A Girl Goes to the UN--and Then What?

just do it now

2011-11-30T05:33:00.000-06:00

just do it now
good news for you
thousands of new original products here
<ele2006.com>
take a look , it is the best place for Chrisama gift .
i had bought some from them , and i like much
so i tell you
sure you will like

To Help Haiti, Upend Aid Habits, and Focus on its Women / Impact of the Crisis on Women / Impact of the Crisis on Women / Crisis in Haiti: Strengthening Solidarity / Issues and Analysis / Home - AWID

2010-02-17T15:08:00.000-06:00

To Help Haiti, Upend Aid Habits, and Focus on its Women / Impact of the Crisis on Women / Impact of the Crisis on Women / Crisis in Haiti: Strengthening Solidarity / Issues and Analysis / Home - AWID

Linda Tarr-Whelan: U.N. Women's Treaty Can Not Wait for U.S. Senate

2010-02-04T13:57:00.003-06:00

Linda Tarr-Whelan: U.N. Women's Treaty Can Not Wait for U.S. Senate

Posted using ShareThis

Linda Tarr-Whelan: U.N. Women's Treaty Can Not Wait for U.S. Senate

2010-02-04T13:57:00.001-06:00

Linda Tarr-Whelan: U.N. Women's Treaty Can Not Wait for U.S. Senate

Posted using ShareThis

Blackbaud NetCommunity

2010-02-04T09:54:00.001-06:00

Blackbaud NetCommunity

Posted using ShareThis

Blackbaud NetCommunity

2010-02-04T09:48:00.001-06:00

Blackbaud NetCommunity

Posted using ShareThis

Youth in lawless Haiti at risk for sex trade, slavery, murder - Faith

2010-01-31T17:24:00.001-06:00

Youth in lawless Haiti at risk for sex trade, slavery, murder - Faith & Reason

Posted using ShareThis

Haiti Quake Puts 63,000 Pregnant Women at Risk | Womens eNews

2010-01-29T14:37:00.003-06:00

Haiti Quake Puts 63,000 Pregnant Women at Risk | Womens eNews

Posted using ShareThis

Haiti Quake Puts 63,000 Pregnant Women at Risk | Womens eNews

2010-01-29T14:37:00.001-06:00

Haiti Quake Puts 63,000 Pregnant Women at Risk | Womens eNews

Posted using ShareThis

The PB&J Campaign

2007-10-23T19:32:00.001-06:00

The PB&J Campaign

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Who knew it was so easy to change the world?

The next time you pack this all-American sandwich for lunch, you're helping the environment. You don't have to change your whole diet to change the world. Just start with lunch.

How to Help the Environment at Lunch

A PB&J will slow global warming.

Next time you have one you'll reduce your carbon footprint by saving the equivalent of 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over an average animal-based lunch like a hamburger, a tuna sandwich, grilled cheese, or chicken nuggets.

That's about forty percent of what you'd save driving around for the day in a hybrid instead of a standard sedan.

If you have a PB&J instead of a ham sandwich or a hamburger, you save the equivalent almost 3.5 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.

A PB&J will also save water.

That's about 280 gallons of water over the hamburger. To put this in perspective, three PB&Js a month instead of hamburgers will save about as much water as switching to a low-flow showerhead.

A PB&J will save land.

Have a PB&J and save 12 to 50 square feet of land from deforestation, over-grazing, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution.

--
"…Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Letter from the Birmingham Jail

2007-10-09T17:00:00.000-06:00

Memoir Goes Behind Iran's Prison Gates

2007-07-27T07:35:00.000-06:00

By Juhie Bhatia - WeNews correspondent

(WOMENSENEWS)--On the evening of Jan. 15, 1982, Marina Nemat was arrested in Tehran, the capital of Iran. She was sent to Evin prison, notorious for its political prisoners' wing, and sentenced to death for political crimes. Nemat was 16 years old.

It was the early days of Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Revolution. Nemat didn't consider herself to be an activist, but she protested when her calculus teacher taught a lesson on Islam instead of math. Her teacher said, "If you don't like what I'm teaching, you can leave." So Nemat did, and other students followed.

As a result, Nemat was rounded up and sent to Evin. She escaped execution at the very last minute, though, and was released from prison just over two years later. But Nemat kept secret the story of how she was saved and what happened in Evin. Even her parents and husband were in the dark.

Now, more than 20 years after being freed, Nemat is finally sharing what happened in Evin in her memoir "Prisoner of Tehran." The rights to her book have been sold in 21 countries, providing a rare glimpse at the life of a political prisoner in Iran.

"My book isn't political, but it's ended up being portrayed as political," said Nemat. "It's about what happened to me as a young, clueless Christian girl who was thrown into a strange situation and happened to live to tell the tale."

Marriage Behind Bars

When Nemat arrived at Evin in 1982 she was interrogated by two guards. One of them, Ali, fell in love with her. Just as Nemat was about to be executed Ali removed her from the firing squad. He got her death sentence reduced to life imprisonment. In exchange, though, he asked her to marry him, which required her to convert to Islam. Nemat spent the next two years as a prisoner in Evin and as her interrogator's wife.

What's most poignant about the book, said Lee Gowan, one of Nemat's writing instructors, is the way she tells the story of how Ali made her marry him, and essentially raped her, without making him into a stock villain. "Objective writers need to understand the human heart and she does," he added.

Nemat said that Ali, like her, was a good person who had been imprisoned and tortured, but he chose to focus his subsequent hatred and anger on those who were against his religion or beliefs. "We're all in danger of becoming fundamentalists, whether we're Christian, Muslim, et cetera, when we allow ourselves to become blinded by basic emotions," she said.

Nemat's relationship with Ali ended abruptly when he was gunned down by rival revolutionaries. When she was released from Evin in 1984 she never talked about her marriage, or what happened to her or the other women she lived with in Evin. Some of these women, unlike Nemat, didn't escape execution; each had her own story.

"There was a wall of silence after I got out. There was an absolute fear that dominated us. The past is the past, we didn't dare mention it, we just move on," said Nemat.

Writing From Memories

Nemat married her teenage sweetheart and moved to Toronto in 1991 when she was 26. She worked part time as a waitress and was a housewife, raising her two sons. She wanted to forget Iran and put all her effort into being Canadian, she said. But her mother's death in 2000 triggered something. She wondered if she should have told her mother about what happened in Evin. Once Nemat started to remember, the memories flooded.

In 2002 Nemat went to an office supply store, bought some notebooks and started writing it all down. At first she wrote for herself, but as time went on she decided she wanted to reach more people. She finally revealed the details of her time at Evin to her husband of 17 years, and then started taking writing classes.

"She was the most determined student I'd come across," said Gowan, program head of creative writing at the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto in Canada. "She wanted to tell her story. Beyond anything personal to her, though, she wanted to tell the story of the other women in that prison, to give them a voice."

Nemat wrote her story in English, though it's not her first or second language, and completed the book in four years. Her memoir was published in Canada in April and in the United States in May. Since then she has spoken at many different high schools and universities across Canada and has sold the television film rights to her memoir.

Reminded of Prison

Nemat had just written the third draft of her memoir when Iranian Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was arrested for taking photographs in front of Evin. Almost three weeks later, in July 2003, she died in Iranian custody.

In 2005 an Iranian doctor who had examined Kazemi's body revealed that he found evidence of torture, including rape, broken fingers, missing fingernails, flogging on the legs and a skull fracture.

"When she died I felt guilty because I was a witness who never testified," said Nemat. "But her death, as sad as it was, shone some light on political prisoners in Iran. All I can do is tell my own story, but by doing so hopefully also shed some light. Maybe then the world will be more willing to listen to other stories. Maybe a collection of these stories will eventually change things and the way people think."

Michelle Shephard, Nemat's friend and a reporter for the Toronto Star said Nemat's book is important now, even though it recounts events from the past. "Iran is still a closed country to report on and her book is a little window, even though it was 20 years ago. It's hard with Iran and other closed societies because it's difficult for people to be brave enough to tell their story, since they assume risks by doing so," Shepard said. "Hers is an important voice. She's a mother of two who has lived through this and come forward. What she's saying carries a lot of weight."

Now that the book is complete, Nemat is ready to leave it behind. She is working on and off on a novel. She still lives in Toronto and has not been back to Iran.

"Iran has changed, but it's not become better. People have learned to deal with the dictatorship and how to stay under the radar," Nemat said. "Even Evin is the same, but the number of prisoners is lower since people aren't getting into trouble as much. But if they get into trouble the evidence suggests people are as badly treated as back then."

Juhie Bhatia is a writer in New York City.

Women's eNews welcomes your comments. E-mail us at - editors@womensenews.org .

For more information:

Zahra Kazemi: - http://www.zibakazemi.org/

"Ardalan Tells Story of U.S.-Iranian Tensions": - http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3016

"Iranian American Women Caught Between Homelands": - http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2624/

Gender and Finance

2007-07-01T10:09:00.000-06:00

The United States of America (USA) is one of the few countries not to have ratified the

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). At the subnational level, several states, counties and cities have passed resolutions urging

ratification. San Francisco has gone further by enacting its own ordinance incorporating

CEDAW principles. The city’s Commission on the Status of Women was given responsibility for implementation, with oversight from an eleven-member CEDAW task force which included elected officials, government employees, organised labour and community advocates.

The first step in implementing the new ordinance was to develop a set of guidelines for a

gender analysis that would assist in examining two departments for discrimination in

32 respect of employment practices, budget allocation and provision of direct and indirect

services (see http://www.ci.sf.uf/cosw/cedaw/guidelines.htm). The Department of Public Works was chosen because of its size, because traditionally it provides few jobs for women, and because services are provided indirectly rather than to individuals. The Juvenile Probation Department was the second choice, as it provides services to an increasing number of women who are also very diverse. The Commission worked with the international consulting group Strategic Analysis for Gender Equity in developing the gender analysis guidelines. It completed its first report during 2000. It is currently looking at four more city departments and also at City-wide practices, such as work-life policies and practices.

In a separate initiative, Jane Midgley has done work on women's budgets in the US and is

currently writing The Women's Guide to the US Budget.

ANGLICAN WOMEN “GO PUBLIC”

2007-05-23T10:10:00.000-06:00

CLAIMING AND DEVELOPING A PUBLIC VOICE

ANGLICAN WOMEN “GO PUBLIC”

May 2007, The Rev. Margaret Rose

For the past four years our office, in partnership with the Anglican Observer’s Office has brought women from around the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion to participate at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Through a movement called AWE, Anglican Women’s Empowerment, the women—and this year there were fifty—participated in forums at the UN, met with government officials and led strategic regional caucuses. Their voice, along with others, claimed that the voice of faith is vital as we seek to make the world a better place to live, not only through churches but also through so called secular means, as in governments, non profit institutions and civil society. Often in national dress, the international women carried their AWE tote bags, which served as a name tag and gave visible proof that the Anglican delegation was the largest Non Governmental Organization present at the UN meeting.

As important as their work at the UN however, was the work the women did together as leaders in their churches, dioceses and communities gathered from around the Anglican Communion.

None is unaware of the controversies facing us as a church and as a communion. Yet in our years together we have been clear that our work is about poverty, AIDs and the issues of survival which face so many around the globe. These take top priority. The women working at the UN, and among ourselves, saw that when our voices were joined in community—out loud and in public, we could indeed make a difference in the church and in the world. At the close of this year’s meeting, the women issued a unanimous statement, sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates of the Communion, which read in part:

“Given the global tensions so evident in our Church today, we do not accept that there is any one issue of difference or contention which can, or indeed would ever cause us to break our unity as represented by our common baptism. Neither would we ever consider severing the deep and abiding bonds of affection which characterize our relationships as Anglican women. This sisterhood of suffering is at the heart of our theology and our commitment to transforming the world through peace with justice. Rebuilding and reconciling the world is central to our faith.”

But it is not just those women who come to the UN, but all of us, who have the gifts and talents to claim what I call a PUBLIC voice in the church and in the world. Our call is to use that PUBLIC voice for the Gospel mandate of reconciliation in a world riven by controversy and polarization, to say nothing of disease and violence and hunger. Let me explain myself with a story:

One Sunday some weeks ago, when I should definitely have been at church, I was at the gym running on the treadmill. It was a treadmill where you put the ear phones in and watch the television in front of you. I chose to watch Meet the Press. The subject of the day was the recent vote in Congress about military appropriations for Iraq. Around the circle were the moderator and various congress men—from both sides of the aisle. As I listened and watched, (realize of course that I am huffing and puffing two inches in front of them on the treadmill) I suddenly had this image of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum from Annie Get your Gun. “I can do anything you can do better. I can do anything better than you. No you can’t . Yes I can. No you can’t . Yes, I can, yes, I can.” It was not long before it became clear that the conversation was not about how to make the situation better but about who was going to get his way—a familiar power struggle! Clearly these men have, via the media and many other means, a public voice. A loud voice. A political voice. And they are making decisions which will affect not only their communities and our country but the world!

Aware that there were no women or people of color in this particular conversation, I wondered how that might have made a difference. Upon reflection, I was drawn to the work we are doing among women at the Office of Women’s Ministries and to my conviction or rather to my evangelistic message and witness, that when there is gender equality, when women and men together are sitting at the decision making tables, be it in church, in communities or in Congress, then the conversation is richer and more balanced. And there is the distant hope that the outcome will be one which truly seeks the common good. But as long as there is no balance, then the leadership of church and civil society and governments will list toward the traditional solutions of power and control rather than wisdom and relationship.

This is not a new idea of course. But I believe it is the idea for now, a wave that we as women of faith are called to catch, indeed impelled by the Gospel of Jesus Christ to do so. I believe that Now is the time for women to claim our own public voice in every area of social and political life. It is the time for women to come out of the closet, to do and be in public what we have been doing in private for eons.

What do I mean exactly? And how will this make a difference? Do I want women to appear on Meet the Press? Do I want to dredge up the Equal Rights Amendment and argue about that? Not exactly. Let us look at a little “Church History”. Remember that in the early church, before we had the big buildings and all the worry about heating bills and wardens, there were essentially house churches, often led by women.

In 1 Corinthians 16:10 Paul writes, “Warm greetings to Priscilla and Aquilla and the church that meets at their house.” In Colossians 4 we read “Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.” And in Romans 16, though the greeting is to Gaius in whose house the church meets, I suspect there was a Mrs. Gaius in there too. The roles of women were very clear. They were the presiders at the meal. They prepared and served the food and drink. When those small gatherings shared bread and wine “in memory of Jesus”, the roles did not change. The women were in charge of the private sphere and the meal, even when it included what we today would call the Eucharist.

With Constantine, however, in the 4^th century, for better and for worse, the Church itself went Public and became the established religion of the Roman Empire. Christianity was no longer a private affair. Gathering as Christian community was legal, and certainly a good thing for those who were persecuted. But as it went Public, men continued to play the same roles they always had, becoming the public purveyors of religious ritual. And the women, still presiding at the home table, no longer had a role at this now public table. Culturally we did not rock the boat.

Some did of course, and always had. There is precedent for women speaking out and getting called uppity even in biblical times. Remember Paul’s insistence that women keep silent in church? No one would make such a rule if it weren’t in danger of being breached. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect some of the women who had been in charge of churches as a more private affair—were speaking out in public. So even in the early days before Constantine, there was a move afoot to silence the uppity women even from the house churches.

Nevertheless for two thousand years most of us have been pretty quiet. There have been of course notable exceptions. There are the ancient ones, Blandina, later Joan of Arc and more you could name. In the 19^th and 20^th centuries, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Amelia Bloomer, Susan B Anthony ( all of whom are commemorated in our Prayer Book as Saints) Others more recent would include Bella Abzug, Margaret Chase Smith, and Jeannette Rankin . You could name your own of course.

In recent years the movement of women into public life and decision making has been astounding. And today, there is a woman who is Speaker of the House, another who is seen as a viable Presidential candidate, and women heads of state elected in their own right in Germany, Liberia, Chile to name just three. Another who was, at least for a while, the leading candidate in France. And much to my own faithless surprise and delight, a woman who is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

A good start I would say---but what about us? What about those of us whose ambitions are not necessarily to be quite so public. What about us who are seeking to be disciples of Jesus in our own churches and communities? I believe there is a public vocation for each of us as well, a call to speak and act in the world in a way that demands in public what women have always demanded in private for the good of their families and communities. We must develop and claim - a public voice that is different from the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum of Meet the Press, one which reflects what some have called women’s moral authority, values which the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington has stated as Women’s Public Vision.

I am on an advisory group for this organization--- which includes women from religious groups—Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and so called secular groups. We have written a values statement which we hope to use in public policy work which offers a public moral vision we believe should under gird all our work in church and society. It simply includes basic values and insists that these should inform our public policy and our ways of working. It insists on a conversation whose premise is the common good as the primary value before even individual rights. Community, balance, equality, and family are its basic tenets. Such conversation should not be too difficult, partially because women have often had different ways of talking to each other, ways of being together which have been different from the ways of men.

Let me be clear, however, I am not suggesting that women should now be “in charge”. It is rather that women’s voices in public have been a missing piece. Neither am I appealing to some notion of women’s essential nature as nurturers or even that women’s voices are guaranteed good and effective. But care giving is what we have been schooled to do and for thousands of years women’s work has been the home--care and nurture of children and families and keeping folks – often even warring family members - together at the dinner table.

It is like my Aunt Roberta when the cousins would gather in my hometown of Carrollton, Georgia—cousins who included what my part of the family called “Yankees” who all gathered for a week or so in the summer. Meals were the time for discussion—and loud disagreements. Aunt Roberta, whose spirit was not particularly conciliatory or irenic, would take her weapon of choice, the fly swatter and wave it around the table and say: “Okay everyone, we are going to have a nice quiet meal.” It wasn’t quiet, but it was nice and we all stayed together continuing to state our particular viewpoints. Women have always been charged as peacemakers in families and communities.

Women whose lives have been shaped by the care and nurture of children have claimed relationship as the priority for their lives and only secondarily have they insisted on autonomy, increasing authority or my way or the highway. Any of you who has read psychologist Carol Gilligan know of her work in this area. Segolene Royal, a candidate for President of France knew this well. It didn’t get her the election but here is what Patrick Jarreau of Le Monde said about her as quoted in a recent New Yorker (April 23, 2007) article: “You have to realize that she has strong convictions, it’s just that they aren’t about the usual political subjects. She talks about family, the relations between generations. She worries about the media, about pornography and violence. Her style is very different from Sarko’s. She has the ability to listen, to focus on the daily lives of people—the people who feel that “politics’, for all its details, never really took them into account before. Royal is a feminist and French politics has been a male preserve for so long that “daily life” and “family” had all but disappeared from the discourse until she came along. Her manifesto and web site title is: desirsdavinir.org or “wishes for the future.”

The priority of relationship—women’s ways of knowing and speaking--- offers us a language which is different from Meet the Press. It offers us the possibility of a word –indeed a language --which does not diminish the other but makes connections. It is a language which science fiction writer Ursula Leguin, who has been working in word and language for a long time, describes in a graduation address to Bryn Mawr College in 1986. Here is what she says: Our first language is what she calls the Mother tongue. Whether spoken by men or women, it is the language of early caring and nurture: Eat your vegetables; I love you precious one; Don’t forget your umbrella; DON’T HIT YOUR BROTHER. The Father tongue is the one we all learned when we went to school and especially college. It is the language of objectivity, the one that allows us to observe from the outside, see the big picture and analyze what is going on. It is the language of science. Most of us learned that well too.

The language Leguin searches for, desires us all to learn, brings both together. She calls it the native tongue, one that lies deep within our cosmic and organic memory but which most of us have forgotten. It is the language that lets us know that not hitting your brother suggests that not hitting another country could have a relationship to each other. Or that the combination of eating your vegetables and the science of gardening and climate change are connected. It is the Word made Flesh—incarnational language—every day living in the world language - that connects the dinner table to alleviating the causes of hunger around the world. Most of all it breaks the boundaries between public and private as it lives out the adage that the personal is political. It claims, like Paul in the Book of Acts at Pentecost that diversity is a requirement for true community; that conformity is not an ingredient of unity and we do not have to all agree to stay together. This is the voice that women can offer to the church and to the world. The intimate language of love and caring becomes the public language of caring for the world.

The women of AWE who came to the UN are a vivid example. One delegate was Amelia Ward, of Liberia—where young boys were abducted as child soldiers to take the place of too many men killed in civil warfare. Tired of her friends’ children being kidnapped for battle, Amelia and other women formed the Mano River Peace Initiative. They gathered the women and went out into the bush to find the boys of 8 and 10 or 12. Basically they said to them as only a mother can, “You don’t belong here. Go home to dinner and to your family.” And amazingly they did. Today there is a fragile peace in Liberia and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a President with a different voice.

This year the theme of the UN Commission on the Status of Women meeting was “The Elimination of Discrimination and Violence against the Girl Child”. In addition to the women who came we also hosted 11 girls who engaged in work at the UN and with each other. The DVD clip at http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/welcome/?article&id=860 is part of an event we sponsored at Trinity Church Wall Street , with panelists and the girls engaging each other on the question of hopes and dreams for girls. Notice in particular the conversation between Chantelle, an Australian indigenous girl, and the Presiding Bishop.

These young Anglican girls are learning to have a public voice---a different voice, not one devoid of feeling and intimacy—but not sentimental either. A change the world voice. And the dialogue between Chantelle and the Presiding Bishop is one of both deep intimacy and pastoral care alongside boundless public importance It asks the hard questions: Where were you –where was the church when the abuse was happening? How can the church respond to families like mine? And then the Presiding Bishop’s Response as she looked her in the eye, “The church can only stand in solidarity with you.”

What does it mean for us, for the church to stand in solidarity? What does it mean for us who claim to be disciples of Christ who hear this word and can speak and act? Solidarity is a political word—a call to action. The personal IS the political. The public and private boundaries here are broken, yet still respect the dignity of every human being.

Katharine and Chantelle’s moment is a moment of native language---neither the public objective language of the father tongue nor the private intimate language of the mother tongue but the one we seek to speak in the church will also be the language which makes a difference in our world if we have the courage to act on it. Speaking the native language will move us beyond infighting, polarization and the power struggles which insist that only one way is right.

Women have this gift to offer the church and the world at this moment. It is, I believe, the disciple’s vocation of the 21^st century. We have been quiet too long. Now is the time for us to join together –women and men-- not just for service projects as valuable as they are, but for remaking the dialogue, remaking the discourse to claim the conversation that moves us as disciples of Christ to action---not just far away but in our own cities. How can the church be in solidarity with girls who are abused? What are the ways we seek to work together for the common good? What do we do which leads to the full flourishing of the public good? One tool from the Office for Women’s Ministries is Beijing Circles. This action reflection model gathers women for bible study, education, reflection and action on the issues of the Beijing Platform for Action connecting local issues with the global context.

So much of this work is already happening around the church. Many of us have been at it a long time and like the widow who kept pestering Jesus, we have persisted. When we look at the future and the road ahead seems too long or too rocky or steep, I call on all of you and on those in heaven who never gave up—even when they did not see the fruits of their labors. They encourage us to carry on, to hang on to our faith, to the biblical witness of our ancestors and a whole host of uppity women saints who are praying for us and cheering in heaven!!

For more info about Beijing Circles go to http://www.episcopalchurch.org/41685_73656_ENG_HTM.htm?menupage=73689

For more on Women’s Public Vision go to http://www.iwpr.org/Politics_Religion_PublicVision/index.htm

Thought for the day

2007-05-17T08:20:00.000-06:00

Growth in the ranks of India's sex workers in general has been five times that of the annual population growth rate of around 5 percent, according to the study.

"Preteens in Indian Caste Forced Into Prostitution": - http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/893/

CEDAW

2007-05-10T19:05:00.000-06:00

The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) acknowledges the importance of protections for and empowering of women. It is the only international human rights treaty that comprehensively addresses the fundamental rights of women and girls in political, legal, economic, cultural, social, and family life. In many of the 185 countries that have ratified CEDAW, the treaty has become a crucial tool for addressing the lives and well-being of women and girls.

Shockingly, the United States is NOT one of the 185 countries that have signed the treaty. Ratification would require a two/thirds vote (67) of the U.S. Senate and the President’s signature. In order to ratify CEDAW, we need your help to raise awareness of this issue, both in the Senate and with the President, and in our churches and local communities. Nations that ratify CEDAW commit to overcoming barriers to discrimination against women in the areas of legal rights, education, employment, health care, political life and finance. It sets out “best practices” for ensuring basic human rights for women without imposing any laws on governments.

Eric Volz case TONIGHT!!!

2007-04-22T14:53:00.001-06:00

*Dateline NBC* will air their story about Eric Volz story on THIS SUNDAY
night, April 22.
The show airs 8pm - 9pm (in all time zones), but please watch NBC for more
information, double-check your local schedule or go to
http://www.nbc.com/for current listings.

*CNN Anderson Cooper 360* is scheduled to air their Eric Volz story on THIS
MONDAY night, April 23.
The show airs at 10pm ET / 9pm CT / 8pm MT / 7pm PT, but please watch for
more information, double-check your local schedule or go to
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/ for current listings.

Thanks,
Alyssa

--
Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Day 3 Strategy: Supporting Eric

2007-04-21T12:41:00.001-06:00

Today is a 2-part strategy in the FREE ERIC V. Avalanche.

First, donate to Eric's legal defense.

Preparing for the appeals process has been incredibly costly. The financial
demands have exhausted the resources of Eric's friends and family. As a
result, the FREE ERIC V. team has asked for donations from those who have
heard about the case and share the same passion for justice and for Eric's
freedom. Please give what you can by going to
http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/donate.htm

Second, for those not able to make a monetary donation, we urge you to write
a support letter to Eric. These support letters have become a life force
for him during this journey.

Eric said of those who have reached out to him, "A friend asked in a letter,
'Where are you pulling your strength from?' The answer is — all of you are
my strength. The prayers, the campaigns, the letters, the movement — without
you I would be lost."

If you are unable to give a donation, please take the time to write Eric by
linking here: http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/write.htm

As we move into each day approaching the appeal — TEAM FREE ERIC V. will not
be stopped!

~~~~~~

For those interested in the latest letter from Eric, please continue
reading. These are his words below:
Tuesday
4/17/07

Today is my day to go out in to the yard. It's called "el patio sol" here.
The yard is a dirt square a little bigger than a basketball court. They give
me two hours alone so I usually jog the perimeter for an hour and stretch
and do pull-ups on the fence for the other hour. (I calculated this morning
that since my arrest in Nov. 2006, I've been outside for more than 15
minutes only 12 times, with the maximum being 3 hours. Needless to say, I
ain't got no suntan going on!)

Today is special though cause I got permission to go to the "iron pile"
(gym) and work out for an hour. After the yard, this will be a nice
variation to my normal, weightless, workout in the gallery. Anyways, I have
about 25 minutes to write this letter so here goes...

I would like to start by sharing a couple of excerpts from letters I have
received in the last month:

"ERIC, your suffering is producing good fruit in my life. God is using your
story to sober me, to wake me, to call me to action, to shake me up. He is
taking a blade to the roots of sin in my life; sloth, greed, and
complacency. He just keeps whispering your name to me."
(A letter from a stranger)

"Hang in there brother. The boys of H BLOCK got your back."
(Prisoner sentenced to life in a jail in the U.S.)

"Your story will change lives: your story already has changed lives. It is
just the beginning and there is a world waiting to hear it." (Young woman
from California)

"I read about what happened to you and for some reason it has really
affected me."
(Letter from Portugal)

"Right now your life is the heartbeat for about a million others!"
(Letter from Mexico)

"I have never protested anything publicly and I have no interest in trying
for political office to improve society. But since I've been reading blogs,
sending mails, and seeing people respond to your situation, I've felt this
wonderful sense of POSSIBILITY. People are actually getting involved and it
has rejuvenated my hope democracy."
(Computer consultant, U.S.A)

"You are teaching a lot of people many different things while going through
this, however hard it may be."
(Unknown)

"We are fighting for you!"
(9 year old)

I, like thousands of others, would like you to know that I am praying for
you and your family. You are obviously a very special child of the universe;
otherwise, the adversary would not have worked so hard against you, it must
be hard to believe that now, but it is true."
(Support letter through the website)

"I just learned about you on You Tube. This video has really captured me and
I'm going to write my Congressman and a friend who works at the State Dept."
(University of CA, San Diego alumni)

These are just a few excerpts from a small batch of letters. The letters
touch on people's emotions, social views, how they found out, their outrage,
ways they have been reflecting on themselves, etc. (there have been some
pretty insane hate mails as well, but I will have to get into that some
other time.).

So that people can visualize: I read the letters in my cell. They are
printed on paper and are brought to me about once every 2-3 weeks. I do
receive them all. I have to be somewhat secretive with the letters so the
others prisoners don't get jealous so I stash them under my mattress. I
encourage people to keep writing even if it is just a couple lines, I get to
see who is writing and subsequently, it allows me to grasp the size of the
awareness network.

Most important regarding the support I want to say the following: a man can
live weeks without food, days without water, but can't go minutes without
HOPE.

The letters of support reporting the many ways in which people are fighting
for me, give me tremendous hope. It shows me extent of the fellowship that
is sharing in my suffering and this takes much of the burden off my
shoulders. It makes the time I'm doing less painful and frees my spirit. I
have no idea why I have been appointed to be the lightning rod for all of
this, but you can imagine how it makes me feel to read from in these walls
that "my suffering is producing good fruit" in people's lives around the
world. It overwhelms me with deep strength and peace.

At times the is despair so overwhelming there are no words, there is pain so
deep it does not have a name, and the fear is so powerful we cannot paint
his face. Yet, as a result of those who love and support me I see beauty
above it all.

I am holding firm, for I know that I'm not meant to stay here and a great
adventure lies ahead. I'm writing. I have documented as much as possible. I
have filled many journals and look forward to the day when I can share the
details.

What a story it is! A story of injustice, of danger, of near death
experience, of courage, of moral strength, of hate, corruption, romance,
guns, politics, media, of death, of collective energy, of spiritual
pilgrimage, of love, of faith, and of the creator filling the hearts of
ordinary people with the energy, wisdom, and might to do extraordinary
things that without his help would be completely out of our mortal grasp.
Perhaps most intense for me is that its not over yet…

In closing I would like to ask that people send positive thoughts and
prayers to DORIS, her family, my family, the defense team in Nicaragua,
safety in prison, and lastly the gate keeper who will be overseeing my
appeal.

With much love,
ERIC V.

Eric Volz case in Nicaragua

2007-04-19T07:47:00.000-06:00

I am going to be covering a very urgent case of a young man, Eric Volz, unjustly accused of murder in Nacaragua. He happens to be the son of an aquaintance of mine. The appeal is going to court this week and the urgency of contacting the media, etc. is crucial. There is international attention on this case right now, and the media could play a huge role if it will report the happenings honestly and consistently. Here's how you can read mor about the case:

www.friendsofericvolz.com or
www.myspace.com/freeericvolzas

More to follow.

Briefly It Enters, and Briefly Speaks

2007-04-17T10:49:00.000-06:00

Quiet Hours. © Graywolf Press. Reprinted with permission.

Briefly It Enters, and Briefly Speaks

I am the blossom pressed in a book,
found again after two hundred years... .

I am the maker, the lover, and the keeper... .

When the young girl who starves
sits down to a table
she will sit beside me... .

I am food on the prisoner's plate... .

I am water rushing to the wellhead,
filling the pitcher until it spills... .

I am the patient gardener
of the dry and weedy garden... .

I am the stone step,
the latch, and the working hinge... .

I am the heart contracted by joy... .
the longest hair, white
before the rest... .
I am there in the basket of fruit
presented to the widow... .

I am the musk rose opening
unattended, the fern on the boggy summit... .

I am the one whose love
overcomes you, already with you
when you think to call my name... .

How They Voted on UNCSW

2007-04-10T09:38:00.001-06:00

Economic and Social Council
WOM/1622
Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York
Commission on the Status of Women
Fifty-first Session
13th Meeting* (PM)

AS SESSION ENDS, COMMISSION ON STATUS OF WOMEN APPROVES TEXTS ON PALESTINIAN

WOMEN, PROTECTION FROM HIV/AIDS, FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION, FORCED MARRIAGE

Members Adopt Provisional Agenda; Elect Chair, Other Officials of Bureau

Background

The Commission on the Status of Women met this afternoon to take action on several draft resolutions and adopt its agreed conclusions.

/...

Action on Draft Resolutions

/...

The Chairperson then turned the Commission's attention to the draft resolution on the situation of and assistance to Palestinian women (document E/CN.6/2007/L.2), saying it also contained no budget implications.

The representative of Pakistan made oral amendments to the text, after which the Chairperson said a recorded vote had been requested.

Asked by the representative of Pakistan who had asked for the vote, the Chairperson said the United States delegate had requested it.

The representative of Israel, making a general statement, said that, as in previous years, the Commission had before it a politically motivated text. Since it did not address the Palestinians' internal human rights abuses and continued terror -- which caused suffering to both Palestinian and Israeli women -- the draft left much to be desired.

Human Rights Watch had reported abuse of women, such as honour killings, she said, adding that other instances of human rights abuses had been reported to the Commission by the Secretary-General and others. The deliberate exclusion of those instances distorted the draft resolution. Indeed, it was in the interest of all parties to improve Palestinian women's quality of life, but the current Palestinian leadership had not fulfilled it obligations, as stipulated by the Quartet. If Hamas did not embrace its responsibility to end terror, women on both sides would continue to suffer. The draft resolution was another reminder of the "stark contrast between reality and rhetoric on First Avenue".

The Commission then approved the text by a recorded vote of 40 in favour to 2 against ( Canada, United States), with no abstentions. (See Annex.)

The representative of the United States, speaking in explanation of vote, said her country remained deeply concerned about the impact of the current crisis on Palestinian women and the entire Palestinian population. The United States was the largest bilateral donor to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and contributed significant amounts to other programmes of the Organization, besides bilateral assistance to needy Palestinians. However, it grieved for innocent Israelis, including Israeli women, who had suffered and died due to Palestinian terror attacks -- a reality that many did not recognize. The international focus should be on helping both parties to maintain progress. One-sided resolutions undermined the ability of the United Nations to play a constructive role in furthering peace, which would improve the lot of Palestinian women more than anything else.

The representative of Germany, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said the text was of a primarily humanitarian nature. The European Union remained the largest contributor of assistance to the Palestinian people and had voted in favour of the text. Deeply concerned about the impact of the conflict on all women in the region, including both Palestinian and Israeli women, the European Union underscored the need for an approach that took into consideration the impact of the conflict on all sides. The role of women in the peace process was worthy of further investment, and the European Union invited the delegation of the Palestinian Permanent Observer Mission to engage in a dialogue on how best to address the issue at the United Nations. The European Union's vote today was without prejudice to future positions it might take in the Commission and other fora.

The representative of Canada said his country was committed to alleviating poverty and addressing socio-economic inequities throughout the world, including those affecting Palestinian women. However, Canada was concerned about operative paragraph 4 of the text, which called on Israel to facilitate the return of refugees and displaced Palestinian women and children to their homes. It seemed to prejudge negotiations on key issues arising from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which could only be addressed through a settlement on final status issues.

The observer for Palestine thanked those who had voted in favour of the draft resolution, especially the "Group of 77" developing countries and China. The text sent a strong message of solidarity with the women of Palestine. Though some said it was one-sided, it was not the text, but rather the situation as a whole, that was unbalanced. The occupying Power had continued to carry out illegal measures with complete impunity for 40 years, causing misery to Palestinians, whom it held hostage. The statement by its representative seemed to have distorted the issue at hand. Israel should take care to examine its own domestic situation by looking at abuses occurring at the highest levels of its own Government. The only way to guarantee the rights of Palestinian women was for Israel to end its occupation.

/...

The representative of Zambia requested the floor regarding the draft resolution on Palestinian women, saying she would have voted in favour of the text had her delegation been in the room.

The representative of Lesotho said she also would have voted in favour had she been present.

/...

ANNEX

Vote on Palestinian Women

The draft resolution on the situation of and assistance to Palestinian women (document E/CN.6/2007/L.2) was approved by a recorded vote of 40 in favour to 2 against, as follows:

In favour: Algeria, Armenia, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Congo, Croatia, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Suriname, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania.

Against: Canada, United States.

Absent: Cameroon, Lesotho, Zambia.

* *** *

__________

* The 12th Meeting was closed.

For information media • not an official record

Leaving

2007-04-06T10:00:00.000-06:00

The Reverend James V. Stockton is Rector of The Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Austin (Diocese of Texas). He posted these reflections on the House of Bishops/Deputies listserv, and has given permission for us to publish his thoughts on The Episcopal Majority site.

This piece comes to us from the Reverend Thomas Woodward along with this note:

I find Jim Stockton's article both comforting and challenging -- and believe it will be so for the whole of The Episcopal Church. We are publishing it at The Episcopal Majority both for its intrinsic value and for what it evokes and provokes. We hope you will engage us and one another with your comments.

Leaving
(The Rev. James V. Stockton)

Bishop Cox is 'leaving' for the Southern Cone; Bishop Herzog is leaving for Roman catholicism; the Church in England is leaving Rome to become the Church of England; and the Church of England in the American Colonies is leaving to form the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The difference between the latter two instances and the two former is that the first two are current and the latter are now history. But they all serve to demonstrate that division per se is not an evil in and of itself. To suppose that the devil is enjoying all this is to presume that the devil is paying attention to any of this and doesn't have more important things to do. I think it's time for a reality check. Division doesn't equal decay. Division is the natural and God-given process that enables growth. So I pray we can all relax the lamentations a bit and bring our reactions into a healthier perspective. Let's make sure not to confuse religion with denomination, faith with Church. Our religion is Christianity, our faith is Christian. Our denomination is the Episcopal Church, and our Church is a part of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic ideal. When people depart the Episcopal Church, they aren't, unless specifically stipulated, departing Christ or Christianity.

So, where people choose to follow their consciences rather than compromise them, I see God at work in this, not the devil. Where there are available a multiplicity of branches extending from the one tree of the Christian faith, I see God at work in this, not the devil. Where the entirety of Christianity is indeed almost able to be all things in order to reach all people, I see God at work in this, not the devil.

Conversely, where I see a single branch trying to function as the whole tree, I see human pride at work in this. Where I see people unable or unwilling to celebrate one another's progress in relationship with God because that progress draws them out of conformity with one another, I see human pride at work in this. When I see people unable or unwilling to renew and adapt their relationships with one another as they follow their respective paths, I see human pride at work in this.

What is it, after all, that is 'dividing' people? People aren't leaving Christ Jesus; they aren't leaving the Communion of Saints. They are leaving nothing greater than the former structures of relationship; that's all. It is differences around ecclesiology that are causing some people to divide from one another. And this is not automatically a bad or evil thing. Some people simply cannot or will not abide a Church that admits and allows a plurality of theological views on matters beyond the Creeds. Matters of hermeneutics, authority and power, social conformity, all come under the umbrella of definitions of 'Church;' and these are the matters around which some are deciding to leave.

Bp Cox, former Bp Herzog, Martyn Minns, David Anderson, and others are following their hearts and minds to Christian relationships that do not as deeply include some of the rest of us as did our former official relationships. Our own convictions are moving us to remain. Our staying put and their departures are outward and visible signs of an inward and invisible reality. If the adjustments in our relationships help keep us all more honest, then so much the better for all of us. And we will do well then to remember that ecumenism is a fine old tradition of our Church. Wherever there are good, decent, faithful people upon whom we wish to call for the service of our own progress in faith, then thanks be to God, there are simple honorable ways for us to invite one another to share our gifts.

I would encourage us to rejoice that people who choose not to remain under the particular banner of the Episcopal Church are in fact free to exercise their consciences, and that they have available to them fellowships of Christian faith that are better suited to them to which they can go. The real tragedy would be for people to compromise their deeply held convictions in order simply to stay superficially and under duress. What is actually lamentable in some of this is the insistence by some that those from whom they are departing are no longer real and genuine Christians. This sort of Christian-on-Christian sin truly is indeed lamentable. For, while you and I may disagree about the relative gravity of concerns that move people to leave, there is no inherent tragedy in the departure itself. If people are following their consciences, being the best Christian they know how to be, then thanks be to God, and let's stay in touch. All that's happening is some people are "changing their addresses"; they're not dying, for goodness sake. If we're really important to one another, then we'll allow all of this to function only as distinction, not as division. We won't allow it to come between us, but only to draw us closer in the work and faith we share.

Mortality in Afghanistan

2007-04-03T12:01:00.000-06:00

Mojadidi Opens Her Lens to Afghan Motherland

By Sharon Johnson - WeNews correspondent

(WOMENSENEWS)--Sedika Mojadidi, an Afghan American filmmaker, watched in horror as an expectant mother gasped for breath in the maternity ward of Rabia Balkhi Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, in August 2003.

The 15-year-old woman and her husband had traveled on horseback for three days because they wanted their first child to be born in the largest women's hospital in the war-torn country. But preeclampsia--dangerously high blood pressure during pregnancy--and the lack of prenatal care in their mountain village had taken their toll: mother and infant died despite the heroic efforts of the obstetrics team.

Despairing scenes like this are common in Afghanistan where 16 percent of women die while pregnant or during childbirth, one every 30 minutes. Afghanistan today has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world, behind only Sierra Leone, according to the United Nations. In some areas of Afghanistan, maternal rates are as high as 6,000 per 100,000 women.

Afghans' hopes were high that maternal health would improve in the country in October 2001 when the U.S.-led invasion toppled the hard-line Taliban regime. Hundreds of reporters poured into Afghanistan to describe the establishment of a new government and plans to build hospitals and schools. But by 2003, most journalists had departed for Iraq, when Mojadidi and her father returned to their native Kabul from Jacksonville, Fla., where the family had immigrated in 1973.

Dr. Qudrat Mojadidi, an obstetrician specializing in high-risk pregnancies, had been recruited by the U.S. government to help rehabilitate Rabia Balkhi Hospital, including a unit that was renamed as the Laura Bush Maternity Ward. Sedika Mojadidi had come along to make "Motherland Afghanistan," a behind-the-scenes documentary that looked at the crippled health care system and its impact on women.

Elizabeth H. Williams, acting director of the Asia Society's Asian Social Issues Program, said the film, coupled with data and other public health efforts, might spur changes in public policy and generate funding by highlighting a rare issue in today's media coverage of war and reconstruction.

"To do a feature-length film on maternal mortality is really important, because there are not a lot of people out there doing that," she said. "It's one of the key issues."

Concentrated on Systemic Neglect

Unlike other reporters who have focused on the continuing U.S. military presence and the hunt for terrorists in Afghanistan, Mojadidi concentrated on how the systematic neglect of basic services such as prenatal care is undermining U.S. efforts to win hearts and minds.

"I hope the film will give American audiences a more realistic view of Afghan women," said Mojadidi in an interview before a sold-out February screening at the Asia Society in New York. "For the past 25 years, Afghan women have either been ignored in news reports of the Russian occupation and the subsequent civil war, or portrayed in TV films as victims. However, the women in my documentaries don't consider themselves victims; they do everything possible to keep themselves and their children alive."

To film Afghan women living under the brutal Taliban for her first film, "Kabul, Kabul," in 1996, she hid a tiny camera under her veil and traveled in a hospital van to avoid being stopped by police.

For "Motherland Afghanistan," her second film, Mojadidi tapped her experience as a field producer and cameraperson on several medical shows on the Learning Channel. Coming up with a script was difficult because so many factors influence maternal mortality, she said.

High Death Rate for Women

Most Afghans are desperately poor; the United Nations Development Program estimates that 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line of $2 a day. Although the legal marriage age is 18, 57 percent of girls marry before 16. Few women deliver in a medical facility because there are only 1,100 clinics and 100 hospitals serving 30 million Afghans. As a result, half of all deaths among women of reproductive age are the result of pregnancy and childbirth.

"I decided that the best way to personalize the crisis was to make my father the central character because he has devoted his life to delivering babies and training doctors in Afghanistan," Mojadidi said. "In 2002, he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his 20 years of work with Afghan refugee women."

The Laura Bush Maternity Ward was not what the Mojadidis had expected.

"Although the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had touted the hospital as a state-of-the-art facility on its Web site and press releases, it was a disaster," she said. "Infection control was nonexistent; patients delivered on the same plastic sheets one after another. Patients had to buy medications for their surgeries from a pharmacy near the hospital because promised supplies never arrived."

U.S. officials discouraged her from filming the delivery rooms and interviewing the overworked staff.

Struggle to Improve Maternal Care

Her father, Dr. Mojadidi, realized that he couldn't do enough to improve health care at the hospital and resigned after several months. Two years later, an Afghan-led nongovernmental organization that manages hospitals, schools and shelters in Central Afghanistan persuaded him to come back to work at Shuhada Hospital, a rural facility that emphasizes prevention and education. Sedika spent two months there finishing "Motherland Afghanistan."

"Every day my father resisted being on camera but relented because he and the staffs of the hospitals agreed that showing him treating patients in such deplorable conditions was the best way to get the truth out about the maternal mortality crisis," said Mojadidi. "Making the film gave me new insights into the challenges he has faced in his profession and brought us closer. However, making a film together is not an experience that either of us wants to repeat; it is too stressful."

The film's final scenes are profiles in perseverance and hope. After delivering a premature baby, Dr. Mojadidi shows the staff how to treat the infant's respiratory problem. He also instructs the team in the latest methods of treating obstetric fistula and the resulting urinary incontinence following childbirth. As a result, they successfully complete a complicated surgery and, despite the odds, are able to cure a young mother who had been unable to leave her home for four years.

Since "Motherland Afghanistan" was completed, Dr. Mojadidi has trained the first five doctors in an obstetric-gynecological fellowship program for CURE International Hospital in Kabul.

Mojadidi is also working on a new film project that focuses on another common experience of Afghan women: arranged marriages.

"Many people in the independent film business have warned me that a film about a young Afghan woman who comes to the U.S. and meets her husband for the first time will never attract audiences because Americans are only interested in films about the war in Iraq these days," said Mojadidi. "But I'm going ahead because I think that everybody can identify with a resilient Afghan woman who creates a new life in America."

--Alison Bowen contributed to this story.

Sharon Johnson is a New York freelance writer.

Taking Action for Guatemalan Women!

2007-03-27T13:28:00.000-06:00

Dear Friends,

For 36 years, Guatemala suffered through an internal armed conflict in which at least 200,000 people were "disappeared" or killed. State-sponsored violence was widespread, entire villages were burned and razed, and rape was commonly used as a weapon of war against women. Numerous investigations have concluded that the vast majority of these human rights violations were conducted by members of the Guatemalan Army or intelligence services.

Today, a decade after the conflict's resolution, many of those responsible have escaped prosecution and now work with the police or private security forces. Perhaps it is no wonder that violence against women continues unabated, and that the perpetrators are virtually never brought to justice.

Human rights groups have documented a sharp increase in the rate of "femicides" or killings of women in Guatemala since the beginning of 2000. As of August 2006, 2,300 Guatemalan women had been murdered, and only 17 cases had been resolved, including both convictions and exonerations. In fact, so few convictions have been handed down that there is almost complete impunity for those who murder women in Guatemala. Investigators mishandle crime scenes and officials blame the victims themselves, often deciding that their murders are not worth investigating because they are deemed to be "nobodies."

The Women's Edge Coalition and the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies have joined together to condemn the institutional acceptance of violence against women in Guatemala. In November 2006, members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a resolution calling on the Secretary of State to urge the Government of Guatemala to improve its procedures for investigating and prosecuting crimes of violence against women. Representative Hilda Solis of California re-introduced the resolution (H. Res. 100) in January 2007, and a vote is expected in the House very soon. (A similar resolution is currently being considered in the Senate.)

Join us in asking your representative in Congress to sign on as a co-sponsor of H. Res. 100. To identify and contact your Congressperson in the U.S. House of Representatives, click here; to check and see if your representative is already a co-sponsor of H.Res. 100, click here. If he or she has not yet signed on, you will find a sample message that you can personalize and send below.

The war in Guatemala is long over. It's time for Guatemalan women to enjoy the benefits of peace.

In Solidarity,

Karen Musalo
Director
Center for Gender & Refugee Studies

Barb Gottlieb
Director of Outreach & Membership
Women's Edge Coalition

[SAMPLE MESSAGE]

Dear Representative [name],

During Guatemala's decades of internal armed conflict, state-sponsored violence was widespread, and rape was commonly used as a weapon of war against women. Numerous investigations have concluded that the vast majority of these human rights violations were conducted by members of the Guatemalan Army or intelligence services.

Today, a decade after the conflict's resolution, many of those responsible have escaped prosecution and now work with the police or private security forces. Perhaps it is no wonder that violence against women continues unabated, and that the perpetrators are virtually never brought to justice.

Human rights groups have documented a sharp increase in the rate of "femicides" or killings of women in Guatemala since 2000. As of August 2006, 2,300 Guatemalan women had been murdered, and only 17 cases have been resolved, including both convictions and exonerations. In fact, so few convictions have been handed down that there is almost complete impunity for those who murder women in Guatemala. Investigators mishandle crime scenes and officials blame the victims themselves, often deciding that their murders are not worth investigating because they are deemed to be "nobodies."

I urge you to join your colleagues in Congress in condemning the institutional acceptance of violence against women in Guatemala by signing-on as a co-sponsor of H. Res. 100, which encourages the Guatemalan government to bring an end to these crimes. To co-sponsor H. Res. 100, contact Representative Hilda Solis's office at (202) 225-5464.

The war in Guatemala is long over. It's time for Guatemalan women to enjoy the benefits of peace.

Sincerely,

[name & address]

News from South Africa

2007-03-25T12:50:00.000-06:00

Greetings from Boksburg, South Africa

After eight days of hard work the TEAM Conference - Toward Effective
Anglican Mission: Prophetic witness, social development and HIV and AIDS -
came to an end on 14 March. More than 400 people from 32 of the 38
provinces of the Anglican Communion, gathered together in Boksburg, South
Africa, to discuss our call to God's mission in the world of today. This
conference has energized all of us, as a Communion, to seriously contribute
to the achievement of the MDGs and, more importantly, to do so in the
context of God's mission.

We began each day with eucharist - led by a different region each day, with
great variety in style and song - then Bible study, in the same small
groups, after breakfast. These discussions, focusing on the Bible and the
day's theme, provided our foundation for the day. We heard excellent
presentations and panels, beginning with Archbishop Ngongonkulu Ndungane of
Cape Town, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who
grounded our deliberations in the theology of mission. Plenary sessions
were followed by a group of workshops to choose from. Conversations around
meals gave an opportunity to talk to some of the many people we met in more
detail. The days were long, full, and inspiring.

Sunday fell, happily, in the middle of the conference, providing a welcomed
change of pace. We were invited to attend one of about a dozen churches
around the Johannesburg area. Wherever we went, we were uplifted by their
warm hospitality and the varied expressions of faith lived out in their
worship. The church in Daveyton had much wonderful singing, in four
languages simultaneously and alternating quite naturally between hymns most
of us would recognize from Hymns Ancient and Modern and hymns from their
own musical traditions. The sermon was made even more interesting by the
synchronized interpretation and, before the rector blessed the children as
they went to Sunday school, he told the congregation that they were
struggling with the passage: "and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
those who trespass against us", asking for their prayers, that the Holy
Spirit be with them.

There is very good news and audio coverage on the Episcopal News Service
at: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_23466_ENG_HTM.htm so rather than
giving you more details on the conference here, we urge you to read the
articles and listen to the audios. For some of the presentations, the full
text is available through the news story. We especially recommend the
coverage of the opening eucharist; Archbishop Ndungane's opening address;
Archbishop William's presentation: Knowing the Lord; speakers set MDGs in
theological context, which includes Hellen Wangusa (excellent); but they
are all well worth reading. The keynote address of the Archbishop of
Canterbury is on his website at:
http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/sermons_speeches/070313.htm

If you read nothing else, the must read is Archbishop Ndungane's concluding
remarks, which amount to the executive summary of the conference and its
conclusions and call to action, at:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_83593_ENG_HTM.htm (If you are unable
to access this, let Helena know, and she will send it to you in the body of
an e-mail.)

Other information, including the programme, can be found on the TEAM
website at: http://www.team2007.org/index.htm

There is much from this conference that we, as women, will want to advocate
and pursue. More to follow as we review the summary and reports. Suffice it
to say now that it was a superb and inspiring conference, examining what
God demands of us in caring for the poor and suffering and all of His
creation in the world of today.

Networking and links

There was excellent opportunity for networking and we were able to speak to
many, both men and women, lay, clergy and bishops - even archbishops -
about IAWN, the gathering in New York and our statement, giving out the
brochure, statement and resolution ACC13-31. Jenny Te Paa included the
statement in her presentation on the second day and it was very well
received and sparked a lot of interest. We had a surprise parallel event on
the UNCSW experience where several talked about how they brought it home
and the experience in New York.

A number of parallel events were led by other delegates who have been at
the UNCSW/IAWN sessions, including Lisbeth Barahona (Parallel event) on
Gender, Trade and Entrepreneurship; Claudette Kigeme (Seminar) on Investing
in Human Security to Prevent Conflict and Promote Peace Building; Hellen
Wangusa (Workshop) on Education as a Basic Human Right; and Martha Gardner
(Seminar) on Climate Change. Mugisa Isingoma, from the Anglican Church of
the Congo, was to lead a fully signed-up seminar on Bottom-Up Solutions:
Grassroots Women Participate in Post-Conflict Reconstruction, but was
unable to attend due to visa problems.

We invited all the women we talked with to join the IAWN network, and hope
many of them will respond.

Meeting of ACC network representatives

Kenneth Kearon called a meeting on Saturday, March 10, of all the
representatives of ACC networks. We found this very instructive and
helpful. In the course of this discussion we realized that in fact IAWN is
doing quite well. The discussion centred on how each network was doing, its
structure and succession. All of us have problems of communication and
funding. Most of the others meet very rarely, while others have big
meetings every 3-5 years. Some are more active than others. Kenneth said
JSC is very supportive of the work of the networks. All networks are
expected to submit yearly reports to the JSC as well as a triennial report
to the ACC.

The Anglican Communion website is being redone. All networks will have a
link on the site and the IAWN Steering Group will be updating our website
over the coming months. (More on this as it develops.)

Conversation with Hellen Wangusa

We had a delightful and informative conversation with Hellen one evening.
She very much regretted not being in New York for the UNCSW but visa
problems (still unresolved) and other matters made it impossible. Hellen
has an amazing grasp of both the UN and the ACC, and a real sense of what
she wants to do. She strongly believes that we should always keep what we
do in a theological context, and not be just another NGO, but a strong FBO
(faith-based organization). We feel it will be a joy to work with her.

Our comments and reflections

Discussing all this with Lisbeth Barahona one evening, we agreed that there
are exciting possibilities ahead. And that our work has more direction and
clarity after being here.

The Anglican Communion rarely has meetings that bring so many together from
across the Communion. As those of us who have been in New York for the
UNCSW know, there is great and wonderful diversity in our Communion, and a
deep commitment to the mission of our church. The same was true in
Boksburg. It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know others, share
concerns and joys, and build and strengthen relationships across the
Communion - a significant outcome in itself. Everyone there was deeply
committed to furthering together the work of Christ in the world.

In mission,

Esperanza Beleo and Helena Mbele-Mbong

IAWN representatives at the TEAM Conference

BBC E-mail: Slave Children with Rageh Omaar

2007-03-25T10:48:00.001-06:00

Alyssa saw this story on the BBC News website and thought you
should see it.

** Message **
Here is a great report on modern-day slavery around the world. Listen to it tomorrow night on BBC.

** Slave Children with Rageh Omaar **
Around 8.4 million children are enslaved today. Now, five of them tell their stories.
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/this_world/6446051.stm >

** BBC Daily E-mail **
Choose the news and sport headlines you want - when you want them, all
in one daily e-mail
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/email >

** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.

If you do not wish to receive such e-mails in the future or want to know more about the BBC's Email a Friend service, please read our frequently asked questions. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/4162471.stm

Waking up Jesus

2007-03-20T08:22:00.000-06:00

This is a photo of Jolly Babirukamu from Uganda. She was my first real connection with the Anglican Women's delegation. She was a calming presence the entire time we were in New York, quiet and wise. I found out that she often assists in training staff for Compassion International, an organization I worked with in the 90s. Jolly is a rock, that was obvious.

On our first day at the UN, following Morning Prayer, we were to make our way across the street, passed security and tried to get in line early for registration and documentation. Early means at least an hour before the UN desk opens for registration. I was at once lost, dazed, and confused after passing the gate into the UN, and she waited for a few of us newbies and took us under wing until we landed in the correct line. So, I got to sit on the floor with her and chat a little.

The Anglican Women were, of course, a little tense as we gathered only one day after the Primates meeting in Dar es Salaam. Were our African sisters friend or foe? And why were we even asking that question? Being one to address the elephant in the room, I gingerly began talking about the church. Jolly gave me no personal opinion, nor did her feathers ruffle and a statement ensue. She looked at me and said, "You know, we need to wake Jesus up."

I've never really thought about waking Jesus up, and the only thing that came out of my mouth was, "Wake Jesus up?" She went on to say that when the storm came and the boat was in danger, the disciples yelled and hollered and woke Jesus up to do something about it before they all went down. She said, "Our boat is sinking and we need to wake Jesus up."

I'm not sure if the other women who had circled around by that time have still been thinking on those words, but they stuck with me. Now, from what I have witnessed over the years, I can tell you that the African church knows how to wake up Jesus. Perhaps, I wonder, we are too quiet? There is a time for quiet contemplation, which is what sustains me, but there is also a time for that desparate, intentional, "Hey! Wake up, we need some help...fast!"

Draft Agreed Conclusions

2007-03-14T15:47:00.000-06:00

Here is a link to the "Draft Agreed Conclusions on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination and Violence against the Girl Child –CSW51." From first glance it seems as if some our recommendations were indeed implemented! I know for the Peace Caucus, our suggestions appear to have been accepted. Of course, other Caucus's could have also reinforced some language.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw51/pdfs/CSW%20agreed%20conclusions_as%20adopted_9%20March.pdf

If you are an American reader, I encourage you to do what you can locally to lobby your government at all levels to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The United States is only developed nation to NOT have ratified these two conventions. For the US reservations to ratifying, see the last blog on the "Letter to Sen. Biden." The lives that are being destroyed at alarming rates because of uninformed fear is devastating. Here is the first recommendation on norms and policies in the Agreed Conclusions:

"Consider ratifying or acceding to, as a particular matter of priority, the
Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women and their respective Optional Protocols, limit
the extent of any reservations that they lodge and regularly review such reservations with
a view to withdrawing them so as to ensure that no reservation is incompatible with the
object and purpose of the relevant treaty; and implement them fully by, inter alia, putting
in place effective national legislation, policies and action plans; AGREED"

Letter to Senator Biden

2007-03-12T22:05:00.000-06:00

Here is a copy of the letter (some minor protocol changes will be made) the U.S. NGO (non-governmental organization) Caucus is sending to Senators Biden and Boxer.

March 1, 2007

Senator Joseph Biden and Senator Barbara Boxer
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Cc: Representative Nancy Pelosi
Ambassador Patricia Brister, U.S. Mission to the United Nations

Dear Senator Biden and Senator Boxer,
We, the U.S. members of the North American NGO Caucus to the 51st Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations, call on you and other members of the Senate Foreign Affairs Select Committee to schedule hearings on the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) during this coming session of Congress. Beginning Congressional hearings on this critical treaty is an important part of the United States’ effort to reestablish its place as a leader in human rights and equal opportunity around the world.
At a time when the majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives is a woman, now is the moment for Congress to reconsider the positive impact that CEDAW has on women’s lives around the world. CEDAW enabled countries like the Ukraine, Nepal, Thailand, and the Philippines to pass laws against sex trafficking. CEDAW helped Pakistan introduce coeducation in primary schools. CEDAW played a role in Australia, Mexico, and Argentina providing health care programs to indigenous and migrant women. As you know, currently 185 countries—including Iraq and Afghanistan—have ratified this international treaty.
In a season when the political winds of change are being felt in our nation’s capital and around the country, it is time once again to take on the myths about CEDAW on the Senate floor. For too long, opposition to this treaty has rested on the misconception that support for family planning will mean encouraging abortion. Your own committee recognized in 1994 that this is not the case, and the State Department has recognized that CEDAW is “abortion neutral.” Likewise, the idea that CEDAW somehow interferes with traditional family structures is also a myth that needs shattering. As you know, the treaty urges governments to “adopt education and public information programs to eliminate prejudices and practices that hinder women’s equality.”
The United States has best practices to share with the rest of the world in the areas of advancement of women in this country. Yet our nation simultaneously suffers a very tarnished image abroad when it comes to human rights and equal opportunity. Ratification of CEDAW and the Optional Protocol would demonstrate the progress that the U.S. has made in women’s rights.
In conclusion, we urge you to put CEDAW, a treaty that the United States was instrumental in forming, on the schedule again for hearings in this upcoming congressional session. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,

It's a Small World, After All

2007-03-11T12:10:00.000-06:00

It's funny how connected we are. I wanted to post this comment left last week when a reader responded to the "On a Plane" post.

Hello.. I wanted to share the Press Release concerning the gentleman you sat next to on the plane. His name is Robert Battles.

Have a Great Day

AFRICATOWN, USA
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & CEO
ROBERT BATTLE
PLAYS HOST TO 14 WEST AFRICAN DELEGATES
& AWARD WINNING AUTHOR
SYLVIANE DIOUF
MARCH 16, 17 & 18 2007

Mr. Robert Battles, CEO and Executive Director of the AfricaTown, USA Community Mobilization Project, Inc., an Alabama based non-profit organization, is gearing up for a grand three-day cultural symposium March 16, 17 and 18th. Expected to arrive is a 14 member West African delegation of Filmmakers, Artists, representatives from the African fashion and hair design industry and culinary specialist. Two of the members of the African delegation Mr. Thomas Akodjinou from Benin and Mr. Felix Eklu from Togo are returning to Alabama to continue the due diligence they began in November and December 2006 on their AfricaTown documentary project. Embarking on a 3 state tour, of South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama they gathered research and visited several African American & Civil Rights locations.

One of the key moments of the event is a special appearance by renowned and celebrated Senegalese author Sylviane Diouf. Dr. Diouf received a doctorate from the University of Paris and has taught at Libreville University in Gabon and New York University. She is the author of “Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America”. As the CEO of AfricaTown, USA, “Dreams of Africa in Alabama” was especially interesting to Battles because it documents historically the work that he has been doing for over twenty years. He went to New York recently to meet with Dr. Diouf and to facilitate the planning of her Alabama visit.

On Friday, March 16th the City of Mobile Museum will host Dr. Sylviane Diouf in a Meet The Author and book signing of DREAMS OF AFRICA from 4:00pm to 6:00pm. At 7:00 pm the Mobile County Training School * 800 Whitley Avenue * Plateau, Alabama will also host a book signing for Dr. Diouf.

Saturday, March 17th kicks off with the Original AfricaTown Folk Festival Community Day from 10:00 am until 6:00 pm. Come out and meet Mr. Thomas Akodjinou, Mr. Felix Eklu and the other members of the African Delegation. Enjoy the music, fashions and cultural presentations.

On Sunday, March 18th the closing ceremony “Feast of Relatives and Friends” will be held at the Plateau Community Center * 850 Edward Street * Plateau, Alabama. Special African cuisine and other culinary delights will be available. Dr. Sylviane Diouf will be the guest speaker.

For More Information – Call 251-518-1262

Submitted by D. Cameron
usaartistobenin@aol.com

Anglican Girl Delegates to the UNCSW

2007-03-08T19:30:00.000-06:00

Here are the Anglican girl delegates to the UNCSW. (Actually, a couple are missing from the photo.)
I am sure New York was psychologically challenging to many of the girls, but especially the tribal.
I will just submit the bios the girls sent in when applying to the UNCSW. I'd rather it be in their own words and let them speak for themselves, rather than put words in their mouths.

(Starting from the far right)
The girl on the far right wishes to not be named.
Faith Nenkai Meitiaki from Kenya--Faith is from Kajiado Kenya. She is in the 11th grade at Alliance High School. She is from one of the Pastoral communities of Kenya, the Masai. In the past, she has attended conferences on women and girls both in Kenya and outside Kenya. She knows that she has some of the information required to be in this conference in their support of girls and women.
Delores-Mai Macauley--Delores is from Newark, NJ. After school, she plays on a basketball team and is part of a book club. She is part of her youth group, which is part of a resilience project, and spends Saturdays handing out liturgies at the local basketball game.
Angie Chan Nga Ki--Angie is from Hong Kong, is in the 11th grade, and attends St. Stephen's Church. She hopes to learn more about how international organizations work so that she may play a part in helping needy people around the world and accomplishing God's will on earth.
Anne Wenk from New Work--Anne is 14 years old and is in 8th grade. She sings in the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and she is very excited about A.W.E. and CSW.

Steffi (Deepti Steffi)--Steffi is from India and is in the 9th grade. She has a big sister and a little brother. Her passion is education for girls and believes that through education, many problems that affect girls can be solved.

These girls became much more articulate and focused as the days progressed and they learned from other girl delegates about the issues facing each in their own countries. Education for all--especially where girls are often denied education--became very important and was repeated at many of the events at the UNCSW. Also, enforcement of laws that have been passed to protect girls, and creating a global awareness of the atrocities happening in each country to girls and women, even here in the U.S. Again, education to the general public makes a difference.

FGM--Female Genital Mutilation

2007-03-02T22:12:00.000-06:00

OK, here's a term you don't hear every day in the US, but I have learned it is very real in many parts of the world, affecting millions of girls. Meet Tema, a 15 year old Masai girl from Tanzania. She tells the story of most girls in her country and what they endure from this practice, including herself.
Girls are "circumcised" at an early age to keep them pure, so to speak, stopping any physical sexual desire. They are married off at a very early age, often to very elderly men. Some girls have been married off before they were born. Tema says that 89% of the girls are affected, and the Masai are the first people to use this practice. Some of the many side effects of this practice are how it interferes with the body's ability to give birth, great psychological trauma, and other health problems. Also, when the girls give birth at such an early age, the reproductive organs of the body are destroyed.
Tema was doing fine until she turned age 8, and her father offered her to another man for marriage. She ran away in the night and found a shelter that took girls in who were in her situation. She was able to get an education and now works hard for a change in law and practice in her country. She believes that nothing will change for girls if they do not have access to education. She loves her culture and her people, but thinks some practices should change because they are not good. Early child marriage interrupts the girls' education and to enforce a law that protects "girls" is useless because once these girls are married off and give birth, they are no longer considered girls, even if they are 13 or 14 years old.
I've discovered there is a big discrepancy between ratification of law and implementation and enforcement. There is little recourse when the girls live in remote areas and rape is so rampant. I will keep telling the stories I've heard here for a long time, even though I return home Sunday night. There is so much to digest, process, and plan. I want to find a way to move from telling of stories to action and implementation.

Texan and Afghan

2007-03-01T22:57:00.000-06:00

I spoke to an Afghan women today at the Artisan's Fair. She was selling things from Afghanistan to support the Afghan Women's Fund. Her name is Fahima Vorgetts and she was the winner of a lifetime Achievement Award for "Extraordinary Contribution to Peace and Justice" awarded by the Ann Arundel Peace Action Organization in 2002. She has had a number of such awards since then.
Fahima first asked where I was from, and when I told her I lived in Texas she was afraid to speak to me. I had to assure her that I was not a threat, nor did I collaborate with George Bush. I told her I sincerely wanted to know what was going on in her country, and after a minute she told me, in no uncertain terms, how the country has been abandoned and is in shambles.
She is raising money for the rebuilding of Afghanistan because the money that was allocated for the rebuilding has not made it into the country for Afghani's. It has been re-directed to Iraq and gone to pay US corporations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Particularly here at the UN this week she is raising money for four schools and health facilities for women and children. Some of the rugs, jewelry, and tapestries were very old, but the people need facilities and help. She doesn't have time to manage selling on her website, but you can read about the organization by going to http://www.womenforafghanwomen.org.
Here is an insert from her blog dated September 2006. This brief story clearly tells the tale of Afghanistan today, especially for women and children:

A very sad time for Afghan women
12:28 am

This is a very sad time at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Afghanistan. Yesterday the provincial director of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Kandahar was assassinated by two men outside her home while she was on her way to work.

This slaying is a senseless and cowardly act, more proof that security in Afghanistan is deteriorating rapidly. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda are winning in the southern part of Afghanistan and women’s human rights are a prime target of their fanaticism.

Progress for women in Afghanistan has been frustratingly slow, but it has been happening. We call upon women throughout the world, those who are still fighting for their rights and those whose rights are honored and protected by their governments, to take every necessary step to prevent a reversal of this progress and a return to the time when Islam itself was falsely interpreted as sanctioning tyranny over women.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Safia (Amma Jan).

The Business of Girls

2007-02-28T22:02:00.000-06:00

This afternoon and evening I have heard story after story of unbelievable injustices and violence against young girls from around the world, including here in the United States where most people think things like that don't happen. So tonight's exhaustion is emotional. But, let me share here a couple of the stories, and then the hope of women who claim the power of God.
The picture above is of Roodnir Joseph from Haiti. She was a former "restavek." A "restavek" is basically a slave that works for a family without pay, but is allowed to live in the home. She works round the clock, is often beaten and sexually abused. Roodnir was taken at age 8 as a restavek and she was freed at age 14. Her parents gave her to someone who promised her a better life, and due to the poverty the family was living in, they thought it would be better for her. It was worse.
The mistresses are called "Aunties", but the abuse is often at the hands of the boys and husband in the family. Teachers also sexually exploit the children in exchange for good grades. Often the young girls are kidnapped and if the family does not provide the money for the release, the child is severely abused. She is here speaking out against the practice and asking her government to implement and follow through on laws that will protect her. She is hoping that help will come to Haiti addressing this problem and that a Tribunal will be set up to punish the perpetrators.

Draft Document

2007-02-28T12:36:00.000-06:00

What most here at this Commission at the UN on the Status of Women are working on feverishly this week is to submit changes to the draft document of the 51st Session of the UNCSW. What it consists of are amendments to the document submitted by various Caucuses organizing themselves here at the UN. I have been working on the North American Caucus and the Peace Caucus. There are many perspectives represented here and many with specific agendas they would like to see passed at the UN, but all seem in agreement that the document prepared for the 51st Session is very weak in every area. So, there is great effort to make the language clear and direct, especially in the areas of violence and sex/slave trafficking.
Apparently, two of the best Caucuses as far as organization and decorum are the Middle Eastern Women's Caucus and the European Union. These women came prepared with the document and pre-written suggestions as to changes and the meeting were conducted efficiently and with great respect for one another. I am sad to say that the North American Caucus was unorganized, loud, and sometimes rude. Not everyone in the Caucus, because it was very large, acted in this manner, but I think there is great opportunity for change in the future. Of course, when one suggests change, one is asked to head up that change!
The North American Caucus offered several suggestions to re-word, add wording, or eliminate certain statements such as, calling on the UN to ratify the UN Protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking persons and insure that these protocols are incorporated into national law and become fully applicable in domestic legal systems. It also addresses forced marriage and early childbirth by mothers who are still children themselves. It addresses the need for access to free education for all girls, the elimination of Female Genital Mutilation (apparently a much larger problem internationally than I realized), urging strong action for the prevention and intervention of HID/AIDS, elimination and punishment of child labor practices, and the protection of girls in areas of armed conflict. Strong wording was implemented by the N.A. Caucus in the areas of violence against women in the US.
Our Peace Caucus formed this morning when various women involved in peace initiatives realized that there was almost nothing in the document regarding peace education, more forceful language regarding the forced drafting into armed conflict, and the rapes and sexual violence against girls and women before, during, and after times of armed conflict.
It is amazing to me how careful one must be. One word that can trigger our government to throw out the whole document, and how terrible it would be to not see the necessary changes because of our inability to know what our US Delegates will accept. And I can tell you that the US is barely engaged here officially at the UN. What I have learned here is appalling.
I am off now to a workshop on how Girls Can Become Social Change agents. Tonight I hope to write about the three girls we heard from this afternoon who have been involved in the sex slave trade and trafficking.

A Small Gathering of Women

2007-02-27T20:20:00.000-06:00

A very few of us met with Nomfundo from South Africa for lunch today. She agreed to discuss with us what happened in Dar es Salaam last week regarding the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Communion. Nomfundo was at this meeting of the Primates as a lay delegate. I, for one, was glad to hear that there were lay delegates present since the make up of the Anglican/Episcopal Church is supposed to be run by the laity. I am going to present what is my understanding so far in "kitchen talk" language so as to make simple sense of the mess. There is more to it than what I am sharing here, and more complications, but I wanted to begin with a post to lay out something easy to grasp. We will be having a longer "conversation" with all the Anglican Women Delegates on Thursday night to listen to one another, something that the current Primates and Bishops seem unable to do.
It is interesting to hear about how the various bishops and Primates handled themselves. Katherine Jefferts Schori, as I have heard and seen myself, remains calm, peaceful, and focused. Others from the US are so angry that it fills the room and "bounces off the walls." There is manipulation, positioning, and definitely money in the mix of negotiations on the side. Akinola, the Nigerian Primate, along with Kenya, Uganda, and a couple of others, is leading the charge to "kick out" the Episcopal Church USA. The Primates (that word continues to make me laugh) in Africa do not necessarily represent the perspectives of the African Bishops. Where is Christ in this?
Nevertheless, some sort of committee has been formed to oversee those in the US who say they cannot commune with or be accountable to our current Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori. While much is being said that this division is over the blessing of same-sex unions, it is becoming more apparent that it is over the issue of the Presiding Bishop being female. There were those at Dar es Salaam that refused to take the Eucharist with her. I am appalled that we have come to this. The egos involved here are taking up too much space. So, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, appointed a committee to oversee these "defectors." I am glad to see that he is making sure that they still have to answer to someone. Although, there is concern that the chair of this committee may not be the greatest choice in having the wisdom to handle Akinola and the departing US Bishops. The US Presiding Bishop pointed out a couple of times that the Canons governing the US Church are different from those governing the Anglican Communion, and no canon law has been broken.
As I have not studied the issues in depth enough to take a charted course through all of this, my main question to Nomfundo was, "If the Anglican Communion no longer recognizes the Episcopal Church USA, then what will happen to this gathering of Anglican women from around the world working on issues such as the trafficking of young girls, violence, poverty, war, immigration, homelessness, etc.? Will we no longer work together but as separate entities? Is not Christ at our center rather than division and hatred?
Nomfundo said she feels confident that the Anglican Women's Group will continue to be together. My prayer is that the women will show the true unity of the church by being about Christ's call even if we don't agree with one another all the time. I am hoping we can lead the way to reconciliation because if the church cannot reconcile and goes to work with itself, how can we ever expect the world to listen to Christ's message of love and peace without laughing at the hypocrisy of it all? We stand to loose so much in this. I hope the Primates remember this is our church and most of us, in America and in Africa, want it to stay together.

The Beijing Platform for Action

2007-02-26T23:22:00.000-06:00

Areas of concern for the advancement of women and the societies in which they live.

Women and poverty;
Education and training of women;
Women and helath;
Violence against women;
Women and armed conflict;
Women and the economy;
Women in power and decision-making;
Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women;
Human rights of women;
Women and the media;
Women and the environment;
The girl child (the theme of 2007).

The Millennium Developmental Goals

2007-02-26T23:18:00.000-06:00

Adopted unanimously by member states in 2000.
Targets to be reached by 2015

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
2. Achieve universal primary education;
3. Promote gender equality and empower women;
4. Reduce child mortality;
5. Improve maternal health;
6. Combat HIV?AIDS, Malaria and other diseases;
7. Ensure environmental sustainability;
8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development.

The City that Never Sleeps and Neither Do I

2007-02-26T21:59:00.000-06:00

After 12 hours of Plenary Sessions, Briefings, listening to interpreters, deciphering numerous schedules, and reviewing summaries, I am full of what I don't have time to write about, but will share highlights.
We began the day with Morning Prayer in the UN Church Center. Each day a different denomination will lead prayer, and this day was Anglican. Scriptures were read in the readers native language and then read again in English. Here is a picture of the Chapel:

The opening session was impressive merely from the realization that "Wow, I am in the UN as a delegate," and how that hits you when you walk into the Conference room brimming with people of all color, religions, languages, and dress. There we are, inches from one another while many of our people are at war with one another overseas. I watch the women from Sudan, the Congo, and many places in Africa and wonder what they have sacrificed to get there. I didn't see if Iraq was represented. It's snowing here in New York and many flights were cancelled and delegates were not there to speak. I hope they will still be heard.

It is interesting to note for you that the US is the only developed country that has NOT ratified the The Convention of the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. More on that later...and there are very few US Caucuses or involvement on a governmental level, although there is a delegation.

At many of our debriefings at the end of the day, we hear from the women of other countries about their concern for the US and how we should not be going overseas to "help" so much any more, but we need to pay attention to what is happening in our own country as we seems to be going backwards.

Connections

2007-02-24T21:21:00.000-06:00

Today went much more smoothly as all the Anglican women gathered in the chapel at the Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue, near our hotel. There were almost a hundred delegates from around the world, plus a few women who came from other NGO's. With the tension in the air about what happened at the Primates meeting in Tanzania, many women had questions about that and if there was going to be any frank discussion. I'm not sure if there will be, but there is a common binding thread of our mission to "eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination against the girl child" that is to be our main focus. If we are not unified, I don't see how we can collectively address it. How quickly we forget that the force of evil has its power when it can divide and conquer.

Fortunately, this morning there was more time spent on a formal orientation for us all. Mary Roodkowsky from UNICEF gave an excellent presentation on why Anglican women are involved at the UN, which many of us first timers were wondering ourselves. Here is a brief overview of what she had to say:
We are here for the Church
a)to build awareness of issues on the international agenda and of strategies being used,
b)to create a truly international perspective,
c) to create solidarity among women from many nations/ethnicities/church experiences, and
d) to help build targeted strategic thinking

Why we (AWE)are good for the UN:
a)builds support for global goals,
b) creates and awareness at UN of issues as seen by the church,
c)increases government appreciation of reach and organization of civil society,
d) enriches dialogue by bringing new perpectives, and
e)encourages delegations' accountabilities

The Anglican Women's Empowerment(AWE)group is an accredited NGO and therefore we can:
a)observe the meetings at UN,
b)present written/oral statements,
c)meet official government delegations,
d)lobby delegations in the context of negotiations of agreed conclusion and resolutions, and
e)organize parallel events during the session

She mentioned that protesting at the UN is pointless. The UN delegates are not decision makers, they must call their governments for instructions regarding every vote and decision. The place we are most effective is in our own communities and supporting women in other communities.

We were then partnered through the AWE-net with someone from another country. My partner had not yet arrived, but I met her briefly at tonight's ceremony at Trinity Wall Street. I hear she is an amazing woman. Her name is Dr. Jenny Te Paa from New Zealand.

Since Dr. Te Paa hadn't arrived yet, I was invited to join Joanne from California, formerly with the World Health Organization, and Jesusa Zena T. Caytap from the Philippines. We had lunch together, and heard from Zena about her role as a youthworker in her church. Apparently, the Filipino Episcopal Church was a part of the Episcopal Church USA until the 90s. Her grandfather had been a priest, as well as her father, and now she is considering pursuing the priesthood, too. Here is a picture of Zena.

TRINITY WALL STREET

The highlight of the day was the ceremony at Trinity Wall Street, "Girls Claiming the Future: Hopes and Challenges." it was a celebration of the Anglican Delegates to the 2007 United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and Global Issues of The Girl Child. You can watch the telecast of this ceremony at www.trinitywallstreet.org for the next four weeks. Here are some highlights from the ceremony:

The opening procession was Girl Choristers from New York Episcopal Parishes, which showed the ethnic diversity of the city. The Anglican Girl Delegates to the UNCSW also processed and were part of a panel that questioned some of the leaders in global women's work. Here is a photo of the Girl Delegates (at the Episcopal Church Center):

Missing are a couple of girls, most notably Kaimana Mauai from Standing Rock Reservation who has been to one of our Legacy camps!

A girl speaker's emotions overcame her at the end and her question to The Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori was, "How will the church help girls who are abused and what are they going to do?" This is where I became very impressed with The Presiding Bishop. She saw a girl's pain and stood up to answer her question, taking hold of her hand, looking only at her, and as if the entire rest of the cathedral vanished and she spoke, really spoke, directly to her with such compassion and love, that many of us started crying. I watched throughout the remainder of the service and Katherine Jefferts Schori kept hold of her hand, and was speaking closely with her afterwards. I wonder what transpired, but when I saw her in the lobby of the hotel tonight, I saw a different girl. When I first met her yesterday, she would not look at anyone, was shy, couldn't talk much, and kept herself apart. Tonight she boldly walked up to us and said hello as she was leaving to go see Times Square with the other teens. Her story was the story of many girls around teh world, including the United States, and her words are now spoken out there and will carry far. I will await to see what becomes of her, because by the grace of God she has lived to tell her story, and she is on her way to making a change for other girls just like her.

There is so much more I want to share, but it is midnight and I really need some rest. I am hoping the photos I took will remind me later of the rest of the story...

Tele/web cast

2007-02-24T14:30:00.001-06:00

The opening ceremonies of the Anglican Delegates to the UNCSW, "Girls
Claiming the Future" is being telecast at www.trinitywallstreet.org
my blog-www.thebarnun.blogspot.com

Alyssa Loukota

--
Wisdom is what's left after we've run out of personal opinions.
- Cullen Hightower

Dis-orientation

2007-02-23T19:54:00.000-06:00

Today I felt like a freshman entering high school in a new town. Everyone, except for a few other freshman, knows where to go and what to do, and we are pushed through lines picking up pieces of paper, getting name tags, trying to find a place to sit although there are not enough chairs, and finally sitting on the floor, only to be told we must get over the UN quickly because the lines get so long for registration.

Once in line, we wait for the UN to open and I talk to a woman, Jolly, from Uganda. I asked her if she had heard of Compassion International, and that I worked for the organization for nine years. She often is asked to assist with Compassion's training projects. And here we are sitting in New York connected through our work.

She speaks with passion about the Anglican church and the divisions that are happening in it. Since the primate gathering in Tanzania just happened, I was wondering how or if it would affect this gathering of Anglican women. She tells the story of Jesus asleep in the boat when the storm comes up and frightens the disciples. With much more spirit than I am expressing here, she says it is time to wake Jesus up and tell him we are afraid our boat is sinking from the storm. And I wonder if we will all be coming together again next year.

We had a break in the afternoon, and my new roommate, Virgnia Berry form Massachussets decide to take in a museum or two. We hop on the subway and spend a little over an hour in the Frick. I was impressed with a large painting of St. Francis by Giovanni and El Greco's protrait of St. Jerome. The French Rococo was hilarious, and George Stubbs was even more interesting when I discovered he was self-taught. But, Hans Holbein the Younger's protrait of Sir Thomas Moore, really stood out to me. I think it was the lighting and the perfection of detail without visible brush lines. It was beautiful.

We had a Eucharistic service at the Epsicopal Church Center, just up a block from our hotel. The Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts-Schori, looking tired and drawn from the meeting in Tanzania, gave a very well-done sermon on the healing of Christ, and how the bleeding woman took initiative to reach out to Christ and was healed--believing even before it happened in his healing touch. And Jairus' daughter was told to "Wake up!" a command to rise from the dead, and she did and began to serve them.

Are we, as Anglican women from around the world, in need of waking up from the dead ourselves? And how do we begin to serve one another? Can the Anglican women bring peace and unity to its sinking ship?

On the Plane

2007-02-23T19:25:00.000-06:00

Before I even landed in New York, the adventure began through a conversation with the man sitting next to me. He was about the same age as my father and was coming to the city for a Hip-Hop convention and to meet up with a woman who was helping him with a project in Mobile, AL. He works with HIV/AIDS prevention for youth and believes Hip-Hop can be a powerful tool if used for positive messages.

But, what really fascinated me was the project he was working on. He is the Executive Director of Africatown, a community based project in Mobile. THey have purchased land in Mobile and are building a replica of the former AfricaTown that kept its cultural heritage alive for many years. Here is the story of AfricaTown:

MOBILE COMMUNITY HOLDS ON TO UNIQUE AFRICAN HERITAGE

by Henry Willett

"In front of the Union Missionary Baptist Church, in the Magazine/Plateau community about three miles north of Mobile, there is a bust of Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis, the last survivor of a voyage on the slave ship, Clotilda, from the west coast of Africa in 1860. The monument is an enduring symbol of the community's pride in its African history and heritage, and is the focal point for annual celebrations of that heritage. Beneath the bust is a steel shaft sunk 100 feet into the earth, symbolizing the 100 years that this group of African Americans had inhabited Mobile County soil when the monument was dedicated in 1959.

Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis was born around 1840, a member of the Tarkbar tribe, which inhabited the interior region of the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of Africa.

The Tarkbars were an agricultural people raising hogs, goats, sheep, chickens and cows. They planted beans and yams, and gathered bananas and pineapples. Their main trade item was the oil from palm trees, which was traded to other tribes, eventually reaching the coast for export abroad. In the late 1850s, West Africa was at war with itself. Defeated tribes were often sold into slavery. In November of 1858, the Mobile Register noted, "The King of Dahomey was driving a brisk trade in slaves at from fifty to sixty dollars apiece." And as secessionist fever was spreading through Alabama in the 1850s, there was much talk of reopening the African slave trade, which had been outlawed since 1808. It was in this setting that wealthy Mobile shipper Timothy Meaher and shipyard owner William Foster planned the Trans-Atlantic voyage of the Clotilda for the purpose of bringing an illegal cargo of slaves back to Mobile. Clotilda set sail from Mobile on March 4, 1860, arriving at the port of Whydah on the west coast of Africa on May 15.

Five weeks earlier, Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis and dozens of fellow tribesmen had been captured by Dahomean warriors and marched to the port of Whydah where Lewis and 114 others were sold to Captain Foster for one hundred dollars apiece.

By the time they arrived in Mobile, federal authorities, having heard about the scheme, were on the lookout for the Clotilda. Captain Foster entered Mobile Harbor on the night of July 9, 1860. He transferred his slave cargo to a riverboat and sent them up into the canebrake to hide them. He then burned his schooner and sunk it.

The Africans were distributed to those having an interest in the Clotilda expedition, with 32 settling on the Meaher property at Magazine Point, three miles north of Mobile. This formed the nucleus of what came to be known, and still is known, as Africatown. Lewis was among that group. After the Civil War, they were joined by a number of their fellow tribesmen. For decades they continued speaking their native tongue, had disputes arbitrated by their tribal chieftain, Charlie Poteete, and had their illnesses treated by the African doctor, Jabez. Up until World War II, Africatown remained a rather distinct community in Mobile County.

Africatown is unique in that it represents a group of Africans who were forcefully removed from their homeland, sold into slavery, and then formed their own, largely self-governing community, all the while maintaining a strong sense of African cultural heritage. This sense of heritage and sense of community continues to thrive today, more than 130 years after the landing of the Clotilda in Mobile Bay."

In 1868, Africatown was established in Mobile and Prichard, Alabama, by members of the last cargo of slaves brought to the United States. The community deserves recognition as a National Historic District because it is one of the few places in America where most residents can collectively trace their lineage to a group of pure Africans. In its earliest history, most of the Africatown men worked in the local lumber mills, and the women became fruit and vegetable vendors, cooks, or laundresses. These people were known as craftspeople, especially for woodworking and quiltmaking. Africatown is also well known for its folk medicine, and most residents continue to rely on traditional African herbal drugs. Like most African music, the music in Africatown is chiefly vocal. The area is rich in folktales, many of which need to be recorded and documented. Another cultural area in particular need of preservation efforts is architecture. Many of Africatown's older shotgun houses and bungalows should be restored and preserved as monuments to the unsung craftsmen who erected them. Formal efforts to preserve Africatown began with the founding of the Progressive League in 1957, and in 1981 Africatown was nominated to become a National Historic District. In 1985, the Alabama legislature officially recognized Africatown as an historic area and made provisions for its establishment as a State park. (KH)

Church Questions

2007-02-16T20:34:00.001-06:00

I came across this today from an interview of Shane Claiborne, a new kind of monk that many are saying is the new St. Francis. He is definitely formed in Evangelical roots and language, but he has humbled and motivated me like no contemporary Christian has to date. It seems Rich Mullins also played a role in his life, so I guess we have a connection somehow, only he has taking the dive into living the message of Christ like a freefall into the the unknown.

I've been struggling with the Church, especially as ours (Episcopal Church USA) is showing the world how the Body of Christ tears itself apart. I have been so saddened by this that it has often caused me to wonder what the purpose of the Church, any church, is today. Here's Shane's reply to that:

"The church is like Noah’s ark: It stinks sometimes, but if you get out you’ll drown. Our embarrassment and frustration with the church is the very reason we engage, not disengage. I think the church needs some healthy discontent, or else things never get better."

Good food for thought, and it's keeping me in the boat for now. I find I can't leave the church just as one can't leave one's dysfunctional family. I just wish we would quit running away from one another.

Christ in a Stranger's Disguise

2007-02-08T09:33:00.000-06:00

The Anglican Communion is gathering in Salaam, Tanzania next week, a meeting that will end as Lent begins. This meeting began 30 years ago to fellowship, study and converse with one another, knowing that unity in the Church can only happen as people interact and get to know each other. I have always said that people can always communicate, but creating understanding requires more investment.

Here is a prayer that the Church is asking us all to pray and I found it very relevant, no matter what your flavor of Christianity:

Traditionally the season [Lent] has been one in which candidates prepared for baptism through prayer, fasting, and acts of mercy. This year, we might all constructively pray for greater awareness and understanding of the strangers around us, particularly those strangers whom we are not yet ready or able to call friends. That awareness can only come with our own greater investment in discovering the image of God in those strangers. It will require an attitude of humility, recognizing that we can not possibly know the fullness of God if we are unable to recognize his hand at work in unlikely persons or contexts. We might constructively fast from a desire to make assumptions about the motives of those strangers not yet become friends. And finally, we might constructively focus our passions on those in whom Christ is most evident –- the suffering, those on the margins, the forgotten, ignored, and overlooked of our world. And as we seek to serve that suffering servant made evident in our midst, we might reflect on what Jesus himself called us –- friends (John 15:15).

Before I Go

2007-02-06T18:12:00.000-06:00

I am going to post information about the 51st UN Commission on the Status of Women to clarify where I am going and what I will be doing. To begin with, the CSW has a multi-year program of work for 2007-2009 and will consider "The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child" as its priority theme during the 51st session.

Here is the UN schedule for the week.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/conf/seforms/dspUNcalendar.asp

The few days prior to the UN meetings, I will be with the Anglican Women's Empowerment group, a gathering of nearly 100 Anglican women from around the world. I will post links to interesting articles so the most inquisitive can study along with me!

*******************************************************************
Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.

J. R. R. Tolkien (1892 - 1973), The Lord Of the Rings, Book Four, Chapter One

In the beginning

2007-02-06T17:37:00.001-06:00

I have a lot to read. A few hundred pages and charts from various UN
committees and 55 articles sent from the national Episcopal Church.
OK, I'm reading now...

--
I do not want to die... until I have faithfully made the most of my
talent and cultivated the seed that was placed in me until the last
small twig has grown.

Kathe Kollwitz, O Magazine, September 2002