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NEWS & LETTERS, April 2002
International Women's Day 2002: new struggles, new challenges
Chicago-The Chicago International Women's Day 2002
Planning Committee held a forum called "Women Confronting Fundamentalism
Globally" on March 9 at Roosevelt University. Approximately 100 people were
in attendance. The event was organized to develop the international
feminist movement inspired by the struggles of women of Afghanistan,
particularly RAWA, since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. By taking on the theme: "Afghanistan is
Everywhere," our intention was to show how women around the globe,
including in the U.S., are battling fundamentalism wherever it exists-be it in
reactionary state policies or on the streets at the scene of a clinic blockade
or gay bashing. By bringing together ethnically diverse speakers,
African American, Iranian, Indian, Afghan and Lebanese, we hoped to build
feminist solidarity across borders and within this country, to gain a
theoretical perspective to move forward as a global movement. It was a tall order to fill but beginnings were made.
Dr. Madhuri Deshmukh talked about the situation of South Asian women and about
the uniqueness of what the Women's Liberation Movement has shown: that the
revolution we seek must involve a reorganization of human relationships at the
most personal level. Both she and Dr. Janet Afary spoke about women's
struggles within other liberatory movements necessary for women's freedom-like
national liberation movements-and yet how freedom for women has been betrayed by
these same national movements. Dr. Afary made it a point to discuss how many women's
organizations within Iran are portrayed as feminist when in reality they are
women's organizations in compliance with Islamic mandates, that never call into
question sexism. This became a point of contention when Dr. Laila Farah
changed her planned presentation to respond to Afary and Deshmukh. In critiquing
the savior mentality of bourgeois western feminists, Dr. Farah ended up putting
cultural concerns above women's liberation. However, Dr. Farah was in the minority as Deborah
Benford of Affinity Community Services, an African-American lesbian and bisexual
women's organization, spoke on racism, homophobia, and sexism not just from the
right, but from within liberation movements. Yasmeen Shorish of the Women's Alliance for Peace and
Human Rights in Afghanistan spoke on her organization's call for a war crimes
tribunal to bring to justice all who have committed war crimes-from the Russian
invasion, to the mujahadeen, to the Taliban. Nitrice Johnson, executive director of the Chicago
Abortion Fund, gave a brief report on reproductive health in the U.S. Although there was little discussion about
fundamentalism in the U.S., it is a major threat. There was a call to continue
dialogue throughout the year on these issues. -Sonia Bergonzi * * * Memphis, Tenn.-"Women Moving Beyond Violence:
Military, Terrorist, and Domestic" was the forum that Voices for Peace and
Women's Action Coalition sponsored for our celebration of International Women's
Day. The talks presented a deep view of women's condition and our struggle for a
more liberated reality. Marquita Bradshaw from Youth Terminating Pollution spoke
about the effects of military pollution on women. Bradshaw had done a survey of
students at Hamilton High School-a school that, unbelievably, was built directly
over a drainage ditch where waste from the Memphis Defense Depot flows. She interviewed 14 to 21-year-old women in three zip
codes near the school. The results she reported made the audience gasp: 23%
reported miscarriages; 7% infertility; 12% diagnosed with breast cancer; 2%
diagnosed with ovarian cysts; 4% had uterine cancer. Fully 43% of those she
interviewed talked of problems with their reproductive systems. Bradshaw termed
this "an epidemic" that young women are organizing themselves to
fight. Terry Moon from News and Letters Committees spoke on
"Women in Afghanistan," detailing how women are fighting the
dehumanization foisted onthem by the Taliban and Northern Alliance. She
concluded that "Women fighting for freedom from multiple oppressions
challenge the Left to look further than who we oppose, to what we are fighting
for, and what is our vision of the future." Elizabeth Shelley, founder of Survivors of Abusive
Relationships (SOAR), began: "The women I work with sound like the women in
Afghanistan. They too are treated like things, like possessions. They have no
property, no rights, they are sexually abused-some passed around to other men by
husbands or boy friends. One in four women in the U.S. is abused; one third of
all homicides in Memphis spring from domestic abuse...As Bradshaw said of women
suffering from military pollution, this too is an epidemic." The discussion took up the necessity to create a Memphis
movement against police abuse as well as the need to rethink what revolution
means. -WAC member |
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