Veil Talk: Examining the Many Facets.

Femilicious attended a talk that was held at the University of Windsor with Dr. Shahnaz Khan entitled: Veil Talk: Examining the Many Facets.

Dr. Khan is the author of Aversion and Desire; Negotiating Muslim Female Identity in the Diaspora where she presents the voices of Muslim women on how they construct and sustain their Islamic identity. Khan interviewed fourteen Muslim women about their sense of power, authenticity and place. Her critical analysis challenges the Western perception of Islam as monolithic and static.

Dr. Khan is also a professor in Global Studies and Women’s Studies at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

Her website on Zina Laws can be found at http://zinalaws.tripod.com/ZinaLaws/

National Organization For Men?

Cartoon Credit: Toothpaste for Dinner

A Must See - The Shape of Water - now available on DVD!

In an intimate encounter with five very different women in Brazil, India, Jerusalem, and Senegal (narrated by Susan Sarandon with introductory narration co-written by Edwidge Danticat) THE SHAPE OF WATER offers a close look at the far reaching and vibrant alternatives crafted by women in response to environmental degradation, archaic traditions, lack of economic independence and war.

The documentary weaves together the daily life stories of Khady, Bilkusben, Oraiza, Dona Antonia, and Gila who, through candor and humor, infuse their communities with a passion for change.

The women:

• spearhead rainforest preservation (women working as rubber-tappers in the Brazilian rainforest);
• sustain a vast co-operative of rural women (India: SEWA: the largest trades union in the world with 700,000 members);
• promote an end to female genital cutting (FGC) (Senegal: communities abandoning FGC);
• strengthen opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestine (Women in Black in Jerusalem);
• maintain a farm, Navdanya (in the foothills of the Himalayas) to further economic independence and biodiversity by preserving women’s role as seed keepers.

By revealing the women’s revolutionary actions THE SHAPE OF WATER offers a unique view of the complex realities faced by these unsung visionaries creating a more just world.

Weekend Fem-links

Photo Credit: Banksy Bombs

• Gender studies missing from high school despite alarming rates of sexual harassment and sexual assault of girls in Ontario
• Investment banker’s study says making it easier for women to enter paid workforce would solve many difficult social problems
• Over the past 10 years, the proportion of mothers who work part-time in Canada has dropped and the number who work full-time has increased.
• Colloquium featuring Martha Friendly and Linda White discussing early childhood education and care in Canada is available online for viewing.
• Australian social policy expert Deborah Brennan tours Canada. It's interesting to note that in Australia, the stay-at-home dad is, if not a myth, at least a rarity, as workforce statistics show women continue to shoulder the burden of child care in the home.
• The Female Eye Film Festival now running to March 30th in Toronto.
• Women’s advocacy organizations are once again gearing up for Edmonton’s annual Take Back the Night march
• In New Brunswick some 18% of all child support payments due through family court were not collected in 2006-2007. That represents about $9.5 million dollars...
• The N.B. Silent Witness Project, the first in Canada, launched in 2002, commemorates women killed in acts of domestic homicide since 1990, promoting awareness of family violence
• Women Need Apply - The Canadian federal government appoints hundreds to boards and commissions and they want more women to apply.
• Alternet writes about making connections between feminism and prison abolishionism
• Studies indicating that women are more prone to depression than men: it’s NOT the fault of feminism
• On pregnancy discrimination in the U.S. "Pregnancy-bias surged 14% last year, up 40% from a decade ago and the biggest annual increase in 13 years," reports the Wall Street Journal.
• A new study finds that women who describe themselves as feminists are more forgiving than other women when assessing the attractiveness of women who are either very underweight or very heavy," reports The New York Times. (You'll find the study in the journal Body Image; here are some previous studies on feminism and body image.)
• Recent headlines proclaim that "workplace bullying worse than sexual harassment." based on Canadian research

2008 Report Card on Status of Women in New Brunswick

When it comes to the numbers on violence against women, there's plenty to be alarmed about.

Almost four in 10 adult offenders convicted of sexual assault in New Brunswick were given conditional sentences in 2005-2006. The rate for Canada was less than two in 10.

Conditional sentences were not as popular for other violent crimes -- it was given to one in 10 adult offenders in our province, one in 20 nationally.

It is one of the more startling statistics in the 2008 Report Card on the Status of Women in New Brunswick published this month by the New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women.

Art: Women, power and humour

Tanya Mars, a senior lecturer and program supervisor in visual and performing arts in the Department of Humanities at U of T Scarborough, is among the six winners of this year’s prestigious Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts given for artistic achievement. The awards were announced by the Canada Council for the Arts March 25.

Cited as one of Canada’s most innovative multidisciplinary artists, Mars has been active in the Canadian alternative art scene since the early 1970s. Her dramatic, humorous and satirical works -- ranging from performance through to sculpture and video -- have influenced an entire generation of artists in a career spanning some 30 years. She is a mentor to many emerging artists as an artist, teacher, curator and editor.

“My main interest is to make narratives that put women at the centre as opposed to the periphery. I’m trying to create images, strong images and positive images, of women,” she said in describing her work. “I feel very strongly about being recognized as a feminist, I’m not ashamed of being a feminist and I’m not buying into the backlash of anti-feminism. I think I’ll beat the feminist drum until the day I die. While some of my work my work may not be directly didactic or directly about feminism, I think it is always about making strong images about women.” But she added, “I like to have a healthy dash of humour. So I like to poke fun at my own political dogma and I think it’s important to laugh at yourself. If there were three words that would summarize my interests they would be women, power and humour.”

Her works include Tyranny of Bliss and In Pursuit of Happiness, which has toured Canada and Hot, a performance piece that reflects on middle age. She also edited art magazine Parallelogramme from 1976 to 1989 and is co-editor of Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women.

Dreaming of Spring......

Photo Credit: It's Knuttz

Tibet

Water, Sanitation and Eco-feminist Action in the 21st Century

I missed posting about International Water Day on March 22 but it's not too late to take part in an online action to tell PM Harper 'Water is for people, not profit' (in case you haven't heard, the "new government" is quietly negotiating away rights to our water)

This year, World Water Day also coincides with the International Year of Sanitation. There is a gender aspect to the issue of water and sanitation in large part - thanks to Eco-feminist Action in the 21st Century

Why Care About Water and Sanitation?

• More than one billion people in the world do not have clean drinking water.
• Lack of sanitation is a crisis affecting more than one out of three people on the planet
• Every 20 seconds, somewhere in the world, a child dies due to poor sanitation conditions
• Women suffer most from inadequate sanitation. Journeys to defecate in fields or forests, or even to public latrines, can be dangerous.

"...Women play a central role

in the provision, management, and safeguarding of water ...."

"This is one of the four internationally accepted principles of water management. This principle is especially important for the developing world where millions of women lack access to water for their basic needs. "

Sinapalooza '08 - Vatican adds to list of sins

This just in: If you're an obscenely wealthy drug-dealing pedophile stem-cell researcher who drives a Hummer and doesn't recycle, you are totally going to hell. Oh please, like you didn't already know.

The Big Book o' Deadly Sins apparently has a whole new addendum and it looks like it ain't just gluttony and lust and murder and hot porn and witchcraft .... The pope and his posse - or, rather, the Vatican's second in command on matters of hell and penance, Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti - have announced seven new deadly sins for a brave new world.

We can only applaud the Vatican for its efforts to uphold and reinforce global ethical standards with numbers 4 to 7:

4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty

I, no doubt, will be found guilty of 4 and 5 above. Especially at points in my life when, in youthful ignorance, I bought into the media messages to "buy and consume". Efforts to reform myself later in life will likely not absolve me from going straight to hell in what will be an increasingly crowded handbasket.

There are some sins that are still missing:

Note to the Vatican: You want more true sins? Here are a few on my list:

• Lying to women is a sin. So is oppression, repression and exclusion of women
• Pathological hypocrisy is a sin.
• Half a billion dollars in pedophilia lawsuit payouts is a sin.
• Homophobia is a sin.
• Annihilation of aboriginal cultures is a sin
• The "makeover" culture is a sin (making over our bodies, our faces, our hair, our wardrobes, our teeth, our outlooks, our homes, our closets, our pets and our spouses.)

No Laughing Matter - Margaret Mitchell

The woman who first brought the issue of spousal abuse to the forefront in Canada presents her memoirs

When Margaret arrived in Ottawa in 1979 she was shocked at the male-dominated culture. Fortunately her leader, Ed Broadbent, was a feminist convert, and most of her caucus members were sensitized to women's rights.

An incident in the spring of 1982 brought spousal abuse to the forefront of Parliament and the nation as a whole. Many male Members of Parliament responded callously to my statement that one in ten Canadian women was subjected to spousal abuse. Television cameras captured their outrageous behaviour and my furious response

As Mitchell tells it,
"On May 12th I rose in the House to raise the urgent need for government action on a serious and widespread issue. 'The parliamentary report on battered wives states that one in ten Canadian husbands beat their wives regularly,' I began. Before I could continue, an uproar of male shouts and laughter erupted, making it impossible for me to be heard. A nearby Tory joked, 'I don't beat my wife. Do you, George?' When the Speaker finally got order, I rose again in fury. 'Madam Speaker, I do not think this is a laughing matter. What action will the Minister responsible for the Status of Women undertake immediately at the federal level to protect battered women?'"

LINK: YouTube - Margaret Mitchell a Champion for Head Tax Families

March 21: International Day for the Elimination of Racism

Since 1966, the 21st of March has been recognized by the United Nations as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The day was chosen by the General Assembly of the United Nations to commemorate the March 21st, 1960 massacre of 69 young students who were demonstrating peacefully in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid "pass laws".

A further look at the Harper government’s record on human rights and equality makes it obvious that the Conservatives have no interest in fighting racism and discrimination.

In two years of government under the Conservative Party, it has:

• eliminated the Court Challenges Program,
• eliminated the Law Reform Commission,
• scrapped valuable literacy and equity programming to communities, including Aboriginal communities,
• reduced social development programs under the Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC),
• reduced programs that facilitate cultural awareness under Multiculturalism,
• refused to recognize Aboriginal rights in Canada and in the international forum
• AND..
• Refused to sign the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
• Refused to sign the Optional protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment;
• Refused to implement the recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, which called for stronger measures to eliminate poverty and fight violence.
• Adopted policies that promote racial profiling by introducing a no-fly list, security certificates and border controls, and by intensifying the removal of refugee claimants.

Today, workers still see the pernicious face of racism on the job, in their communities and in government policies. Recent polls show that as many as 1 in 5 workers feel their employment rights are violated due to racism

Prejudice is the child of ignorance.

~ William Haslitt

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

~ Nelson Mandela

In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

~ M.L.King