FiLiA Presents the Violence, Abuse and Women’s Citizenship Conference of ‘96

Ailbhe Smyth: Men’s Violence Against Women And Feminists’ Challenge To The State In Ireland

“Since the beginning of the second wave of the women's liberation movement, there's hardly been a moment when feminism and real life feminists have not been on the line, subjected to swinging attacks on our credibility and standing.”
“The more effectively and precisely patriarchal power systems are exposed and opposed as abusive and dangerous, the more feminists succeed in developing new and different politics and structures, the more vicious are the attempts to push back those very achievements, and to punish not only the initiators, but all those who stand to benefit from those achievements.”
“The failure to impose sanctions against perpetrators means the de facto legitimation and promotion of violence against women and children.”
“I doubt very much that any of us is naive enough to expect radical change overnight because we stand up and demand it.  But we also know perfectly well that unless we as feminists stand up and make those demands collectively, cogently, strategically, and with all the knowledge , the power and the passion that we know we possess, freedom from violence, exploitation and oppression will never be achieved.”
 
From 1996:
"Men’s Violence Against Women And Feminists’ Challenge To The State In Ireland – Keynote Address
 The paper will focus on how feminist activism in its many forms is challenging and changing the ways in which Irish society generally and the State in particular both see and do not see men’s violence against women, and what that means for women. There is no doubt that in at least some of its institutional incarnations in Ireland, the State has begun to change its responses to and practice around violence as a result of unrelenting feminist pressure. However, the very success and effectiveness of feminist initiatives raises important and urgent questions about feminists’ relation to the State and its tendency to re-define issues, co-opt initiatives and ‘manage’ challenges to its authority.
The concrete basis for the exploration of this issue will centre on my involvement in a Working Party formed to report on the experiences of women, victims of sexual and other crimes of violence, in the legal and judicial process. Set up in 1995 by a coalition of women’s organisations working in the field, lawyers, academics and others, under the aegis of the National Women’s Council of Ireland, and funded by the Minister for Justice, the Working Party has now produced its report.
Ailbhe is involved in developing programmes and plans in relation to rape, domestic violence and sexual harassment and assault. She is Director of the Women’s Education, Research and Resource Centre at University College Dublin, where she teaches Women’s Studies. She has written extensively about feminism and the state. She is a co-editor of Women’s Studies International Forum, a corresponding editor of Feminist Review and on the editorial board of Nouvelles Questions Feministes, The Irish Journal of Feminist Studies and other journals."
Ailbhe Smyth is an Irish academic, who founded the Women's Education, Resource and Research Centre at University College Dublin. She was a co-director of the Together for Yes abortion referendum campaign.

Tatyana Momonova: Freedom And Democracy: Russian Male Style – Keynote Address

“The shameful trade in the female body flourishes. Slippery, sticky mass culture stands offering a rich assortment of new goods.”
“As we know, the process of society's humanization is prolonged and complex. The liberalism of the 1960s did not develop into the emancipation of woman. She was crushed by the sexual revolution, for it fell to her lot alone to pay for all the pleasure.”
"But female consciousness is rising, and women are no longer willing to work under the old stereotypes."
Abstract:
Attempting to deal with the exploitation of women in prostitution is not new in Russian society. Few probably remember that in the 1920’s Alexandra Kollantai said, ‘Fight prostitution, not prostitutes’. A law was passed punishing owners of bordellos and pimps, not the women they discriminated against. In the 1930's Stalin dealt with the problem differently by sending all prostitutes to Siberia and proclaiming the curse banished from society. Brezhnev evidently did not believe Stalin had solved the problem and repeated the same act in 1980 before the infamous Moscow Olympic Games. In the 1990s the representation of new freedoms in Russian was manifested in selling teenagers to the West for 500 Deutschmarks. Several of them were killed while trying to escape. 50 000 very young women from Eastern Europe came to Germany in the 1990’s, seduced by the idea of dolce vita, only to become prostitutes - 10 000 of them against their will. The Centre for Abused Women and Children in St. Petersburg concluded recently that these matters are taken lightly by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) media, especially the television broadcasters. The Almanac Women and Russia - the cause of my exile, is now published internationally and called Women and Earth. We distribute it free of charge in CIS and Eastern Europe for raising consciousness among women - women who are actually anxious to fight for real democracy and real freedom. 
Tatyana is the first woman dissident exiled from the former Soviet Union and has been in the public eye throughout the world. Hundreds of national and international newspaper and magazine articles have focused on her, including articles in The Guardian, The Observer, Harvard Women’s Law Journal and The New York Times. In the 1990s, Tatyana founded the publication Women and Earth and continues her career as an international advisor to Ms Magazine. 
Since 1996:
Tatyana is the founder of Woman and Earth Global Eco-Network, the author of multiple books and articles, and an award-winning artist.

Sheila Jeffreys: Feminism And The Traffic In Women: Between The Wars And Today – Keynote Address

“Trafficking in women for  prostitution exists because  of national prostitution, because of  the demand by men to use women in prostitution, which is nurtured and constructed within national boundaries.”
“The feminists concentrated on prevention. They said we require to understand the cause. The cause is men's demand. They said we mustn't blame the women. They said that the time and energy used in protecting girls and rescuing trafficked women was wasted, unless accompanied by efforts to combat the fundamental reason why prostitution continues to exist.”
“I think  that we simply need to… link up with our foresisters,  believe the damage, and  actually work to eliminate, as our foresisters did, men's demand to use women all over the world, within national boundaries, and forever.”
Abstract:
Feminist campaigning through the League of Nations in the 1920s and 1930s led to the UN Convention Against the Traffic in Persons, 1949. The ideas and strategies of these foresisters are of considerable interest to us today during a renewed feminist campaign to gain international legislation against trafficking. I will compare earlier conclusions such as the inevitable connection between ‘national’ prostitution and trafficking and the need to work against the cause of prostitution, men’s demand to use women, with the debate today. Study of this earlier feminist work helps us to see why separating ‘free’ prostitution from trafficking, as some contemporary feminists assert we should do, is likely to be an effective strategy against the traffic in women. 
Since 1996:
Sheila has continued her work in history and politics, writing and contributing to numerous books, and co-founding Women’s Declaration International.

Norma Hotaling: Prostitution: Getting Women Out – Keynote Address

“Hopefully, we'll be able to start creating a world where women are not seen as prey and men are not acting as predators.”
“How are we trained not to look at the women and girls that are no longer with us? How are we trained to walk down the street and not see the women and girls crying out for our help? How are we trained to talk about prostitution through the eyes and the voices of the perpetrators? We call it women's rights, and women's rights is a wonderful thing to line up behind, right? Prostitution as a woman's right. But when we line up behind this, what are we really lining up behind? Aren't we lining up behind the rights of pimps? Of johns? Of traffickers? Aren't we saying it's their right to kidnap, to traffic, to use, to buy, to kill, destroy, and disappear hundreds and thousands, if not millions, of women and girls around the world? How are women trained never to see that there's a customer involved in prostitution? How are we trained never to talk about the men?”
“People ask me all the time, how do you do this work? How do you do this work? The reason I can do this work is I see the women when they're out. I see the beautiful, vital, wonderful, intelligent, fun, funny,  mothers, sisters, wives. I see that.”
“Everyone in here has the right to be a prostitute. Fighting for prostitutes' rights is not what we need to do. We need to start fighting for women and girls' rights not to be prostitutes. That's what we don't have. Every woman in here. Every woman in here. You do not have to fight for your right to be a prostitute. You got it. It's there. From the youngest to the oldest woman in here. From the most disabled, from the most hurt, from every, sector  of society, you have your right, it is your right, because you have a vagina, and you are a female, and you don't have power, and economical, and political power in the world. You have a right to be a prostitute. Thank God we got jobs to go to, right?”
Abstract:
Norma will address programmes which help women get out of prostitution, discuss who uses prostitution and talk about her experiences in the prostitution industry. 
Norma is Executive Director of the Standing Against Global Exploitation (SAGE) Project, a service which is dedicated to creating a continuum of care for all women who are survivors of abuse, and individuals escaping prostitution. Norma has extensive personal and professional experience working with issues of violence, sexual exploitation and prostitution. As a survivor of prostitution, a recovering heroin addict and formally homeless woman, Norma has counselled thousands of prostitutes throughout the United States. She has designed and implemented model programmes that have been adopted nationally and internationally and is on the Advisory Board of Probation Officers Working to End Recidivism (POWER) and the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. Norma has conducted research with prostitutes investigating violence and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in San Francisco and Thailand. She is the recipient of the 1996 Patient Rights Advocacy Services, Advocate Award and the 1996 Health Education Alumni of the Year Award from San Francisco State University. 
Since 1996:
Norma continued her activism against prostitution and human trafficking, including her work with SAGE, until her death from pancreatic cancer in December 2008.

An appeal for help for poorer women

Meserak ‘Mimi’ Ramsey: FGM– Harmful Cultural Practices (Ghana)

“And I knew it then, I am in trouble with this man. But, I don't have no voice. I was 18. He was 35. I was struggling to finish high school. He was going for his PhD. And women don't have no voice. And I didn't.”
“Female genital mutilation is not a harmless cultural practice, but a major cause of permanent physical change and death to women and girl children in the society in which it is practiced.”
“I am 43 years old. I am still suffering. FGM robbed my childhood. Robbed my teenage life. Robbed my adult life. Robbed my health. Robbed my sexuality.”
“Please, it concerns all race, all women, and all men to get involved. Please don't say, "I'm white. It doesn't concern me. I'm Chinese, it doesn't concern me." Yes, this is about children. When it comes to, when it's children, it concerns all human beings, all race.”
Abstract:
“Female genital mutilation is not a harmless cultural practice, but a major cause of permanent physical change and death to women and girl children in the societies in which it is practised. Education against the practice should be part of grassroots health campaigns. I will discuss the different forms of FGM, its repercussions and the areas where it is carried out, including its appearance in Western countries. 
Over 114 million female infants, adolescents and women in over 41 countries suffer the practice as part of donning a gender role that is deeply disadvantageous and dishonouring to us. Female genital mutilation is child abuse; it is an abuse of human rights. This custom must be revealed as the cruel and sexist abuse that it is. FGM is not religious, it is not required by Islam, Christianity or Judaism. Although followers of all three religions practice it, FGM is a girl child’s emergency human rights issue. We do not know how many children die in the bush as a result of genital mutilations as no death records are kept in the rural areas. FGM is seen by some as a patriarchal mechanism for the repression of women’s sexuality. I have decided to make the fight against FGM one of my priorities here in the US and my homeland Ethiopia. 
Mimi suffered genital mutilation at the age of 6. She moved to the United States after entering into an arranged marriage at the age of 20. Since February 1994, Mimi has been working hard in the campaign against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Since 1994, Mimi has emerged as a leading activist in African immigrant communities in the United States. In her home town in California, Mimi frequently visits African shops, beauty parlours, community centres and local clinics to spread the word about FGM. She has managed to convince many African women to stop the harmful practice, by sharing her own pain and suffering.”
We have not been able to find any further information on Mimi. If you know about her work or life since 1996, please get in touch.

Lepa Mladjenovic: Ethics of Difference – Politics of Feminists from Divided Former Yugoslavia

“Some men will produce battlefields of women's bodies, blood, pistols, injuries, humiliation.”
“If you work one day with women war survivors and women survivors of peace, there is not such a big difference. And then you start thinking of that continuum of violence against women that starts with the first slap and then goes to the concentration camp.”
“The fact that 20 women from different nations in war - Albanians and Serbs are in war, Muslims and Serbs in war, Croats and Muslims in war, Croats and Serbs in war - and all these women we were sitting together every night. This fact that we were sitting together was a tension of doing the right thing.”
Abstract:
“The war in the former Yugoslavia has moved local feminists to work with women war survivors and some foreign feminists to organise local women to do the same. In five years of war most of the activists from these groups in the divided nation-states have been networking with each other. The women have continuously learned about issues surrounding nationalism, violence and the media and the intensification of male violence against women during war. They have worked with war rape survivors in Belgrade, and will discuss issues surrounding their testimonies and their methods of survival. 
The war in Bosnia, Hercegovina and Croatia has increased the need for feminists to unite among different ethnic names, sexual orientation, age, body ability, etc. After the destruction of war feminists have moved towards the ethics of difference. Feminists across former Yugoslavia are inventing every opportunity to meet each other and work together; these are usually very emotional experiences for everyone - full of pain, joy and singing. Then, in groups in Belgrade one can find women in wheelchairs as well as those of different names (Gypsies, Muslim, Jewish, Croat,...) as well as young punk girls in leather jackets, lesbian couples, divorced women, refugees, and pensioned women all together for the late night post-war parties. 
Since 1978 Lepa has been a key player in initiating the women’s movement in Belgrade. She is co-founder of a number of feminist organisations in Belgrade: Women and Society, SOS Hotline for Women and Children Victims of Violence, Women in Black Against War, the Lesbian and Gay Lobby Arkadia, The Centre for Women’s Studies and the Autonomous Women’s Centre Against Sexual Violence.”
Since 1996:
Lepa has continued her feminist and lesbian activism, facilitating workshops and publishing papers. She was co-organiser of Belgrade Pride 2001, and co-founded the Counselling SOS line for Lesbians in 2012. She was awarded the Anne Klein Women’s Award in 2013 in recognition of her commitment to gender democracy. She published her manifesto, Politics of Women’s Solidarity, in 2013 (https://www.civilcourage.hr/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Solidarity.pdf).

Farida Akhtar: Controlling Women’s Bodies Through Biology (Bangladesh)

“If we are poor, we cannot decide for ourselves how many children we should have. If we are black, we are not able to decide for ourselves  how many children we should have. If we are refugee women, we cannot decide for ourselves. If we are an ethnic minority, you know, we cannot decide for ourselves. Our bodies are controlled by international communities… It's an aggression on women's bodies. And controlling the woman's body is controlling a nation. Controlling the woman's body is controlling a race of people.”
“To be able to get education, we have to mortgage our uterus. And that is not fair. We should have education on our own right. Education is a basic human right. It should be available for no condition. Whether we bear children or not, it should be available to women.”
“These are violences. I think, you know, we don't sometimes see these invisible violences that are happening around the world.”
“I think if we are united together, if women are united together, we believe that there is no way they can control us.”
Abstract:
“The control over woman is exercised through the control over her body. The politics and ideology of biology are manifested in the development of the health and reproductive technologies and the entire medical system. Reproductive technologies, both pro- and anti- natal, are produced and used on women’s bodies to have control over women’s reproductive functions. In that way, the control over a class of people, ethnic group, religious community and even a nation can be established and racist and imperialist domination promoted. The population control policies and programmes carried out in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America and among the poor, black and immigrant communities of the northern countries are horrendous examples of this control. The so-called modern contraceptives, especially intra-uterine devices, injectables and implants are direct interventions in women’s bodies. The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in 1994 established a mechanism of control over women’s bodies in the guise of ‘reproductive rights and reproductive health’ and a section of ‘feminists’ are supporting such control mechanisms both in the developed and the developing countries. 
Also to be discussed is how women’s expanding educational opportunities and experiences in the workplace are affected by the ideology of women’s biology. 
Farida is the executive director of UBINIG, a policy research organisation in the field of women’s issues, and a founder of the Feminist International Network of Resistance to Reproductive and Genetic Engineering (FINRRAGE). She is author of Depopulating Bangladesh: Essays on the Politics of Fertility (1992) and two other books on the subject of reproductive technology, and has an international reputation for her work in opposing reproductive technology. Farida regularly writes columns for the daily national press in Bangladesh and is also Editor of Chinta, a fortnightly publication. She is an active member of Resistance Network, a network which resists the abusive use of harmful contraceptives on women’s bodies.”
Since 1996:
Farida is continuing her campaigning on this issue, writing about IVF for The Business Standard in July 2023 (https://www.tbsnews.net/thoughts/ivf-no-surveillance-solution-business-women-continue-bear-brunt-infertility-blame-674606) She remains the Executive Director of UBINIG, and has written various articles for their website, in English (https://ubinig.org/index.php/blog/showAerticle/271 https://ubinig.org/index.php/blog/showAerticle/68) and Bangla (https://ubinig.org/index.php/blog/showAerticle/147 https://ubinig.org/index.php/blog/showAerticle/89) .

Teboho Maitse: Nationalism, national liberation and violence

“I believe that if during the process of struggle for national liberation from an oppressive and racist regime, women are still raped, molested, humiliated, tortured by men, then obviously there is something very, very wrong with the ethos of both nationalism and national liberation.”
“The question is, in day to day life, who are 'others' in relation to men? I am, you are.”
“We have a different outlook. We are aspiring for different things in the world. We want to live in a world where...  we want to live in a world without war,  without racism, without rape,  without butchering.”
"The connection between nationalism, the struggle for national liberation, and male violence against women has escaped discussion for decades. If, during the struggle for national liberation and after liberation from an oppressive and racist regime, women are still beaten, raped, molested, humiliated, and tortured by men, then we must question the ethos of nationalism. In particular, we must ask whether nationalism creates in men an ongoing need to subordinate women in order to maintain a sense of themselves as self- possessed autonomous beings. 
This discussion looks at political violence in South Africa during the struggle for national liberation. It seeks to connect that political violence to violence in the private sphere and examines the ways that nationalism constructs masculinities and institutionalises male violence against women under the rubric of traditional cultural practices. Similarly, the discussion traces the selective deployment of culture in nationalism to construct images of femininity, sexuality and motherhood which increase women's vulnerability to male violence. 
Teboho is a South African Member of the ANC and its former representative in West Yorkshire. Teboho is presently completing her PhD at the University of Bradford on the subject of Male Violence Towards Women in South Africa. Since 1994 Teboho has held the position of Deputy Convenor at the Research Unit on Violence, Abuse and Gender Relations at Bradford University."
Since 1996:
Teboho co-founded the Women’s Empowerment Unit for the South African Parliament, and was appointed a Commissioner of the Commission for Gender Equality, a role she performed from 2002-2012. She died on November 9th, 2013, and her obituary by the Commission can be found here: https://www.gov.za/condolences-passing-dr-teboho-maitse

Suzanne Laplante Edward: Montreal Memorial

“My name is Suzanne La Plante-Edwards, and I'm new on the feminist picture. At least, I was always a feminist, but I became an activist overnight, when my little daughter was one of the fourteen young girls who were killed just because they were women, and because they wanted to become engineers. And this guy came into University of Montreal, made his way to the second floor, inside a classroom. Can you imagine how safe you can be in the world if you cannot be safe inside a classroom on the second floor of an engineering building in a university?”
"Suzanne La Plante-Edwards has, since the December 6th tragedy, been a key player in obtaining stricter gun control in Canada, by creating awareness in the media and intense lobbying on the political level. For this, she was awarded an Honorary Diploma from Dawson College in Montreal. In 1991 she founded the December 6th Victims Foundation Against Violence. Through her intense efforts, the day of December 6th has now been federally declared ‘National Day of Commemoration and Action on Violence Against Women’."
Since 1996, Suzanne has continued her campaigning for gun control and against gun violence, including writing articles in English and French.