gender

As the Rev. Patti Ackerman, FOR-USA liaison to the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), heads for The Netherlands to co-deliver training through the Women's Peacemaker Program on masculinity next week to two dozen delegates from around the world, we are reminded on this day of the important context of such work as it relates to violence against women.

Here is Secretary Ban Ki-moon's message:

U N I T E D   N A T I O N S                          N A T I O N S   U N I E S  

By Mark Svensson, with Tarik Abdelqader

For over 5,000 years, the practice of slavery has plagued the human species. Today, most people in the United States associate slavery with African-American history, formed by the transatlantic slave trade, and ended by the Emancipation Proclamation. Indeed, a widely accepted notion exists in our nation is that U.S. participation in slavery ended following Lincoln's 1863 Proclamation. Yet this notion could not be any further from the truth.

I was fascinated by many of the opening comments delivered today in the U.S. Senate hearings for the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. It seemed that one could quickly discern the tacts that many senators will take in their questioning and examination of the candidate for associate justice of the court -- and indeed what their vote will ultimately be.

The International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) has just published its quarterly "IFOR in Action" newsletter, which is once again chock-full of interesting content. The quarterly newsletter is published in PDF format for easy downloading from the internet. The Summer 2009 issue is particularly focused on peace and nonviolence work being done in Asia, and includes articles addressing work in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Israel/Palestine.

FOR members are invited to contribute to "IFOR in Action," and the next issue will focus on peace and environmental work happening in Africa. Deadline for submissions is July 10.

The U.S. Fellowship of Reconciliation is a member of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), which is based in the Netherlands and has more than 80 member groups around the world. IFOR also hosts the international office for the Women's Peacemaker Programme (WPP), which works globally to address issues of gender equity, women's empowerment, and community-based conflict resolution strategies.

WPP distributes regular e-newsletters with updates on the efforts of members of their global network, especially groups that are based in Africa and Asia. Today a message was sent out soliciting trainers for upcoming programs being sponsored by WPP. We share that info here:

Last night, I drove like mad to get from Nyack to the very bottom-most point of Manhattan, Battery Park City. It's approximately 40 miles as the crow flies, but during NYC's late rush hour, it feels like 140! The purpose of my reckless traffic experience was to visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage for the first time, to attend a program titled "Feminism and Faith."

I'd just learned about this panel conversation a mere 24 hours earlier, courtesy of an email from Kate Anne Brennan, convenor of FOR's NYC chapter, and the topic intrigued me -- especially with it being Women's History Month. Plus, I knew two of the panelists, neither of whom I'd seen in years. (The personal connection always helps.)

Several more reports have arrived in the past 48 hours from the Fellowship of Reconciliation's 9th civilian diplomacy delegation to Iran. Earlier this week, the group flew south from Iran to Shiraz, and they have since traveled to the ancient, mighty ruins of Persepolis as well as the gorgeous city of Esfahan. Delegation leader David Hartsough wrote two short reflections from this city of rivers, known to all Iranians as "half the world." His first, "Don't Bring Your Guns," is both a humorous and political commentary:

The Fellowship of Reconciliation's ninth peace and civilian diplomacy delegation to Iran arrived safely in Tehran on Thursday, February 19th. There are six members of this delegation, making it the smallest one to date, as two-thirds of the group were denied visas. FOR is deeply concerned about what we are experiencing as an increasing series of challenges to an already difficult process of obtaining visas for U.S. citizens.

The six members of the current delegation come from New York and California. They are:

The news from Zimbabwe over the past several weeks has been deeply disturbing to all those who care about human rights and democratic elections. Today's international media reported the arrest yesterday of the opposition presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangarai, who is trying for the third time to achieve victory over President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, which has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980.

As someone who has traveled to Zimbabwe, a spectacularly beautiful country with a highly-educated population, and been blessed to know many people from that nation, I have personally felt incredible pain and sadness at the reports I have been reading. I know many Zimbabweans who have left the country in recent years, mostly black, and have heard their stories of the economic despair in the country as well as the political repression that has increased each year.

History was made yesterday. And I was there to witness it. My colleague, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, was invited to stand before the congregation of an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Tehran, Iran. And as I should have realized she would, Lynn claimed the prophetic mantle.