CDN Gender Group

Different Cultures - Equal Genders!

by Tamuna Zandukeli

From 29th March to 5th April, CDN and the Gender Group organized the seminar “Different Cultures- Equal Genders” in Nabran, Azerbaijan. It gathered around 20 participants from all over Europe for a week of workshops, games, simulations, lectures and parties. The seminar was financially supported by the Council of Europe, the European Youth Foundation and Green Forum Sweden. Local hosts were CDN member organization “Azerbaijan Young Greens” and candidate member “GreenAZ”.

Compiled by Lusine Grigoryan

In 1910 an International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, pictured) tabled the idea of an International Women's Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day - a Women's Day - to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women's clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin's suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women's Day was the result.

Fight stereotypes and be yourself!

by Terry Reintke

This parole was supposed to be the goal of the Gender Carnival the Gender Working Group had announced for Saturday night at the Network Meeting in Zagreb in November 2009. In fact, we rather used gender stereotypes to reflect on our gendered behaviour. Suddenly, guys were wearing bras and dresses and women scratched their balls.

by Tamuna Zandukeli

Two of the basic values for a modern society are social justice and equal opportunities for all people to actively participate in society. Unfortunately, not all people are granted equal opportunities and make choices that are constrained by certain pressures in face of social institutions and policies that tend to either enhance or stunt the development of an individual’s life chances. People are still facing discrimination on different levels and fields of life. After 60 years of human right declaration and 100 years of fight for women rights, gender still remains one of the bases for discrimination. As for the countries in the process of transition to modern democratic societies, the inclusion of women is limited or not duly appreciated and evaluated. Gender equality should be evaluated as a key in building an open, inclusive and diverse society as it comes together with the transformation of social and political institutions.

by Aynur Nabiyeva

Today the notion of gender is quite diversely perceived by people in Azerbaijan, mostly depending on their surrounding, educational background, world outlook and many other things of this kind.

Personally, I see the roots of gender related issues in old traditions which are sometimes misinterpreted as rules of religion. Just as an example, what is wrong when a young girl or woman in family has her own say? Is it going to damage the reputation of an ideal and well organized family in the society where the remnants of patriarchy are carefully preserved? For us it is highly important the perception of society as a sum of individuals who are united in families, in neighborhoods, in schools, in offices etc.

From young girls and women perspective, obviously, it is never easy stand against your mother at home, to go beyond the expectations and norms and overall to achieve a change without loss.

...and the Fight against Violence and Women's Oppression today

by Terry Reintke

"Recognizing that violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of their full advancement, and that violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into subordinate positions, compared with men..."

- UN General Assembly, Resolution 54/134, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

Violence against women is one of the major violations of Human Rights that the world faces today. Women in various circumstances are specifically  vulnerable to violent acts including sexual violence, domestic violence, trafficking and female genital mutilation. That is why the world needs a day to raise awareness of this challenging problem.

Violence Against Women as a Key Issue

For the 25th of November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we want to propose you several activities. As we find that a very important issue, we ask you to do something for that date and present you what we are planning to do.

1. Series of articles on the homepage

We need about 3 to 5 articles about controversial topics to start the discussion. The articles should be about 5000 letters long and give some information about the topic. They can also include personal opinions. We want to propose some topics but feel free to write about anything you find interesting. It just has to refer to violence against women in some respect.