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.

January 21, 2007

Panelists: Asma Khader, General Coordinator of Sisterhood Is Global Institute/Jordan (SIGI/J) and Sindi Medar-Gould, Executive Director of BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights in Nigeria

At the Seventh World Social Forum in Nairobi, Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) will present an interactive panel and dialogue with women’s rights activists from Africa and the Middle East who will discuss 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.

The event will include the premier of Against All Odds: Women Partnering for Change in a Time of Crisis, a new 25-minute documentary released by Women’s Learning Partnership that showcases the perspectives of activists from around the world including Afghanistan, Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Morocco, and Lebanon. They 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.

WHEN
Sunday, January 21, 2007

WHERE
World Social Forum
Moi International Sports Center Kasarani
Nairobi, Kenya

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES:

Asma Khader (Jordan), a prominent human rights lawyer and activist, is Coordinator of Sisterhood Is Global Institute/Jordan, former Minister of State and Government Spokesperson for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and former President of the Jordanian Women’s Union. She is a member of the Arab Lawyer’s Union, the Arab Organization for Human Rights, and the Executive Committee of the International Commission of Jurists. Ms. Khader was instrumental in creating a Legal Literacy/Legal Assistance program for Jordanian women. In 1990 she received an Award of Honor from Human Rights Watch for her role in defending human rights. Elected to the Permanent Arab Court as Counsel on violence against women, she is a leading advocate of the campaign to strengthen legislation outlawing honor killing.

Sindi Médar-Gould (Nigeria), a women’s human rights activist for over 20 years, is Executive Director of the Nigeria-based organization BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, a non-profit organization working to promote women’s human rights and legal rights under customary and religious law in Africa. BAOBAB also coordinates programs for Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) in Africa and the Middle East. Previously, she was the Executive Director of WISSEA, Kano and the Coordinator of the Women and Law Program for Kano State. She is an experienced teacher, researcher, and trainer in gender, leadership, feminism, conflict resolution, gender budget analysis, human rights and ethics. Ms. Médar-Gould serves as Chairperson of the Nigeria Coalition on the International Criminal Court.

ABOUT WLP

Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP) is dedicated to women’s leadership and empowerment. In cooperation with 18 autonomous partner organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, WLP produces culture-specific curriculum in 17 languages and implements participatory leadership training to empower grassroots women. WLP aims not only to help booster the number of women involved in local, regional and global decision-making, but more importantly, to encourage leadership styles that lead to gender equality, democracy, peace, human rights, and social justice.