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Arab women journalists media efforts
After 1st till 4th Arab women journalists conferences took place in Amman - Jordan, Arab women in media associations start and switch on in day light - Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Palestine, Qatar, Bahrain, Tunis; AWMC looking fwd to see more orgs in our region
Non Arabs women' activists and journalists' efforts
Penny- [Penelope Bragonier] is a developmental psychologist and freelance writer living in Boston. She has served as the executive director of three psychology-based organizations, including the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy and the Harvard-affiliated Center for Psychology and Social Change.
Women's Gathering Gives Peace a Chance
Run Date: 04/13/06
By Penelope Bragonier
WeNews correspondent
At an international
conference in the spring of 2004, women faced the cruel realities that
divide and antagonize their governments and found ways to become friends.
Today they are still keeping up through e-mail.
SALZBURG, Austria (WOMENSENEWS)--Sitting among daffodils in the garden of a castle in the Austrian Alps, I study the bios and photographs of the 57 women with whom I will spend the next week. We have come from everywhere--Burundi, Nepal, Rwanda, Russia, Costa Rica, China and more--for the Salzburg Seminar's meeting on women and political power. In the seminar's 50 years of convening the world's thinkers to forge solutions to global problems, this will be the first session devoted exclusively to women's issues.
The older women are parliamentarians, commissioners, executives of women's organizations. The younger ones--researchers, doctoral candidates, program officers--are poised for leadership. My own credentials seem modest: simply a middle-aged psychologist with a research background in gender and inter-ethnic relations.
A diverse group, we are charged with a shared mission: develop strategies to strengthen women's participation in public life around the globe.
A picture of a face enshrouded in a black veil startles me. The woman is from Iran, a point on George Bush's "axis of evil." The intensity of her dark gaze reminds me that I may be the target of anti-American sentiments here. But I want those present to know that there are Americans who shudder at our nation's conduct of foreign affairs.
Awash in Colored Robes and Saris
We gather for introductions in a seminar room awash with color: saris in shades of apricot and nectarine; African robes and headdresses of emerald green, pink, fuchsia, sunflower yellow.
"I am Naba from Iraq," says a small woman in the second row. "I come to learn how Iraqi women can help rebuild our country."
A lovely, olive-skinned woman wearing an Italian leather jacket and slim pants stuns me by saying, "I am Mariam from Iran." The veiled woman on page seven!
I sit next to Naba. "We are afraid every minute," she tells me. She and her husband--professors at the University of Baghdad--risk their lives driving back and forth to work. At night, they lie in bed listening for the sound of shell fire.
"With Saddam we lived in a large prison," she says. "First, when the Americans came, we were happy. Now we wish we never saw them."
Naba introduces me to her friend, Mahasen, from Jordan.
"I live in Amman," says Mahasen. "But, truly, I am Palestinian. And journalist." She sticks a cigarette into a holder, flicks her lighter, and draws deep.
Our time is filled with meetings. I am learning about the nearly total exclusion of women from Russian political power; the role of six courageous women in the Northern Ireland peace process; the reconciliation efforts of Rwandan women after the hundred-day slaughter; the distinction between true Islam and oppressive interpretations of sharia, or religious law.
Mariam tells me about Iranians' struggle against oppression.
"The rules are always changing. You don't know from day to day if you will get in trouble for something innocent. Mothers are frightened for their children." Her daughter was detained overnight for attending a birthday party. But there is worse, she says. "Three years ago, the mullahs stabbed to death 100 artists and intellectuals, people of the greatest integrity."
A Walk Around the Lake
On the third day, Naba, Mahasen, and I walk around the castle lake.
"Saddam used to fool the world," Naba says. The perfect host, he would indulge visitors to his palaces while starving and torturing his own people behind the scenes. "'Such a generous man," they all say. "It cannot be true that he buries people alive in dirt pits!'"
"Oh, yes, very nice man. He gave me a house," says Mahasen, "True! When he started the war in Iran, he told his boys, 'Get every journalist in Amman a new house.' But we did not write good things about Saddam. You cannot buy a journalist."
Winded by her outburst, she says her son teases her about getting old. He's 31, like mine.
"Mine, too!" says Naba, grabbing Mahasen,and me and marching us along the path, a phalanx of mothers.
Mahasen, declares, "Mothers will make peace, so sons will not die."
The next night, we dance to Naba's CDs in the castle's underground bierstube. Six middle-aged women in a circle, swinging our hips and waving our arms, while Naba undulates in the center with the grace of one who has danced to these sensuous sounds since childhood.
She cups her hand over her upper lip and emits a high-pitched warble that rises above the music. On my third attempt to copy her, she leans close and warbles into my face. I've got it right.
When the song ends, she says, "We call that 'helulah,' our sound for something good. And you, do you know what I call you? 'Habibti,' dearest friend."
Atar, a young Israeli jumps into the circle. At our meetings, she has described her efforts to unite Arab and Jewish women for peace.
Mahasen,the Palestinian living in Jordan, has kept her distance from Atar all week. Now she watches her and scoffs. She cannot forgive those who forced her family to flee Jerusalem when she was a child. Just last month, she says, the Israelis bulldozed the old homestead to make room for the wall that will separate Arabs from Jews.
But now, finishing her second glass of wine, she breaks into the circle and grabs Atar by the hand.
Leaving for Home
The last afternoon, Mariam shows me the veil she will tie around her face before boarding the plane to Tehran. Then Naba's cab arrives.
"You will come to Baghdad," she says, embracing me.
"Yes, habibti." She grins at my use of the Arabic word she has taught me.
I leave Salzburg energized by the vitality, courage and resolve of the 50 women with whom I have spent the week. Together, we have devised strategies to expand women's access to political power.
The day after I arrive home, Mahasen,writes by e-mail that she has contacted Atar in Tel Aviv. "Maybe one day we will make real peace, telling our governments, 'Stop practicing your disgusting attempts to maintain power on our blood.' Bless you, dear."
Bless us all, I think, marveling at this web we have created, delicate and tough as a spider's. Someday Naba and I will sit in her living room in Baghdad, drinking tea and sharing pictures of our sons and their families. Insh'Allah, or as it's said in English, God willing.
I continue to exchange e-mails with Naba and the others. We celebrate when there is a success (one of our colleagues elected to Parliament in Burundi) and commiserate over setbacks (a female journalist is imprisoned in Iran.)
Now, two years later, I am packing for a trip to Amman where I will meet with Jordanian women working against formidable odds to empower women in their country. Had it not been for my week in Salzburg, I might have let the opportunity pass. But Mahasen,writes that her husband is preparing the water pipe for our reunion dinner. I will be there. For more details please click here
Women's eNews welcomes your comments. E-mail us at editors@womensenews.org.
For more information:
Salzburg Seminar:
http://www.salzburgseminar.org/
Other media researches and working papers
International and
regional support systems for Arab media women
by Naomi Sakr - UK
A LETTER TO MY BOSS
By Benaz Somiry-Batrawi - PA
PRIVATE TELEVISION IN PALESTINE Submitted for the degree of MA in Mass Communications, Leicester University, UK
By walid Batrawi a Palestanian Journalist and media resercher
Women in the Media Past - Present - & Future
By Dr Sonia Dabous - Egypt
Assistant Editor Akhbar El Yom
Other research and workshops concerning women's rights and leadership in ME
AWMC Director Mahasen Al emam
on the opening of Ayamm on line
An Online Magazine targeted to the Youth!!!! What do I want from it?
"I'm not sure. really a 17 year old student, "I think I want to be able to find all the information that I want in there". And here pops up the obviouse question in our minds!!! What are the information that you want to find on the internet as a Jordanian youth.
Ayamm is a magazine that tailors the needs of the new age of Jordan,,, The YOUTH. But in order to tailor those needs, there had to be extensive research among the targeted group of youth, and other similar projects in the Arab word and world-wide.
Amazingly enough, most of the people interviewed for their prefrences did not have a clear idea of what they wanted. They had a very vague impression that they should be able to find al dorts of information, to be fun, educational, and enables them to meet with people from all over Jordan (or the world) with similar interests and hobbies.
One very obvious thing was filling the free time in Amman, where it seems to be problematic to find an interesting place to spend time with friends and family without having to come across some issues of annoying nature. Such as class of people, money, or getting their without cars.
"I liked your idea of listing interesting events about to happen in Amman in the following month" Says Amer, a fresh graduate with Chemical emgineering degree from University of Jordan. "I log in to the internet a lot these days, and I'm sick of browsing for interesting things all happening outside Jordan". he added.
While Nisreen, a 20 arts student in the Yarmouk University liked the idea of staying connected to what's happening in Amman while she's away. She explains: "I'm in Irbed most days of the week, which means that I don't get to go to Amman other than in the weekends, I loved the idea of having the news sections which is not filled with poletics and non-relevant news".
commenting on the news section "Now I can read all the news and stay connected to what matters the most to me". she conentuid. Thus, the idea of having such a magazine to enable the youth to stay conencted to the issues that they care the most about, will be supported by the other sections in the site, such as the voting, and the contributions of the audience themselves.
How manytimes you hear about an event in the news or the papers after it's over, and you feel sorry for not being able to participate in it simply because you didn't know about it at the right time, and you didn't get the chance to register.
Ayamm's upcoming event's calendar offers the volunteers workers in Jordan, or youth with different interests to know about the conferences and all the other events in time for them to participate and get the best out of everything.
What do YOU think other sections of the magazine should be??
send your feedback to info@ayamm.org