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Bringing Vaginas to the Arab Feminist Dialogue
Written by
Nadz |
Report
June 2008 |
I was invited by the
Global Fund for Women (GFW) to attend a conference in
Morocco organized by the Association for Women’s Rights
in Development (AWID) in April. The topic of the
conference was resource mobilization for women’s rights
organizations in the Middle East and North Africa. Over
100 organizations were invited in addition to some 20
international funders working on women’s rights issues.
I registered to attend on the condition that I remain
totally anonymous because I figured the women’s rights
groups of the region were not yet ready to meet an Arab
lesbian activist from Meem.
So I got there the first night at around 1am and found
my apartment, which I shared with 3 other young women.
The first one I met was an activist from Algeria,
working with an organization that advocates the need for
a civil law to protect the rights of women. We talked
for a good half hour and then she asked me what I did. I
hesitated for a second and then told her I worked on
lesbian issues in Lebanon. She looked surprised and told
me it was the first time she had heard of such issues
being addressed in the Arab world. She was also
extremely supportive and impressed. I went to sleep that
night feeling empowered by that conversation and I
thought to myself: ok, one down, 149 to go.
Next morning, AWID had organized a pre-conference
meeting for young feminists only, bringing together 30
women from all over the Middle East and North Africa.
Their goal was to provide a space for these young women,
who are usually marginalized and underestimated by the
older activists, to meet and discuss issues specific to
their age group. During the introductions, I hesitated
for another second and then introduced myself as a
lesbian feminist activist. Nobody flinched. Some people
didn’t understand what I said, but still, nobody
flinched. Over the course of the day-long workshop, I
engaged freely in discussions on young feminism, on
grant-seeking, on community building, and by the end of
the day, I was friends with everyone. Young women from
Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Egypt approached me to ask more
about lesbians in the Arab world.
The next day, the main conference began. To get a feel
of the gathering, picture the biggest names in women’s
rights movements in the Middle East and North Africa.
Strong, intelligent women in their 40s and 50s,
presidents and directors of organizations, who have
worked for decades on political representation, legal
reform, economic empowerment, violence against women,
but never on sexuality, because sexuality was never
important.
The first day of the conference was
shoot-yourself-in-the-head boring. I sat there through
hours of the same old discussions, same old nagging,
same old problems being raised. The proposed solution to
everything was “we must form a network.” Other big words
like “capacity-building” and “coalitions” were being
thrown about ad nauseam. On the second day, the same
discourse continued, without any workable plans or new
ideas. For some reason, the organizers took a liking to
me and decided to put me on a panel the next day. “Talk
about anything you want,” they said. So I figured I
would just chip in on the conversation started by the
other panelists and try to say something of worth,
something different. By then, I had made more friends,
talked to more people, and built up a good deal of
confidence and support for Meem.
The next morning, I was up on the panel at 9am and I
can’t even remember what the panel conversation was:
something about peace and networks and democracy. My
turn came up and I literally thought to myself “Fuck it.
How many chances will I get to address all these women
all at once?” So I told everyone that I didn’t think
that feminism was addressed in this conference at all –
or that we truly address it in our organizations. I
explained what feminism meant to me: an all-or-nothing
cause. I said that the war against women’s rights is a
war against our bodies and it is with our bodies that we
must fight. I said that Arab women’s rights activists
should talk about vaginas. To my surprise, the attendees
broke into a loud applause and gave me a boost to keep
going. I talked about feminism not being feminism
without the inclusion of all issues related to
sexuality. I talked about deconstructing virginity,
legalizing abortion, fighting rape, incest and sexual
harassment, and celebrating female sexuality. I said
that the women’s movement can longer ostracize lesbians
and treat them as lesser women. Then I got really
carried away and talked about an Arab feminist
revolution. The more I talked, the more people
applauded, and the entire dialogue of the conference
shifted towards a braver, more honest conversation. The
discussions that followed focused on new strategies for
a more inclusive feminism, a more radical feminism. A
few harsh objections were raised to my speech calling it
perverted and shameful. But I didn’t have to say
anything to that. The surprising overwhelming support of
the majority of women there was sufficient to argue
back.
For the remainder of the conference, I conversed with
most of the participants, explaining more about Meem’s
work and strategy, asking them to open their
organizations to lesbians in their Arab cities. Lebanese
women’s organizations were particularly keen on inviting
Meem members to their workshops and trainings. I was
extremely touched and pleasantly surprised by the
overall response to the inclusion of lesbian issues in
Arab feminism. It was a historic day for the Arab
lesbian movement and another solid step taken towards
true and complete equality. |
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