Whitebear
Publisher/Editor-in-chief
Women's Conference Unites Activists, Stars
September 12, 2004, 11:00 PM EDT
NEW YORK -- A weekend conference on women and power brought Afghan and Iraqi activists together with actresses Jane Fonda and Sally Field and "Vagina Monologues" playwright Eve Ensler.
The weekend-long Women and Power Conference was sponsored by the Omega Institute, a holistic health center, and Ensler's V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and children.
...
Yanar Mohammed, who heads an Iraqi femini
t group, said Iraqi women were better off before the U.S.-led invasion of their country.
"Of course there was this bloody dictatorship and nobody was free in the first place, but women were abl
e to leave their houses," she said. "They were not assaulted in the streets, you were not
pushed back in your house because you were wearing modern dress."
Ensler, whose group distributes "Vagina Warrior" buttons and T-shirts, proposed a new slogan inspired by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Referring to Schwarzenegger's derisive use of the term "girlie man," Ensler said, "I am all for girlie men. I think we should get buttons that say, `I'm a girlie man and proud.' ... Because what is a girlie man? A person who listens, a person who negotiates, a person who doesn't escalate violence."
September 12, 2004, 11:00 PM EDT
NEW YORK -- A weekend conference on women and power brought Afghan and Iraqi activists together with actresses Jane Fonda and Sally Field and "Vagina Monologues" playwright Eve Ensler.
The weekend-long Women and Power Conference was sponsored by the Omega Institute, a holistic health center, and Ensler's V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and children.
...
Yanar Mohammed, who heads an Iraqi femini
t group, said Iraqi women were better off before the U.S.-led invasion of their country.
"Of course there was this bloody dictatorship and nobody was free in the first place, but women were abl
e to leave their houses," she said. "They were not assaulted in the streets, you were not
pushed back in your house because you were wearing modern dress."
Ensler, whose group distributes "Vagina Warrior" buttons and T-shirts, proposed a new slogan inspired by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Referring to Schwarzenegger's derisive use of the term "girlie man," Ensler said, "I am all for girlie men. I think we should get buttons that say, `I'm a girlie man and proud.' ... Because what is a girlie man? A person who listens, a person who negotiates, a person who doesn't escalate violence."