ZATAR The Women's Committees of the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Women in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are not waiting for the political crisis in the region to be resolved before trying to change the infrastructure in the occupied territories. The Women's Committees of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are playing an innovative role in developing projects based on community participation. The committees were formed to provide health care, literacy classes, vocational training and child care facilities for Palestinian women and their families. They stress the importance of self-organization at the local level and aim at women's economic independence from men and confidence in their own ability to work and form an organized women's movement. With opposition from Israeli occupation authorities as well as from some of their own people - who feel changes in women's roles may undermine Palestinian cultural identity - the committees need both financial and moral support to achieve their goals.

For more information, contact:

ZATAR (Middle East Community Development)
21 Colhngham Road
London SW5, UK

Uganda: Women and The Government of the National Resistance Movement

Writing on women and the changing political situation in Uganda, the Uganda Women's Association reports that during the rule of Milton Obote in Uganda, women often felt they were being used by the government for political gains. During Tito Okello's term of power, women came together to fight rapes, killings and all sorts of atrocities (forced marriages, etc.). Women were denied an audience with Okello to whom they wanted to voice their grievances. When a subsequent peace march was organized from the City Square to the president's office, he was not there to receive them. Women re-grouped to help each other. Some women teachers went to camps to teach displaced children. Finally the National Resistance Movement has chased away Okello and his group and the rapes, killings, torture and forced marriages have stopped. Now there are two women Deputy ministers in the government of President Yoweri Musereni. A woman judge has been appointed and there are women on several committees.

For more information, contact:

Uganda Media Women's Association
Radio Uganda - P.O.Box 2038
Kampala, Uganda

Haiti Women and Organization

There is a much larger percentage of unemployed women in Haiti than unemployed men and the illiteracy rate is very high. Almost the entire female population is unable to read or write and wife- beating is an uncontested custom, according to one Haitian woman. After the flight of Duvalier, several women's organizations sprang up - like the League of Women for the Defence of the Peasant Woman, the League of Women Against Torture, etc. However, it hardly had time to build up the popular movement before "the military dictatorship reorganized and repression was re- established with more force; now we have a direct military dictatorship," according to one woman.

 

 

 

 

Dominican Republic A Flower to the Mirabel Sisters

The Feminist Coordinator of the Dominican Republic held a Day of Protest against Violence Against Women in November 1986, to coincide with similar demonstrations in other Latin American countries. The three Mirabel sisters, who died during the trujillist tyranny, were commemorated and all forms of violence against women were contested: domestic violence, sexual violence, political violence, economic and social violence.

Source:

Boletin no. 15, Diciembre 1986
Centro de Promocion Humana Integral
Dominican Republic

Peru - Village Library Appeal for Support

A group of women in the village Tablade de Lurin met a few years ago to discuss and search for solutions to the problems of women. Out of that meeting grew the New Woman Workshop, which has carried out several activities. Among these is the creation of a library, open to all interested people in the village. It now has 13 books and 97 documents (magazines, brochures, etc.) The women are seeking help to increase the library materials.

For more information contact:

Ines Villanueva L.
Biblioteca del Taller Mujer Nueva
Direccion: Biblioteca Flora Tristan
Velarda no. 42 Lima 1, Peru
Lima 1, Peru

Taiwan Discrimination Against Taiwanese Workers

The number of women workers in Taiwan grew from little more than 1 million in 1964 to around 3 million in 1985 because of a lower birthrate, much later marriages and better opportunities for work and salaries. However, there is much discrimination against female workers. Women receive only 62 - 83 percent of the salary received by male workers, for the same activities. Many women point out that they are employed temporarily or part-time. Their expectations of promotion are poor and they have much lower educational levels than men.

Source:

Management and Labour, September 1986

India and Protests

Hundreds of school girls and teachers blocked New Delhi's busiest street early this year in outraged protest against "Eve teasing" - or sexual harrassment - on crowded buses. A few years ago, in protest against such harassment - women took over a bus and forced the drivers to deliver the culprits straight to the police.

And In Mexico...

A new regulation has recommended that advertising which "contains elements that denigrate humans, especially women" be banned. The law forbids advertisements which "promote discrimination by race or social conditions" or which "feature war-like ideas, images or instruments." The law also bans "obscene images, phrases or scenes which hold double meanings... and the use of subliminal messages." The Secretary of Health plans to enforce the \9w through fines, closure of businesses and even jail sentences. Although such legislation is certainly welcome, it remains to be seen whether it will in fact be strictly enforced and for what reasons.

Source:

Outwrite, No. 56, March 1987
Oxford House, Derbyshire St.
London E26HG, UK

The Personal Cost of Exile.. ..Guatemala

Guatemala is one of the richest countries in Central America, yet more than half the population (mostly Indian) has no access to health care, malnutrition is a major cause of infant mortality and only one child in ten attends secondary school. In some rural areas, 80 percent of the population cannot read or write. Many teachers and workers have been forced into exile. Although in 1986, Vinicio Cerezo, leader of the Christian Democrats, became president of the country's first elected civilian government for 16 years, disappearances and killings by the military still continue. Many refugees fled to Mexico - most of them were indigenous.

Two projects have been set up there to help women refugees overcome the traumas of torture, disappearances, genocide and the isolation of exile. Barbara Harrington, a worker in the center, discovered only two out of the 12 women who first came to the center spoke Spanish. Everyone else spoke one of nine dialects, just one of the many problems they had adapting to life in Mexico.

The refugees discovered western women and health systems based on individual therapy and treatment could not really cope with many of their problems. So they put together a booklet in which they talk about their experiences, why they had to leave Guatemala, what the fleeing was like and problems of adapting to Mexico. This uncovered problems which fell into the realm of mental health. Workers in the project discovered that it could be most beneficial to train the women themselves to help other women, rather than trying to impose inappropriate systems on people whose personal identity was bound up with family, village and hundreds of years of culture. An oral history project was started with five women probing into their own lives.

For more information about the projects, contact:

The Guatemala Committee for Human Rights
83 Margaret Street
London WIN 7HB, UK
Tel. 631-4200
(Source: Outwrite, No. 56, March 1987)

IRENE Women as Workers

A precise definition of industrial restructuring is not easy in any language. IRENE - the Industrial Restructuring Education Network Europe takes it to mean the rapid changes that are taking place in national and international economic policies (both public and private). These policies are central to North- South relationships and increasingly, those between East and West. The main sectors are trade, investment, technology, employment, regional development and environment. The organization is mainly concerned with the consequences of these changes on the lives of working people throughout the world - in particular with the unprecedented rise in levels of unemployment. Set up following a survey in 1980 of European NGOs and national trade unions to find out what research and education work was being done in the area, IRENE maintains links with interested parties through its newsletter - published three times a year. Its aims are:

• to stimulate the exchange of information between organizations working in the field of development education and industrial restructuring and to promote expansion of this work
• exert influence on the development cooperation and industrial restructuring policies of the EEC and its member states
• publish research material on north south relations with special reference to the international division of labor.

For further information, contact:

IRENE
c/o C.O.S. Korvelseweg 127
5025 JC Tilburg, Netherlands
Tel. 013-351523

Defend The Clinics Campaign

The Irish Defend The Clinics Campaign held a march and rally in February to show the strength of the growing opposition to a High Court injunction to prevent centers like the Open Line counselling and Well Women's Center from giving women adequate information on alternatives open to them when faced with an unwanted pregnancy. Despite lashing rain, about 500 people took part in the march, carrying banners and placards. Newspapers covered the event but photographs of the banners, published the next day, often had contact phone numbers cancelled out. Speakers defended women's right to know particularly their right to have adequate information on the dangers of AIDS. One speaker pointed out that women who are antibody positive and then become pregnant have an 80 percent chance of contracting full blown AIDS when they give birth and the baby has a 65 percent chance of also suffering from AIDS. The women demanded that the full text of the High Court judgement be released to the public.

For further information and support, contact;

Defend The Clinics Campaign
16 North Great Georges St
Dublin, Ireland

Interview with Nawal El Saadawi

Nawaal El Saadawi is an Egyptian feminist, physician and writer whose works have become a barometer of women's desire for change throughout the world. She is feared by many powerful male leaders and her books are banned in some Arab countries. In others they are required in college curricula. She talked to Rajaa Gharbi for the US. Women's newsletter "Off Our Backs" about her frustration with working within the United Nations system and how she sees her writing as an important arm for the forging of history and against oppression and ignorance. Writing fiction is her real passion, but writing alone is not enough.

She is also an organizer because she believes collective effort in political work and also in writing, is necessary.

Source:

Off Our Backs, No. 2, February 1987
2423 18th St., NW, Washington DC
20009 USA

 

 

 

 

Struggles in Asia - Taiwan

Over 200 protesters from 31 women's groups, aboriginal human rights and church groups staged a parade protest through the red light district of Taipe in Taiwan in January. It was the first time women and aboriginal people together had protested against the exploitation of teenage aborigine prostitutes. Girls from 12 to 18 are sold to brothels through crime syndicates who pay their parents a small price. Some enter the profession before they are 12 after hormones are injected into them to induce maturity. Girls between 12 and 16 have to receive between 30 - 50 customers a day but receive only NT $10 (US$0.34) as pocket money for each customer. They have no opportunity to communicate with relatives and friends and have little prospect of regaining freedom even with the payment of a ransom. Using tribal language, the protesters called on their sisters in the brothels to stand up for their dignity and protested about the exploitation of the original residents of Taiwan by the present society. The protest has been followed-up by petitions, seminars and other action.

Source:

Asiati Women Workers Newsletter vol.6 no. 1
c/o Committee for Asian Women
57 Peking Road
4/F Kowloon
Hong Kong

Feminist Audio Books

Feminist Audio Books is a voluntary organization which provides a tape library of books by, for and about women. The service is available to people who are blind, partially sighted or have difficulty with the printed word. Also available is a microcomputer aid to help blind people use computers. It consists of a keyboard and a speech synthesizer which reads out what is on the screen. It costs 275 pounds and is attached to an IBM XT. Two women from FAB talk about the problems of using such a computer in a special article.

Source:

From Women and Computing Newsletter,
March 1987
c/o Microsyster
Woesley House, Wild Court off Kingsway, London
WC2 UK

 

 

 

 

Networking in Africa

There has been increasing pressure for African NGOs to form a network on a Pan-African level and women's organizations have been taking a leading role in creating an effective channel of communication.

The Association of African Women for Research and Development (AAWORD) has been hosting seminars of NGOs in Africa to try to promote the portrayal of women as active subjects, struggling to sustain households, and not just the hopeless victims of hunger and poverty which are portrayed by the media.

African women's activist Fatma Alloo visited the United States late last year, sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies - Third World
Women's Project. She talked about what African women were seeking.

AAWORD was set up because it was realized that research in all fields was a key to African development and was an important factor towards liberation, she said in a speech. The organization marked a key phase in the growth of awareness among women researchers as to their role in Africa's political development. AAWORD has managed to analyze problems of gender and portray the realities of women's situations. Fatma Alloo criticized international forums which discussed Africa or African development but which frequently included few African participants

Source:

Outwrite, No. 55, February, 1987
and Fatmah Alloo's speech in the US
Oxford House, Derbyshire St., London
E26HG
UK

SPEAK

A magazine for South African women, published every three months. It deals with health issues, problems of work, and provides a forum for women to express their opinions and worries about things like pressing absent fathers for child maintenance, periods and how to cope with them, fighting back against exploitation in the workplace. With illustrations and diagrams, it is easy and clear to read. It is published in both Zulu and English and gives information on women organizing in the country.

For more information, contact:

SPEAK
Room 16
Ecumenical Centre Trust
20 St Andrews Street
Durban, South Africa

 

 

 

 

Our Struggle Is Still For Our Lives

Mera Costa is one of the few women working with rural trade unionists in the south of Bania, a region in the northeast of Brazil, twice the size of Great Britain, where the battle for land ownership is becoming explosive. Nearly 70 people have been assassinated during the last years in the area. The victims were workers and rural trade unionists, their children and even pregnant women. "Those responsible have never been punished," says Mera. "Our struggle in the south of Bahia is still for our lives. Because those who consider themselves owners of the land think they also own the lives of the workers. When someone gets in their way, they get rid of them. When that someone is a woman, they employ extreme violence." On a recent visit to London she talked about her work.

Source:

Spare Rib, April 1987, no 177
27 Clerkenwell Close
London ECl OAT, UK