Day 2: in memory of Rahela-- Change what is heard, and learned

On Day 2, a hat tip to the Nari Jibon bloggers! You can read four excellent posts from Day 1 and the next generation of Bangladeshi shakti nari bloggers starting with computer teacher Taslima's post (also cross posted in Techna Tara) and three students' posts: Zannat, Tondra, and Nipa.

Today I want to give some links on Rahela--tortured, brave garment worker who died a month later from her injuries-assault in late summer 2004, but not before she named her abusers and spoke up from her gurney. Yet, Bangladeshi legal authorities did not pursue her case, allowed one main suspect to disappear into India, and "lost" evidence. Yet last fall 2007, Bangladeshi bloggers posted on her case, got another hearing in January 2008, and through demonstrations and continued coverage in newspapers (Bangla and English--New Age, Independent among others), got the authorities to pursue her case and get it rapid trial status...where it seems to be languishing in the run-up to the 28 December election (also delayed for two years).

You can read more in my friend Nadine Murshid's summary article on Rahela article in Samar May 2008 and view assorted video clips from Channel i on Rahela speaking and later Bangladesh activism:

original Youtube and see Rahela speaking from her hospital gurney: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoXNL-xijeg

March 2008 Updates

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idkc12a6AuI
Manobbondhon-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCeV84Imu7E

31st March report with Manobbondhon 2 in Srimangal/Sylhet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEEkRCOogcY

update in Bangla blog somewherein

Aparna Ray gives September 2008 update in Global Voices, Bangla Blogs are Keeping Rahela Alive (in English and multiple languages) [maf korben Aparna for missing this].

and join-see also Justice for Rahela cause-page in Facebook.

Hopefully 2008 will end with justice for Rahela or in 2009!

along with all the other garment worker Rahelas in the world, in Ciudad Juarez, Honduras, EPZs, among others...who are keeping their economies afloat while being disrespected, eve-teased, assaulted, raped, murdered and/or disappeared on their way to and from their factory work.

Day 1: 2008 International Day Against Violence Against Women

Another year has gone by (among the many that we have been organizing against VAW) and it's Day 1 of 16 Days against Violence Against Women. I'm joining the campaign by the most excellent Take Back the Tech TBTT women and allies with their actions around the world. Please visit their multilingual website for daily actions, news and links to other actions, and resources starting with Day 1.

To begin, make sure that you have signed the UNIFEM petition "SAY NO to violence against women" to send 1 million signatures to Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations. This UNIFEM site also contains valuable data and resources on various VAW issues.

Tell your friends, family, classes, or workplace about this campaign....I signed up in spring 2008 (along with spring, summer, and fall semester classes) and I'm shocked that they still did not have one million signatures last month.

If you have a web-blogpage or social networking site...grab a widget for this petition effort and also share this info with your friends.

Please commit to local and blogging action about VAW for these 16 days...by reaching out to friends and family members, supporting local activists & shelters as well as linking to other blogsites, for example, outagainstabuse.com that seeks to educate about and provide resources against VAW for people of South Asian origin in USA and their allies.

I will be blogging daily on these issues, as well as on issues on VAW in Bangladesh, which STILL does not have a specific law against domestic violence and still no justice for Rahela--garment worker tortured-murdered in fall 2004 (even though her case has been moved to a speedy trial status) and as discussed in my previous post(s) in fall 2007.

You will also be able to read more on young Bangladeshi women bloggers' thoughts and graphics on VAW on narijibon.blogspot.com and some of their individual blogs listed on the Nari Jibon blog sidebar.

Pore kotha bolbo...(talk with you later).

Day 5-Women Bloggers Make and Broadcast the Message Against VAW

The digital divide and VAW has often meant that women did not have access to the internet, video, and related media much less the tools to make and upload these media. When they did have access, they were often confronted with less than positive images. Now more women and male allies are making their own videos and media clips and posting on popular sites.

For example, in the Justice for Rahela campaign & other cross- posts this fall, a Youtube video on Rahela made available many video and visual images of Rahela as she struggled to live and name her assailants in the month before she died in September 2004. Many of us had never seen her before except in maybe a newspaper clip.

Thanks to a blogging grant from Global Voices-Rising Voices, computer and english students & staff at Nari Jibon Project (and four other locations) have had the opportunity to and learn how to write blog posts and also to use digital and video cameras. To date, they have posted video on the Bangladesh floods, & a homeless woman who gave birth in a garage and pictures of street girls, beggars, slum women rebuilding after Cyclone Sidr, including a mother nursing her child born during Cyclone Sidr, among other images. This past week, Computer Teacher Taslima (brown burkha) gave a digital camera and video training workshop for blogging students and staff (see stories and photos).

As their skills grow, I hope to see more blogs and video blogs on their perspectives as young women growing up and finding their way through the streets, schools, and lives amidst eve-teasing and VAW prevalent in Bangladesh (and elsewhere, too). Meanwhile I will scramble to keep up with their advances in technology and blogging.

Finally, I will leave you with a very haunting video with some [warning graphic-disturbing] photos of violence from the 1971 liberation war and the song, Bangladesh, as sung by Joan Baez. These words-song always move me (to tears) and to step up my efforts to end suffering where ever it may occur. Please see also the Drishtipat on Women of 1971, their campaign for restitution from Pakistan, and their varied experiences and stories as freedom fighters, grandmothers, mothers, daughters, students and children, including the thousands of Bangladeshi women raped by Pakistani soldiers and collaborators).

International Day Against Violence Against Women--16 Days Campaign

Today, 25 November 2007 is International Day Against Violence Against Women and the start of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence (25 Nov-10 Dec).

You can read more about this campaign, history, and get materials from the Center for Women's Global Leadership, [Rutgers University-USA] including the 2007 Take Action Kit & the 2007 International Calendar. This site also contains a library on related resources on VAW and even a map to situate and log your activities. This site has materials in English, Spanish, some French and even Italian.

An interesting ICT action, is Take Back the Tech or Reclaiming ICTs to End Violence Against Women. Link here to learn more about what are the issues of ICTs & VAW From the website: "Both ICTs and VAW affects our capacity to completely enjoy our human rights and fundamental freedoms." This site has materials in French, Spanish, and English.




The website contains daily activities such as ka-Blog (blogathon, postcards, digital story telling, digital media resources, and GIFs to use in your website or blog during the campaign. On today- Day one, today's activity: share a number of your local shelter or resource centre.

Both sites want to hear more about your stories and actions and you can also learn more about actions-stories in other locales-sites.

As readers already know, I have been very interested in Justice for Nadine (survivor of spousal abuse and rape) and Rahela (the late tortured garment worker) as detailed in previous posts and links to websites. Most recently, Abdul Kargo wrote movingly about Nadine's case, "What is a woman worth. " If readers would like to know more about domestic violence issues-support in USA or Bangladesh, see this link. The next hearing for Rahela's case will be in January 2008in Bangladesh.

****Check out a new resource from January 2008: New Blogsite OUT AGAINST ABUSE to educate and organize the South Asian Community about domestic violence-gender abuse--please read, comment, and discuss this resource!****

Finally, Bangladesh continues to recover from the Category 5 hurricane, Cyclone Sidr. In such disasters, women have special health and security issues, especially post disaster for women without husbands and children who have lost their parents--suffer from insecurity and vulnerability to abusers and traffickers. I described a few issues here and as Sidr was heading to shore. See also Nari Jibon blog.I will post more on these topics coming days. Meanwhile, go to other previous posts-links on where you can donate for relief efforts.

Nari Jibon Project, change-making, and justice

I would rather write about:

The powerful and wonderful girls & women at the Nari Jibon Project who are learning alternative skills such as literacy in Bangla, tailoring rather than sewing, literacy in English, how to use, write and create with, and repair computers, and finally writing thoughtful posts and taking photos-videos about their lives on the Nari Jibon blogs in English and Bangla. These girls & women are doing all these activities in an affordable, safe, secure, caring environment at Nari Jibon in classes and the women-only cyber cafe!

The joys of receiving emails, photos, videos, and blog posts from Nari Jibon students and staff who come from a country stereotyped as poor and uneducated in computer technology.

The joys of seeing older women write their first letters, words, and stories in Bangla and for young women to show me how they can use different fonts on the computer.

Also the caring female and male staff who make this possible and the daughters and sons who come to the Nari Jibon with their sisters, mothers, grandmothers, aunties, and male guardians: brothers, uncles, fathers, and husbands.

I would rather write about these activities, blog posts, and grants to fund this project, my stories and experiences in Bangladesh and elsewhere, my flowers, and of course, my kittens.

Why write so much on violence against women?

I write because:

• a social litmus test for societies is how they treat women and children
• until all women are safe, no women are safe (as well as the rest of their society)
• all of us come from women: mothers, grandmothers and we also have aunts, sisters, daughters, and female relatives
• 1/3 women in their lifetime will experience some form of violence-abuse
• nothing justifies such violence against women, children, and men—not assorted rationalizations, misinformation--nothing
• domestic violence is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality

What to do?

In recent posts on this blog, I have given links to websites on resources and groups that challenge violence and can provide support in USA and Bangladesh. I have given information on some recent and not so recent cases of domestic violence and violence against Bangladeshi women, petitions about these cases, and places-gatherings for more information. Finally, I have encouraged everyone to educate themselves about resources, discuss these issues with friends, family, classmates, and colleagues before, during, and even after marriage, and to provide support (funds, volunteer, donate) to groups that do the hard work and advocacy to end violence against women.

In the words of Audre Lorde (African American poet, writer, teacher, & activist), “your silence will not protect you”:

"I have come to believe over and over again, that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.... My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you.... and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us. The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken."
Audre Lorde (The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, Sister Outsider.

Let's start speaking up!

Justice for Rahela Petition

A new petition for Rahela, a garment worker violated and tortured in Aug-Sept 2004, has been uploaded for signatures in via links in Justice for Rahela facebook group and other places, such as this blog. This petition, in particular, advocates for a speedy trial status for her assailants and is addressed to Government of The People's Republic of Bangladesh. If you would like to do something to move Rahela's case forward beyond joining a Facebook group & staying informed, try this:

Please sign the online petition for Rahela and encourage your friends,relatives and well-wishers to do so.

http://www.petitiononline.com/bdrahela/petition.html

If you would like to know more about Rahela's case, see some of the previous posts & links on this blog! Talk with your family, friends, classmates, and co-workers about this case. Also encourage Bangladeshi women's groups and international human rights organizations to follow her and other abused & tortured women's cases in Bangladesh, whose cases rarely been followed and prosecuted after initial publicity. The next hearing on her case will be in the first week of January 2008.

Justice delayed....

In regard to Justice for Rahela and Nadine, Justice has been delayed once again.

Earlier this week, witness(es) in the Rahela (tortured-murdered garment worker) case DID NOT show up in court. According to the Facebook group, Justice for Rahela (and other sources) the court proceedings have been DELAYED until first week of January 2008. Perhaps various petitioners and women's groups in Bangladesh should request a SPEEDY TRIAL for Rahela's case, who died in September 2004.

Today, according to Facebook group, Justice for Nadine, her accused husband, Sajid Huq, a graduate student at Columbia University did not show up for his hearing in New York City in response to his many charges for the abuse/rape of his wife (Nadine). A warrant has been issued for his arrest. Much speculation about where he might have fled. If you know of his whereabouts, please inform the New York City police or authorities where ever you are. Pictures of him can be found on the Justice for Nadine website (as well as her non-photoshopped pictures post abuse).

My thoughts are with Nadine (and her safety) and for the soul of Rahela (and other working women who risk their lives going to and from work and ordinary activities).

Beyond signing up for a Facebook group, here are some other things that all of us (women and men) can do:

• For all of us, reach out to one another and do not suffer alone with abuse or knowledge of abuse (for the sake of honor, izzat, family name or fear of what stories people might say).

• Listen to and believe women, especially the brave ones who speak up despite all the taunts-misinformation hurled at them as well as threats to their families (as has occurred in Nadine's case). Talk with your family and friends about these issues and problems before they occur, during discussions of marriage, and afterwards. Domestic violence still occurs at a much higher rate in Bangladesh than in most other countries; women in the migration-diaspora also experience domestic violence as has occurred in Nadine's and others' cases.
  

• Provide time and support to organizations in your community-city-country that work on such issues, because many of them need allies-translators-advocates from your own groups. Know about these organizations, because you and/or your friends may need them for information and help. Share this information with your family, friends, blog, and your Facebook wall!
  

• Work to make sure that Bangladesh and other countries enact and enforce real laws against domestic violence, which leads to many other consequences such as higher maternal mortality, lowered life expectancy among other problems (no such law exists in Bangladesh despite many years-funds-meetings-protests).
  

Rahela-Nadine updates, court hearings, justice?

Over the last few months, many Bangla blogs and websites (and a few English ones) have focused their attention on Justice for Rahela, a garment worker who was tortured and left for dead in August-September 2004, but survived for one month to name her assailants, which I also wrote about on her third death anniversary in September in this blog and the Nari Jibon Blog.

Rahela's case as represented by Ain-O-Salish-Kendra will be considered in a court case this next week (end of October) in Bangladesh, see Rezwan citing Bangla blogs and Justice for Rahela blog, Facebook (Justice for Rahela), and Google pages. A Youtube video of Rahela in the hospital speaking of her ordeal and her family during her last month in 2004 has been posted. However, no coverage has appeared in any English language newspapers and supporters of her case have encouraged people to write to English and Bangla newspapers to encourage coverage of her case.

Please watch the video, read the blog entries, and let your voice be heard for justice for Rahela. You can do this through letters to the media (including popular Bangladeshi blogs, many of which have ignored her case), talking with others about this and other forgotten cases, and support brave organizations and survivors that step forward to fight such cases.

BTW the power of some citizen media has been shown in the outpouring of blog and Facebook entries and support for Nadine who is recovering in New York City from an alleged assault-rape by her husband, Sajid Huq, who was arrested by NYC police. His first hearing is scheduled this week as well. At the same time, many of the popular English Bangladeshi blogs and newspapers have ignored this case except for the Daily Star. All of us need to continue to watch the progress of this case in the USA as well as provide support/protection for Nadine's family in Bangladesh, which reportedly has been harassed by the politically powerful Huq family for Nadine filing her case in the USA.

(cross-posted in View from Bangladesh)