Pathways News
International Women's Day - March 8th
To celebrate International Women's Day on March 8th, Tessa Lewin discusses the work of the Pathways of Women's Empowerment programme on the IDS website and Alyson Brody from BRIDGE reports from the recent Commission on the Status of Women meetings in New York. Plus you can get a taster of some of the photographs which formed part of a competition which the Pathways South Asia Hub ran last year on 'Changing Images of Women'...IDS News
Real World
The Institute of Development Studies and Screen South are looking for an innovative documentary filmmaker from the Screen South region to make 4 x 3 minute documentary films, based on research from the Pathways programme. The initiative was launched at The Brighton Documentary Film Festival on Saturday 17 November. The closing date was 18th January 2008 and the team are now in the process of selecting the finalist. More soon...
Links: SEE Festival 2007; IDS News and Screen South
16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence
25 November to 10 December is a period of annual mobilisation aimed at heightening global awareness of violence against women. As part of their 50:50 initiative, Open Democracy are providing coverage of this period, including articles and a multi-voiced blog. As part of this feature, see article by Takyiwaa Manuh on 'African Women and Domestic Violence' .
VII Annual Encampment of Women Rural Workers and Indigenous Women in Bahia, Brazil
By Claire Cesareo-Silva
Anthropology Ph.D. Candidate, Columbia University
Professor of Anthropology, Saddleback College
At the closing ceremony of the VII Annual Encampment of Women Rural Workers and Indigenous Women, organized primarily by the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (MST) or Landless Workers Movement, a woman dressed in a red evening gown and carrying an infant wrapped in the MST flag, which she then handed to her male partner, sang the words that seemed to epitomize the meaning of this week long event for many of the women there:
Photo/Claire Cesareo-Silva
I am a warrior,
But I am also a queen.
You too are a queen
In the reign of our history.
Every female warrior is a queen;
A queen of all the warriors.
This was a week in which over a thousand women rural workers throughout the state of Bahia, Brazil, gathered to share their experiences in the struggle for land and in the struggle against all forms of violence but especially domestic violence; to rejuvenate and replenish themselves for another year of battle against the power structures; and to remind themselves that, as women, they need to demand to be treated with respect by both their colleagues in struggle and by society at large.
As part of what the MST refers to as mística or mysticism, this ceremony served to demonstrate and celebrate the women’s faith in the possibility of change and in the creation of a world that is just, harmonious, and plentiful. Despite the hardships that many of these women face in their daily lives, through mística, which is a component of all MST gatherings, they constantly evoke their many victories and the righteousness of their cause. If these women left the encampment with nothing else, they all took with them a renewed sense of purpose and commitment.
Every year, coinciding with the week of International Women’s Day, women from the MST meet in Salvador, the capital of the state. This year the gathering was expanded to include women from two other organizations: Movement of Encamped and Settled Workers (CETA) and the Indigenous Women’s Movement. Making conscious links outside the movement as well, the MST also works closely with the Federal University of Bahia and its women’s studies program, the Núcleo de Estudos Interdisciplinares Sobre a Mulher (NEIM), in the organization of the event. Notable as well was the presence of two indigenous women from Bolivia, who shared their experiences with agrarian reform and argued that the problems facing the landless in Brazil are indeed the same problems that the landless face the world over. The conference was organized around two themes: the ending of violence, beginning with domestic violence but also generalized to the other forms of violence that affect rural workers in their struggle for land, and food sovereignty, particularly the need to break the reliance on international capital from debt to genetically-modified seeds.
Arriving by the busload late into the evening on the first day of the conference, women from the different regions of Bahia, as well as a few men, set up camp throughout the buildings and grounds of the old national petroleum company (Petrobras) complex. Women coordinated the event while the men ostensibly did the cooking and the dishwashing (although in reality, the chores seemed to be shared and many women could also be seen carrying buckets of water and washing dishes at the main water tank). The cultivation of female leadership is, in fact, one of the key principles of the MST platform, and all local groups must include female as well as male coordinators.
Photo/Claire Cesareo-Silva
In addition to the focus on the two main themes, there was a day of smaller workshops that included topics as diverse as permaculture techniques, capoeira (the Brazilian martial art and dance form), body movement, AIDS awareness, belly dancing, sexual tourism, the women Rastafarian movement, and dream analysis. The women actively participated in these workshops and the halls of the building resounded with laughter, music, and introspective dialogue.
During the encampment, the women also traveled to the state offices to meet with officials from the new Worker’s Party (PT) government of Jacques Wagner, elected governor of the state in October of 2006. There they presented their demands, dealing with issues related to agrarian reform, women’s health, job creation, agroecology, and education. Primary among these demands was the need for an acceleration of the disappropriation of unproductive land and the granting of this land to the landless of Brazil.
In the afternoon of March 8, International Women’s Day and the final day of the gathering, the women took to the streets and joined a larger demonstration for women’s rights in Brazil, particularly for the legalization of abortion and greater representation in public office, as well as another demonstration organized to protest the Brazilian visit of U.S. President George W. Bush. The women of the MST were indeed the largest and most organized contingent in the march, confirming once again their supreme reign as warriors for social justice in Brazil.
See also What Does Empowerment Mean to You? Andrea Cornwall's comments from the annual Movimento sem Terra women's gathering in Bahia, Brazil
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