Abby Jenkins' Blog
Abby Jenkins is Communications Associate at the Women's Learning Partnership (WLP), where she coordinates media relations and communications for WLP's programs and events. She received an M.A. in Communication, Culture, and Technology from Georgetown University and a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Florida. She has researched the social and cultural impacts of information technology including investigations in online communities and women's networks. Prior to joining WLP, she conducted research on the effects of digital media on children. She describes the symposium organized by the Women's Learning Partnership to eliminate violence against women. Listen to the audio from the symposium, including speakers and open discussion sessions! _____________________________________________________ March 2, 2005 4:00 PM Women's Learning Partnership Symposium Builds Momentum for International Efforts to Eliminate Violence Against Women In New York this week, more than 250 activists, policy-makers, UN representatives, scholars, and heads of NGOs from 50 countries gathered at Women's Learning Partnership's (WLP) international symposium, "Leading to Change: Eliminating Violence against Women in Muslim Societies" on March 1 at the Church Center. A side event of the United Nation's 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Symposium was an energizing and movement-building event that brought together grassroots activists, including WLP partners, with international policy-makers to discuss the major challenges to eliminating violence against women and girls as well as grassroots, national, and regional measures to prevent violence and to promote women's human rights. Three panel discussions on "Culture, Conflict and Extremism," International Perspectives on Eliminating Violence Against Women," and "Women, Empowerment, and Justice" were each followed by active Q&A sessions between speakers and audience members.
Presenters included: Yakin Ertürk, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women; Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM, Mahnaz Afkhami, President of Women's Learning Partnership; Ayesha Imam, Chief of Culture, Gender, and Human Rights Branch, UNFPA; Hilary Fisher, Director of Amnesty International's "Stop Violence Against Women" campaign; Hafsat Abiola, Founder and Executive Director, Kudirat Initiative for Democracy; Zainah Anwar, Executive Director of Sisters in Islam; Rabéa Naciri, President of WLP's partner organization, Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM), Rabat; Charlotte Bunch, Executive Director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership; Sakena Yacoobi, President of Afghan Institute of Learning, WLP's partner in Afghanistan; and Devaki Jain, Development Economist and Women's Rights Activist. In her opening address to the standing room only crowd, WLP President Mahnaz Afkhami stated, "Throughout history and across the world women everywhere have been subjected to violence. A decade after Beijing and after countless international declarations, conventions, and consensus documents stressing the close connection between violence against women and factors ranging from poverty and underdevelopment to culture and law, the leading cause of death for women remains violence. The consensus in Beijing was that unless women became participants in the political process, violence against them would likely continue. Women in Muslim societies have been denied participation in the socio-economic and political process by a variety of means including law based on false interpretations of religion. In recent years, however, women have worked together and with men to initiate changes in the law that would open the way for them to enter the political process. Although violence against women continues to present a major societal problem, important new measures, including quotas for women, national action plans, progressive interpretations of religious texts, and educational programs for members of the judiciary, law enforcement agencies, and health service organizations, instituted in various Muslim countries are helping to change not only women's lives in these societies but the lives of all members of society. These measures have been impressive in Malaysia, Morocco, Jordan, Nigeria, and Pakistan, among others." Yakin Ertürk, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, emphasized the centrality of women and men working together to build egalitarian societies based on freedom of religion. She stated, "In order to ensure freedom of religion, freedom of choice based on human rights, women must fight for democratic and secular societies where women and men can claim their religion as they see it or else someone will be defining these religions and ideologies for women." WLP partners Rabéa Naciri and Amina Lemrini of Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM), and Sakena Yacoobi of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) discussed their grassroots efforts to advance women's rights in Morocco and Afghanistan. Ms. Naciri described her organization's 20-year fight to reform the Moroccan family code and efforts to politicize the issue of violence against women. "In 2004 the women of Morocco marked some major successes when the family laws were reformed to become less discriminatory," said Ms. Naciri. "It was a great victory, a peaceful revolution to eliminate clauses like the woman's duty to obey her husband and a system of divorce that was discriminatory. These successes have given the women's organizations and issues greater visibility and also raised the expectations for strategies to keep the momentum going." In Afghanistan, WLP partner Sakena Yacoobi is implementing leadership training and education programs for women and girls through her organization, the Afghan Institute of Learning. "AIL takes its programs to villages and refugee camps in order to empower women and girls with education and through initiatives to help them understand that they have a voice and rights." Audience members and speakers applauded both ADFM and AIL for their successful efforts to advance women's rights in their countries. *Audio from the symposium will be available on WLP's website at the end of the month. *To see the "Leading to Change" program click here: http://www.learningpartnership.org/events/2005/symposiumprogram.pdf *For more information about WLP and our partner organizations visit: http://www.learningpartnership.org/ |
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