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

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!

Vagina Monologues- Eve Ensler

The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written by Eve Ensler. The Vagina Monologues is made up of a varying number of monologue read by a varying number of women. Every monologue somehow relates to the vagina, be it through sex, love, rape, menstruation, mutilation, masturbation, birth, orgasm, the variety of names for the vagina, or simply as a physical aspect of the body. A recurring theme throughout the piece is the vagina as a tool of female empowerment, and the ultimate embodiment of individuality. Every year a new monologue is added to highlight a current issue affecting women around the world. Every V-Day thousands of local benefit productions are staged to raise funds for local groups, shelters, crisis centers working to end violence against women. In 2003, for example, Ensler wrote a new monologue about the plight of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. This Monologue is known as "Under the Burqa."

Some monologues include:

• I Was Twelve, My Mother Slapped Me: a chorus describing many young women's and girls' first menstrual period.
• My Angry Vagina, in which a woman humorously rants about injustices wrought against the vagina, such as tampons, douches, and the tools used by OB/GYNs.
• My Vagina Was My Village, a monologue compiled from the testimonies of Bosnian women subjected to rape camps.
• The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could, in which a woman recalls memories of traumatic sexual experiences in her childhood and a self-described "positive healing" sexual experience in her adolescent years with an older woman. In the original version, she is 13, but later versions would change her age to 16. This particular skit has sparked numerous controversies and criticisms due to its content (see below).
• Reclaiming Cunt, a piece narrated by a woman who illustrates that the word "cunt" itself is a lovely word despite its disconcerting connotations.

When I started thinking about the Vagina Monologue and the whole concept and purpose of it, it made me realize how closed I am about the subject. Being Arabic and coming from a very strict background, talking about my vagina experience was not an opinion. Girls in Middle East are not allowed to be open about the subject because a women’s vagina is a sacred thing and it should not be reveal to others. The subject of the vagina is only talked about between the wife and husband because after a woman gets married it is than the husband property. I personally do not agree with this because I find it important for a young woman to be open and have that knowledge about their own bodies and no one is in charge of their own body. 

At the bottom of the page I linked Eve Ensler website and it basically talks about the whole concept of V-Day and it talks about who inspired it, what inspired it, etc... 

http://www.vday.org/about/more-about/eveensler

We Know That You've Watched Them...

But, have you ever really thought about them?
Middle Eastern soap operas are what this post is all about. Whether you live in North America or the Middle East, you have seen your family members turn on their Arabic satellite and watch countless dramatic shows that tell the most risque stories. These shows are bold, enticing and brilliantly done to the point where even if you do not understand the Arabic language clearly, you will sit there reading the subtitles or ask your parents what the characters are really saying.

From watching these shows and strengthening my own views of feminism, I cannot ignore the way violence is portrayed against women. Women are portrayed in situations where domestic violence occurs as weak and always in danger. The characters of these women are emotionally and physically abused, however, no one ever stops to think that these women should leave their husbands. From my own personal experience, every time I question why these women do not leave, I am always told that because of their culture, that they do not think that they are abused, and thus, it is normalized to stay within a relationships such as this.

This is problematic for a number of reasons. For instance, if violence against women is normalized in the media, then others are desensitized to it, thus, viewing it as normal. When culture is brought into this, it creates an even more complicated matter. By allowing an excuse for violence because "a culture allows it" you are conforming to the false representation that individuals for that culture need western society to go into their countries to end their oppression. Also, by stating that violence is depicted in these shows then you are forgetting that there are also television shows in North America that depict abuse against women. By forgetting that these issues are also prevalent here, we then choose to forget about our own oppression, therefore, our feminist activism is not being used to help our own selves.We also forget that violence against women is a shared experience that women across different borders face; and therefore, not an invisible one.

So the question remains; what can I do as a Chaldean woman living in a western society where these shows are displayed to my younger siblings. The answer is simple. I would do the same thing that I would do regarding any other show, whether it be a show produced in North America, or the Middle East. I would argue that these women are abused, and that they should look towards themselves and their community resources to help empower their own lives and leave an abusive relationship. I would also still argue that violence and abusive relationships are not healthy, no matter where it is stemming from.