Look Who's Energizing the Global Women's Movement

Sunday, March 3, 2013 kicked off the 57^th CSW and Lehigh University was there. It is a high energy event that strives to connect people. This year’s focus is ending violence against women and girls worldwide. Amazing activists and leaders from around the world stood strong and presented problems in their countries and ways their NGOs are striving to rectify these massive issues of violence toward women. The dents made by these relentless women (and men) in the pursuit of peace are simply invigorating.

I volunteered at this event along with other Lehigh students and was able to meet and greet the participants to enter the Armenian Convention Center. As we were waiting to open, conversations transpired with some of the women in line. One group from San Francisco was particularly loquacious. They gave away buttons that read 5WCW, a reference to the 5th World Conference on Women, and they were giving away a book titled, Moving Toward The Millionth Circle, Energizing the Global Women’s Movement. When I finally sat down, I began skimming through the book and I liked what I read.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell is about the conception that if an idea is presented often enough, even in small ways, change happens and when it does, it seems to happen very quickly. It’s the point where things spread like an epidemic. The ideas in Moving Toward the Millionth Circle remind me of Gladwell’s book. The author uses the “millionth circle” as a way of depicting the connections we need to nourish and grow until we have reached the tipping point and a new era can begin without violence.  To quote the author, “Everyone who has been drawn to the idea of “the millionth circle” is part of the millionth circle vision, and any event or circle that anyone creates that furthers the formation of more circles with a sacred center can freely define what they are doing as being part of the millionth circle movement.” – www.millionthcircle.org.

By the time I neared the end of the book, curiosity about the author had set in. I was surprised to see a photo in the back of the book of the very same woman that I met that morning. Jean Shinoda Bolen M.D. is the author of Moving Toward the Millionth Circle.  She is the author of this book and many others and she is the woman behind the movement to connect women globally in order to achieve the tipping point where women everywhere are living inspired lives leaning on each other for support. It was an honor to be in the company of this great woman and others like her. It is at events such as CSW that we are moving toward our millionth circle. 

                                

                                                                                  

  Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. (left) is a Permanent Representative to the UN and the author of Moving Toward the Millionth Circle.  www. jeanbolen.com

Настало время прекратить жестокость по отношению к девочкам и женщинам.

В четверг мне удалось побывать на нескольких мероприятиях в рамках 57 сессии Комиссии по Статусу Женщин ООН с фокусом на тему "Ликвидация и предупреждение всех форм дискриминации в отношении женщин и девочек". Вместе с группой студентов из университета  Лихай, мы посетили 2 лекции, которые проходили в Армянском Центре в городе Нью Йорк.

Первое мероприятие было организовано неправительственной организацией ВОКОН из Нигерии (http://www.womenconsortiumofnigeria.org/). Данная организация занимается пропагандой защиты прав женщин и детей. Члены данного НПО одними из первых в Нигерии стали заниматься просвещением населения о проблемах домашнего насилия, а также они занимаются проведением исследований и разработкой решений данной проблемы. На лекции был показан фильм, после которого последовало обсуждение проблем насилия над женшинами в Нигерии.

К сожалению, домашнее насилие является очень распространенным методом насилия против женщин и девочек в нигерийском обществе. Бывшие мужья, отцы, братья, любовники, родственники, одноклассники, одногруппники и другие представители мужского пола избивают, насилуют женщин и девочек. Иногда эта жестокость имеет смертельный исход. Одной из новых форм насилия и мести является облитие кислотой лиц и тел представительниц женского пола. Зачастую молодые девушки страдают, но молчат, потому что насильники являются их отцами, братьями или близжайшими родственниками.

Спикеры также затронули тематику незаконной торговлей людьми, сексуального насилия и последствия жестокости по отношениу к женщинам. Хотелось бы подробнее рассказать о последнем. После того как женщины испытали насилие по отношению к себе, они терпят не только физическую боль, но они чувствуют страх, психологические расстройства и неприязнь со стороны общества. Проявление жестокости по отношению к женщинам, это подтверждение до сих пор существующей дискриминации по отношению к женщинам. Говоря о решениях проблемы, важно предоставлять реабилитационные услуги для пострадавших, такие как психологическая, ментальная и физическая поддержка. Например, этим занимается организации АКТС Дженерэйшн (http://www.actsgeneration.org/) и Девочка должна быть услышана (http://girlbeheard.org/).

 

Вкратце, спикеры второй сессии говорили о дискриминации по отношению к девочкам в Америке, Турции и Грузии. К большому сожалению, кражи девочек и незаконная эксплуатация женского труда существует и в Америке. Поэтому, организация Девочка должна быть услышана популизирует случаи победы девочек над насилием в форме теaтральных постановок. В этой организации 150 девочек, которые страдали от насилия раньше и которые делятся своими историями побед.

Что мы можем сделать, чтобы прекратить жестокость над женщинами и девочками?

Во-первых, знайте свои права и свободы;

Во-вторых, остерегайтесь обещаний ненадежных работодателей или религиозных групп;  требуйте защиту своего труда;

Подпиши клятву о распостранении мира на http://vov.com/pledge 

На фото внизу: показ фильма Нигерийской делегацией и фото с исполнительным директором Девочка должна быть услышана, Джессикой Моррис.

       

Voices Against Violence

Our aim is to go from a whisper of resistance to a shout of outrage 

As I continue to participate in the Commission on the Status of Women, I am shocked by the statistics that are repeatedly shared by conference presenters.  

• 70 % of women experience violence in their lifetime
• 50 % of sexual assaults are committed against girls under the age of 16
• There are 64 million child brides in the world today
• 140 million girls have undergone the process of female genital mutilation

Therefore it is no wonder that many NGO's are working towards implementing programs to raise awareness and educate youth to help eradicate violence against women.  A great example of these programs was shared at the conference session entitled, "Stop the Violence: Girls at the Frontline of Prevention."  This session was hosted by UN Women who have been working in partnership with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts to develop a educational program called Voices Against Violence.

Voices Against Violence is a non formal educational curriculum that aims to create safe spaces for dialogue about the issue of violence against women.  Although the curriculum engages children as young as five years old, the intent of the program is to work within local communities and with local partners to identify successful practices, and eradicate violence against women.  Within these spaces, community members will be taught how to talk about violence, identify root causes and develop intervention skills.  Furthermore, this coeducational program intends to empower leadership among both young men and women to build their knowledge and skills so that the next generation will be gender violence free.

This is obviously an ambitious project and will require some significant partnerships in order to make this dream a reality.  Thankfully, the Girl Guides Association has already partnered with the Boy Scouts, the Young Men and Womens' Christian Association, and the International Awards Organization to help launch this project.  With over one hundred million members in these organizations, we can already begin to hear the shouts of outrage that will help us to change the world.

Violence Against Women in Guatemala: Risks and Remedies Panel

I was excited to attend this panel as I spent some time in Guatemala four years ago but also because Guatemala is one of the target countries for the UN Action for Sexual Violence in Conflict (http://www.stoprapenow.org).  For our class, we are attempting to get more information about these target countries in order to develop a comprehensive report to help this office do more research.  I expected the panelists to talk about intimate partner violence and femicide, but I did not expect one of the panelists to talk about neglect of healthcare as an act of violence.

Dr. Alicia Giralt spoke to how maternal mortality in Guatemala was contributing to violence against women.  When I had visited there, I was exposed and quite enamored with the multitude of indigenous groups.  Spanish and Queche were spoken in the village that I stayed in.  It made communicating quite difficult because Spanish was not the first language of some people that lived there.  Something that I did not realize was that this contributed to why indigenous people are often discriminated against.                       

I was surprised when Dr. Giralt said that the maternal mortality rate (MMR) for Guatemala was 139.7 people per 100,000.  Yet I when she mentioned that this was really an average because the MMR in the indigenous population was just over 300 per 100,000 (As a point of reference the MMR for Caucasian women in the US is 11 and for African Americans is 34.8.)  The reason for the majority of deaths is hemorrhage and infection, which are, for the most part, preventable. Two women die every day in Guatemala in childbirth and 71.2% are indigenous women. While it seems like these are just numbers, they paint a very interesting picture of how certain women are treated in Guatemala. 

So you may be wondering why so many women die because that is the thought that I had.  My first guess was wondering how medical practitioners are trained but it had nothing to do with them.  Indigenous women choose not to go to the hospital to give birth because the hospital is where “people go to die”.  This professor had done a lot of research with this population and some of the responses that other women gave for not going to the hospital to give birth were: that they didn’t speak Spanish; they had a desire for privacy (women in indigenous communities often give birth in the home of their mother-in-law- it is said to be a rite of passage and bring the family together); midwives are not allowed to be present during the births; women can’t receive or afford transportation; and lastly, but not limited to the fact that they cannot perform certain traditional cultural practices- like burying the placenta. 

I very much enjoyed the presentation and creative interpretation of the topic.  While I was not expecting to learn about Guatemala and the birthing practices, I very much enjoyed the small medical anthropology lesson.  I would like to continue learning about Guatemala in the future.