Maria Lis Baiocchi, who discussed the criminalization of abortion in Argentina at our last Salon, was kind enough to pass along a few links for those who are interested in learning more about the topic. First, she directs us to a report from Human Rights Watch -- Decisions Denied: Women's Access to Contraceptives and Abortion in Argentina, which can be downloaded or read online at the Human Rights Watch website. Those who read Spanish (or are familiar with online translation tools such as Google Translate :o) ) may also want to take a look at despenalizacion.org.ar and abortolegal.com.ar.
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Sunday, April 12, 2009
Photos from "Women's Rights Are Human Rights" Salon
We've posted a new photo album on the blog with pictures from our "Women's Rights Are Human Rights" Salon. Enjoy!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Ráday Salon evening -- Women's Rights Are Human Rights -- Thurs. Mar. 26, 7pm
As promised, we have prepared a special program for this coming Thursday, March 26th, at 7pm, commemorating International Women's Month. For this evening, we will be joined by a team of presenters from Central European University -- Maria Lis Baiocchi (Argentina), Robin Chaurasiya (USA), and Rachel Horst (USA) -- to give us a multi-faceted international perspective on some pressing problems affecting women around the world.
Women's Rights Are Human Rights:
International Perspectives on Domestic Violence, Criminalization of Abortion, and Human Trafficking
March has come to be recognized globally as International Women's Month — in acknowledgment of women's worldwide struggles for political and economic rights. It is a month to bring about awareness in societies around the world of the gender-based disparities that are still present and to reflect on the struggles women must still fight in order for the promise that "women's rights are human rights" to be fulfilled. This Ráday Salon will invite participants to learn about and reflect on some of the major types of discrimination women still face, including domestic violence, criminalization of abortion, and human trafficking — using the cases of the USA, Argentina, and India as specific examples.
Rachel Horst will focus on domestic violence as a problem in the United States (as it is globally), with a special focus on the state of Pennsylvania. The presentation will describe the institutions in place and the legal options for women who are victims of domestic violence as well as the community efforts to combat it and the public/private sphere implications of the problem. She will also address how this problem cuts across societal lines — which include but are not limited to the divisions present between urban and rural areas, low income and high income regions, as well as immigrant populations, white communities, and communities of color.
María Lis Baiocchi will address the criminalization of abortion in Argentina and its impact on the lives of women. The presentation will give a brief overview of the legislation in place as far as abortion is concerned and provide a background of the devastating consequences of it. It will provide a historical overview of how, over the course of the past two decades, the issue of abortion went from being completely absent from public debate to being located at the very center of it as primarily an issue of public health. The presentation will consider sociological explanations for the impossibility of pro-choice social actors to frame the issue as a matter of women's human rights and full citizenship rather than of public health, and the detriments and benefits of such framing as far as the advancement of the right to legal, safe, and free abortion is concerned.
Robin Chaurasiya will provide an introduction to the global scale of human trafficking, with an emphasis on sexual trafficking of women. The presentation will then focus on trafficking in India and cover Hindu practices that enable trafficking within the country when girls are designated as Devadasis, Joginis, and Mathammas. The presentation will include a short audio slideshow covering the Devadasi system, as well as several examples from Robin's work in Mumbai at an NGO. She will conclude with a discussion and critique of anti-trafficking NGOs in India, her current research topic at CEU.
The presentations will be followed by an open discussion in which we especially encourage our guests to provide perspectives on womens' issues in their own countries and regions. We are sure it will be a thought-provoking and enlightening evening, and we look forward to seeing you there.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
New Interview with Aishah about NO!
When we last updated you, we were preparing Christmas gifts to contribute to the "Shoebox Full of Love" project of HRSI (the student group at CEU) , and enjoying the uplifting documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown that put us in a happy holiday mood with some classic Motown music. Well, now the end-of-the-year holidays have come and gone and we've moved on to another holiday, International Women's Day -- which we here at the Raday Salon prefer to think of as International Women's Month. In honor of this holiday, we're busy preparing our next Salon to focus on women's issues. The program is not final yet, but we can tell you to save the date: Mark the 26th of March on your calendars -- the Raday Salon will be back for our first event of 2009.
For now we leave you with the following interview with Aishah Shahidah Simmons that was recently published online. In it, she talks about the film NO! and the intersections between race, gender, and sexuality that she explores in her creative work.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
NO! The Rape Documentary screening at Central European University this Tuesday
This Tuesday, as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, the Human Rights Initiative at Central European University will be screening the award-winning documentary, NO! The Rape Documentary by Michael's daughter, Aishah Shahidah Simmons.
Eleven years in the making, NO! explores
the international reality of rape and other forms of sexual assault
through the first person testimonies, scholarship, spirituality,
activism and cultural work of African Americans. Since its official
release in 2006, NO! has been screened and distributed to
racially and ethnically diverse audiences at film festivals, community
centers, colleges/universities, high schools, correctional facilities,
rape crisis centers, battered women shelters and conferences throughout
the United States, France, Spain, Rwanda, Kenya, Nepal, South Africa, Jordan,
Burkina Faso, Peru and Mexico.
The screening will be followed by a discussion/question-and-answer period hosted by our own Michael Simmons, who served as Creative Adviser on the film.
**Please remember, the location for this event is NOT our Salon, but rather Central European University.**
Join us Tuesday, December 9, for the screening of NO! at Central European Unversity:
Time: 6:15pm
Location: Bp. V., Nador utca 9
For much more on the film, you can read posts on our blog related to previous screenings at the Raday Salon or visit the film website at http://notherapedocumentary.org/ .
Facebook users: join the NO! screening on Facebook here!
As for our next official Salon event, it will be held Thursday, December 18th,so save the date! More details coming soon....
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 begins the 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women, an international campaign which unites efforts around the world to combat violence against women. In Budapest, a series of events have been planned by a coalition of civil society organizations, including Amnesty International, the Human Rights Initiative (HRSI), and NANE Women's Rights Association. The campaign was launched with a press conference and march this past Sunday.
The 16 Days campaign was first established in1991 through the first Women's Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women's Global Leadership. The choice of the 16 days is meant to highlight gender violence as a violation of human rights, and encompasses several significant dates, including:
- the International Day Against Violence Against Women (November 25)
- World AIDS Day (December 1),
- the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre (December 6, 1989; when 4 men and 24 women at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, were shot, 14 of them fatally, by a man raging against "feminism"); and
- Human Rights Day (December 10).
For more on the history of the 16 Days campaign, visit the Center for Women's Global Leadership 16 Days campaign page.
Hungarian speakers can find much more Information about the Budapest events of the 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women on the website http://16akcionap.org/.
For English speakers, a comprehensive schedule of events in English can be viewed or downloaded right here:
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Ráday Salon evening -- NO! -- Thursday 13 March
Dear Friends,
We begin by offering warm and long-overdue greetings to all our Salon friends, old and new. It has been quite a long time since many of you have heard from us. As many of you already know, for family reasons, Michael and Linda returned to the US for an extended period several months ago. In that time we have sorely missed Budapest, our friends, and our Salon. Finally, however, your Salon hosts are almost all the way back – that is to say, Michael is back in Budapest, and Linda will be joining him in just a few weeks. And even though we're not both back yet, we just couldn't wait to start our Salon evenings back up again!
Given our long absence, we thought we might start things up with one of our most popular events – a showing of Aishah Shahidah Simmons documentary film NO! Some of our Salon friends who have been with us the longest may have seen the film before, perhaps in the earlier, unfinished "rough cut" version. However, we also have developed many new ties with folks who are new to Budapest or just new to our Salon, who have expressed an interest in seeing the film. We would be happy to see both old and new Salon friends at this showing, especially as the discussion is always different and brings up new observations every time we show the film. Even if you have already seen the film we encourage you to invite others you may know who would be interested in the film. And for those of you eager for something new, never fear, we already have plans for more Salon evenings in the works. We are planning a showing of one episode of the civil rights documentary Eyes on the Prize on April 3, and a presentation and discussion on the Philippines for April 24.
In the meantime, without further ado, the Ráday Salon invites you to a commemoration of women's History Month with a showing of the award-winning documentary, NO! by Aishah Shahidah Simmons, on Thursday, 13 March. Eleven years in the making, NO! is a feminist educational organizing tool which is being used in the global movement to end violence against women and children. This
groundbreaking documentary explores the international reality of rape
and other forms of sexual assault through the first person
testimonies, scholarship spirituality, activism and cultural work of
African Americans. Winner of an audience choice award and a juried
award at the San Diego Women Film festival, NO! also explores how rape is used as a weapon of homophobia.
Since its official release in 2006, NO! has been screened and distributed to racially and ethnically diverse audiences at film festivals, community centers, colleges/universities, high schools, correctional facilities, rape crisis centers, battered women shelters and conferences throughout the United States, Spain, Rwanda, Kenya, Nepal, South Africa, Jordan, Burkina Faso, Peru and Mexico. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center—the comprehensive center for information, research, and emerging policy on sexual violence intervention and prevention in the United States—designated screenings and discussions of NO! in community settings as the Featured Event during their 2007 Sexual Assault Awareness Month Campaign.
For those of you who are new to our Salon, you can find all the information we have posted on previous showings for the film by clicking on NO! in the "Categories" section in the right-hand column of this page. -->
We also have a couple of new items to share with you all. In February 2008, Michael and Aishah participated in a screening and panel discussion of NO! at the Brecht Forum in New York City. One of the people who attended is a member of an organization called "SAFER (Students Active for Ending Rape)", an advocacy group in the US which works to improve universities' response to sexual assaults in the campus environment. After attending the event, she wrote two reaction pieces on the SAFER organization's blog, which you can read here:
NO! A Documentary about Rape
NO! Part 2
And, for the most up-to-date information on NO!, we encourage you to visit the NO! website, at www.notherapedocumentary.org.
Every time we have shown NO!, it has sparked an active and challenging discussion. We look forward to seeing many of you there!
