A rundown of GROW’s 9/28 meeting for your general perusal!

-Alexa reported on the Gender Collaborative luncheon. The calendar of upcoming gender-related events will be circulated to the GROW listserv. She also talked about the possibility of an Open House-type event for all of the groups housed in the basement of Keefe, but that project would need someone to head it. Related issue: Must solve the mystery of who is or is not using the Women’s Center, so we can ascertain what needs to be kept and what can be thrown out.

-GROW is hosting a screening of A Powerful Noise on October 14th in the Campus Center Theater. The event is being co-sponsored by the Asian Culture House, who are taking care of funding the food.

-The bathroom campaign should be done by later this week; fliers will be handed out at next Monday’s meeting for distribution by GROW members.

-Fall Ball!: We chose Pro Mujer as our charity for this year. We also discussed our options for music; as of now, we are planning to hire a campus jazz combo for the first few hours, and then rent equipment to self-DJ the later part. Everyone should come up with songs they’d be interested in playing. If we can price it and get AAS to fund it, we could still hire a DJ. In any case, we need to contact Student Activities or someone similar to find out where we can rent sound equipment.

-A student came to us to ask us to sponsor her effort to get the Feministing College Tour to come to Amherst, since it is much easier to get funding/approval as a group. We accepted.

-And then we had an informative session on bride burning.

Great meeting, everyone. See you next week, same time, same place.

…with a pertinent link. About Mallowmars!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/world/middleeast/13iran.html?ref=world

TEHRAN — In a year of marriage, Razieh Qassemi, 19, says she was beaten repeatedly by her husband and his father. Her husband, she says, is addicted to methamphetamine and has threatened to marry another woman to “torture” her.

Rather than endure the abuse, Ms. Qassemi took a step that might never have occurred to an earlier generation of Iranian women: she filed for divorce.

Women’s rights advocates say Iranian women are displaying a growing determination to achieve equal status in this conservative Muslim theocracy, where male supremacy is still enscribed in the legal code. One in five marriages now end in divorce, according to government data, a fourfold increase in the past 15 years.

And it is not just women from the wealthy, Westernized elites. The family court building in Vanak Square here is filled with women, like Ms. Qassemi, who are not privileged. Women from lower classes and even the religious are among those marching up and down the stairs to fight for divorces and custody of their children.

Increasing educational levels and the information revolution have contributed to creating a generation of women determined to gain more control over their lives, rights advocates say.

Confronted with new cultural and legal restrictions after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, some young women turned to higher education as a way to get away from home, postpone marriage and earn social respect, advocates say. Religious women, who had refused to sit in classes with men, returned to universities after they were resegregated.

Today, more than 60 percent of university students are women, compared with just over 30 percent in 1982, even though classes are no longer segregated.

Even for those women for whom college is not an option, the Internet and satellite television have opened windows into the lives of women in the West. “Satellite has shown an alternative way of being,” said Syma Sayah, a feminist involved in social work in Tehran. “Women see that it is possible to be treated equally with men.”

Another sign of changing attitudes is the increasing popularity of books, movies and documentaries that explore sex discrimination, rights advocates say.

“Women do not have a proper status in society,” said Mahnaz Mohammadi, a filmmaker. “Films are supposed to be a mirror of reality, and we make films to change the status quo.”

In a recent movie, “All Women Are Angels,” a comedy that was at the top of the box office for weeks, a judge rejects the divorce plea of a woman who walked out on her husband when she found him with another woman.

Even men are taking up women’s issues and are critical of traditional marriage arrangements. Mehrdad Oskouei, another filmmaker, has won more than a dozen international awards for “The Other Side of Burka,” a documentary about women on the impoverished and traditional southern island of Qeshm who are committing suicide in increasing numbers because they have no other way out of their marriages.

“How can divorce help a woman in southern parts of the country when she has to return after divorce to her father’s home who will make her even more miserable than her husband?” said Fatimeh Sadeghi, a former political science professor fired for her writing on women’s rights.

Janet Afary, a professor of Middle East and women’s studies at Purdue University and the author of “Sexual Politics in Modern Iran,” says the country is moving inexorably toward a “sexual revolution.”

“The laws have denied women many basic rights in marriage and divorce,” she wrote in the book. “But they have also contributed to numerous state initiatives promoting literacy, health and infrastructural improvements that benefited the urban and rural poor.”

To separate the sexes, the state built schools and universities expressly for women, and improved basic transportation, enabling poor women to travel more easily to big cities, where they were exposed to more modern ideas.

Ms. Afary says that mandatory premarital programs to teach about sex and birth control, instituted in 1993 to control population growth, helped women delay pregnancy and changed their views toward marriage. By the late 1990s, she says, young people were looking for psychological and social compatibility and mutual intimacy in marriage.

Despite the gains they have made, women still face extraordinary obstacles. Girls can legally be forced into marriage at the age of 13. Men have the right to divorce their wives whenever they wish, and are granted custody of any children over the age of 7. Men can ban their wives from working outside the home, and can engage in polygamy.

By law, women may inherit from their parents only half the shares of their brothers. Their court testimony is worth half that of a man. Although the state has taken steps to discourage stoning, it remains in the penal code as the punishment for women who commit adultery. A woman who refuses to cover her hair faces jail and up to 80 lashes.

Women also face fierce resistance when they organize to change the law. The Campaign for One Million Signatures was founded in 2005, inspired by a movement in Morocco that led to a loosening of misogynist laws. The idea was to collect one million signatures for a petition calling on authorities to give women more equal footing in the laws on marriage, divorce, adultery and polygamy.

But Iran’s government has come down hard on the group, charging many of its founders with trying to overthrow it; 47 members have been jailed so far, including 3 who were arrested late last month. Many still face charges, and six members are forbidden to leave the country. One member, Alieh Eghdamdoust, began a three-year jail sentence last month for participating in a women’s demonstration in 2006. The group’s Web site, www.we-change.org, has been blocked by the authorities 18 times.

“We feel we achieved a great deal even though we are faced with security charges,” said Sussan Tahmasebi, one of the founding members of the campaign, who is now forbidden to leave Iran. “No one is accusing us of talking against Islam. No one is afraid to talk about more rights for women anymore. This is a big achievement.”

Women’s advocates say that the differences between religious and secular women have narrowed and that both now chafe at the legal discrimination against women. Zahra Eshraghi, for example, the granddaughter of the revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, signed the One Million Signatures petition.

“Many of these religious women changed throughout the years,” said Ms. Sayah, the feminist in Tehran. “They became educated, they traveled abroad and attended conferences on women’s rights, and they learned.”

Because of the government’s campaign of suppression, the process of collecting signatures has slowed recently, and many women do not want to be seen in the presence of a campaigner, let alone sign a petition. Most feminist groups limit their canvassing now to the Internet.

But while the million signatures campaign may have stalled, women have scored some notable successes. A group that calls itself Meydaan has earned international recognition for pressing the government to stop stonings.

The group’s reporting on executions by stoning in 2002 on its Web site, www.meydaan.net — including a video of the execution of a prostitute — embarrassed the government and led the head of the judiciary to issue a motion urging judges to refrain from ordering stonings. (The stonings have continued anyway, but at a lower rate, because only Parliament has the power to ban them.)

A very exciting step.

From Nicholas Kristof’s blog on Feb 5, 2009:

The Senate discovers women

The U.S. Senate is taking a welcome step: empowering a subcommittee specifically charged with global women’s issues. It’s the first time a subcommittee has had that mandate, and it will be led by Barbara Boxer of California, who will surely use her voice and spotlight to do some good on these issues.

Here is the announcement from Senator Boxer’s office:

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today announced that she will chair the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy, and Global Women’s Issues.

During Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s confirmation hearing, Boxer referred to a series of stories by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof that detailed violent attacks against women in Afghanistan and Asia. Boxer raised the need for a new commitment by the United States to ending violence and discrimination against women around the world, telling Clinton, “No woman or girl should ever have to live in fear or face persecution for being born female.”

Clinton pledged that, “as Secretary of State, I view these issues as central to our foreign policy. Not as adjunct or auxiliary, or in any way lesser than all of the other issues we have to confront… And it will be my hope to persuade more governments… that we cannot have a free, prosperous, peaceful, progressive world if women are treated in such a discriminatory and violent way.”

Senator Boxer said, “I am very grateful to our new Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator John Kerry, for allowing me to focus part of my efforts on the worldwide status of women.”

Boxer continued, “This new subcommittee assignment offers a tremendous opportunity to shine the light of day on a very overlooked issue. Too often, we turn our eyes away as women are persecuted, abused and treated as second-class citizens. But even the most conservative historians have noted that when women are given the freedom to live up to their full potential, society as a whole flourishes. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Congress and with Secretary Clinton to stamp out violence against women in the world.”

Issues like trafficking and maternal mortality and sexual violence finally seem to be getting some traction. Eve Ensler has helped put a relentless spotlight on mass rape in the Congo, aid groups like CARE, Women for Women International and Vital Voices have been doing an outstanding job emphasizing the role that women can play in economic development, the “Elders” group is talking about taking on some of these issues, and there’s discussion of a major international initiative against obstetric fistula. My own hope is that Michelle Obama grabs that issue. The new Senate subcommittee reflects all this progress and presumably under Senator Boxer will accelerate it.

Ms Ostadh fought back and then went public about her ordeal

An Egyptian man has been jailed for three years with hard labour for sexual harassment of a woman in the street.

Sharif Gommaa was also ordered to pay 5,001 Egyptian pounds ($895) damages to Noha Rushdi Saleh for the attack in Cairo’s Heliopolis district.

Women’s rights activists welcomed the ruling saying it was the first known case of prison for such an offence.

The defendant was accused of repeatedly groping Noha Rushdi Saleh as he drove slowly alongside her in his car.

Although many Egyptian women and visiting foreigners complain of unwanted sexual advances in Egyptian streets, the subject is rarely addressed by the authorities or mainstream media.

After an hour-long tussle she dragged her attacker to a police station   Noha’s case highlighted in media

However, this attack in June became the focus of media coverage after the 27-year-old filmmaker, also known as Noha Ostadh, went public about her ordeal.

She told the BBC how shocked she had been at her attacker’s behaviour, and also at the attitude of passers-by who told her not to go to the police - while others blamed her for provoking the attack.

After an hour-long tussle in which she dragged Gomaa to a police station, she says the police officers initially refused to open an investigation.

Women regularly face harassment on the streets of Egyptian cities

The case was taken up by the Badeel opposition daily, which blamed Egypt’s oppressive government, and “the majority of citizens who identified with the oppressor”, and “decades of incitement against women” in some mosques.

‘Example’

Egyptian women’s rights campaigners have praised the judge for handing down what is being seen as a harsh, exemplary sentence.

Engy Ghozlan, of the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights, told AFP news agency: “This is the first case we know of where someone was jailed for groping.

“The judge was obviously setting an example.”

The organisation released a survey this year that showed 98% of foreign women and 83% of Egyptian women had experienced sexual harassment. Nearly two-thirds of men admitted harassing women in public.

But very few reported cases because of a “total lack of confidence in the police and judicial systems”, Engy Ghozlan said.

In an unusual development earlier in October, eight men were arrested in Cairo for allegedly taking part in a mob-style sexual attack on women pedestrians.

The attack, during the Eid holiday, was reminiscent of an incident in 2006 during the same holiday which marks the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

On both occasions, witnesses reported that police officers were present but did nothing to protect women who were violently groped and had some of their clothing torn off.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7682951.stm

In a quiet corner in Afghanistan, women are taking jobs and leadership positions. Despite the unique characteristics of the area that have allowed for such a step forward, the developments in Bamian may be a preview of the broader possibilities for women if peace is ever secured in the strictly Muslim country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/world/asia/06bamian.html?hp

From Freya:

Rep. John Labruzzo (R-Louisiana) thinks it’s a great idea to offer poor women 1000 if they get sterilized, to “deal with a problem of generational welfare.” 

Yep, you heard me.

(By the way, Louisiana is a state with over 16% of its people living below the poverty line. We’re talking about 300 000 women here. Also, about 42% of people below the poverty line in Louisiana are black, only 13% white… see here http://www.statehealthfacts.org/profileind.jsp?ind=14&cat=1&rgn=20)

Another question: why is it always the women who are supposed to be sterilized? There is such a ridiculous assumption that first of all, poverty is somehow genetic (!?!), and secondly, that only women carry this gene. HUH?!

Watch him try to pretend like he never took this idea seriously…(apparently he took it seriously enough to mention it…)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsRgp6qSKL4

This information is part one of GROW’s educational “bathroom campaign”: a series of educational flyers posted in bathrooms to spread information about domestic and international women’s issues.  If you have a topic that you would like to include in the series, email grow@amherst.edu or come to our meetings, Mondays at 9 in the Women’s Center (Keefe Campus Center basement). 

The euphemism “comfort women” (ianfu) was coined by imperial Japan to refer to young females who were forced to offer sexual services to Japanese troops before and during World War II (1932-1945).  Poverty and tradition were factors in their submission.  Estimates of the number of comfort women range between 50 and 200 thousand, 80 percent of which were Korean.  Each was violated 20-40 times daily.

In December 1992, the Korean Council conducted a nationwide fundraising drive to help the survivors.  In March of 1993, South Korean President Kim Young Sam announced that Seoul would not seek material compensation from Japan for former comfort women, but urged Tokyo to investigate the issue thoroughly and make the truth public.

Though former comfort women from around he world testify that they were abducted or tricked by promises of work in factories, former Japananese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters that there was “no evidence to prove there was coercion.”

Former Korean Comfort Women rally in front of the Japanese embassy every day.

Sarah Palin thinks women should pay for their own rape kits and forensic exams.  News flash to McCain and the Republican party:  Just because she’s a woman doesn’t means she’s a feminist.   

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/opinion/26fri4.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

In other news, apparently it’s your own business if you want to rape your comatose wife.  I mean, she obviously consented to all sex, all the time if she married you, right…?  WRONG.

http://www.feministing.com/archives/010994.html