A global debate without the female half of humanity is neither global nor democratic. With this in mind, openDemocracy is running 50.50: a series of editorial projects designed to make openDemocracy a current affairs forum which is written, read and used equally by women and men.
We believe there will not be a fairer or more peaceful world without gender equality. Women's exclusion from the global debate affects both the content of the debate and the way the dialogue is conducted.
Rediscovering and reshaping a world in which husbands were house-bound and families were free, what are the skills and virtues needed for a life of radical voluntary domestic simplicity?
During the attack on Gaza, Israeli mental health professionals could be trapped between
Israeli identification with government policy, and Palestinian citizens of Israel, then considered ‘the enemy’
A single life can span the globe and the century, embrace science and sky and soil, while always rooted in the corner of a corner of England. A warm tribute to a great woman
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a man of many labels; Iran's ‘everyman' crusading for the nation's downtrodden, champion of the Muslim world, self-fashioned historian with an amnesic grasp of 20th century events and, most recently, vote rigger of questionable skill. To date however, Ahmadinejad's reputation has not been readily associated with women's rights. His recent decision to nominate three female cabinet ministers has consequently aroused surprise and suspicion in many camps.
On 30 June 2009, Mairead Maguire was taken into custody by the Israeli
military along with twenty others, including former U.S. Congress member Cynthia
McKinney.
Mairead Maguire: "This kind of behaviour and treatment is unacceptable. They questioned
me about my nonviolent protests in USA against the Afghanistan invasion
and Iraqi war. They insisted I must tick the box in the Immigration
form admitting to criminal activities. I am not a criminal, my
nonviolent acts in the USA opposing the war on Afghanistan, and Iraqi,
are acts of conscience and together with millions of USA citizens, and
world citizens, I refuse to be criminalized for opposing such illegal
policies." Read more...
Nurgul Djanaeva writes "I expected a lot from this Nobel Women's Initiative event, because we are planning next
year to organise our own international conference on "Women and Security" in
Kyrgyzstan, and so I was not just an observer, but I came to find out what can
be achieved at such a gathering - who is
doing what about which kind of security priorities? What is the concept of
security in a wider framework of peace and democracy and how best can it be
implemented? And there have been some wonderful surprises" Read more...
Many of us travelled on the same flight from Houston to La
Aurora International Airport. Our
entry into Guatemala
was grand. We were welcomed by Erin Allison and the other organisers.
There was a comfortable minibus waiting to take us to our hotel, Casa Santa Domingo
in Antigua
city. Six of us, an ‘assorted' group of sisters, enjoyed the unknown landscape,
and each other's company. A few of the sisters
already knew each other but the others were meeting for the first time. We easily
fell into a conversation that took us from the personal introduction to the
introduction of our organisations. We shared our hopes and excitement for the
conference and located ourselves in it. Before we went to our different rooms,
we agreed to meet at the end of day two, go into town and explore pubs,
restaurants, the remarkable history of Antigua; its taste, texture and smell.
This presentation
is based on an airplane conversation between Hope Chigudu, other sisters and a
man (fellow passenger) who introduced himself as Tino.
Tino: My name is Tino. Since
we took off, I have been listening to the conversation between you and your
friends. I could not help it. You are loud; everyone on this plane has been
listening to you. You keep talking about the conflicts scourging the African
continent and then your desire for democratic participation. Let me provoke
you; if democracy were a woman, or feminist, what would she do?
“I
am reflecting on experiences in Sri Lanka of working with women
involved in conflict situations at a time when the situation in Sri
Lanka is perhaps the worst it has ever been in thirty years of a very
protracted and bitter civil war.”
Sunila Abeysekera is Executive Director of International Women’s Rights Action Watch
– a Sri Lankan feminist activist and human rights defender who has
worked on issues of women’s rights and human rights in the Asia Pacific
region and globally for thirty years and more. Read more...
Only by starting from common principles agreed upon by all, rather than
limiting ourselves to the principles which only we believe in, will we
make progress with human rights. Shirin Ebadi writes from the Nobel
Women’s Initiative conference. Read now...
Democracy is about competition, competition on an uneven playing field,
and if women want to win there is no substitute to building
constituencies for gender equality, matched with building women’s
economic power. Efforts to level the playing field through affirmative
action are essential but have got to be temporary if they are to avoid
damaging democracy, for they are too easily subverted or distorted by
leaders more interested in flashing their credentials as modernisers
than in supporting genuine gender equality. Read more...
I was invited to participate at the
Nobel Women's Initiative conference on behalf of Generation X
Feminists, a movement of Palestinian and Jewish feminists in Israel
working to rejuvenate feminist leadership in the Left. I am traveling
to Antigua from the USA, where I currently pursue my graduate studies,
with two immediate objectives Read more...
Mary Parker Follett defined democracy in a particularly feminist way - a definition
unlike that of any male philosopher, from the Greeks, to Rousseauists,
to Marxists and neo-liberals Read more...
