The conference has been very full, the papers diverse and mostly interesting and the organisation mostly good. It seems like a lot of people put in papers and then don’t turn up, spo there were a lot of spaces in sessions and we weren’t told, so rushed through in our allotted time only to find there was plenty of time for all the presentations and discussion because one or two people scheduled to present had not come. I was told that this was because people can’t get funding to come at the last minute and don’t bother to tell the organisers. C’est la vie.
My paper was about the primary prevention of violence against women. Many of the participants didn’t get the idea of culture change. Not surprising when you think they are still struggling to have violence against women made illegal. Many of the people at the conference come from Islamic countries; if I had understood the politics of Northern Cyprus better I would have been better prepared. Not that this has been a problem, to the contrary, I have learned a lot about Islamic feminists and met some delightful new friends.
The diversity of the papers and the participants was one of the best parts of the conference. Europeans, Asians, Israelis, Arabs, and Africans (as well as two Australian) came together in harmony. The picture of the final session of the conference says it all I think. An Afro Caribbean British woman presented on black English women’s work, an Israeli gynaecologist reported on the first WSW clinic in Jerusalem (and Israel), an Indonesian woman presented on portrayals of women in Indonesian horror movies and a Malaysian woman presented on Sisters in Islam who are reading the Koran to challenge traditional interpretations that oppress women.
I sat next to an Israeli woman on the bus and commented on the apparent harmony at the conference, thinking perhaps I was ignorant to undercurrents. She told me that she had no sense of disharmony either. There was apparently one incident though. In a session I did not attend, a Belgian woman presented a defence of evolutionary gender development, after which Sue Thornham, a professor of gender studies at Sussex University, attacked her for talking rubbish! My experience of British feminists has been that they are not all that tolerant of ideas they do not share, so that only confirmed my prejudice about the Brits!
My paper was about the primary prevention of violence against women. Many of the participants didn’t get the idea of culture change. Not surprising when you think they are still struggling to have violence against women made illegal. Many of the people at the conference come from Islamic countries; if I had understood the politics of Northern Cyprus better I would have been better prepared. Not that this has been a problem, to the contrary, I have learned a lot about Islamic feminists and met some delightful new friends.
The diversity of the papers and the participants was one of the best parts of the conference. Europeans, Asians, Israelis, Arabs, and Africans (as well as two Australian) came together in harmony. The picture of the final session of the conference says it all I think. An Afro Caribbean British woman presented on black English women’s work, an Israeli gynaecologist reported on the first WSW clinic in Jerusalem (and Israel), an Indonesian woman presented on portrayals of women in Indonesian horror movies and a Malaysian woman presented on Sisters in Islam who are reading the Koran to challenge traditional interpretations that oppress women.
I sat next to an Israeli woman on the bus and commented on the apparent harmony at the conference, thinking perhaps I was ignorant to undercurrents. She told me that she had no sense of disharmony either. There was apparently one incident though. In a session I did not attend, a Belgian woman presented a defence of evolutionary gender development, after which Sue Thornham, a professor of gender studies at Sussex University, attacked her for talking rubbish! My experience of British feminists has been that they are not all that tolerant of ideas they do not share, so that only confirmed my prejudice about the Brits!
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