Global Feminisms Fall 2008

Thank you

ackerly — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:11:29 +0000

Thank you for a wonderful fall semester. I enjoyed your papers. Have a great Spring!

Dec. 6 – National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

ishtarbunny — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 23:25:14 +0000

Hello all,

In our final class on Wednesday, reference was made to the Montreal Massacre, which occurred on December 6, 1989. This tragedy was a pivotal event in Canada. From a personal perspective, I can tell you that it marked a significant shift in the way that many Canadian women thought about issues of gender and violence. In some ways, it shocked us out of any sense of complacency we might have had about living in a country where gender equality was taken for granted. The deaths of 14 women at the Ecole Polytechnique that day – killed because they were women by a man who wanted to kill women – changed many of us, and many of our attitudes, in significant ways. It’s become something of a cliche to talk about important events as the ones that affected you so deeply that you forever remember where you were and what you doing and who you were with when you heard about it. But for so many women I know, December 6 was one of those moments.

Today is commemorated in Canada as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. If you like, you can read a little more about it here:

École Polytechnique massacre

Wishing you all well,
Janis

Bibliography for Turkey Presentation, Dec. 3

kevinduong — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:09:15 +0000

Arat, Yeşim. “Contestation and Collaboration: Women’s Struggles for

Empowerment in Turkey.” In The Cambridge History of Turkey Volume 4: Turkey in the Modern World. Edited by Reşat Kasaba. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, 388-418.

—————. “Feminist Insitutions and Democratic Aspirations: The Case of the

Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation.” In Deconstructing Images of “The Turkish Woman.” Edited by Zehra F. Arat. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998, 295-309.

—————. “Feminists, Islamists, and Political Change in Turkey,” Political

Psychology 19(1) (March 1998): 117-131.

Gündüz, Zuhal Yeşilyurt. “The Women’s Movement in Turkey: From Tanzimat

towards European Union Membership,” Perceptions 9 (Autumn 2004): 115-134.

Ecevit, Yildiz. (2007). “Women’s Rights, Women’s Organizations, and the State”.

Human Rights in Turkey. 187-201. Ed. Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.

Levin, Yasemin Celik. (2007). “The Effect of CEDAW on Women’s Rights”. Human

Rights in Turkey. 202-213. Ed. Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.

NGO WEBSITES:

Women for Women’s Human Rights (NGO) useful information

http://www.wwhr.org/national_advocacy.php

KA-DER (NGO) – useful information

http://www.womenlobby.org/site/1Template1.asp?

DocID=520&v1ID=&RevID=&namePage=&pageParent=&DocID_sousmenu=

Bibliography for presentation 4

jillianr — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:09:08 +0000

Gersh, Rebecca. “Transnational Activism in Juarez: A Gender Perspective.” www.casa-

amiga.org

Tellez, Michelle. “Community of Struggle: Gender, Violence, and Resistance on the

U.S./Mexico Border.” Gender and Society. 24 Jul. 2008.

Macdonald, Laura. “Globalization and Social movements: Comparing the Women’s

Movements’ Responses to NAFTA in Mexico, The USA and Canada.”

International Feminist Journal of Politics. 2 Aug. 2002.

Works Cited- Mexico and Activism

susan1987 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:53:10 +0000

Susan Miller
Mexico- Women’s Activism

Works Cited

Cleaver, Harry. 2000. “The Zapatista Effect: The Internet and the Rise of an Alternative Political Fabric.” . (Accessed October 30, 2008).

Dominguez, Eme R. 2002. “Continental Transnational Activism and Women Workers’ Networks Within NAFTA.” International Feminist Journal of Politics. 4.2 (August): 216-239.

Miller, Sara. 2008. “Former Nun Helps Mexico ‘Femicide’ Victims Recover.” . (Accessed October 30, 2008).

Sanders, Nichole. 2008. “Gender and Welfare Reform in Post-Revolutionary Mexico.” Gender and History. 20.1 (April): 170-175.

Smith, Erika. 1998. “Mexican Women’s Movement Makes the Internet Work for Many Women.” . (Accessed December 2, 2008).

Part of works cited for Mali Presentation 4

robins3977 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:40:22 +0000

Busia, Nana K. “The Status of Human Rights Organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa.” University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. University of Minnesota. 2 Dec. 2008 <http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/africa/mali.htm>.

Miller-Grandvaux, Yolande, Michel Welmond, and Joy Wolf. “Evolving Partnerships: The Role of NGOs in Basic Education in Africa.” SARA Project, Academy for Educational Development (2002).

Naples, Nancy A., and Manisha Desai, eds. Women’s Activism and Globalization : Linking Local Struggles and Global Politics. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Input Paper 2 & 3 (emailed but, mistakingly, not posted until now)

dpage88 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:53:40 +0000

Input Paper 2

My research, particularly the authors, Eslen-Ziya (2007), Hoskyns (1996), and Kardam (2005), has led me to a preliminary idea to use in my final paper. I contend that women’s agency and activism has driven progress on women’s rights in Turkey and the EU, combined with the EU accession process, has been a useful tool for women to network with each other, debate, and pressure the Turkish government to reform.

The EU’s impact on women in Turkey has been indirect, of course, because Turkey is working within itself to meet the Copenhagen Criteria for its accession. Here are some says that the EU has helped Turkey’s women’s movements. EU accession has brought the issues of violence against women, women’s low labor market participation, and women’s access to education more so into the national agenda (Akkoc 2007, 110, Spilda 2007, 18) and has “created some significant space for attention to women’s human rights” (Kardam 2005, 165). There are 450 women’s NGOs in Turkey which have become “more vocal” and are “fight[ing] to be socially and politically influential” since the EU spurred Turkey to reform on women’s issues (Spilda 2007, 20). Kardam (2005, 5) says that the “Turkish women’s movement has [become]… quite influential in agenda setting, policy-making (including legal reforms) and implementation processes”. An example of these influences are

…the women’s human rights education programs implemented across the country [which] are not Turkish responses to external incentives but the result of women’s NGOs and government agencies working together. (Kardam 2005, 4)

The Turkish government also has created an advisory board that has consolatory functions for the government and it includes women NGO’s members (it’s an EU requirement that “women’s activist groups” can “dialogue in civil society”) (Eslen-Ziya 2007, 86). Eslen-Ziya (2007, 87) tells us that the EU is “a cooperating, networking union” than enhances “women’s organization’s thoughts[,] provides funding for lobbying”, and (the goal of EU membership) provides a useful “point of reference”(87) in the women’s group’s networking. Women’s groups use the criteria as tool when lobbying the government in order to pressure them into adopting reforms that are important for Turkish women (Eslen-Ziya 2007, 88 Kardam 2005, 171).

Women even played a major role in the inclusion and expansion of women rights in the EU. Hoskyns (1996, 25) tells us that without the “explosion of feminism” in the late 1960s and 1970s, important provisions for women like Article 119 in the Treaty of Rome (equal pay for equal work between men and women) would not have become consequential. Activists like Elaine Vogel-Polsky (a lawyer) went to the ECJ with a case about a flight attendant, Gabrielle Defrenne, who was fired in 1968 after turning forty (she was supposedly too old to appeal to the male passengers) (Hoskyns 1996, 70). Even though Vogel-Polsky lost in the court, the Defrenne case “lay the base for the extension of EC legislation on women’s rights in the 1970s”, which “[expanded] the scope of Article 119” (Hoskyns 1996, 74).

In recent years, women’s rights have improved in Turkey with the Turkish Penal Code, Civil Code, Labor Code, Family Law, and Municipality Law being more female-friendly (Bozkurt 2007, 24). These improvements were encouraged by the CEDAW (which Turkey ratified in 1985, with reservations) Committee reports which pointed out violations to women’s rights (Kardam 2005, 25-27). However, there are significant, persisting problems for women Turkey despite many advances such as the low labor participation and education access mentioned above. The government falls “short… of accepting the need for positive discrimination for women” (such as quotas for women on party slates and in legislative bodies) (Kardam 2005, 27).

Akkoc, Nebahat. (2007). “Imagining a New World”. Turkish Policy Quarterly. 6(5):

67-70.

Bozkurt, Emine. (2007). “Women’s Human Rights”. Turkish Policy Quarterly. 6(5):

23-28.

Eslen-Ziya, Hande. (2007). “The European Union’s Influence on Women’s Activists

Groups’ Networking: A Comparison Between Turkey and Greece”. Turkish Policy Quarterly. 6(5): 81-88.

Hoskyns, Catherine. (1996). Integrating Gender, Women, Law, and Politics in the

European Union. Verso, London & New York.

Kardam, Nuket. (2005). Turkey’s Engagement with Global Women’s Human Rights.

Ashgate, Burlington.

Spilda, Vladimir. (2007). “Empower Women In Turkey: A Priority in the Pre-accession

Process”. Turkish Policy Quarterly. 6(5): 17-22.

Input Paper 3

I’ve contended that the EU accession process is a useful tool for women’s advocates to pressure the Turkish government to reform on women’s issues. In my research I’ve attempted to use Harding and Norberg’s (2005, 2009) example to “go beyond the conventional standards for ‘good research’”, which bolster andocentric views and marginalization. When examining Turkey, I have observed a socio-economic system present that is problematic for women, but I also have been careful to not ignore problems with the EU itself. During the European Commission’s push for Article 119, the “personnel involved” were “almost entirely male endeavor” and “there seems to have been only one woman on the Social Committee of the European Parliament” (it does not seem surprising that progress on Article 119 took decades) (Hoskyns 1996, 61). Since the EU has its own representation problems with women, Turkish feminists must remain alert to the body’s decisions on Turkey in order to assure the EU’s commitment to the gender aspects of the Copenhagen Criteria. I will now conduct a brief discussion of peace in Turkey, which will illuminate some of the complex issues women’s groups encounter when dealing with the EU and the Turkish government.

The EU accession is part of Turkey’s “long history” of trying to “achieve closer integration with Europe” and “on balance Turkey’s pending EU accession is strongly welcomed among European leaders” (Yildiz 2005, 20, 26). These leaders see Turkey’s EU membership as a vital to “regional security concerns”, because the country could “potentially create a bridge between Europe and the wider Muslim world” and be a key U.S. ally on its fight against terrorism (Yildiz 2005, 26). The EU wishes to maintain peace and avoid war in the region. However, women still face discrimination in the labor force, education system, and domestic life, threatening their human security. The EU’s incentives for accepting Turkey align with Bunch’s (2003, 6) concept of “negative peace” or, simply, “the absence of war”. Bunch argues that nations’ focus on militaristic concepts of war, violence, and peace cause their governments not to…

…address questions of what is needed to end all forms of violence – militarization, the structural violence of racial and economic injustice, or the ongoing violence against women in daily life. (Bunch 2003, 6).

Therefore, even though the EU has requirements to assuage racial, economic, and gender-based disparities,feminists must be vigilant of Turkey’s behavior during the accession process. Yildiz (2005, 72, 81) tell us in his study of the Kurds (a marginalized ethnicity) in Turkey that recent reforms such as the much touted Penal Code have been “circumvented” (such as “less detectable torture methods”) and that NGOs/humanitarian organizations’ attempts to help Kurds displaced by violent confrontations with the Turkish military “have not been welcomed”. “Turkey’s treatment of the Kurds continues to defy the political elements of the Copenhagen Criteria”, which presumably alarms women’s rights groups which use the Criteria to lobby the government (Yildiz 2005, 133). In 2005 Turkish police harassed “women protestors demonstrating for women’s rights”, because they did not jump through “onerous” bureaucratic hoops needed to assemble, which makes one question Turkey’s commitment to the EU requirements (Yildiz 2005, 56). Considering the complexities of andocentric international relations between the EU and Turkish government, the women’s groups/NGOs in Turkey need to work hard on both fronts to make their voices heard.

Bibliography

Bunch, Charlotte. (2003). “Feminism, Peace, Human Rights and Human Security.” Canadian Woman Studies 22, 2: 6-11.

Harding, Sandra, and Kathryn Norberg. 2005. “New Feminist Approached to Social

Science Methodologies: An Introduction.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30, 4: 2009-2015.

Hoskyns, Catherine. (1996). Integrating Gender, Women, Law, and Politics in the

European Union. Verso, London & New York.

Yildiz, Kerim. (2005). The Kurds in Turkey, EU Accession and Human Rights. Pluto

Press, London & Ann Arbor.

Michael Romeo – Input Paper 3 – Mali

mromeo — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:12:38 +0000

If we are to effectively critique the patriarchal system that affects the promotion of peace in Mali, we must analyze the role of women in the peace building process. Although women make up the majority in Mali, they are still largely marginalized. Their role in peace building is often understated. This is because the violence against women and children often overshadows these roles. Violence is rooted in the inequity present in political and economic spheres. This input paper will briefly explore this issue, which will be expounded upon in my final paper.

In the 2002 national elections, fifteen women were elected as deputies, a position that offers 147 seats. Four women were appointed government ministers in a cabinet with 28 available seats. In the 2004 municipal elections, 705 women were elected as community councilors, out of a total of 10,733. This number represents a mere 6.5%. Furthermore, only seven women mayors out of 700, a mere one percent, were appointed (Legislature Results, 2007). These numbers are startling when one looks at Mali’s constitution, which outlaws discrimination based on gender. There have been several cases where Malian women were elected as mayors, but have been forced out of office because they did not receive proper ratification from the state due to resistance from some wealthy, ruling families; there was also a case where a female presidential candidate, Mme Aminata Sidibé, an acclaimed academic and environmental activist, was not taken seriously in her campaign against the political machine of Toure, the current president (Daniel, Patricia: 2006 pg. 7).

The miniscule representation of women in politics can be attributed to the small number of people who voted in the elections, thirty-three percent to be exact. This number becomes even more pressing if we look at the spread between rural and urban voters; 12 % of the capital’s citizens were voters, while 50% of rural citizens were voters (Daniel Patricia: 2007). The lack of education in the rural areas causes one to question the soundness of the appointments being made in the Malian government.

Socioeconomic factors also contribute to the lack of women in politics. Malian women are economically tied to the patriarchs of this society because of traditional practices in housing, marriage, and medicine. The men in Mali inherit the majority of the wealth and land. When women marry, their property gets transferred to the man. Women that own property are expected to get married because often, they cannot afford to care for themselves, due to the lack of available health insurance, good paying jobs and educational opportunities for women (U.S. Dept. of State: 2007). The International Center for Research on Women has conducted research on the relationship between women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and women’s property rights. They found that women who are not able to secure property, cannot obtain collateral for loans and have to resort to income-generating activities like prostitution, which inevitably increases vulnerability to HIV/AIDS (ICRW: 2006). This form of violence is an end result of the patriarchal systems in Mali and is not visible to most research. And if this isn’t enough, female genital mutilation is an ongoing problem in Mali; over 95% of Malian women have gone through with the procedure. The medical realm in Mali is male-dominated and uses FGM as a way to silence women.

The violence that stems from the lack of women’s economic and political power often eclipses the efforts that women have made to encourage and promote peace in Mali. Women have taken active roles in their communities in order to build peace. For instance, women are involved with handling local disputes and promoting sustainable means in Yorosso, a town populated by 50.86% of men and 49.14% of women (WiLDAF/ FeDDAF: 2007). And women are not only involved on the local scene. They made a major contribution to the peace talks between the rebel Tuaregs and the Malian government during the year 1990. While some of the men in the room couldn’t convince the Tuaregs to move toward an agenda of peace, some of the women in the room did so (Daniel, Patricia: 2006). These talks ultimately led to a peace pact that was signed in 1992.

Women help to build the peace in Mali in numerous ways. It is my goal to find out their contribution to branches of the government, such as the Malian army, that are supposed to promote peace. In my final paper I will explore the reasons behind the transparency of women’s contributions to peace building process in Mali.

WORKS CITED

Daniel, Patricia. Democracy in Mali: the president and the prostitute. July 2007.
Daniel, Patricia. Women, Peace, and Democracy in Mali. Centre for International Development and Training. University of Wolverhampton, 2006.
De Jorio, Rosa. Female elites, women’s formal associations, and political practices in urban Mali (West Africa). Diss. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997. Dissertations & Theses: A&I. ProQuest.
ICRW. Reducing Women’s and Girls’ Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS by Strengthening their Property and Inheritance Rights. May 2006.
Legislature Results: THE CARD OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DRAWS (translated by www.freetranslation.com). L’essor Publications: July 2007. <http://www.essor.gov.ml/jour/cgi-bin/view_article.pl?id=16194>
U.S. Department of State. Mali: Country Report on Human Rights Practices. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor: 2007. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100492.htm
WiLDAF/ FeDDAF. Projet « Bonne gouvernance et participation des femmes dans sept (7) pays de l’Afrique de l’ouest » : Le WiLDAF-Mali étend le projet au cercle de Yarosso (translated by www.freetranslation.com). 2007.

News about the acid attack in Afghanistan

ishtarbunny — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:28:11 +0000

Hello all,

I hope everyone is enjoying the break (?) this week.

Below is a link to a story that came out this month about a group of female students and teachers who were the targets of an “acid attack” in Afghanistan. The story is still developing, although the government has called for severe punishment of the perpetrators. I found it a compelling example of the kinds of security risks that girls and women face in a country that’s continuing to struggle with opening the doors to education for them:

CBC report on acid attack in Afghanistan

Susan- Input Paper 3 on Mexico

susan1987 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:07:15 +0000

In this input paper, I would like to look at Mexico’s process of democratization and how this transition has affected Mexican women, specifically indigenous for the purposes of this paper. In the middle to late 1980s, a human rights consciousness emerged within Mexico’s civil society. The number of Mexican NGOs went from four to above two hundred organizations in the period between 1984 and 1996. During this time, international networks of communication began to give attention to the indigenous movements in Latin America which asserted rights to cultural, political and social autonomy. In the early 1990s, human rights issues in Mexico which centered mostly on political and civil rights were seen as pivotal aspects for a successful transition into democracy. The people of the rural parts of Mexico, though they argued for autonomy, still wanted to be included and considered in the political restructuring. Rights to cultural identity were seen as important to a democratic society; however some customs and traditions—which make up cultural identity—counter women’s rights. The women of Mexico are then confronted with the challenge of maintaining their cultural image while still contributing to the democratization of Mexico.
In 1994, the same year as the Zapatista uprising, women made their voices heard by attending cultural policy making forums in their communities. One indigenous women at a 1994 meeting, argued that traditions that deny women their rights need to be changed. She condemns certain cultural practices in the name of change:
The customs that we have should not do harm to anyone… Violence [to women] is not good… They were the customs from earlier times, but we also have to change… We do not like the customs that men drink [too much] because they scold or beat their wives, or spend the money need for food… We do not want bad customs (Tavanti 15).
Here it is shown that there is a distinct difference between cultural practice and human rights violations. If the two contradict each other, the right to security will nonetheless take precedence. Milan documents the position of a Zapatista woman in her exposition on rural women in the Chiapas area. She writes, “There are practices which are not tradition: they are the practices of marginalization… We also must think about what new things should be incorporated into our customs… Our customs should do no harm to anyone” (Milan 70). In the San Andres accords of 1996, organized groups of women from NGOs, churches and cooperatives fought to have indigenous rights “inclusive and not contradictory to women’s rights” (Tavanti 17). But women’s rights go beyond security. Women in the Zapatista Rebellion fought for their right to participate in governmental bodies so as to represent female interests when legislation was made to combat the economic recession in Mexico caused by its signing of NAFTA. The indigenous population argued that the state’s backing of modernization and developmental policy was an attempt to wipe out their people and other poor rural communities. In response, the Zapatista Rebellion was a counter-insurgency to protect the traditional structure of indigenous communities while at the same time working towards democracy and justice. Additionally, the movement was aimed at the democratization of familial relationships; wherein women would have an equal say as her husband.
The Zapatista positioned themselves within the global argument surrounding neoliberalism and its problems associated with democratization. The widespread support that the Zapatista movement received in both the Chiapas highlands and Mexico as a whole resulted from the opposition to the new global order of liberalism that Mexican government introduced by opening the state’s market to foreign interests. It was not that the rebels were against neoliberalism and democracy, the issue was that they had no say in the matter. As a consequence, the economic improvements of the mid-1990s had no stimulus on the impoverished groups of the south. The President at the time, Carlos Salinas, had a vision of modernity that was increasingly outward looking, both politically and economically. Salinas wanted to emulate the political structure of its foreign competitors, i.e. a capitalist democratic government in order to secure “First World” status as a nation. In terms of the female role in society, Salinas believed there was a fine line between promoting democratic rights for women, such as improving legislation on sex crimes, and appearing to be promoting an alien, non-Mexican view of womanhood (Craske 18). This brings us back to the culture versus rights argument: Mexican men (and a population of women) continue to revere the passive, pure and compliant archetype, while at the same time arguing for modernization and rights that work to deconstruct that role. The ambiguities presented to women through the restructuring of the Mexican nation granted them new found freedom while maintaining a certain degree of traditional subordination. The part played by the Mexican women varied dramatically; the women of Chenalo (a rural municipality) would walk barefoot behind their husbands, conforming to the position of ‘the passive woman’, while women in the highlands of the Chiapas lead militants into conflict as the colonel. Within the military ranks of the Zapatista army, equality has been easier to enforce than within the communities; traditional attitudes on women’s participation in community assemblies and in decision-making remain intact. Women were expected to change, and women were expected to remain the same.
The tenets of “The Women’s Revolutionary Law,” put forth by the Zapatista insurgents, are in alignment of what some may call the ‘Western’ idea of feminism. It includes the right for women to move outside the domestic sphere and into positions of waged labor. Western feminists highly support this right as well. While not working for a, the women rebels, were in a sense, already subscribing to a more autocratic role in their community. Their learn how to read, write and speak Spanish just as the males do. They fight side by side with men in military struggles. It is said that, “In a certain sense, between the indigenous women who continue in their communities and the insurgents” (Milan 71). Because the two groups of women lead such different lives, how can one be sure that these women want the same rights? Furthermore how do we position the women’s rights of Mexico within other global feminisms. There are several themes or patterns that I think connect the aforementioned women. In the final paper, I will do much research and try to answer these questions.

Works Cited

Craske, Nikki. “The Nation: Women and Politics in 20th Century Mexico.” Feminist Review. 79: 166-133.

Milan, Margara. 1998. “Zapatista Indigenous Women.” In Zapatista!: Reinventing Revolution in Mexico. John Holloway and Eloina Pelaez, eds. London: Pluto Press, 64-80.

Tavanti, Marco. 2001. “Constructing Local Networks for Human Rights: Lessons from Chiapas Indigenous Communities in Resistance.” Presented at The Networks and Transformations Conference. Manchester: Manchester Metropolitan University.