Print Media
ASIA
Trinjan
Women and Development Newsletter, Simorgh Women's Resource and Publication Center, P.O. Box 3328, Main Market, Gulberg II, Lahore, Pakistan.
Trinjan, a newsletter launched by Simorgh, a women's education and activist organization in Pakistan comes out three times a year. Besides producing a newsletter, Simorgh conducts research and training programs and operates a documentation center. The newsletter is primarily for Pakistani women working on development programs at the grassroots level. The first issue features an overview of Pakistani women's organizations, information on NGO activities, referrals to international donors and agencies, and a review of the national government training programs.
Women of Sri Lanka: An Annotated Bibliography
By Leelangi Wanasundera, Center for Women's Research, 16 Elliot Place, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1986. 140 pp., U.S.$ 10 (postage included).
This bibliography of 875 annotated and indexed references covers literature of women in Sri Lanka from 1870s to the present. The listing includes data sources in areas such as education, labor force, health, and demography, as well as theoretical studies in the fields of anthropology, history, religion and the media.
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Women in Moslem Paradise
By Fatima Mernissi, Kali for Women, N. 84 Panchshila Park, New Delhi 110017, India, 1986. 50 pp.. Price 35 rupees.
This beautiful booklet explores how women might fare in the Paradise envisioned by Islam, where most females are "loving virgins" who are good, beautiful, fair and pure. After carefully scrutinizing her place in paradise, the author advises women of all faiths to do the same and finally arrives at the following conclusion: "If we don't want trouble after life, we better unite now to design a women's paradise... (as) an alternative space among all other orthodox paradises."
The author, a sociology professor in Morocco, is described as a "strong campaigner for a reinterpretation of the Islamic texts" to improve the position of women. She explains in the introduction that the idea for the book came to her while watching a television program with a male colleague on the glories of Moslem paradise. Her colleague reacted angrily to her ironic comments about the possibility of women achieving happiness in paradise.
The text runs along each right-hand page, combining prose-poetry with commentary and interspersed with passages from sacred Moslem texts. On each right-hand page, black and white Persian miniatures and calligraphed verses from the Koran and the Hadith beautifully illustrate the booklet.
Women of Bahrain
Special issue of Al-Raida, August 1, 1986, vol. VIII, no., 37, Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World, Beirut University College, c/o 475 Riverside Drive, Room 1846, New York, NY 10115, 16 pp.
This special issue takes a look at women in a country we hear very little about - Bahrain - through analyses, reports, facts and figures. While the introduction points out that "there has never been a feminist movement in Bahrain," the materials examine the different ways women have worked to improve their position, particularly in the field of education.
African Women Link
A quarterly newsletter, P.O. Box 50795, Nairobi, Kenya, Tel: 21431.
Launched in 1985, this eight-page newsletter is a joint project between the U.S.-based Pathfinder Fund, which supports many Third World women's projects, and the Federation of African Media Women, an association of women media professionals in the continent. The newsletter aims to provide a channel for news and information on women's development issues in Sub-Saharan African and to link individuals and organizations concerned with the issue. In well-written and well-designed format, the newsletter features news on grassroots development activities in the region, country reports on development policy, upcoming events, book reviews and resources.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Lionheart Gal: Life Stories of Jamaican Women
Edited by Honor Ford Smith, The Women's Press Ltd., 34 Great Sutton Street, London ECIV ODX, England, 1986.
As a document of the power of poor women to understand and take hold of their lives, few recent publications can match this warm, moving collection of personal testimonies from more than 20 Jamaican women. All the contributors collaborate with the Sistren (Jamaican dialect for Sisters) Theater Collective, a 10-year-old women's group that uses drama and other techniques for organizing urban and rural poor women in Jamaica. (See Isis International Women's Journal, no. 6 for a first-hand account of their method.)
Written in Jamaican patois, the language has a rhythm and cadence that takes you right into the rundown Kingston slums or into the sugar plantations in rural areas. You follow women's trials through their all-too-brief childhood, pregnancy and motherhood at a young age, abandonment by the fathers of their children, finding work (or more commonly not finding it), struggling with ruthless landlords or bosses, laughing, loving, fighting, and more. One feature of the collection is the remarkable similarity among the life stories which serve to demonstrate the commonness of these women's conditions, but can also make for some slightly repetitive reading.
And while the presentation in local dialect is true to the language and culture of the women, it is sometimes so elaborated that it may present difficulties for readers, especially speakers of English as a second language. Nevertheless, the collection is essential reading for anyone looking for genuine expressions from women who are poor, black, and Third World.
Mujer TV: Gula de Trabajo con Grupo de Mujeres Pobladoras
(Women TV:) Workbook for Grassroots Women's Groups) By Paula Edwards, Soledad Cortes, Maria Elena Hermosilla, CENECA, Santa Beatrix 106, Santiago, Chile, 1986. (In Spanish)
An interesting educational guide on TV designed for grassroots urban women's groups. The guide aims to develop women's critical capacity towards television by confronting the ways that it influences their perceptions and defines their needs and values. It also addresses how women are defining what kind of television they need and want; and ways in which they can participate, influence, and make demands on the television industry.
INTERNATIONAL
Hard Cash: Man-Made Development and Its Consequences: A Feminist Perspective on Aid.
By War on Want and CHANGE International Reports, Three Castles House, 1 London Bridge Street, London SEl 9SG, England. 1986, 27 pp., £3.00.
The latest of a series of hard-hitting reports looking at the negative impact of mainstream development programs on women. This report came out of a London conference in January 1985 which invited women's groups, NGOs, and representatives from academia and the government to discuss the issues and to examine the effect of British aid policy on Third World women. (However, all government officials except one ignored the invitation.)
One of the more interesting sections of the report targets the women and development policy of official aid agency, and throws some well-placed punches at its past record. The report also ventures beyond a narrow definition of development to cover such issues as education, media, the debt crisis, militarization and sexuality.
In conclusion, the report charges that famine and poverty in the Third World is exacerbated by racism and sexism in development agencies. While funding for grassroots women's groups is essential, it says, '"the man with the checkbook' makes the rules" for large-scale development programs. The damaging trend can't be reversed without "a radical rethinking of the role of international aid agencies."
Women's Tapeover
A taped magazine by the Women's Tapeover Collective, 16 Keston Road, London Nl 7 6PN, England.
September 1986 marked the fifth anniversary of Women's Tapeover, a monthly magazine produced on cassette tape by a handful of blind women for other blind or partially sighted women. The founders started the collective in 1981 out of the desire to gain more access to feminist information that at that time was only available in print.
Relying on sighted women volunteer readers, the group began drawing from feminist magazines and publications and also persuaded some like Spare Rib and Mother tongue to tape their own materials. And in early 1986, the collective launched Feminist Audio Books, to add feminist literature to tape library collections in the London area. At present, the group needs more sighted women volunteers to help edit, read, record, and administer the magazine and hopes to increase its circulation. They ask your help in spreading the word about the magazine among blind women.
SEEDS
A Poster Series from SEEDS and the Population Council, P.O. Box 3923, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163, U.S.A., 1986, U.S. $5 folded, $8 in tube.
The series of eight-color posters from the covers of SEEDS pamphlets celebrate the Decade of Women conference 1975-1985. Each depicts a low-income Third World woman in her everyday reality, from Asia to Africa to Latin America. The posters measure 26 by 40 inches; checks must be made payable to the Population Council.
Audiovisual Resources
ASIA
Women (1986)
Sound-slideshow, 33 minutes, color, in English and six Indian languages.
Available from: Ishvani Kendra, P.B. No. 3, Off Nagar Road, Pune 411 014, India.
Sale: 475 rupees.
Through 127 slides and an accompanying tape and booklet, this slideshow "speaks to men and women, young and old, urban and rural," about "the problems of Indian women and the dignity of women-hood. " Designed for use in consciousness-raising sessions, the production covers four themes: women in society, women in media, problems of female children, and the dignity of womanhood.
Samadhan (1986)
Video, 28 minutes, color, in Hindi
Available from: Forum Against Sex Determination and Pre-selection
c/o Women's Center, 104 B Block, Sunrise Apartments, Nehru Road Bombay - 400055 India
Sale: 350 rupees.
This video was developed by an Indian organization as an educational aid in their campaign against the use of tests by pregnant Indian women to determine the sex of their unborn fetuses. The test frequently leads to abortion of female fetuses. (See "Health" section of this publication for a longer report on the issue.)
AFRICA
Female Circumcision (1981)
Video, 40 minutes, color, in English and Arabic
Produced by the British Broadcasting Services
Available from: Babiker Badri Scientific Association for Women's Studies,
P.O. Box 167, Omdurman, Sudan.
This videotape covers the widespread practice of female circumcision in Sudan and the complications suffered by women subjected to it. The distributor, the Babiker Badri Scientific Association of Women's Studies, actively campaigns against the practice, and runs educational and training programs for midwives. The group makes available other materials on the issue in the Arabic language - videos, cassettes, and educational posters.
NORTH AMERICA
A Christian Feminist Perspective on Abortion (1986)
Audiotape, 26 minutes, and videotape, 26 minutes, color, in English
Available from: Ginney Soley, Sojourners Community,
P.O. Box 29672, Washington, D.C., 20017, USA
Sale: Audiotape U.S.$ 4.95, videotape $95.
Aimed primarily at a Christian audience, this audiovisual provides a perspective on abortion "which is not punitive toward women... but views the issue from a wholistic perspective." It also presents an overview on the history of feminist thought and practice, followed by a discussion of what women and Christian feminists can offer the social change and peace movement.
EUROPE
Under the Health Surface (1986)
Video, 52 minutes, color, in English
Available from: Northern Visions, 9 Winatavern St., Belfast BT1 1JQ, Northern Ireland Sale: VHS £ 15, lowband u-matic £ 30.
A documentary on the health conditions of Northern Ireland women, the video differs from most health documentaries that "place the onus on the individual to make lifestyle changes through diet and exercise," according to the filmmakers. Instead, it focuses on factors such as poverty, the environment, corruption, and unemployment to find out why Northern Ireland women suffer higher rates of respiratory illness and are at greater risk of premature death than women in all of Western Europe.
Audiovisual Resource Collection
Available from: Institute de la Mujer (Women's Institute) Calle Almargo 36, Madrid 28010, Spain,
Tel: 410-5702 and 410-5114;
Telex: 49156 IDLME.
The Women's Institute in Madrid will make available to women a large number of videos from its audiovisual resources collection. The videos cover different themes of concern to women - health, social services, women's rights, sexual violence and more. Groups and institutions can obtain copies of these videos by sending to the Institute a new, blank videotape, BETA or VHS. To find out more about the materials available, request a copy of the video catalogue from the Institute.
Please Don't Say We're Wonderful (1986)
Video, 52 minutes, color, in English
Available from: Steel Bank Film Co-op, Albreda House, Lydgate Lane, Sheffield S1O 5FH, England
Rent: £ 12.
Nine months after the end of 1984/5 coal miners strike in northern England, women strikers talk about their continuing fight for survival and about building on their experience of organizing separately as women. Fed up with patronizing praise from supporters, they make it clear that their movement will last. They discuss how they challenge men in the trade union movement to recognize the new idea their movement represents.
INTERNATIONAL
Dynamic Dimension in Development: Women (1986)
16 mm. film, 12 minutes, in English, French and Spanish
Produced for the U.N. International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women
by Decade Media, 30 East 42nd Street,
New York, NY 10017, U.S.A.
Sale: U.S. $ 195.
Designed for use in training programs for women, the film discusses why most women's work is not counted in a country's Gross National Product, and why development programs that do not involve women fail. It also looks at the effect of the U.N. Decade on women, planning and development.
