[Peace-discuss] Algerian, Nigerian & Saudi Women Project

[John Wason]

I don't have any information to help these folks, but I thought it was
interesting, and it occurred to me that some of you might have more
information than I have.  Al Kagan, for example, comes to mind.  Enjoy, in
any event.

John Wason



>From: INEAS at aol.com
>Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 18:23:40 EST
>Subject: Algerian, Nigerian & Saudi Women Project
>
>Please Forward 
 Please Post
>Please also forward to people in Algeria, Nigeria & Saudi Arabia
>**********************************************************************
><" I touch the future. I teach"> 
>Christa McAuliffe, Arab-American Astronaut who 
>boarded the space shuttle, Challenger.
>
><"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.">
>Madam Marie Currie
>
>[Read Rumi's quote on women at the end of this email below]
>__________________________________________________ 
>
>Documenting Women Project
>
>We live in a world of imbalance and injustice whereby men have 
>nearly all the say and women, by force or sometimes by choice, 
>have a little or no say.  As a result, women have not been effective 
>in changing the status quo.
>
>Despite the ineffectiveness, three major events had taken place 
>since the 1960s whereby women have challenged and/or changed 
>the status quo by directly protesting against or interfering with men's 
>action and monopoly.  However we do not read about these events in 
>HIStory pages.  Heroism seems to be a term only associated with 
>men's actions.  
>
>In this age of utmost conflicts, wars and men's tyranny, many feel 
>acknowledging and recording such incidents are a necessity 
>because by doing so, it will expose women to ideas and role 
>models whom they never thought possible or existing.  The 
>process of researching, writing about and publishing these 
>incidents, we believe, will help energize women into taking action 
>and into being innovative and independent of men's activism, 
>politics and monopoly and will help increase the desire to, at 
>least shake, if not relatively change the status quo.  Those 
>events were:
>
>1.  Algerian women's action to stop a civil war in 1963 immediately 
>following the end of the French occupation by acting as shields. 
>2.  Saudi Arabian women's boycott of American businesses and 
>products, a boycott which has been going on for a couple of years, 
>following the Palestinian uprisings and has gained momentum in the 
>Arab world and Iran after the wave of hate crimes against Arabs and 
>Muslims that followed the US's September events and especially 
>during the war on Afghanistan.
>3.  Nigerian women's protest against the Exxon oil franchises in 
>2002:  Although it was documented in the media, the women's names 
>who took part in it were never acknowledged nor were the details of the 
>planning and execution of the Exxon raiding.
>
>In event one:  Algerian women, in an area said to be near the capital 
>of Algiers, acted as human shields between two teams of men in 
>conflict who were carrying guns and heading to fight.  Had this conflict 
>not been interfered with, a definite civil war would have erupted. Those 
>women were family members, relatives, neighbors and friends of the 
>Men in Conflict (MIC) and said to be numbering about two hundred.  
>We have been asking Algerian women and men about this incident 
>and sadly they have no knowledge of it.  Any information you can 
>provide us with concerning this event will be greatly appreciated.  
>You will be credited.  Your help can be in any of the following ways:
>
>1.  The Algerian women who were involved in this forgotten 
>incident:  Their names, location, relation to the Men in Conflict (MIC).  
>Do you know of a woman who was involved in this event and do 
>you have her contact information?  Are you one of those courageous 
>women who participated in it?  Do you know or have heard of any 
>eye witness be that a journalist or a passerby who witnessed the 
>event?  It will be ideal for those alive and who have participated in 
>this event to be interviewed.  The MIC's can also be a valuable 
>source in providing us with information about that occurrence.
>
>2.  Was there any documentation/coverage done about this Algerian 
>women's event on radio, newspapers and TV?  Do you have or know 
>of any photographs taken on that day(s).  Did the Algerian government 
>document this event in anyway?
>3.  Sources that will help us: Books, journals and websites that have 
>mentioned this occurrence.
>
>In event two: Saudi Arabian women have been the leading force 
>behind a boycott against American businesses and products.  It has 
>significantly challenged the American businesses and caused them 
>considerable losses; about 35%. The Saudi government has done 
>no publicity about this boycott, and the Arab world's media never 
>portrays it as a boycott by women, rather reports about it as part 
>of an Arab boycott (from various Arab countries) against 
>American/Israeli products.  This Saudi women's boycott has 
>been relatively unknown and has not been covered in world's media.  
>Here are the facts:
>
>1.  Saudi women with higher education are nearly double the 
>number of Saudi men.
>2.  Saudi women as consumers have a higher spending power 
>than men, which therefore made the boycott more effective and 
>caused American businesses considerable losses.
>3.  Men (worldwide) consider events achieved by women (especially 
>when challenging men) are not as important, if at all, so they do 
>not document them and if they do so, it is done superficially.
>
>Here is how you can help us:
>1.  Put us in touch with some of these Saudi women via email, 
>fax, tel. or mail to interview them and to update the status of 
>the boycott.
>2.  Refer us to or send us any sources; books, journals, 
>websites, etc.. to document this particular boycott.
>3.  Refer to us those who have researched and written about or 
>witnessed the Saudi boycott in any way.
>
>In a separate email, we will send you ambassador Chas. W.
>Freeman's quote on Saudi women and their boycott along 
>with a couple of articles on Arab world's boycott. Please send us 
>an email requesting the information by changing the subject 
>title to "Boycott info. request"
>
>In event three:  Unarmed Nigerian village women stormed five 
>Chevron Texaco pipeline stations, as protests against the oil 
>giant spread in southeastern Nigeria on July 17, 2002. 
>The 10-day takeover trapped 700 US, Canadian, British and 
>Nigerian oil workers inside the terminal.
>
>Although the Boston Globe, The Washington Post, the New York 
>Times, the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets 
>published/covered the news about this event between July 
>and August, none of them mentioned how the planning was 
>conceived by the Nigerian women and acknowledged at least its 
>leadership and planners.  In a Christian Science Monitor article 
>dated August 12, 2002 p07. The article stated:
>
>"The Escravos women, who ranged in age between 30 to 90, 
>used a potent tactic: they threatened to take their clothes off. 
>Public nudity would have embarrassed the expatriates among 
>the terminal's more than 1,000 workers and caused a deeper 
>sense of shame for many Nigerian employees.  "By the time the 
>women bare their chests and go around, people are really in 
>trouble," says Bolanle Awe, one of the founders of the Women's 
>Research and Documentation Center at Nigeria's University of 
>Ibadan.  "It's a curse on whoever the ruler is."  The tactics and 
>determination of the Escravos women helped persuade Chevron 
>to send senior executives to negotiate concessions. The company 
>agreed to employ more local people, invest in electricity supply 
>and other infrastructure projects, and assist the villagers in 
>setting up poultry and fish farms to supply the terminal's 
>cafeteria. The social gains apparently secured by the Escravos 
>women contrast with the frequent violent and fruitless clashes 
>that have taken place between young men and the police and army."
>
>We hope to publish findings, conduct interviews with the women 
>involved in these events, acknowledge them and document their 
>planning prior to any of these events, and what made them 
>successful.  Crediting their struggle and boycott is important 
>in this age of wars, globalization and men's monopoly.  
>We are also looking for 
>
>*   Writers/journalists (men and preferably women) who have 
>written about any of these incidents especially the first two.
>*   Publishing Companies to publish the details of these incidents.
>*   Funding and/or cosponsoring.
>
>To rely on media outlets (wherever they are in the world), being 
>owned and controlled by men, is doing no justice to the recording of 
>women's actions and achievements!  It is time women and women 
>organizations document women's heroism and enlist it in 
>HERstory pages.
>
>Copyright Institute of Near Eastern & African Studies (INEAS), 2003
>P.O. Box 425125
>Cambridge, MA 02142  USA
>Fax: (617) 323-5950
>Website: http://www.INEAS.org
><><><><><><><><><><><>
>INEAS is an independent, educational and tax-exempt organization
>with the mission to educate the public and inform the media on
>issues related to the Arab and Islamic worlds, Africa and the
>non-Arab Middle East.
>(*_*)******************************(*_*)
>
>Mathnawi quoting Jalaluddine Rumi on women:
>
>"Woman is creation in action, in process, in constant flow.  
>Woman is not created, but a subject of immense creative power.  
>If you are a woman, live up to your uniqueness, your individuality, 
>and stand alone against all mankind's past desire to make you 
>into an object.  If you are a man, discover the feminine state of 
>consciousness, the constant becoming, and balance your 
>goal-oriented ways with more receptivity.  In front of God, 
>we are all women and lovers: open, like flowers, waiting to be 
>impregnated by the divine."
>
>[Jalalu~ddine Rumi was born in 1207 EC in Balkh, 
>Afghanistan, fifty one years before the fall of Baghdad on 
>the hands of the Mongols]
>