my final offering for this blog post; the poem I wrote in answer to the

prompt. May you all find what inspires you and ignites your soul.

 

 

Because Love is a Form of Activism

 

its the blood

its the blood that pushes its way through my veins

that pumps my heart just a little bit

faster

ba-dum ba-dum ba-dum ba-dum

transformation with every beat

anxiety-grief-anger-passion

i think they call it

adrenaline

when you know that the work you are doing

is where you belong

 

i have belonged

to many spaces where

individual and social change

was co-created

 

sometimes that space is

staring at a computer screen

hours at a time

americano stains on my to-do list

creating and recreating

curriculum

evolving into performed dialogues of

peace and conflict, international development,

community mobilization and gender

 

other times i organize with young women on campus

marching through the streets with screaming women

as we reclaim our bodies

and our

selfhood

 

i have rocked and fed infant girls

two and a half year old

Aradhana in Madurai, Tamil Nadu

orphaned and underfed

she clung to me

so tight

she became a part of me

 

i held an elderly woman

Meenakshi

telling me the story of her life in Tamil

i could not translate her narrative

yet

i heard her heart

she saw my soul

because love and tattoos transcend linguistics

from the human touch

lotuses and scorpions

we created a new language we both understood

because love

is a form of activism

 

the work i am doing

the work

the work can only be understood

through the lived experience

of the women and children

who allow me

to share their space

they teach me about what it means

to live with the greatest depth

of feeling and being

in this world

 

the work i am inspired to do

is the work that keeps my blood

coursing through my veins

into my heart

and out again

cyclical dreams and spirals

that teach me many things

anxiety-grief-anger-passion

i think they call it adrenaline

 

Ashley Schmuecker