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NWP Hosts Film Festivals and Exhibits
In Budapest and New York
We are pleased to share news of our upcoming “Gender Montage: Paradigms in Post Soviet Space” film festivals in Budapest on October 31, in cooperation with Central European University, and in New York from November 10-11, cosponsored by and in cooperation with Asia Society (www.asiasociety.org). Gender Montage is a collection of analytical documentary films from 9 post-soviet countries--Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan--which reveal politically, socially and economically charged gender problems in post-soviet space.
At the Budapest film festival, we will host a special exhibit of the NWP supported 16 Days Media Campaigns Against Violence Against Women. At the New York screening, we will also host a special film-related exhibit, which represents and articulates the key themes and motifs of all 9 films and carries on the “spirit” of the film collection. The exhibit includes such objects as national women’s costumes, handicrafts, photographs, etc.
For information about the film festivals, to order tickets for the film festivals or RSVP, please see the attached announcements.
Budapest Film Festival (.doc format)
New York Film Festival (.doc format)
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Gender and Education Conference
Bukhara, Uzbekistan, November 4-5, 2003
Participating countries: Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Burma, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, USA, Uzbekistan.
This international conference will gather participants from countries taking part in NWP's Empowering Education program. It will help to create new perspectives for local and international development and expansion of Empowering Education program, and will give the opportunity for information and experience exchange between participating countries. It will also be an excellent opportunity for adolescents and adults for cultural exchange. The event
will be highlighted in the Internet site of OSI-Uzbekistan and the sites of other participating countries. The project will be implemented in collaboration with the Information Resource Center for positive Education, the Center for Support of Women and Youth "Sabo", Ministries of Public
Education and Higher Education of Uzbekistan and is funded jointly by OSI - Uzbekistan Gender Program and OSI's Network Women's Program. The language of the camp and conference is Russian, English translation will be provided.
For further information, please contact Eleonora Fayzullaeva (eleonora@osi.uz), Women's Program Coordinator of OSI-Uzbekistan.
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Domestic Violence Handbook Supported for Mongolia and Central Asia
In December 2002, the Mongolian Foundation for an Open Society (MFOS) hosted a Central Asian lawyers' meeting on domestic violence (DV) legislation. As a result of the project, the Mongolian Women Lawyers' Association and National Center Against Violence jointly published a handbook on DV which has been translated into Mongolian, Russian and English. This important publication was financially supported both by MFOS and NWP. We are pleased to share this handbook in the attached PDF format. Please feel free to circulate this publication to your stakeholders who work towards eliminating domestic violence in their countries.
Download the handbook here (.pdf format)
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Translations of UN Resolution on Honor Killings
On October 24, 2002, at the 57th Session of the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee, the UN resolution, “Working Towards the Elimination of Crimes Committed in the Name of Honor” was passed. The resolution was tabled by the Netherlands and has 89 co-sponsors. This resolution is the result of repeated efforts by a group of advocates/activists who spent several years advocating for it and educating UN officials.
Prior to 1998, the term “honor killings” was little known or understood within UN machinery. The passage of the resolution reflects that the issue is being addressed for the first time, and calls for government accountability at national levels.
The resolution has been translated into a total of 13 languages, including Arabic, Bahasa, Bengali, Bosnian, Dari, English, Farsi, Malay, Punjabi, Turkish, Urdu, and two dialects of Kurdish: Kurmanci and Sorani. These translations can be downloaded below.
The resolution was translated on the initiative of human rights activist Leyla Pervizat, with the support of the NWP.
If you are associated with an NGO working in the area of advocacy, feel free to distribute these translations to interested parties through your listserves and networks. This important resolution can be a strong instrument for advocates working towards eliminating honor killings regionally and nationally.
If you would like more information on the problem of honor killings, the resolution, or are an activist working on honor killings seeking to be more connected with other regional and national experts, please contact NWP’s Program Coordinator, Phoebe Schreiner at pschreiner@sorosny.org.
The full text is available in the following languages (right-click on the relevant link and select "Save Target As..."):
Arabic (.pdf format)
Bahasa (.doc format)
Bengali (.pdf format)
Bosnian (.doc format)
Dari (.pdf format)
English (.pdf format)
Farsi (.pdf format)
French (.pdf format)
Kurmanci (.doc format)
Malay (.pdf format)
Punjabi (.pdf format)
Russian (.doc format)
Sorani (.pdf format)
Turkish (.doc format)
Urdu (.pdf format)
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NWP Supports New Oral History Research on
Afghan Women’s Organization
Anne Brodsky is Assistant Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Assistant Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus. In January 2002, OSI’s Network Women’s Program provided Professor Brodsky with a grant to conduct research on the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). Routledge plans to publish her book on RAWA in early 2003. The following text, written at the end of March 2002, presents Brodsky’s reflections on her recent field research trip.
Aided by the support of the Open Society Institute's Network Women’s Program, I recently spent seven weeks in Pakistan with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). I stayed with RAWA in refugee communities throughout Pakistan, and spoke with refugees, RAWA members, students, male supporters, family members, and Pakistani and Afghan supporters about RAWA's 25 years of work as an independent, humanitarian, and politically active Afghan women's organization. This experience will serve as the basis for a book I am writing that will explore RAWA as a community model of women’s resilience and resistance.
I’ve worked with RAWA for the past two years as a volunteer U.S. supporter, helping them raise awareness about the lives, concerns, and needs of Afghan women who have been struggling for peace, freedom, and human rights through 24 years of war. A little over a year ago, it occurred to me that as a clinical/community psychologist researching resilient women’s communities, I might be able to help them through my professional work as well. This began an extended conversation about how an academic study of RAWA as a model of women’s resilience might be useful to them and to other women throughout the world who are looking for ways to respond to crises. A two-week visit with RAWA in Pakistan last summer confirmed the final details of this project. At that time, I met a variety of Afghan refugees whose lives had been touched by RAWA. I also spoke with many more RAWA members than the three I had met during earlier RAWA visits to the U.S. These conversations helped me develop a deeper understanding of the scope and community core of this unique organization. The portraits of individual RAWA members that most western journalists commonly produce do not begin to capture the rich cultural context of Afghanistan and the communities that sustain RAWA's work.
The terrorist attacks of September 11 occurred shortly after I had returned from my summer visit and had laid the groundwork for this project. The attacks added urgency to this study, as stories on Afghanistan and Afghan women became front-page news. In addition, the unpredictable outcome of the ensuing war in Afghanistan prompted me to return to Pakistan and RAWA while I still could. Because RAWA had been so effective in documenting atrocities committed by the Northern Alliance when it last held power from 1992-1996, some elements of the Alliance hate and fear RAWA as much as they do the Taliban. We did not know then, and we still do not know now, what the future will bring to Afghanistan, RAWA and the region.
As a qualitative, feminist researcher, I conducted formal and informal interviews as well as lived, ate, worked, and relaxed with RAWA members. I was in a RAWA community, watching BBC-TV with them when Hamid Karzai was sworn in as head of the interim government; I was teaching an English class for RAWA members at the stroke of midnight as an earth-shattering 2001 turned to what we could only hope would be a more peaceful 2002; I was in a refugee camp with RAWA when a member based in Afghanistan offered us samples from a daily humanitarian ration she had collected during the bombing; I was one of 1700 participants in the ceremony in Peshawar, Pakistan marking the 15th anniversary of the assassination of RAWA's founder, Meena; a week earlier I had watched children from RAWA schools and orphanages rehearse songs and poems they had written for the anniversary.
From each of these experiences I learned something different about RAWA. I saw the incredible tug of both hope and fear among RAWA members as Karzai was sworn in, promising a new day for Afghanistan, yet surrounded by men who represented a very scary period of time for most Afghan women. I heard first hand stories about the bombing in Afghanistan, and also saw RAWA members from different countries and contexts come together to share stories about their communities, their activities, and the refugee crisis. And I saw the behind-the-scenes community efforts as children were readied for a public commemoration that represents the heart of the organization, the tragic and inspiring loss of Meena’s life, an event that brings tears to the eyes of women who have confronted the Taliban head on.
The experiences I had living and working with RAWA and its members during my recent seven week visit have provided me with 400 pages of interview transcripts, participant observation and field notes; 900 memos, and 45 codes. In the following months, my task is to use these tools of qualitative research to accurately portray RAWA and the hundreds of people who shared their lives with me and trusted me with their stories. Giving voice to this community and drawing out the lessons that may inspire and inform resistance and resilience in other women’s communities is a task I look forward to with great excitement as well as a great feeling of responsibility.
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New Website Coordinated By Open Society Fund - Romania
NWP is pleased to announce the launch of a new website for the Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in the European Accession Programme (EOWM), a part of NWP's Subregional and Policy Initiatives. Coordinated by Women's Program Director, Roxana Tesiu of the Open Society Foundation-Romania, EOWM seeks to enhance, encourage and compliment the European Union accession process by providing new incentives on promoting gender equality within Central and Eastern European candidate countries.
Please visit the website at http://www.eonet.ro |
First International
Empowering Education Summer Camp
Held in Karpaty, Ukraine
By Marla Swanson, Program Associate
for OSI Network Women's Program
From
July 30 -August 12, 2001, 101 young people and adults,
researchers and practitioners, Ukrainians and guests
from thirteen different countries, gathered in Karpaty,
a small, picturesque town in the Zakarptska (Transcarpathian)
region, in western Ukraine to participate in the first
international Empowering Education Summer Camp. The
summer camp served to encapsulate the essence of previous
work, as well as provide a basis for future strategic
planning for participants of the program. The camp also
provided an opportunity for interested beginners to
become acquainted with the Empowering Education model
and possibly join the program in the future.
The
Camp succeeded in bringing many different cultures together.
Camp participants were able to share their cultures
during special evening events showcasing their cultural
diversity, which included folk music, performances,
and comedic skits, with participants wearing colorful
national dress. NWP and the Burma Project brought together
a unique delegation of Southeast Asian participants,
from Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, and Laos, to experience
the methodology firsthand by taking part in Empowering
Education classes, for possible future inclusion of
Southeast Asian countries into the program. The camp
provided a unique multi-cultural experience -- for all
of the Southeast Asian participants, it was their first
time visiting a former Soviet country, and for almost
all other participants at the Camp, it was a first and
rare opportunity to meet and talk to someone from Southeast
Asia. The delegation explored the innovative methodology
hands-on, by participating in actual training sessions,
which were held in English (instead of Russian, Georgian,
Kyrgyz, Lithuanian, Tajik, Uzbek, Azeri, Romanian, Kazak,
or Ukrainian) for the first time.
The
Summer Camp sessions demonstrated various topics within
the Empowering Education model, which led to curriculum
development and new teaching materials. (The) main areas
covered in demonstrational training sessions were: basic
principles of Empowering Education and successful communication,
basic gender concepts, equity and equality, human rights,
and democracy. Among the topics trainers discussed at
the Camp were how to strengthen the network, strategies
for future geographical expansion, new themes, different
kinds of courses, and continuing joint work on the network
and international level. After the Camp, a listserv
was created for participants to exchange new ideas,
experiences, and materials. On the constantly updated
Empowering Education website (wicc@public.icyb.kiev.ua),
one can also download materials in several languages,
learn about projects and events in different countries,
as well as access other information.
What
is Empowering Education?
Empowering Education is an innovative participatory
educational program, which prepares both girls and boys
for roles of mutual support, social activism, and democracy-building
in society. For girls, it creates an awareness of their
potential in society, and their possibility to fully
realize it. For boys, it shapes their awareness, attitudes
and values, providing them with a sense of social responsibility.
For both boys and girls, Empowering Education promotes
self-esteem by instilling them with values of mutual
respect and understanding for all people, regardless
of age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, etc.
A
small team of trainers achieves these goals by guiding
a group of between 12-15 people through a variety of
participatory, experiential, small and large group activities
using "icebreakers," discussions, brainstorming,
case studies, role-playing, and creative work (such
as drawing, song-writing, etc.)
The
Empowering Education program currently operates in secondary
schools and in some universities, not only in Ukraine,
but in eight other countries of the former Soviet Union.
Empowering Education presents an alternative approach
of cooperation among schools, NGOs, teachers and human
rights activists who understand the importance of talking
about human rights and gender sensitive education with
children and teenagers.
Participants
have developed many activities in collaboration with
educators, researchers and young people from different
countries and cultures, among them training courses
for high school and university students, presentation
trainings for educational authorities and people involved
in educational policy making, trainings for trainers,
development of educational materials, publications,
website development, research, etc. Although the main
target group is secondary students, other groups also
participate. New groups are being developed all the
time. For example, currently, kindergarten classes are
in the works, due to demand from educators, administration,
and parents. Even Muslim leaders in several countries,
such as Tajikistan (in which this Program has been particularly
successful) participated in trainings.
How
did Empowering Education start?
Empowering Education grew out of a true grassroots movement,
when Olena Suslova, (the founder of Empowering Education
and the NGO, Women's Information Consultative Center)
and her colleagues saw that gender sensitivity, human
rights education, and participatory student-centered
learning were much-needed components, absent in the
Ukrainian educational system. Although gender sensitive
and equitable education are badly needed in schools
in the region, they are not always a priority or realistic
option in the curricula. For that reason, they set out
to start a program addressing the emergent needs of
their own children. This grew into the current successful
program which encompasses many new components and nine
countries - and it is still growing.
Perhaps
soon, Empowering Education may expand out of the countries
of the former Soviet Union to include other countries,
for example in Southeast Asia. The first program started
in 1996, in three Ukrainian cities, Kyiv, Simpheropol
and Uzhhorod. The Program started on the network level
in April, 1999. Now, in addition to Ukraine, the Program
includes cities and towns all over: Georgia, Kyrgyzstan,
Lithuania, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Moldova,
and Kazakhstan. At present, there are approximately
200 trainers in the participating countries and over
3000 students who have participated in the project.
The
Program has recently found approval in many governmental
institutions - schools, colleges, universities, educational
institutions, educational administrative units, and
other branches of government. In Ukraine, Empowering
Education was officially certified by the Ministry of
Education, which is a significant accomplishment, as
it was the first time a Ukrainian NGO (Women's Information
Consultative Center in Kyiv) has been recognized by
the state as a an educational institution.
To
learn more about the Empowering Education or the Summer
Camp, please contact:
Olena Suslova, Director
Phone/Fax: (+380 44) 212-4875
E-mail: wicc@public.icyb.kiev.ua
Address: 12A/11 Saksahanskoho Street, Kyiv, UKRAINE,
01033
Website: http://www.empedu.kiev.ua
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