C L O S E R

Maagdelijkheid, maagdenvlies en hymenconstructie

Posted on August 2nd, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Multiculti Issues, Young Muslims.

Wat doe je als kind? Ga je je eigen gang, probeer je binnen het kader van je ouders te blijven of zoek je een compromis daartussen? De discussie over maagdenvliesherstel -hymen(re)constructie- draagt die vragen met zich mee. In Metro van vandaag een uitgebreid artikel over meisjes die geen maagd meer zijn en daarom een maagdenvlieshersteloperatie laten uitvoeren of wellicht nog wel maagd zijn, maar dat voor de zekerheid toch laten uitvoeren:

Wies Obdeijn- Van Welij, arts en seksuologe, krijgt jaarlijks zo’n 50 meisjes bij zich die smeken om een nieuw maagdenvlies. “De meeste meiden die hier komen denken nog steeds dat ze moeten bloeden als ze worden ontmaagd. Dat klopt alleen niet. Vroeger was het misschien zo dat in de islamitische cultuur zeker 90 procent van de meisjes bloedde tijdens de huwelijksnacht. Maar dit kwam voornamelijk omdat ze erg jong trouwden en door uithuwelijking hun echtgenoot nog maar nauwelijks kenden. Door de zenuwen was er geen staat van opwinding en dat resulteerde in een bloeding. Tegenwoordig bloedt zeker 40 procent van de meiden niet tijdens de eerste keer. Ook is het maagdenvlies geen vlies dat doorboord moet worden, maar slechts een randje weefsel.”

Toch besluiten veel meiden een hersteloperatie te ondergaan. Obdeijn- Van Welij: “Het idee van bloeden zit vaak zo diep dat ze nauwelijks iets anders geloven. Ze willen gewoon het allerliefst bloeden tijdens de huwelijksnacht. Zoals de traditie voorschrijft. Een operatie kan daar voor zorgen. Tijdens de ingreep trekken we de randjes van het maagdenvlies wat strakker zodat het meisje vrijwel zeker zal bloeden. Wanneer het achter de rug is gaan ze vaak dolblij naar huis. Maagdelijkheid hangt bij deze meiden sterk samen met het vlies. Wanneer dat in tact is zijn ze wat hun betreft maagd.”

Het gaat hierbij echter niet alleen om de ideeën van de meiden zelf, maar ook om die van hun omgeving. Films als In het huis van mijn vader en La plage des enfants perdus laten dat heel mooi zien en mee beleven. (more…)

4 comments.

Scotsman.com News – Latest News – International – Egypt mufti says female circumcision forbidden

Posted on June 26th, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

Scotsman.com News – Latest News – International – Egypt mufti says female circumcision forbidden
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s state-appointed Grand Mufti said on Sunday that female genital cutting was forbidden by Islam after an 11-year-old girl died while undergoing the procedure at a private medical clinic in southern Egypt.

Genital cutting of girls, often referred to as female genital mutilation or circumcision, is banned in Egypt although the practice remains widespread as a rite of passage for girls and is often viewed as a way to protect their chastity.

“The harmful tradition of circumcision that is practised in Egypt in our era is forbidden,” Mufti Ali Gomaa was quoted as saying by the Egyptian state news agency MENA.

The statement was the strongest yet against the practice by the Mufti, who is the government’s official arbiter of Islamic law. The Grand Sheikh of Cairo’s prestigious al-Azhar mosque, Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, had previously described the practice as un-Islamic although some other clerics have supported it.

Both Tantawi and Coptic Pope Shenouda, the leader of Egypt’s minority Christian community, have said that neither the Koran nor the Bible demand or mention female circumcision, which is usually performed on pre-pubescent girls.

The statement came after Budour Ahmed Shaker died on Thursday while undergoing the procedure in the southern province of Minya after she was given a large dose of anaesthetics, security sources said.

Egypt’s doctors’ syndicate has launched an investigation into the death, an Egyptian newspaper said. The girl’s father has filed a lawsuit against the doctor for negligence and the doctor could face up to two years in jail, the security sources said.

The practice involves cutting off part or all of the clitoris and other female genitalia, sometimes by a doctor but also often by a relative or midwives. Side effects can include haemorrhage, shock and sexual dysfunction.

The practice is performed on both Muslim and Christian girls in Egypt and Sudan, but is extremely rare in most of the rest of the Arab world. It is also common in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.

A 2005 UNICEF report on the practice showed that 97 percent of Egyptian women between ages 15 and 49 had been circumcised. Egypt’s campaign to end female cutting has included television programmes aimed at persuading parents to abandon the ancient practice.

(c) Reuters 2007.

0 comments.

Protected: nu.nl/algemeen | Politie voorkomt gedwongen huwelijk

Posted on June 22nd, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

Enter your password to view comments.

Protected: nu.nl/algemeen | Politie voorkomt gedwongen huwelijk

Posted on June 22nd, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

Enter your password to view comments.

'Honour killing' sister breaks her silence | the Daily Mail

Posted on June 18th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

‘Honour killing’ sister breaks her silence | the Daily Mail

By HELEN WEATHERS –
Britain was appalled by the horrific ‘honour killing’ of a girl murdered by her father for daring to kiss the man she loved.

Here, her sister, who narrowly escaped death herself and now lives in fear of her life, breaks her silence.

Every time Bekhal Mahmod leaves the safety of her home, she wears the hijab with a black veil covering her face – even though she would give anything for the freedom not to have to.

She has no family to turn to, few friends, and has to lie to new acquaintances about who she is and where she is from. She is constantly looking over her shoulder.

“My life will always be at risk,” says 22-year-old Bekhal. “There are people in my community who want to see me dead, and they will not rest until I am. I will never be safe. I wear the veil so no one can recognise me.”

It is a desperately lonely and isolated existence, but at least she is alive – unlike her younger sister Banaz.

Both young women brought “shame” on their strict Muslim Iraqi Kurdish family by disobeying their father Mahmod.

Bekhal, 22, ran away aged 16 rather than agree to an arranged marriage to a cousin in Iraq.

She survived an attempted killing by her brother, but her sister Banaz, 20, paid the ultimate price for leaving her own arranged marriage and then falling in love with an “unsuitable man” of her own choice.

On the orders of her 52-year-old father and uncle, Ari Mahmod, 50, she was strangled with a bootlace by Kurdish assassins, her body stuffed in a suitcase and buried six feet down in the garden of a house belonging to an associate in Birmingham.

Two of the murderers, who fled back to Iraq after this horrific so-called “honour killing”, have since boasted of raping Banaz before she died in January 2006.

“Honour killing?” cries Bekhal. “Where is the honour in a father putting his status in the community before the life of his own flesh and blood?

“They should be disgusted with themselves. Honour in our community is about men having the upper hand, having the ruling power.

“Banaz was the most beautiful, loving, caring, easy-going girl you could ever hope to meet. Her only crime was to want to have some say in her life. Where is the shame in that?

“After I refused an arranged marriage, I knew I had two choices; stay and be killed, or leave and live. I chose to live but I had to leave everything behind.”

Bekhal was one of the key prosecution witnesses at the three-month trial of her father and uncle, which this week resulted in their convictions at the Old Bailey for murder.

They have yet to be sentenced. A third man, Mohamad Hama, 30, of South Norwood, London, had already admitted the killing.

The other key witness was Banaz’s boyfriend Rahmat Sulemani, 29, whose own life was threatened because he was considered an unsuitable match for Banaz, despite also being Iraqi.

Bekhal and Rahmat now face a future of secret addresses and identities under police protection.

“When I stared into the eyes of my father in court, there wasn’t even a twitch of guilt,” says Bekhal. “No emotion at all. I still love him because he is my father, but I can never forgive nor understand what he did.
(more…)

0 comments.

‘Honour killing’ sister breaks her silence | the Daily Mail

Posted on June 18th, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

‘Honour killing’ sister breaks her silence | the Daily Mail

By HELEN WEATHERS –
Britain was appalled by the horrific ‘honour killing’ of a girl murdered by her father for daring to kiss the man she loved.

Here, her sister, who narrowly escaped death herself and now lives in fear of her life, breaks her silence.

Every time Bekhal Mahmod leaves the safety of her home, she wears the hijab with a black veil covering her face – even though she would give anything for the freedom not to have to.

She has no family to turn to, few friends, and has to lie to new acquaintances about who she is and where she is from. She is constantly looking over her shoulder.

“My life will always be at risk,” says 22-year-old Bekhal. “There are people in my community who want to see me dead, and they will not rest until I am. I will never be safe. I wear the veil so no one can recognise me.”

It is a desperately lonely and isolated existence, but at least she is alive – unlike her younger sister Banaz.

Both young women brought “shame” on their strict Muslim Iraqi Kurdish family by disobeying their father Mahmod.

Bekhal, 22, ran away aged 16 rather than agree to an arranged marriage to a cousin in Iraq.

She survived an attempted killing by her brother, but her sister Banaz, 20, paid the ultimate price for leaving her own arranged marriage and then falling in love with an “unsuitable man” of her own choice.

On the orders of her 52-year-old father and uncle, Ari Mahmod, 50, she was strangled with a bootlace by Kurdish assassins, her body stuffed in a suitcase and buried six feet down in the garden of a house belonging to an associate in Birmingham.

Two of the murderers, who fled back to Iraq after this horrific so-called “honour killing”, have since boasted of raping Banaz before she died in January 2006.

“Honour killing?” cries Bekhal. “Where is the honour in a father putting his status in the community before the life of his own flesh and blood?

“They should be disgusted with themselves. Honour in our community is about men having the upper hand, having the ruling power.

“Banaz was the most beautiful, loving, caring, easy-going girl you could ever hope to meet. Her only crime was to want to have some say in her life. Where is the shame in that?

“After I refused an arranged marriage, I knew I had two choices; stay and be killed, or leave and live. I chose to live but I had to leave everything behind.”

Bekhal was one of the key prosecution witnesses at the three-month trial of her father and uncle, which this week resulted in their convictions at the Old Bailey for murder.

They have yet to be sentenced. A third man, Mohamad Hama, 30, of South Norwood, London, had already admitted the killing.

The other key witness was Banaz’s boyfriend Rahmat Sulemani, 29, whose own life was threatened because he was considered an unsuitable match for Banaz, despite also being Iraqi.

Bekhal and Rahmat now face a future of secret addresses and identities under police protection.

“When I stared into the eyes of my father in court, there wasn’t even a twitch of guilt,” says Bekhal. “No emotion at all. I still love him because he is my father, but I can never forgive nor understand what he did.
(more…)

0 comments.

Protected: Gesluierde studente eist surveillance vrouwen – telegraaf.nl [Binnenland]

Posted on June 14th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Multiculti Issues.

Enter your password to view comments.

Protected: Trouw – Jolande Withuis: Lijden, strijden, heilig worden

Posted on May 25th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Enter your password to view comments.

Radicaliserende vrouwen. Nederlandse communistische vrouwen (1946-1970) en Nederlandse islamitische vrouwen (1989-heden), een comparatieve analyse

Posted on May 25th, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties – Radicaliserende vrouwen. Nederlandse communistische vrouwen (1946-1970) en Nederlandse islamitische vrouwen (1989-heden), een comparatieve analyse

In het eerste essay van deze bundel vergelijkt dr. Jolande Withuis de radicalisering van islamitische vrouwen nu met die van Nederlandse communistische vrouwen in de periode 1945-1965. Haar belangrijkste bevinding: moslimvrouwen en -meisjes die radicaliseren, doen dit sneller en anders dan mannen.Het tweede en derde essay zijn co-referaten op het eerste. Hoogleraar groepsdynamica Roel Meertens is deskundig op het gebied van sektevormingsprocessen. Hij schreef het essay ‘Radicaliserende moslims en moslima’s sociaal-psychologisch bekeken’. Het derde essay, ‘Door het patriarchaat uitgebuit’, is van schrijfster en columniste Nahed Selim (auteur van het boek ‘De vrouwen van de profeet’).

0 comments.

Protected: Trouw, deVerdieping| overigeartikelen – Allochtone dochters vliegen uit / Vaders meisje wil op kamers

Posted on April 13th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Young Muslims, Youth culture (as a practice).

Enter your password to view comments.

Protected: Trouw, deVerdieping| overigeartikelen – Allochtone dochters vliegen uit / Vaders meisje wil op kamers

Posted on April 13th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Young Muslims, Youth culture (as a practice).

Enter your password to view comments.

Correctie: Homo-huwelijk in Marokko

Posted on April 12th, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Morocco.

Dat homo-huwelijk in Marokko zat me toch niet helemaal lekker. Het ging om een symbolische voltrekking bij een heiligenfeest in Marokko. Maar hoe serieus moeten we dat nemen, aangezien er bij dergelijke feesten wel meer dingen gebeuren die ingaan tegen het algemene beeld dat we van Marokko hebben. Zie voor een mooie foto-impressie van zo’n heiligenfeest (in Fez) de site van View from Fez, hier en hier.

En inderdaad het ging eerder om een soort boerenbruiloft zoals we dat hier kennen met Carnaval waarbij een stel in de ‘onecht’ wordt verbonden. Dit is een omkeringsritueel waarbij sociale rollen worden omgedraaid en normen en waarden met betrekking tot gewenst gedrag (behorende bij een sociale rol) worden opgeschort. Een omkeringsritueel bespot daarmee de bestaande sociale orde, maar bevestigt hem ook; immers een dergelijk ritueel vindt alleen plaats tijdens speciale dagen en door het tegenovergestelde te benadrukken wordt ook naar voren gehaald hoe het eigenlijk zou moeten.

Hoe een dergelijke ‘mock wedding‘ zoals in Meknes precies geinterpreteerd moet worden weet ik niet (daarvoor zul je er toch echt bij moeten zijn), maar het zou zowel een bevestiging kunnen zijn van de bestaande sociale orde (zoals we kunnen zien aan de reacties erop) als een bespotting van de bestaande sociale praktijken omtrent homoseksualiteit in Marokko.

Een andere vraag is natuurlijk waarom het nieuws over het homo-huwelijk hier relatief veel aandacht krijgt. Immers, die festivals vinden jaarlijks plaats en er gebeurt wel wat meer dan alleen dat. Waarom wordt het homo-huwelijk eruit gepikt en waarom zonder veel achtergrond informatie dat de betekenis ervan wat duidelijker maakt (ja,ja ook door ondergetekende).

1 comment.

ABC News: Dr. Heba Kotb – The Dr. Ruth of the Muslim World

Posted on April 11th, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

ABC News: The Dr. Ruth of the Muslim World
The Dr. Ruth of the Muslim World
Host of Egyptian Sex-Advice Show Finds Inspiration in the Koran
Dr. Ruth

Dr. Heba Kotb, a certified sex therapist in Egypt, deals with all sorts of topics in her private sex clinic for married couples. Once a week Kotb hosts a sex advice show that is broadcast across the Arab world, and she does not hold back. (more…)

2 comments.

Lesbian Palestinians Break Social Taboos

Posted on April 6th, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

Lesbian Palestinians Break Social Taboos by Brenda Gazzar

The group Aswat–Voices in Arabic–is breaking the silence for Palestinian Arab lesbians. On March 28, it held its first public conference and released a groundbreaking book despite bitter opposition by the Islamic Movement. (more…)

0 comments.

Muslim women & Google

Posted on March 18th, 2007 by .
Categories: Blogosphere, Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

Ok do the following
1) Go to Google

2) Then to images

3) Then type: muslim women (only that, without ‘the’) and press search
4) Or just click here: muslim women

5) And then tell me what you see at the first page

6) And tell me what that means.

I will get back to this later.

(re-published, because of some layout issues due to the new theme, old comments:) (more…)

0 comments.

Muslim women & Google

Posted on March 18th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

Ok do the following
1) Go to Google

2) Then to images

3) Then type: muslim women (only that, without ‘the’) and press search
4) Or just click here: muslim women

5) And then tell me what you see at the first page

6) And tell me what that means.

I will get back to this later.

(re-published, because of some layout issues due to the new theme, old comments:) (more…)

0 comments.

LOVER, Tijdschrift over feminisme, cultuur en wetenschap – ‘Ik laat me niet voorschrijven hoe ik de Koran moet interpreteren’

Posted on March 12th, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Internal Debates.

In LOVER, Tijdschrift over feminisme, cultuur en wetenschap, een interview met Asma Barlas door Piek Knijff.

‘Ik laat me niet voorschrijven hoe ik de Koran moet interpreteren’
Asma Barlas over islamitische emancipatie
door Piek Knijff

‘Als er niets vrouwonvriendelijks in de Koran staat, hoe kan de profeet dit dan voorstaan?’ Volgens Asma Barlas, auteur van ‘Believing Women’ in Islam: Unreading Partriarchal Interpretations of the Qu’ran, kent de islam als een van de weinige religies gendergelijkheid als uitgangspunt.
Een opmerkelijk standpunt in deze tijden van hevige islamkritiek.

In 2002 publiceerde Asma Barlas, professor in de Politicologie aan het New Yorkse Ithaca College, het boek ‘Believing Women’ in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an. Hierin beschrijft Barlas haar zoektocht naar gendergelijkheid in de islam. Die begon ongeveer drieëntwintig jaar geleden, vlak voordat Barlas haar vaderland Pakistan verliet. Tijdens de scheiding van haar man kwam Barlas erachter dat er grote verschillen waren tussen de rechten van mannen en vrouwen. Uitvoerders van de wet beriepen zich op de islam als rechtvaardigingsbron voor deze ongelijkheid. Barlas zelf ervoer de islam niet als discriminerend en begon de Koran nauwkeurig te bestuderen. Ze werd toen geconfronteerd met het grote verschil tussen de boodschap van de Koran en wat moslimgemeenschappen doen uit naam van de islam.
(more…)

1 comment.

Bend it like Azzy?

Posted on March 9th, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Young Muslims, Youth culture (as a practice).

On Sabbah’s Blog an interesting article about Asmahan Mansour: a Muslim girl (r)ejected from football because of her hijab despite being allowed everywhere else she played (news that also reached the Netherlands). The decision is supported by the FIFA based on Law 4 which makes quite clear that

must not use equipment or wear anything that is dangerous to himself or another player (including any kind of jewellery).

It is therefore a little strange that the FIFA website does include several photo’s of girls with headscarves playing football:

If in any case a headscarf might indeed be dangerous, I have the perfect solution for Asmahan, the officials and the FIFA: the capsters: elegant, safe and sportslike. Oh and Dutch so for football that’s always good.

1 comment.

‘Stille Kracht’ en de machtige illusie van de vrije wil

Posted on March 7th, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Misc. News, Youth culture (as a practice).

Stille Kracht, een prachtige roman van Louis Couperus, waarin verteld wordt over een reeks mysterieuze gebeurtenissen op Java die door de plaatselijke inwoners worden toegeschreven aan ‘de stille kracht’; een Indisch mysterie dat tot uitdrukking komt in de natuur en de mens en dat het idee tart dat de mens zelfbeschikking heeft. Dit is thema van deze entry: vrije wil, opgelegde schoonheidsidealen en sluiering. (more…)

1 comment.

'Stille Kracht' en de machtige illusie van de vrije wil

Posted on March 7th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Misc. News, Youth culture (as a practice).

Stille Kracht, een prachtige roman van Louis Couperus, waarin verteld wordt over een reeks mysterieuze gebeurtenissen op Java die door de plaatselijke inwoners worden toegeschreven aan ‘de stille kracht’; een Indisch mysterie dat tot uitdrukking komt in de natuur en de mens en dat het idee tart dat de mens zelfbeschikking heeft. Dit is thema van deze entry: vrije wil, opgelegde schoonheidsidealen en sluiering. (more…)

1 comment.

Sister in spirit: Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s “Infidel” KA Dilday – openDemocracy

Posted on March 7th, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

Sister in spirit: Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s “Infidel” KA Dilday – openDemocracy
KA Dilday

The Somali-Dutch dissident’s critique of Islam resonates with KA Dilday’s experience of fundamentalist Christianity in the American south. But their distance lies also in the journey beyond.

KA Dilday worked on the New York Times opinion page until autumn 2005, when she began a writing fellowship with the Institute of Current World Affairs. During the period of the fellowship, she is travelling between north Africa and France.

When I read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel, I felt a sense of recognition and realised why she is so unyielding in her quest to attack Islam head on and in her steadfast insistence that there is no place for tolerance of religious fundamentalism within a nation based on enlightenment principles. Even worse than a sheep, she was a lemming – being led to chattel marriage and a likely early death by Islam. If she, a strong-willed intelligent woman took so long to find her way out of what she’d been taught, what hope do weaker people have? But the paternalism that she bestows on her former religious kin in Europe, those she feels may not find their way out unless they have no other choice, doesn’t seem the right way either.

(more…)

1 comment.

Claiming Equal Citizenship » Morocco Amends Nationality Code

Posted on February 27th, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Morocco.

Claiming Equal Citizenship » Morocco Amends Nationality Code

Great News – On January 18, 2007, the Moroccan Government passed a bill to reform the country’s nationality code which will enable women the right to pass on their nationality to their children. Although the bill has passed at the Cabinent level, it is awaiting approval from the Parliament, which hopefully will come next week.

The law was amended in line with the country’s family code, the Moudawana, meaning that only Moroccan women who have married Muslim men in accordance with the Moudawana would benefit.

The Moroccan Minister of Communication, Nabil Benabdallah, is quoted in The Magharebia, a news source reporting on the Maghreb region, as saying, “the bill is an important step towards the emancipation of the Moroccan woman, after the reform in the family code (mudawana). Thus, the child will acquire Moroccan citizenship even if the father is a foreigner, but only if he is a Muslim and married according to the rules of the mudawana.” (more…)

0 comments.

Banning the burqa

Posted on February 23rd, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Multiculti Issues.

The Dutch Islam debate may have seem to be calmed down a little during the last year, every now and then the same old themes come back again such as the Row over Dutch Muslim ministers with dual nationality.

Another issue the already came up last year and has sparked some debate again is the burqa-issue. Twice already, a majority in parlaiment has urged the cabinet arrange a complete ban on wearing burqas in public. According to the newly appointed social-democratic minister of integration, Ella Vogelaar, argued however that women should be allowed to wear burqas in some circumstances, for instance on the streets. She thinks it is desirable if women with burqa’s were working in public functions or jobs in which human contact was important.

Christian democrat CDA MPs Mirjam Sterk and Wim van de Camp have asked the minister to explain what steps she will take to stop the wearing of veils and other concealing clothing in the situations she deems unadvisable.
According to PVV-leader Geert Wilders the proposed ban does not  only apply at work but also on the streets. Wilders hopes to work with coalition party CDA and opposition party Liberal VVD in preparing the bill. Both these parties have supported Wilders’ motions so far towards banning the wearing of burqas in public. The new coalition parties Labour PvdA and ChristenUnie have opposed the motions. The coalition accord however does not state that such a ban will be introduced.

1 comment.

Ongewenste nationaliteiten

Posted on February 18th, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Multiculti Issues.

Dankzij Geert Wilders (en wellicht ook dankzij het optreden van de kamervoorzitter) is de kwestie van dubbele nationaliteit weer eens terug in het multiculti-debat. Dit gebeurt met enige regelmaat. In een artikel in Migrantenstudies van Betty de Hart is zeer informatief voor deze discussie. Onderstaande is grotendeels op haar stuk gebaseerd (Deze entry mag dus gebruikt worden, maar altijd met een verwijzing naar haar stuk. De uiteindelijke weergave in deze entry is natuurlijk mijn verantwoording).
(more…)

3 comments.

Gender Concerns International – Violence against Women: Personal and Political dimension of Violence and The Role of Migrant Women

Posted on February 11th, 2007 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

Gender Concerns International
The best strategy to combat violence against women is to get organized and form a wider international solidarity platform, concludes Sabra Bano, director Gender Concerns International as the chair of the discussion on the theme of personal and political dimension of violence against women and the Role of Migrant Women in Europe.

The Discussion Forum was organized by Dona Daria, Rotterdam and Gender Concerns International, The Hague on 5th February. The chief guest Dr. Nawal El Saadawi linked all forms of violence against women to the development of patriarchy and talked about the diminishing of matriarchal society. She referred to various forms of defacing and disfiguring of a female body as a systematic and pre-calculated practice to mutilate women’s power over their brains. Referring to violence she mentioned about her experience as from being a young Egyptian village girl to becoming an author of 43 books, receiving many international prestigious awards and to the candidacy for the presidential post in the last election in Egypt.

“The price for freedom of expression on issues that raise the public opinion and potentially can unite people to demand justice is always too high”, Says El Saadawi. Even at the age of 76 now Dr. Nawal el Saadawi was brought to a court in Cairo on 28th January this year, she disclosed, answering a question during the discussion.

Other Speakers as Drs. Suaad Abdulrehman and Belgi Ahmetaj spoke about the efforts of migrant women in Europe to combat personal and political violence against women and emphasized the need for forming and strengthening Solidarity Actions to address all forms of violence against women. At this occasion the need to highlight the violence against those women that are caught in various political conflicts was emphasized. In particular the situation of women in Kashmir who suffer 60 years of invisibility of violence and abuse was discussed in detail and the initiative to launching the Hello Sirs! Campaign was considered important and timely. Prior to the discussion the Forum was opened up by the welcoming address of Gerda Nijssen, director Dona Daria. The hall was full to its capacity and the audience-panel interaction was excellent during the question-answer session. It was a well organized, fruitful and an inspiring event.

0 comments.

« Previous Page — Older » « Newer — Next Page »