On behalf of Catholics for a Free Choice and in support of the Polish Federation of Women and Family Planning, I am sending the sign-on letter below to leaders of religious, human rights, and women’s rights organizations around the world, and ask that you sign-on to this important action to support women in Poland.
The letter will be sent to the president of Poland, asking him to support a change in Poland’s very restrictive abortion law and recommend that it be modified to respect individual conscience and to preserve women’s lives. The letter outlines the negative impact the law has on women in Poland, particularly poor women.
Please send: Name of appropriate senior staff person of your organization / Title / Organization / City, Country
Send your “signature” to international@catholicsforchoice.org
µµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµ
Dear President Kwasniewski,
As leaders of religious, human rights, and women’s rights organizations from around the world, we, the undersigned, join women in Poland to express our grave concern regarding your recent statements that there is no need for further liberalization of Poland’s restrictive abortion law. While we remember and commend your support for liberalizing Poland’s abortion law in 1997, we are dismayed that now you may be closing the abortion debate, which would cause grave consequences for the health and well-being of Poland’s women.
As a European country—and future member of the European Union—that signed the Cairo Platform for Action, Poland is committed to addressing the health impact of unsafe abortion as a major public health concern. As we are sure you are aware, there are an estimated 80,000 to 200,000 abortions per year in Poland. In the year 2001, only 124 legal abortions were performed legally. It seems that Poland’s current law is inadequate in its protection of women because women in need of abortions are overwhelmingly forced to obtain extremely expensive and unsafe “underground abortions,” or they must travel overseas to obtain an abortion—so-called “abortion tourism.” We are very concerned that it is poor women, especially those who live in rural communities, who cannot afford the price of an underground abortion (2,000 zlotys) or the cost to travel abroad, and thus carry the undue and unnecessary burden of the current abortion law. And, as reported by the Federation of Women and Family Planning, it is these women who suffer most the negative health consequences of illegal abortions, which cause severe health problems, and even death, to women in Poland.
Furthermore, public hospitals seldom perform abortions, even if the woman has a right under the current law to obtain an abortion. Negative attitudes of health care providers and lack of legal procedures that would guarantee the implementation of their rights prevent women from obtaining legal abortions. This is especially burdensome and tragic for victims of rape and incest, who must prove the pregnancy is due to a criminal act. It is clear that restrictive regulations on abortion do not eliminate abortions, but only result in limited access to legal, safe and affordable abortion.
Finally, we understand that significant pressure to preserve Poland’s restrictive law against women’s access to safe and legal abortion has come from the Catholic church. However, the Catholic church acknowledged in the 1974 Declaration on Procured Abortion, issued by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, that it does not know when the fetus becomes a person. Since we do know that women are persons with the right to act on the basis of their consciences, it is entirely appropriate for Catholics, whatever they may think of the morality of abortion, to support laws that enable women to protect their lives, health and consciences. For this, and many other reasons, Catholic politicians throughout the world support legislation to keep abortion safe, legal and accessible.
We hope that you will support a change in Poland’s abortion law and recommend that it be modified to respect individual conscience and to preserve women’s lives. This is important to Poland’s women, and to concerned citizens throughout the world.
Cordially,
Frances Kissling President
Catholics for a Free Choice Washington, D.C.,
USA
µµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµ
Thank
you for your support and solidarity. Cordially,
Serra Sippel : www.catholicsforchoice.org
***
9 -
France : Inceste : Contre l'abus de silence...
Monsieur Hubert Van Gijseghem est un grand magicien. Il
connaît sur le bout des doigts cet art merveilleux qu’on appelle l'escamotage et
qui constitue un des charmes du music hall. Mais quand cet admirable
savoir-faire quitte l’innocente salle de spectacle pour venir envahir le champ
du réel, il est à craindre qu’il ne fasse alliance avec d’autres maîtres
illusionnistes, ceux qui ne cessent d’affirmer à cor et à cris que la violence
destructrice n’est pas ce qu’on croyait, qu’elle ne fait pas tant de mal que ça,
qu’elle ne fût pas aussi terrible que d’aucuns le prétendent, et qu’au final on
ne sait même pas si elle eut lieu effectivement. Au lendemain du XX ème siècle
et de ses épouvantes, l’art et la manière de nier les violences historiques
majeures sont connus comme le loup blanc. Nous ne cesserons quant à nous de les
combattre. Et c’est dans cette perspective que nous nous demandons si les thèses
de Monsieur Van Gijseghem ne s’inscrivent pas finalement dans la triste cohorte
des discours de la négation.
Apparemment, Monsieur Van Gijseghem consacre quelques phrases dans ses textes et quelques minutes dans ses conférences pour reconnaître que des agressions sexuelles intrafamiliales sur mineurs existent et qu’elles constituent bien un fléau social. Mais aussitôt après, sa pensée se développe dans un tout autre sens et ne va plus se préoccuper désormais que de pourfendre ce qu’il considère comme des excès et des dérives en matière de protection de l’enfance. Il n’hésite pas à dire que c’est la mise en mots qui constitue l’abus, autrement dit que c’est la parole qui est le lieu constitutif de la violence. Son dernier livre s’intitule “Us et abus de la mise en mots en matière d’abus sexuel”.
Apparemment, Monsieur Van Gijseghem met en garde contre ce qu’il appelle les fausses allégations, notamment dans un contexte de séparation des parents. Au nom de ce qu’il définit comme un “syndrome d’aliénation parentale”, il finit par discréditer systématiquement la parole de l’enfant dès l’instant que ses parents sont séparés. Ce qui se présentait comme un règle de prudence est devenue un dogme au service de la surdité.
Apparemment, Monsieur Van Gijseghem dit qu’il faut considérer la mémoire avec prudence. En fait, il joint sa voix aux tenants de la théorie dite des “faux souvenirs”. Avec eux il insiste sur les risques qu’il y a de prendre au pied de la lettre certaines réminiscences ou certaines images de l’inconscient, et avec eux il en profite pour nier l’éventualité d’un retour de mémoire traumatique après un temps d’occultation. Ici encore, la prudence nécessaire est priée de laisser la place au déni systématique.
Apparemment, Monsieur Van Gijseghem met en garde contre les effets pervers possibles des actions de prévention auprès des enfants. Mais en fait, il ne s'occupe pas de les professionnaliser d’avantage pour les rendre encore plus rigoureuses, il estime qu’elles n’ont pas lieu d’être et qu’il faut les rayer purement et simplement de la carte des écoles élémentaire et maternelle. Il ne concède qu’une action préventive en direction d’adolescents “à risques”, comme si seul l’agresseur potentiel pouvait bénéficier de ses attentions.
Apparemment, Monsieur Van Gijseghem met en garde contre ce qui relève à ses yeux de l’acharnement, tant en matière d’investigation qu’en matière thérapeutique. Mais en fait, il considère d’une part qu’il n’est nul besoin d’une thérapie spécifique pour des enfants victimes d’agressions sexuelles, d’autre part que leur parole doit rester contenue dans un espace clos et qu’il n’est nul besoin de la relier à l’instance judiciaire. (...) .
Notre auteur va décidément très loin. Enhardi par l’absence de protestations, il n’hésite pas à faire franchir à sa pensée de nouveaux seuils. Dans un premier temps, il énonce qu’il n’y a pas de différence entre dire et ne pas dire; puis il déclare qu’il vaut mieux ne pas dire; et enfin il affirme que c’est dire qui fait mal:
Mettant sans cesse sur le même plan la violence réelle et la violence supposée, se fondant sur une équivalence constante entre ce qui est et ce qui n’est pas, il se livre bien à une pratique de l’escamotage, et il s’y adonne à propos de l’inceste, qui est un haut-lieu de la loi du silence. Quand un magicien se dit expert en matière de tabou, il est à craindre que la réalité disparaisse corps et bien du champ de la conscience:
A force de jeter le discrédit sur la parole et de la traiter comme le lieu de la violence et de la faute, à force de séparer radicalement le soin et la loi et donc de priver les enfants du recours en justice, à force d’en appeler aux vertus de l’oubli et du secret, Van Gijseghem ne fait rien d’autre qu’énoncer la dernière version en date de la loi du silence. Il ne s’agit pas pour lui - malgré les apparences - de critiquer des excès et des dérives et d’en appeler à plus de professionnalisme pour assurer une meilleure protection, il s’agit bien d’aller à l’encontre des progrès réalisés ces derniers temps. Toute cette construction théorique n’est jamais que le couverture savante et séduisante de la plus vieille alliance objective du monde: celle de la violence et du silence. (...)
L’A.F.P.E. : Association pour la Formation à la Protection de l’Enfance - Tél.: 02 99 84 79 30/ Fax: 02 99 84 79 39
From : Leo.Thiers-Vidal@ens-lsh.fr
***
10 -
Philippines : the Anti-AWIR Bil
NEWS
RELEASE
06 February
2002
ANTI-AWIR BILL APPROVED ON THIRD READING
The House of
Representatives approved on third reading yesterday, House Bill 5516 "An Act
Defining the Crime of Abuse of Women in Intimate Releationships" also known as
the Anti-AWIR Bill.
Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Liza Largoza
Maza, Secretary General of the women's alliance, GABRIELA and one of the bill's
authors said, "The passage of the Anti-AWIR Bill is a victory for many women who
have long struggled against various forms of abuses in the home and in a
relationship."
The lady solon also lauded her colleagues in Congress for
the passage of the bill and urged the Senators to immediately come up with their
own version of the Anti-AWIR Bill so that the issue of violence against women in
the family and in intimate relationships may be properly addressed.
Rep.
Maza explains that the Anti-AWIR Bill seeks to penalize acts of physical,
sexual, psychological and economic abuse committed against wives, live-in
partners, girlfriends and women with whom the abuser has or had sexual or dating
relations. Offenders, Rep. Maza said, may be male or female. Depending on the
gravity of the abuse, the penalty of life imprisonment may be
imposed.
The bill also makes the abuse a public offense. "This means that
prosecution may be expedited upon the filing of a complaint by any citizen with
or without the consent of the victim. A relative, neighbor or any witness to the
abuse may therefore take the initiative in filing a case," said Rep.
Maza.
The lady solon also explained that victims of abuse may also file
their complaints in courts and through their barangay officials. Victims may
also obtain protection orders upon the filing of the complaint, restricting the
abusers from the residence of the abused, among many others. The protection
order could last from 15 days to six months.
Rep. Maza also called on
women's groups to increase lobby efforts in the Senate. "It is high time that
legislation does its share in addressing this issue of violence in the home and
intimate relationships." #
From: gab philippines
***
11 - South Africa
finds 'rape courts' work
to sexual-assault crimes.
This unique criminal-justice experiment is proving so successful that the government now plans to more than double the number of "rape courts" by the end of next year.
South Africa has one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world, causing an overload of the country's traditional courts. Cases can take years to come to trial. In 2000, the last year for which statistics are available, less than 8 percent of the nation's 53,000 reported rape cases - a figure that experts say represents only a fraction of the actual number of rapes - resulted in a conviction.
But though the new courts still only deal with a fraction of the country's sexual-assault cases, most are achieving convictions in 75 to 90 percent of the cases they bring to trial. In regular courts, the conviction rate for sexual offenses is around 50 percent, says Ms. Majokweni. The average time to trial is six to nine months in the rape courts, compared to a year and a half or more for traditional courts.
Despite the successes, however, problems remain outside the courts. Untrained doctors and police often collect evidence incorrectly, and the country's DNA laboratories are overloaded and often take months or years to process evidence.
More on the way
Still, the government plans to roll out 36 more of these courts by the end of 2004. By 2010, it hopes all sexual offenses will be tried in special courts. "The success rates in these specialized courts is very good," says Lorna Jacklin, medical director of the Teddy Bear Clinic, which works in Soweto and in other, regular courts around Johannesburg. "But there are just not enough of them."
From : The Christian Science Monitor : http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/send-story?2003/0129/p01s04-woaf.txt
***
12 -
Slovakia : New Center Report Documenting Forced Sterilization of Romani
Women
On January 28, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Poradna pre obcianske a ludské práva (the Center for Civil and Human Rights or Poradna), a Slovak human rights organization, published a report documenting cases of coerced and forced sterilization of Romani women in government-run health facilities in eastern Slovakia. The report found that the involuntary sterilization of minority Romani women continues even though a communist-era law offering monetary incentives for sterilization has been rescinded.
"Body and Soul: Forced Sterilization and Other Assaults on Roma Reproductive Freedom in Slovakia," uncovers 110 cases of Romani women who were either forcibly or coercively sterilized by government health-care workers, or who strongly suspect sterilization, but have not had access to medical assistance to determine the causes of their infertility. Sixty of the 110 cases clearly show that coercive or forced sterilization occurred.
The report also documents the discriminatory standards of care, physical and verbal abuse, misinformation in health matters and denial of access to medical records experienced by Romani women in state-funded maternity wards.
The report prompted sharp rebukes of the Slovak government from some members of the European Parliament, who met personally this week with members of the research team.
"[Hospital officials] do not explain anything....they just tie up our ovaries and then they say that they saved our lives," explained one 24 year-old woman to the fact-finding team.
"Body and Soul" documents the testimony from women and Slovak hospital personnel in some 40 Romani settlements in eastern Slovakia. The report describes segregated facilities for Romani women who are forced to use separate toilets, dining facilities and rooms from white women. Romani women appear to disproportionately undergo risky and outdated methods of cesarean delivery and are often sterilized while in great pain and without their full and informed consent. Sometimes, the report maintains, these women are sterilized without even the façade of consent. Negative attitudes about Romani women's fertility and sexuality feed the justification forsterilizing them by health-care workers who fear that they threaten the majority status of the white population.
"These egregious practices violate fundamental human rights and the Slovak government must publicly acknowledge these violations, conduct an investigation and prosecute those responsible," said Christina Zampas, legal adviser for Europe for the Center for Reproductive Rights. "The treatment of Roma women in Slovakia tests the standards for membership to the European Union (EU), which requires member countries to respect the human rights of all their citizens, including minorities."
Slovakia is scheduled to become a member state of the EU in 2004. Some Parliamentarians are hopeful that the government of Slovakia will be able to respond to the findings of the report in March, when the European Parliament is expected to discuss countries that are scheduled to accede to the EU.
The Slovak government has failed to take action to prevent or even investigate the forced or coerced sterilization of Romani women. Complaints filed in Slovak Courts have been dismissed and some reports to local law enforcement officials have been ignored.
From : Reproductive Freedom News <RFN@reprorights.org>
***
13 - Mali : New Report
Documents Violations of Right to Safe Pregnancy
"Claiming Our Rights:
Surviving Pregnancy and Childbirth in Mali," a new report from the Center for
Reproductive Rights and the Mali-based Association des Juristes Maliennes (AJM),
asserts that the government of Mali has an obligation under international human
rights law to prevent maternal deaths. Mali is among the countries with
the world's highest rates of maternal mortality.
"In Mali, people see
maternal mortality as part of life, said Fatimata Dembélé Djourté, a lawyer with
AJM. One of every 19 women in Mali dies from pregnancy-related causes. The United Nations estimates that more than half a million women
worldwide dies from pregnancy or childbirth each
year.
"Preventable death during pregnancy and childbirth is
a deprivation of a woman's right to life," said Laura Katzive, legal adviser for
Global
Projects at the Center for Reproductive Rights. "We're calling upon
the government of Mali and the international community to protect the lives of
pregnant women."
The report cites numerous factors contributing to Mali's
high maternal mortality rate. Mali's health care system lacks the medical
facilities, supplies and health-care workers to meet women's reproductive health
needs.
In addition, social norms and laws undermining women's equality and
reproductive self-determination contribute to women's vulnerability during
pregnancy. Child marriage, female circumcision/female
genital mutilation, and lack of access to family planning can all impact
women's ability to go through pregnancy and childbirth in safety. The report
outlines a series of recommendations to specific ministries in the Malian
government, the United Nations, World Bank, international donors and African
regional bodies to ensure safe pregnancy for women in Mali.
"Claiming
Our Rights" is the first in a four-part series that will examine issues relating
to safe pregnancy and childbirth in Africa, Eastern and Central Europe, Latin
America and the Caribbean, and Asia. The Center for Reproductive Rights and a
partner organization from the country under study will research and write each
report collaboratively.
"Claiming Our Rights" will be launched in South
Africa on February 5th at the Aminature Women's Rights Conference in
Johannesburg.
***
14 - Uruguay : Lower
Chamber Passes Reproductive Rights Bill
Currently, abortion is illegal in Uruguay except in cases of risk to the life of the woman, rape, incest, or for therapeutic reasons.
"Uruguay is on the cusp of a landmark step for women's rights," said Luisa Cabal, the Center for Reproductive Rights' legal adviser for Latin America and the Caribbean. "Decriminalizing abortion and providing reproductive health care are critical measures in ensuring women's rights."
If the bill is enacted, all health-care institutions, both public and private, will be required to provide abortion services. Doctors who do not want to provide abortions will be required to register their objection with the institution that employs them within one month of the bill's passage.
The bill also calls for the government to implement a comprehensive reproductive and sexual health program aimed at reducing unwanted pregnancies.
The Senate will likely take up the bill in March and face strong opposition. Uruguayan President Jorge Battle has stated that he would consider vetoing the bill if it were to pass in the Senate. Women's rights groups in the country report that Battle is under substantial pressure from the Catholic Church to veto the bill.
From : Reproductive Freedom News <RFN@reprorights.org>
***
15 - Italy / Italie
*
Vatican Says Word 'Gender' Is Anti-Church Code
| Run Date: 02/01/03 |
|
|
|
(WOMENSENEWS)--The Vatican announced it will publish a collection of phrases and words including "reproductive rights" and "gender" that it says are code for anti-Catholic sentiments. The Vatican said these and approximately 76 other neutral-sounding terms about family and life are used to cover up deeper, anti-Church meanings, according to The Associated Press. The Vatican will publish the 1,000-page lexicon of the terms soon. In an interview with the religious affairs monthly journal 30 Giorni (30 Days), Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, said the phrase "reproductive rights" is misleading because it "is used for propaganda--not for the right to reproduction but . . . to abortion," The Washington Times reported. The Vatican decided to create the book after nongovernmental organizations complained about "ambiguous" words and phrases used at United Nations meetings. Trujillo said that while some UN treaties--such as the Convention for the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women--sound good on the surface, "if you dig a little, you come to know that this CEDAW serves to protect women from marriage and from giving birth to children, which according to the feminist ideology would absolutely be two forms of slavery," according to The Associated Press. |
From: Gerry Puelle
*
* Quelques nouvelles de nos amies militantes
- ROSA DEI VENTI
Questo mese, la nostra rosa segna un' unica direzione, e punta dritto all'Afghanistan. Non perché venti tempestosi di fondamentalismo e fanatismo abbiano smesso di soffiare da ogni direzione, al contrario. Ma, alla vigilia di una nuova guerra, ci sembra fondamentale tirare le fila di quella ancora in corso in Afghanistan, e degli effetti sulla vita delle donne di quella "libertà duratura" tristemente annunciata.Vi proponiamo allora l'ultimo rapporto pubblicato dallo Human Right Watch a dicembre 2002, "Vogliamo vivere come esseri umani. Repressione contro donne e ragazze nell' Afghanistan occidentale" -che trovate in sintesi con finestre di traduzione nella sezione MATERIALI e in versione originale nella sezione DOCUMENTI . Il rapporto, di 52 pagine, insiste sulle misure repressive sempre più pesanti imposte alle donne e alle bambine da Ismail Khan, il governatore locale di Herat che beneficia dell'assistenza militare e finanziaria degli Stati Uniti. Human Rights Watch documenta anche come la situazione di Herat sia sintomatica di un peggioramento delle condizioni di vita di donne e bambine in tutto il paese.Pubblichiamo anche il precedente rapporto diffuso da Human Right Watch a novembre 2002, "Tutte le nostre speranze sono distrutte. violenza e repressione nell'afghanistan occidentale" (novembre 2002), e il comunicato di RAWA in occasione della giornata mondiale dei diritti umani (10 dicembre 2002), "Senza il rifiuto dei fondamentalisti, il rispetto dei diritti umani non e' altro che sogno e illusione" . Questi documenti sono stati già tradotti e pubblicati nel sito di LEMANJA, che offre puntualmente ogni mese un aggiornamento sulle notizie e i documenti sull'Afghanistan, e ospita la pagina del Coordinamento Italiano per RAWA: http://www.ecn.org/reds/donne/donne.htmlSempre nella sezione MATERIALI troverete i testi della mostra fotografica e documentaria "Afghanistan Conteso" che offrono informazioni, dati, notizie sull'Afghanistan, sulla sua cultura, sulla sua storia, sui Talebani e sui fondamentalisti dell'Alleanza del Nord, sugli effetti della guerra, sulla situazione attuale, sul lavoro di RAWA e HAWCA dentro il paese e tra gli esuli. I testi sono stati pensati anche come dispensa didattica, e sono seguiti da una bibliografia dettagliata con i riferimenti dei documenti da cui sono stati tratte le informazioni.
From: TESTARDA
***
16 - France : La spécialité de gynécologie médicale enfin
re-créée..
Cher-e-s Ami-e-s,
From : Dre Gisèle Jeanmaire - gise@wanaddo.fr
***
17 - Turkey : Women Protest Headscarf Ban
Observant Muslim women in Turkey are protesting a law
barring them from wearing a headscarf in public schools. The controversial
law is keeping female students from completing their education. Also:
Macy's staff tells women not to breastfeed in store. ISTANBUL, Turkey (WOMENSENEWS)--Their days begin like
those of most other girls their age. Every morning, they put on their
uniforms and go to school. The difference comes when they reach the gate.
Others go in, maybe quicken their step so as not to be
late to their first class. But these girls stop. Because they wear the
Muslim headscarf, they aren't allowed to enter. So they wait outside, some of them with books "It's cold now," says Beyzanur Tavukcuoglu,
16. "But we have to go." It's been 11 months since a line of riot police
blocked these 30 or so girls--along with dozens of others--from entering
their public Muslim high school.. In all, about 3,000 girls in Istanbul,
Turkey's largest city, have stopped going to school since the government
began blocking covered girls from attending, according to Gulden Sonmez,
vice president of the Istanbul branch of Mazlumder, a Turkish human rights
organization focusing on religious freedom. And the ban has stood in the
way of 30,000 college students across the country from continuing their
education, Mazlumder says. Religious secondary schools are the latest
Turkish institution to deny entrance to women who wear the headscarf, a
tradition that the fierce secularist establishment, made up of the
military, judiciary and state-level bureaucrats, sees as a symbol of
revolt and the first stumble on a slippery slope to political
Islam. Though roughly two-thirds of Turkish women
are said to cover their heads, the scarf is banned in Parliament,
government offices, universities and secondary schools. The devout are
forced to choose between a government job and obeying Islam's edicts,
between education and faith. In Iran, women may be fighting to bare their
heads. Next door in Turkey, they are demanding they be allowed cover
it. "If you a member of an association, you have
to obey its rules," says Havva Can, 16, a student who refuses to stop
wearing her headscarf. "We are Muslim. We believe in Islam, so we have to
obey." Some women find the headscarf to be
threatening. They fear the issue is being used by religious extremists to
gather momentum for an Islamic state. "In the long term, these 'individual
liberties' could end up in a situation where women who don't want to wear
the head scarf have to protest in the streets," says Ayse, 26, a graduate
student who considers herself a devout Muslim and asked that her last name
not be used. "These groups, the religious ones, they don't care about
individual liberty, only about political power." Until last year, about 900 girls and 400
boys attended the Kadikoy Imam Hatip Lisesi, a religious secondary school
in a middle class neighborhood on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. Many
had picked it because, unlike at a regular high school, it permitted
headscarves. The school sold them as part of the uniform. During the first semester, students had been
told that the ban could be extended into religious high schools, but they
say they were unprepared for what awaited them after the winter break:
riot police admitting only those with uncovered heads. For the next two weeks, the covered girls
who tried to enter were bused to a distant neighborhood and left to find
their way home--a method of police crowd control that prevents protesters
from amassing a large group. But the girls' families joined the protests,
which continued through the semester and into the new year. "In October,
10 people chained themselves to the school gates," says Can. The next day,
six members of the girls' families were detained and held for 27 days for
organizing an illegal demonstration. Nearly a year after the ban went into
effect, about 300 girls from the Kadikoy school haven't returned. In
Istanbul, 1,885 students and families have been arrested during the
protests, says Sonmez. Nonetheless, roughly 30 girls gather outside
the heavy steel gates for two hours every morning, dressed in their
uniforms: long plaid skirts, heavy black jackets and the scarves sold to
them by the school. The school's headmaster declined to speak to
a reporter. After the daily protest, the girls attend
private courses. Parents pay about $1,000 a semester to educate 75
children, and the courses are taught by former teachers who lost their
jobs when they refused to take off their headscarves. "The diploma is not so important," says
Memis Eksi, 43, a plasterer who accompanies his daughter Ayse, 16, to
school every day, where she protests for two hours before attending the
private classes. "The important thing is education." The rub is that the education Ayse is
getting is not comparable to that provided by the state. "We learn English, math, Arabic, the Koran
and the life of the prophet Mohammed," says Fatma Aladag, 18. What other subjects would she be studying
were she attending a government-supported school? "Literature, geography, physics, chemistry,"
she says. The protests have quieted since November's
elections, when a party of former Islamists clinched a dominating victory
in Parliament. During the campaign, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, chairman of the
Justice and Development Party, also known as the AK Party, sounded a theme
of "human rights," which to conservative Muslims meant an end to
restrictions on religion, including the ban on headscarves. Many in the party leadership have wives who
wear the scarf. Erdogan, for example, has sent both his daughters to study
in the United States so they can continue to wear theirs. But when, shortly after the elections, the
new parliamentary speaker, Bulent Arinc, brought his wife wearing a
headscarf to an official function, it caused an uproar in the secular
establishment. The issue could easily worsen the
government's already uneasy relationship with the military, a powerful and
pro-secular political force. And the AK party--which has had its hands
full with an application to the European Union, a crumbling economy and a
possible war in neighboring Iraq--has since downplayed it. The party
spokesman, Murat Mercan, did not return phone calls for this
article. "It is now time for social solidarity,"
Erdogan told reporters shortly after the function. "We have great tasks to
accomplish and there is no good in discussing such specific
matters." Those not able to continue their education
have little patience, however.. Hatice Kalitas, 27, was attending medical
school when the headscarf ban went into effect in 1998. She persevered
through threats, letters to her parents and suspensions, and by 2000, when
the police stepped into her university, she was a month and a half away
from finishing her degree. "I want to work as a doctor," Kalitas says.
"I feel that I am a doctor; one and half months is not important. So I
study. I learn German. I want to finish my education with my headscarf in
Germany. It's only in Turkey that you can't go to university with your
headscarf." Stephan Faris is a freelance journalist
based in Istanbul, Turkey. From: Gerry Puelle
«Nous, les peuples de l'Europe, tous les citoyens
européens, ceux qui croient en Dieu comme source de la vérité, de la
justice, du bien et de la beauté, de même que ceux qui ne partagent pas
cette foi et cherchent ces valeurs universelles dans d'autres sources...»,
ainsi pourrait commencer la future Constitution européenne, si les pays
membres acceptaient la proposition polonaise d'ajouter au texte de la
future loi fondamentale de l'Europe un préambule calqué sur celui de la
Constitution polonaise. Formulée officiellement avant-hier par le ministre
polonais des Affaires étrangères, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz devant le
Parlement, cette proposition a été présentée hier au président de la
Convention européenne Valéry Giscard d'Estaing qui participait à Varsovie
à une conférence sur l'élargissement. «La Pologne est attachée à ce que
dans la Constitution européenne figurent des références à certaines
valeurs qui font partie de son propre patrimoine et de sa propre
constitution», a-t-il reconnu après une rencontre avec le premier ministre
polonais Leszek Miller. Selon le président de la Convention, «cette
question sera le moment venu l'objet d'un débat à la Convention, d'un
libre débat, et nous écouterons avec soin les arguments de la Pologne.»
From :
Politicsinfo.net In preparation for the 47th Session of the
UN Commission on the Status of Women, and during this important meeting,
the NGO Committee on the Status of Women in New York cordially
announces and invites you to a series of events during the Session.
(...) Please note that NGO events begin on MARCH 1st. Registration
at the UN begins on February 28. Please try to arrive on the 28
February if possible.
I also want to call to your attention the
following information: to date, about1600 NGO representatives are
registered. Of those, about 830 are from North America, about 415
are from Europe, 170 from Africa, 150 from Asia/Pacific, 50 from Latin
America/Caribbean and none from the ESCWA/Middle East. I
visited ESCWA and the Division held one of the Expert Group Meetings in
Beirut in November, and begged women from the region to attend, but none
are attending. I once more beg the women of this region to come and
to tell their own stories to the media here.
I look forward to seeing you soon.
Leslie Wright, chair, NGO Committee on the
Status of Women in New York
Run Date: 02/06/03
By Stephan Faris
WEnews
correspondent
in hand, silently protesting their exclusion.Religious Schools Are Latest Institution to Ban
Headscarves
Recent Elections Give Former Islamists
Two-Thirds Majority in Parliament
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18 - Europe : Constitution
européenne - Varsovie veut une référence à la religion
!
Le Figaro.fr Varsovie 24/01/2003 -
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19 - ONU :
UN Commission on the Status of Women
Dear
Members and Friends,
From:
NGO CSW
NY
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SOS SEXISME