Symposium Builds Momentum for International Efforts to Eliminate Violence Against Women

More than 250 activists, policy-makers, UN representatives, scholars, and heads of NGOs from 40 countries gathered at Women's Learning Partnership's (WLP) international symposium, "Leading to Change: Eliminating Violence against Women in Muslim Societies," on March 1 in New York. Held in conjunction with the United Nation's 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Symposium was an energizing and movement-building event that brought together grassroots activists, including WLP partners, and international policy-makers to discuss the major challenges to eliminating gender violence as well as grassroots, national, and regional measures to promote women's human rights. Three panel discussions on "Culture, Conflict and Extremism," "International Perspectives on Eliminating Violence Against Women," and "Women, Empowerment, and Justice" were each followed by dynamic Q&A sessions between speakers and audience members.

The symposium, convened with the support of the United Nations Population Fund, offered a forum for in-depth discussion of gender violence against a background of cultural, religious, legal, health, and poverty issues in Muslim-majority countries. The primary outcome was a focus on sharing strategies for eliminating violence against women. Among the proposed strategies were: redefining cultural and religious practices to uphold women’s rights and promote gender equality; empowering women and girls through education and training; instituting legal reforms that ensure appropriate punishment for perpetrators of violence and justice for victims; building international, regional, and grassroots solidarity networks among activists; and using the power of the media to raise awareness. The speakers all agreed that women's empowerment should be a priority area and reaffirmed universal human rights as the bedrock of all efforts to end violence. Education and training for women and men about the devastating effects of violence against women was also stressed, as well as the need for specialized training for law enforcement, health workers, and the judiciary.

In the panel "Culture, Conflict, and Extremism," Ayesha Imam, Chief of Culture, Gender and Human Rights Branch of UNFPA, said that strategies for eliminating violence against women can come from within the cultural or religious discourse to challenge norms and re-interpret religious texts and through secular spaces to challenge existing laws and traditions that have a negative impact on women. She said, "In all strategies, however, there is need to break silences and collusion through silence, because gender-based violence is sustained by silence and women’s voices must be heard."

Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM, pointed out that a strategy for eliminating violence against women requires the integration of gender perspectives within every dimension of justice and the participation of women in shaping justice frameworks and rule of law institutions in ways that promote women's human rights, legal equality, and inclusion. She stated that "Institutions that support the rule of law must be held accountable and ending violence has to be at a multiplicity of levels simultaneously. Women must shape a rule of law culture, and women must determine how rule of law institutions operate."

In the session "International Perspectives on Eliminating Violence Against Women," , emphasized that the agenda for women’s rights is not a battle of the sexes but rather a battle of the subordinate against the oppressor. "Hegemonic masculinity subordinates both men and women and so both sexes have a stake in creating egalitarian societies by ‘deconstructing masculinity’ in order to eliminate rules of unequal relationships," said Ms. Ertürk. She stressed the centrality of women and men working together to change how patriarchy has narrowly and unjustly defined gender roles within societies.

In the last panel, "Women, Empowerment, and Justice," Mahnaz Afkhami, President of Women’s Learning Partnership, focused on women’s empowerment and their role in redefining culture as a key area of eliminating violence. She stated, "As Muslim women activists it is necessary for us to reinterpret and redefine our cultures and to seek indigenous roots for our rights to change when we must, to search what is authentically supportive of our rights, and to replace what has been shaped to uphold patriarchal social structures. Change will mean transformation. Change will require improving our condition through taking an active role in administration, practice, expression, and definition of culture, tradition, and religion." She noted that many women in the Global South, particularly in Muslim societies like Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, Bangladesh, and Iran, have taken the lead in studying, developing, and implementing strategies for women’s empowerment. Their goal is to modify traditional mores and laws to accommodate the requirements of women’s freedom, equality, and human rights. Given the prevailing religious and political conditions in these countries, this is an undertaking of heroic proportions, requiring significant international awareness and support.

An audio recording of the proceedings is available on CD Rom and is also available as streaming media on WLP’s website. WLP is in the process of publishing the proceedings, which will be available at the end of May.