Yes we are at the end of one journey, but a beginning of another

This started out as a journey, a journey for young individuals like ourselves to find out what drove us nuts and how we could change that. We did. As the girls said, we started this only a few months ago as part of a voice project assignment for our seminar class in Women Studies. Who knew that establishing a blog would have such impact-and we would like to thank you. You, the readers and posters thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to read our opinions and critical analyses. You, gave us the strength to realize that even thought we are individuals, as a collective we can make a difference. It is a real shock on how much success has generated from this. We have opened up a virtual space for women to converse as a collective, and how many university students can say they did that. This was an experience that provided me with a different lens and outlook on others difference. Speaking of the lens, the title of the blog described the essence of our blog. Four Eyed Mouth- allows western women like myself to work in solidarity with non-western women like the others. This blog helped two perspectives realize that one was not more important than the other, rather that both were needed for it to be considered important. My favourite blogs were the ones posted by Teires that expressed groups in the community that assist women in achieving and maintaining a voice of their own. I definitely think these community agencies need to be praised more often for all the work that they do. I just want to thank the girls, and you, for taking the time to visit our blog. Even if it was for a brief second, you showed us that even though we are only 3 university students, we can make change. We wanted to advocate for change, but we didn’t do just that -we made change.

Looking back...

I am sad to say that this is coming to an end but I feel like for this particular blog we should continue it into the future and see what happens and the maybe more people will comment and voice their opinions. Honestly starting this blog I did not think that we would get a positive responses like the way we did but I'm glad we did.

I honestly learned a lot throughout the course about my feminism and the different issues we explored. In the beginning of the course I defined my feminism and this is what I wrote, “My feminism is not afraid of gender or sex or living life to the fullest. My feminism demands respect, love, equality and space. My feminism will not tolerate gender discrimination. My feminism does not dislike men but dislikes power wielded as a force of authority. My feminism is a friendly place where girls and boys can be friends with no judgment. My feminism is all about equality, liberation and living as humans even though society stereotypes people into categorizes. And that is why my feminism is not a product that is distrusted but hopes for change towards what really matters in life and the desire for humans to recognize that we have a lot more in common with one another than we think, despite our differences. My feminism is not afraid and will certainly not be silenced.” To be honest with you I would not change a thing about my definition and I stand by every word I wrote because it is something I came up with and no one else. 

The whole purpose of the blog was to create a place for Chaldean women to vent our their issues and I hope that if we keep the blog running up than maybe people will comment more. The blog is a place to be open with your feminist voice and not be afraid to say what you feel and I believe we have gotten some great posts in the past 3 months. One of my favorite blogs we definitely have to be, “What is sisterhood to you”. Even though all of the other blogs are amazing I feel that the true meaning of sisterhood is that if women stand up together and take control of their own oppression than the rest is history. All we need is each other at the end of the day, because without sisterhood than we have nothing.

A Time to Look Back...

This blog only began a few months ago, and I am so amazed to how far it has come. Sandra, Ashley and I began this blog with the single intention that we wanted to create a space for Chaldean women to discuss issues that were relevant to them. We also began this blog as it was a peice of our Voice Project for our final Women's Studies Seminar class.
Before this blog began, I really felt that I was able to start something new online that can enhance the community around me, and my online community. I feel that because of the issues that we have explored, that we have finally been able to fufill what needed to be done to create an active force of feminism that crosses different spaces, and different times. I can only look at the statistics for this blog to see that in such a short spam of time, we were able to gain so many more readers.
I think that with this blog, we have created something that is so expendable, that can grow into new shapes and forms more differently than before. I feel that because we have expanded this community so much, that there are even more opportunities to share our feminist voices with others.
With this blog, I feel that my feminist voice has taken a new level, where I have learned to develop and apperciate the enxtent of the topics that have been discussed. I truly believe that the development of this blog will continue to thrive and create new areas for feminist activism.

Chaldean women expand culture with first pageant

I was scanning the internet for something exciting that was affecting Chaldean women locally and I came across this article Chaldean women expand culture with first pageant in the Detroit News. The link is posted below. As a western feminist I thought that all women regardless of their background should be granted the choice to view themselves as beautiful. I was aware that women’s showcasing their beauty and confidence was not a choice given to all women, but I never considered Chaldean women to be part of that group. I think a part of Chaldean women not being involved in pageantry is because they have a limited connection to American culture. Which is sad? But maybe that is because cultures want to retain their importance and not be assimilated or reconfigured to fit the norm. I have mixed opinions on why a beauty pageant was chosen as the outlet for Chaldean girls to engage in their own agency by expressing their beauty and confidence publicly. I mean why couldn’t they hold a speech contest or a public advocacy strategy to encourage women’s agency?

I think today women are continuously commodified and objectified because of their bodies and having these young girls engage in activities that perpetuates those ideals. I understand that allowing these young girls to take part in pageants is huge, but I’m still skeptical. I mean is pageantry the only American cultural strategy to showcase woman’s confidence and agency? If so then maybe as feminists we should be challenging what woman’s agency means, so that all women are not being hurt one way or another during the process.

What do you think? Was pageantry a good outlet to showcase these young girls’ agency or was it another tool to reinforce woman as object rather than subject?

http://detnews.com/article/20070331/METRO/703310359/Chaldean-women-expand-culture-with-first-pageant

Community Agency of the Week (2)

Hello,
It's that time again where we feature the community agency of the week that promotes the empowerment of women. This week, the agency is The Well-Come Centre for Human Potential . This social service agency provides an emergency homeless shelter for women, while acknowledging that battling patriarchy is a starting point to fighting for their clients. Please visit their website for more details on their programs and the work that they do!

Also, The Well-Come Centre for Human Potential is holding an event on April 15, 2011 to celebrate local female artists and raise awareness on the issue of homeless women in our community. Please contact the agency for more information.

Abortion

I started reading an article about abortion and how highly personal decision it maybe too many women.  A lot of women feel that they are sure they'll never have to think about abortion until they're suddenly faced with an unexpected pregnancy. But this can happen to anyone, including women who are strongly anti-choice. So what does an anti-choice woman do when she experiences an unwanted pregnancy herself? Often, she will grin and bear it, so to speak, but frequently, she opts for the solution she would deny to other women.

Abortion raises ethical, legal and religious issues. It's considered, in the West, a free choice if the fetus is less than 8 weeks old. In the Middle East, it's forbidden and banned in all cases because of religious beliefs. I am completely against abortion of all kinds and types. Abortion is very dangerous to the pregnant female. It can be fatal or destructive to the uterus and it can have extreme psychological effects. Most people who have premarital sex seem relieved for the fact that nowadays we have the latest technologies to perform a safe abortion. I think if you're not ready to get pregnant, don't have sex in the first place, or at least try to have safe sex with the many contraceptive ways available.
 

I think religion and the law in the Middle East are enough reason for people to think twice about abortion. If two people fell in love and the girl got pregnant before marriage, they both should get married and in extreme cases, the girl should undergo abortion because the child will be a bastard child. Yet again I don't think that's enough reason for anyone to perform or have abortion. I believe that no one has the right to take the life off of anyone even if they think they're the "creators". A mother doesn't have the right to deprive the unborn from it's life just because it's her choice. What about the choice of the unborn? I believe that religion is right after all regarding this specific matter because abortion is exactly the same as killing a person, but the person at least had a life, so what about an unborn.

What Was Your "Click" Moment?

After attempting to figure out how to follow different feminist groups on Twitter, I stumbled upon this website (Bitch) and thought that we should also do the same on our blog!

I would have to say that my "click" moment was when I completed a social justice project in my final year of high school. By researching the different ways in which women's rights were progressing in different countries made me think about my own limitations as a young woman living in North America. As I read different academic literature in Women's Studies, I began to see that my oppression lies even deeper than what I thought I saw on the surface. I was racially and ethnically oppressed because my own views were not being acknowledged in the literature I read, and the ways that I could talk about my own oppression were limited. At that moment, I fully realized that my feminism could grow and change in a way that could not only be empowering to me, but to other women who may share similar experiences as me. So how did I go about this? With the help of my friends, I created a blog that could hopefully work through the issues that I found to be so important to me. By creating this online space, I finally realized that there is the full potential to create a new space that seeks to understand the different conceptual forms of my own feminism, and the feminism of others.

So, we would love to hear what your own "click" moment was!