|
 |
 |
| afghanistan | bahrain | brazil | cameroon | egypt | india | indonesia | iran | jordan | kazakhstan | kyrgyzstan | |
| lebanon | malaysia | mauritania | morocco | nicaragua | nigeria | pakistan | palestine | turkey | uzbekistan | zimbabwe |
English
South-South Dialogues
“As I become more involved in the international women’s movement, I really feel the importance of Middle Eastern women leaders participating in international events and raising their voices. Our perspective enriches the discussion and prevents issues of importance to us from being left on the sidelines.”
- Lina Quora, Executive Director, Sisterhood is Global Institute - Jordan
WLP believes in the importance of dialogue as a means for women to share experiences, build consensus on challenges faced, and develop a shared vision for collective action. We organize South-South and South-North dialogues in order to facilitate vital discussion among women from the Global South, particularly from Muslim-majority societies and to ensure that the voices of these women are heard in international dialogues on rights, development, and peace.
South-South and South-North dialogues take the form of symposia and panel debates, both face-to-face and virtual. We share these dialogues in a range of multimedia formats, including online audio and video, CDs, videos, and tape cassettes.
Dialogues have included:
- Against All Odds: Women Partnering for Change in a Time of Crisis
and Fighting the Good Fight: Women’s Rights Activism in a Time of Crisis
Women's rights activists from Iran, Jordan, and Nigeria discuss the ways and means of strengthening women’s movements by building alliances, sharing inter-generational experience and expertise, and developing culture-specific, grassroots-based approaches to empowering women and girls. These events also included the premier of a new 25-minute documentary, which showcases the perspectives of activists from around the world including Afghanistan, Brazil, Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, and Uzbekistan. - Partnering for Change: Movement Building in the 21st Century
Women's rights activists presented an interactive panel and dialogue to discuss strategies to strengthen social movements, particularly the women’s movement, in an era of crisis for civic organizing at the Seventh World Social Forum in Nairobi. - Women as Equal Citizens: Advocating for Change in Muslim-Majority Societies
On September 6th, 2006 Women’s Learning Partnership convened a panel discussion and launched an international campaign in support of a seven-country regional campaign for Arab women’s right to nationality at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. - Violence Against Women: A Human Security Perspective
Women academics and NGO leaders discuss strategies for eliminating violence against women in Muslim-majority societies at a panel held at the Middle East Studies Association 2005 Annual Meeting. - A Shared Vision for Change: Women and Legislative Reform in Muslim-Majority Societies
Women NGO leaders from Muslim-majority societies exchange experiences of advocating for legislative reform at a panel held at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. - Reflections on the International Women’s Movement: 10 Years After Beijing
Leading international women's rights activists address the future of the women’s movement at a panel held at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. - Leading to Change: Eliminating Violence Against Women in Muslim Societies
Leading authorities discuss violence against women in Muslim-majority societies at an international symposium held at the 2005 Commission on the Status of Women meeting, convened with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Prior to 2005, WLP held dialogues on gender and human security, women and leadership in Muslim-majority societies, women’s role in shaping globalization, the literature of women’s human rights, faith and freedom, responses to terror, and culture and technology. See our calendar for a full listing of dialogues.
Against All Odds: Women Partnering for Change in a Time of Crisis
March 8, 2007: On the occasion of International Women's Day, WLP premiered a new 25-minute documentary "Against All Odds: Women Partnering for Change in a Time of Crisis," which showcases the perspectives of activists from around the world including Afghanistan, Brazil, Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, and Uzbekistan.
Fighting the Good Fight: Women’s Rights Activism in a Time of Crisis
March 6, 2007: Women’s rights and activism across the world are being threatened by rising religious fundamentalism, war and conflict, and government restrictions, including legislation that limits activities of civic organizations. While women are disproportionately affected, they are also key agents of change, upholding communities and families, and engaging in peaceful forms of resistance. Women activists This March 6th 2007 featured conversations with women activists from Iran, Jordan, and Nigeria on the topics of ways and means of strengthening the women's movements by building alliances, sharing inter-generational experience and expertise, and developing culture-specific, grassroots-based approaches to empowering women and girls.
Partnering for Change: Movement Building in the 21st Century
January 21, 2007: At the Seventh World Social Forum in Nairobi, Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) presented an interactive panel and dialogue with women’s rights activists from Africa and the Middle East who discussed strategies to strengthen social movements, particularly the women’s movement, in an era of crisis for civic organizing. Efforts to achieve gender equality, human rights, and social justice are being increasingly challenged by rising extremism and fundamentalism, wars and conflict, poverty, and violence. Activists are overcoming these barriers by working together to devise innovative, context-relevant strategies that will transform power relations and dynamics with the family, community, and society.
Women as Equal Citizens: Advocating for Change in Muslim-Majority Societies
Women's right to equal citizenship is guaranteed by the majority of constitutions in Arab countries, as well as by international law. In many countries in the region, however, women are denied their right to nationality - a crucial component of citizenship. Women in the region who marry men of other nationalities cannot confer their nationality on their husbands or children. These laws undermine women's status as equal citizens in their home countries, preventing them from participating fully in public life. On September 6th 2006, Women’s Learning Partnership convened a panel discussion and launched an international campaign in support of a seven-country regional campaign for Arab women’s right to nationality in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Morocco.
Symposium Builds Momentum for International Efforts to Eliminate Violence Against Women
More than 250 activists, policy-makers, UN representatives, scholars, and heads of NGOs from 40 countries gathered at Women's Learning Partnership's (WLP) international symposium, "Leading to Change: Eliminating Violence against Women in Muslim Societies," on March 1 in New York. Held in conjunction with the United Nation's 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Symposium was an energizing and movement-building event that brought together grassroots activists, including WLP partners, and international policy-makers to discuss the major challenges to eliminating gender violence as well as grassroots, national, and regional measures to promote women's human rights. Three panel discussions on "Culture, Conflict and Extremism," "International Perspectives on Eliminating Violence Against Women," and "Women, Empowerment, and Justice" were each followed by dynamic Q&A sessions between speakers and audience members.
A Shared Vision for Change: Women and Legislative Reform in Muslim-Majority Societies
November 17, 2005: Women leaders from Muslim-majority societies discussed strategies for the creation of egalitarian communities and reform of family law in Muslim-Majority Societies based on women's capability to choose. The panelists included Mahnaz Afkhami, Zainah Anwar, Asma Khader, Rabéa Naciri, and Azar Nafisi. The dialogue was a collaboration between WLP and the Dialogue Project at John Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.
Reflections on the International Women's Movement: 10 Years After Beijing
May 10, 2005: Four leading international women's rights activists presented an intercultural dialogue on the status of women in a fast changing world, and discussed the challenges presented by the new technological, economic, cultural, and political realities. Panelist Joanna Kerr finds hope in the situation, "Going forward at this time of intense turmoil...we need a surfeit of hope and inspiration. That, and the knowledge that feminists a hundred years ago could never have dreamed of the successes so many of us enjoy today." Panelists discussed the current status of women globally and the international women's movement in light of the tenth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted at the conference.
Leading to Change: Eliminating Violence Against Women in Muslim Societies
March 1, 2005: Women have been systematically deprived of knowledge and skills that might help them to become better equipped to protect themselves against violence, including knowledge of the existing laws, religious texts, positive cultural resources, international injunctions on human rights, and the demands made by other women for rights in their community and elsewhere. In the WLP Symposium, speakers will address major challenges to eliminating violence against women and girls and discuss grassroots, national, and regional measures needed to raise awareness, initiate reform legislation, and create synergy for ongoing efforts to prevent violence and to promote women's human rights.
Violence Against Women: A Human Security Perspective
November 21, 2005: "Violence Against Women: A Human Security Perspective", a special session at the Middle East Studies Association 2005 Annual Meeting, provided a forum for scholar/activists from Muslim-majority societies to address major challenges to eliminating violence against women and girls from a human security perspective and to discuss grassroots, national, and regional measures needed to raise awareness, initiate reform legislation, and create synergy for ongoing efforts to prevent violence and to promote human rights of women. Violence against women, a manifestation of the historically unequal power relations between men and women, remains one of the primary obstacles to empowering women and achieving peace and security for all.
International Leaders Prioritize Human Security at WLP Conference “Clash or Consensus”
Washington DC - More than 250 activists, academics, policy-makers, and organizational and religious leaders from over 20 countries gathered at WLP's human security conference, "Clash or Consensus: Gender and Human Security in a Globalized World" on October 8-9, 2003. Organized in collaboration with the Global Fund for Women, the conference provided a forum for women leaders and human security experts from the Global South - particularly from Muslim societies - to explore ways to discuss and define human security goals and challenges from a perspective that is people-centered.
While the concept of security has been traditionally concerned with the security of states and the shoring up of borders, the notion of human security encompasses the social, political, economic, and cultural needs and rights of individuals and communities in our increasingly interconnected societies and provides a viable framework for achieving sustainable societal change.
