Women Change the World:
Panelists Cite Int'l Examples of Empowerment

In the darkest days of Taliban rule, scores of teachers in 74 secret schools taught more than 2,500 Afghan girls basic skills - thanks in part to contributions from American Jews.

"There's a group of women in Afghanistan, modern-day Esthers, standing up for what they believe in," said American Jewish World Service president Ruth Messinger, describing the teachers, who were flouting harsh Taliban laws banning the education of females, in a land where only about 16 percent of women can read.

Her organization is one of several international nonprofit groups that has funded the effort. AJWS also helps underwrite Afghan clinics run by female physicians, serving thousands of patients monthly, since women had been barred from visiting male doctors.

Messinger spoke as part of a panel on "Women's Empowerment in Israel and the Developing World" on Thursday of last week sponsored by AJWS, Na'amat and the social action committee of Adas Israel Congregation in the District, which hosted the event. The discussion drew more than 50 people, despite a promotional mailing that never reached many targeted individuals, organizers said, due to continuing postal woes in the area.

While Taliban-run Afghanistan provided extreme examples of tyranny and courage, Messinger and her co-panelists stressed that challenges for women abound worldwide.

Barbara Ferris, president and founder of the International Women's Democracy Center, spoke of the AIDS crisis in Africa, where women are learning about prevention, but a request for condom use may spark violence against them from the men in their life.

As a partial response, the IWDC has launched a five-year women's leadership project to train women leaders in 14 Southern African nations how to run for office, in the hopes that their presence in the political arena will change attitudes and accepted practices.

A critical mass of women in politics can make a significant difference, Ferris argued. Her center has trained aspiring leaders from as far afield as Botswana, Bulgaria and Belfast since she started it in 1995.

Ferris cited a study by the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva that looked at panchayats, or city councils, in India, after the institution of a 30 percent quota for females. Those communities that met the quota saw dramatic results, she said.

"What they find is that budgets got balanced, public services got delivered and corruption went down," Ferris reported.

Not only politics, but grassroots institutions can transform a society, suggested panelist Shoshana Riemer.

The Washington representative for Na'amat, a women's Zionist group, Riemer pointed with pride to a national family violence center her organization created in Tel Aviv nearly two decades ago.

Na'amat, which dates from the 1920s, had as its original aim ensuring women's right to work. In that vein, it set up and continues to operate, said Riemer, 330 child care centers serving more than 25,000 children.

The group's legal aid centers - 30 in all - help women wrestle with such problems as sexual harassment as well as age and religious discrimination.

Not only that, but Na'amat programs cut across ethnic divisions within Israel.

"Our Na'amat doors are open to Palestinian women, Arab women, Druze women, [along with Jews]," said Riemer, adding, "We have worked hard to maintain this record during this difficult, dangerous 17 months of violence."

-- Paula Amann, Washington Jewish Week, March 7, 2002