Women's WG

A core group meeting of the WRI Women's Working Group was held in London on March 24. Several important issues were on the agenda: how to improve communication and keep in touch with women interested in the working group; the process for accepting new core group members; an evaluation of the Days of Action (25 November and 8 March); the women's presentation at the next Triennial in Brazil; and finally, the Women's Working Group's attitude towards the upcoming United Nation's 4th World Conference on Women (WCW), which is to be held in September 1995. The choice of Beijing, China, as the venue for this international event carries strong political implications, given the Chinese government's blatant violations of human rights. Should the WRI women's group accept to participate? The UN World Conference on Women —subtitled "Action for Equality, Development, and Peace"— aims to review and appraising the progress made since the Nairobi conference marking the end of the UN Decade of Women in 1985. Several thousands people are expected to take part in the event.

It is more than a decade now since a small group of Thai women began to systematically raise gender questions. They had to struggle against all kinds of difficulties. First they had to clarify for themselves what the reality of the situation was between men and women and what kind of relationship they wanted between them, both universally and in the Thai context. Next, they had to decide what they should do to address related problems.

B.a.B.e. (Be active, Be emancipated) is a human rights centre for women, located in Zagreb and initiated by the Zagreb Women's Lobby. Our mission is to enhance understanding and foster the spirit and principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in ways that are culturally relevant and integral to women's lives in Croatia.

Let the Good Times Roll: Prostitution and the US Military in Asia by Saundra Pollock Sturdevant and Brenda Stoltzfus (The New Press, New York, USA; 1993, 343 pages, US $24.95 paperback) is a collection of six essays (by Cynthia Enloe and Walden Bello, among others), plus interviews with five Korean, Okinawan and Filipina prostitutes, which examine the links between militarization and the oppression of women. The authors point out that unless ‘sexual imperialism’ is dealt with, no change of power will mean real autonomy for women in the region.

Death in Bangladesh

A 30-year-old woman named Noorjahan was stoned to death in the village of Chatakchaara, Bangladesh in January. Noorjahan’s first husband had disappeared and her father had married her to another villager, against the wishes of the village religious leader, who wanted to marry her himself. He declared her second marriage invalid. The death sentence was decided on by the local village council.

by Chaya Shalom

[Editor’s note: the concubine at Gibea refers to Judges 19 in the Bible. A traveller, staying overnight In Glbea, offers his concubine to a mob In order to prevent being assaulted himself. The concubine Is raped all night by the mob. The traveller cuts her dead body Into 12 pieces and sends them to his tribesmen, thus provoking a war against the Gibeans.)

I have something horrible to tell you, Hania: the concubine from Gibea came to my door dismembered, eyes gouged out.

I thought I’d go crazy.

Stopping Violence in India

Many readers who attended the WRI Women’s Conference in Bangkok last year will remember Hansa Mazgaonkar of Bombay, India. Hansa was part of a group of experienced Gandhians who went to Surat, in Gujurat state, after communal rioting there killed 200 people and left thousands homeless in January. She worked to ease tensions and to investigate abuses that occurred during the rioting. One such abuse was the gang rape of several Muslim women. The rape was pre-planned, as it was videotaped.

To: Di McDonald, The Women and Nonviolence Project, Network Information Project, 30 Westwood Road, Southampton SO2 1DN, UK

Dear Sisters,

I read about the women and nonviolence project in the WRI Women’s Newsletter. I am a nonviolent activist living at Commonground Community near Seymour, north of Melbourne, Australia.

they’re going to give us our own postage stamp,
hot damn!
when i was in the air force
the men called us cunts and whores and said
that WAF==*== stands for women-all-fuck.
and my mama asked if it was true we were all lesbos
under our uniforms like my master-
sergeant uncle told her.
i said some of us are.
we stood proud around our flag at burials.
besides being whores and cents and lesbians
we were good soldiers.
we held our m-16s.
we shined our shoes.

[Editor’s note: the dedicated women of CONNECT did an excellent job in identifying and raising funds for participants to last year’s WRI women’s conference. Much of the Conference’s success was due to their hard work.)

This is a short note to tell everyone that CONNECT has formally debriefed and disbanded—it no longer exists.

Stasa Zajovic of the women’s anti-war group in Belgrade, Women in Black—Women Against War, was invited by other anti-war groups to the State of Spain this April. Stasa spoke in Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza and many other cities. Her talks were well attended (over 150 people at each public talk) and the tour received good press coverage. Most of all, solidarity between peace groups in the various countries was strengthened. The following is a compilation of several reports about her visit.

by Lepa Mladjenovic

In November 1990 some of us and our friends (and friends of our friends) met for the first time in one of the local cafes. After that we met off and on, mostly in private flats. The number of activists varied.