Mahnaz Afkhami – Iran

Linked with the presentation of Searching for the Sources of the Self.

Born in Kerman, Iran, Mahnaz Afkhami is a leading proponent of women’s rights in the Islamic world. She is president of Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) and executive director of the Foundation for Iranian Studies. She chaired the English department at the National University of Iran, founded the Association of Iranian University Women, and served as secretary general of the Women’s Organization of Iran and minister of state for women’s affairs prior to the Islamic revolution. She is the author of many books on women’s roles in the Islamic world, including Safe and Secure: Eliminating Violence Against Women and Girls in Muslim Societies. (See scu.edu).

Mahnaz Afkhami – Iran

Ferdows Naficy and her two daughters, Mahnaz and Farah became independent women in America. When Ferdows decided to emigrate to the U.S., she opened the door for her daughters to later join her in California. Both would later return to Iran as adults, where they would be torn apart by Iranian politics during the reign of the shah. Mahnaz became a minister in the shah’s government and advocated for women’s rights, while Farah and her husband joined the cause of the revolution. Ultimately, Mahnaz and Farah had to flee Iran in fear for their lives. This is the lastest update from Mahnaz and Farah. (See pbs.org).

In exile in the United States, she has been a leading advocate for women’s rights for more than three decades. She serves on the boards and steering committees of several international organizations, including the World Movement for Democracy, the Commission on Globalization, the Global Fund for Women, the International League for Human Rights, and Women’s Human Rights Net. She has made numerous international radio and television appearances, including interviews on Australian Radio, the BBC, German Radio Network, Swedish Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Company, and CNN. Her publications include Women and the Law in Iran; In the Eye of the Storm: Women in Post-Revolutionary Iran; Faith and Freedom: Women’s Human Rights in the Muslim World; Safe and Secure: Eliminating Violence Against Women and Girls in Muslim Societies; and Women in Exile. (See Omega Institute).

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Fatoumata Dembélé Diarra – Mali

Linked with our presentation of The International Association of Women Judges IAWJ.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed fort the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Goes with ‘Assuming Authority‘.

She says: « Being able to help others is a great opportunity and a duty toward the most disempowered among us. I dedicate the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 to the victims of all forms of violence the world over. »

Fatoumata Dembélé Diarra – Mali

She works for the Observatoire des Droits de l’Enfant et de la Femme (ODEF), and for the Fédération Internationale des Femmes des carrières Juridiques (FIFCJ).

Fatoumata obtained a licence in human rights from the University of Dakar in 1971, a master in legal sciences from the national school of administration of Bamako (ENA) in 1974, and a diploma from the national legal school of Paris in 1977. She has done many university courses. She also has a rich career in the Malian judicial world.

After holding several portfolios in the different courts and courses, she finally became head of the national directorate of judicial matters.

It is for that position that the UN summoned her to the Criminal Court in the former Yugoslavia then to the all new CPI (International Criminal Court).

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Bosiljka Schedlich – Germany & Croatia

She is one of the 1000 women proposed fort the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « The trauma of war fills all our cells with fear; healing allows a return to peace, to trust, as a human being. »

Bosiljka Schedlich, born in 1948 in what is today Croatia, founded the Southeast European Cultural Center in Berlin in 1991. Since then, some 30,000 war refugees from former Yugoslavia have received care, counseling, and therapy.

Bosiljka Schedlich – Germany & Croatia

Bosiljka led therapy groups of people traumatized from the war and soon became an expert on trauma. Meanwhile, many war refugees have returned voluntarily. Bosiljka and her colleagues have recreated their reconciliation projects in former war zones through sponsorships or « storytelling cafés » in which people can speak freely about their war experiences.Bosiljka Schedlich is a short woman whose large dark eyes radiate an astonishing mix of gentle motherly patience and strict precision. When she talks she gets right to the point, her psychological intuition is on target and her memory exact.

The 57-year old knows the long and complicated history of the war in former Yugoslavia only too well. In 1991, she founded the Southeast European Cultural Center in which some 30,000 war refugees have received care, counseling and therapy. After the end of the war in former Yugoslavia, many refugees returned more or less voluntarily. For them the center provides help with the return, arranges for supporting sponsorships, and runs reconciliation projects in the war zones. For example, the “storytelling cafés” in which people can talk freely about their war experiences in a pleasant coffee house atmosphere.

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Khalida Messaoudi – Algeria

In 1993, a handwritten envelope arrived in Khalida Messaoudi’s mailbox. In it was an official communique announcing that she had been condemned to death by the Islamic Salvation Front. This letter came after a series of threats and an attempt on her life in retaliation for her role as a leader of the feminist and democratic movements in Algeria and a fierce opponent of Islamic fundamentalism. Khalida Messaoudi did not flee from this threat by seeking refuge outside her country. Instead, she went into hiding within Algeria, where she continued her fight for emancipation and independence from religious extremism … to restore in Algeria what she describes as « the basics of dignity »—a woman’s right to pursue her studies, practice a profession, make a living, marry and divorce freely, and walk the streets without a veil. She is a former mathematics teacher.

Khalida Messaoudi – Algeria

She said in 1995: « More than 80 people a day have been killed by Islamic fundamentalists. They concentrated on journalists, because writers symbolize freedom of expression, which the fundamentalists find intolerable. Intellectuals, teachers, writers, thinkers – these are the people killed because it is they who defend traditional notions of liberty. But sometimes simple citizens were killed too, randomly, just for the purpose of terror. One day ordinary people may decide to say ‘No’ to the fundamentalists’ ambitions and they want to avoid that happening. They killed women who opposed their views of how we should behave. They cannot allow difference. That is why they insist on veils to cover the difference. They are fascists who claim Allah is on their side and that they are marching under the banner of righteousness. » (Read this and more on this Third World Traveler page).

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Editor's concerns

I am not so much happy with my World People’s Blog. My goal is to show engaged humans wanting realise a good job for this humanity. To reach this goal I need written material available for me. But I do not want show V.I.P.s, as they have enough attention. I want give attention to the millions of us giving their best every day for a better world, people like you and me. They must have not only received some attention, but a public recognition of their work must have been put into an ENGLISH text, available for me in some public way (and with a copyright making not too much trouble). This makes that normal people is not enough presented in this blog, mainly those out of poor and not western countries, also women or minorities.

There are so many good persons in countries NOT writing in the latin alphabet, their internet sites showing any chineese, japaneese, arabian or kryllic text. Women of Muslim countries show not any photo, small people in poor countries have not any internet text. For exemple all the many women in the 1000-peace-women-project out of a Chineese country (China itself (108 names), Hongkong SAR (88 names), or Taiwan (99 names) ), they show all only texts of 4 to 5 lines, and they have often only group photos, one cannot see which woman is meant (same for almost all people out of the former UDSSR). And in Google images you can not distinguish each other of the hundreds of Li, Wang, Chang, Tian, Shang etc. etc., if any of them shows hopefully a text in english, and not only in chineese. Even good known human rights workers out of the french colonies of Africa show only texts in french.

Ok, for the frenchies there could be made also a world peoples blog with our francophone blog. But sorry, I am old and have reached the limites in time and energy of what is possible for me to be done every day. As I am also making the other blogs, the NGOs blog, the blog with many Humanitarian Texts, also the Economy & Society blog, and the blog relating news around the United Nations and countries. My limit is definitively reached.

So, if one knows good people of more modest conditions, all those making a good work and having no chance to be reached by my limited efforts, people working to create a better world for ALL humans, in their free time or as a profession, please do not stop yourself to send me a longer text, with an electronic photo. This text should contain their work in a sobre form, but NOT making battle for any religious or political ideology. The main concern of this blog is all around human rights, but this includes all what gives us a way to live together in peace, freedom and progres.

You may take the already written presentations as a guideline. And please indicate your name and coordinates to be put with the presentation, and also your sources, if a text is not written by yourself. Texts are to be sent to this e-mail address. Many thanks in the name of all this famous people.

Cheshmak Farhoumand-Sims – Canada & Afghanistan

Linked with our presentation of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

Cheshmak Farhoumand-Sims is a peace researcher, educator and practitioner completing her PhD studies at York University in Toronto in the Department of Political Science. Cheshmak received an Honours BA in peace and conflict studies from the University of Toronto and a M.Sc. in conflict analysis and resolution from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where she wrote her Master’s thesis on the subject of the psychological, cultural and religious dimensions of post-conflict reconciliation processes in intractable conflicts. In addition to these degrees, Cheshmak has studied at the Austrian Peace University and the United Nations Graduate Studies Program.

Cheshmak Farhoumand-Sims – Canada & Afghanistan

Cheshmak believes that women play an integral role in the development of their societies and that their absence from public discourse contributes to the stunted growth of the society as a whole. She is interested in exploring how religion and culture are often used to prevent women’s active participation in society and in considering how this impacts peacebuilding and reconstruction efforts. Her dissertation focuses on the relationship between the protection and promotion of women’s human rights and peacebuilding in conflict zones, where religion and culture serve as a barrier to women’s participation, such as the case in Afghanistan. She gained insight into these issues through her research, travels to Afghanistan, and participation at the Commission on the Status of Women, and the meeting of the Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 2001. These experiences provided her with the opportunity to interview Afghan women in Afghanistan, and gender experts within the United Nations at the United Nations Division on the Advancement of Women, UNIFEM and 17 of the 21 experts that sit on the CEDAW committee.

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Douangdeuane Bounyavong – Laos

Linked with our presentation of Lao literature (in English and Lao). Also with Thierry Falise – Belgium & Thailand, and with Vanida S. Thephsouvanh – Laos & France.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed fort the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « I want to make the wonderful world of books accessible to all children. »

Douangdeuane Bounyavong (born 1947) is dedicated to the promotion of literacy and cultural experience through books in a country with a very limited reading tradition, due to lack of education and resources. She founded and is now directing and writing for Dokked Publishing and bookstore in Vientiane, a small independent publishing house, which focuses on titles for children and women, securing the necessary funding through successful networking abroad. She has established many libraries in rural regions and is working to improve the working conditions and quality of teachers. (Read on this 1000peacewomen site).

Douangdeuane Bounyavong – Laos

One of the foremost cultural figures of Laos, Ms. Douangdeuane Bounyavong has contributed to promoting traditional Lao culture, particularly textiles and traditional weaving techniques, and studying and disseminating Lao literature.

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Tarun Tejpal – India

Linked with our presentation of Tehelka – the people’s paper – India.

And linked with our presentation of For whom the bell tolls.

He said in an interview about his book ‘the alchemy of desire’: (excerpt)  » … yes, the book’s strongest characters are female, and the book is decidedly very pro-female. Personally, I just think women are far, far more interesting than men. It has to do with their immense layering, an emotional ‘nuancing’ that is the creation of millennia of facing up to difficult odds. In comparison, men are almost two dimensional, emotionally and sexually lesser beings. Yes, most of the important people in my life are female — mother, sister, wife, daughters, colleagues, friends. Yes, they are changing — no options: The future belongs to women, but they are changing at too slow a pace. The north, of course, could certainly do with a dramatic behaviour reorientation. Mostly very badly behaved, I have to say …  » (Read the whole interview on this rediff.com page).

Tarun Tejpal – India

TARUN TEJPAL is CEO and editor-in-chief of tehelka, an Web-only news and literary site based in New Delhi — and one of India’s most well-known editors. Since its founding in March 2000, two of the site’s stories have brought it international attention: its investigation of a cricket match-fixing scandal and its sting operation that exposed corruption in the Indian defense establishment.

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Karen E. Mundy – Canada

She says: “The main innovation that I’ve been pulling together is to start thinking about education as part of a world system rather than as something contained within each nation.”

And: “A school looks like a school almost anywhere you go,” she notes. But while some systems succeed in lifting people out of poverty, other systems do not. She worries about the increasingly skewed global situation: “While it may seem fine if everyone in developing countries gets a primary education, what if everybody in the rich countries gets a university education?” (See boh on IDRC report).

Coming to Canada from the Stanford University USA, she became the chairholder of the Canada Research Chair in Global Governance and Comparative Educational Change, University of Toronto, Tier 2, Social Sciences and Humanities, on October 1, 2002.

Karen E. Mundy – Canada

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) has designated 24–30 April 2006 as its “Global Action Week” to focus international attention on education as a universal right. It’s a matter close to the heart of IDRC awardee Karen Mundy, a world-renowned scholar of comparative education now based at OISE/University of Toronto.

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Myla Jabilles Leguro – Philippines

She is one of the 1000 women proposed fort the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: “Peace education should be a must among schools and other institutions. It is as serious as math and science. If we do not give it equal importance, then we are not giving peace importance either.”

Myla Jabilles Leguro – Philippines

She works:

– for the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in the Philippines;

– for the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI) and Grassroots Peace Learning Center (GPLC), same as html-file;

Myla Jabilles Leguro (born 1968) is the Peace and Reconciliation Program Manager of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) where she works on Muslim-Christian dialogue in war-torn Mindanao. She has been involved in peace and reconciliation projects in areas with histories of violent conflicts like Jolo and Basilan. She organized two major peace-building institutions: the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI) and the Grassroots Peace Learning Center (GPLC). Through these institutions, Myla helps create peaceful communities in Mindanao. For Myla Jabilles Leguro, peace building is not a job. It is her life. As a peace advocate, she has dedicated her life to building peaceful communities in Mindanao.

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