måndag 8 november 2010

"It was sad to witness all this..."

Lara Aharonian från Women's Resource Center i Armenien sätter ord på mina känslor, och hon har mer mandat än jag att uttala mig, så jag citerar:

But still they [participants from South Caucasus womens NGO:s at Kvinna till Kvinna meeting] were not able to see the real problem. It was difficult for them to push the limits as much as to break free from patriarchal chains of oppression. Everything was so deeply rooted in their minds and bodies, that it was difficult for them to understand LGBT women’s issues and how they also needed the support of women’s movement.

They were having hard time picturing female sex workers joining their cause in the streets… what then society would tell? They already had too many problems without including all those marginalized groups of women in their organizations.

It was sad to witness all this and realize that women activists in our region still lacked the courage to interfere with the core of the problem. They felt they had too much to loose on the way. Even though already they were taking some courageous steps to change things in their respective societies but still with defined limits.

Women in Liberia stopped the war, because they went all the way risking everything believing truly in a cause. Women in the Balkans passed the law to make sexual violence during war a punishable crime, because they understood that justice needs hard work, perseverance and commitment no matter if resources were available or not.

But in South Caucasus, we are still scared and deeply patriarchal even in the way we manage our women’s organizations. We are not ready to change ourselves in order to change society.

(...)

So we end up providing “cheap” services to women (whenever funding is available) and without feminism as an approach to fight patriarchal values or a strategic common objectives to change the reality of women, we go on surviving with a senseless goal… nagging, not going anywhere, inventing the wheel over and over again. And our local governments stay content and happy watching us running in a vicious closed circle like trapped rats, not feeling threatened or worried at all that some day we will restore justice and democracy and put them out of work!

Ungefär så känns det efter 5 månaders försök till praktik här. Det är kanske delvis en anledning till att jag bestämt mig för att åka hem lite tidigare, den 14:e december närmare bestämt. Inte för att jag ger upp direkt, mer för att jag behöver lite energi. Det här landet och miljön suger musten ur en, kan man säga.

Men Lara avslutar: Women, don't get depressed, Patriarchy is full of depressed women!

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