For me, the final straw was Huairou. Not everyone will remember Huairou, but some of us will never forget it. Huairou was the Chinese village which in 1995 was transformed for a few days into a sea of tents, huts, makeshift wooden walkways and mud, when more than 20,000 women from around the world met there for the UN’s fourth world conference on women.
For sheer colour, the occasion was not to be missed. Saudi women covered in black jostled with American feminists wearing “Why have sex when you can have gender?” T-shirts. Workshops on “stereotyping and sexism in advertising” (sponsored by the Montreal Council of Women) were held a few feet away from tents where Cambodian peasant women in national dress were sewing a quilt in honour of the conference. Tanzanian women sold brightly-coloured scarves; Singaporean women distributed fresh flowers, “flown here courtesy of Singapore Airlines”; the American Association for the Advancement of Science was answering questions about teaching science to girls.
Just occasionally, the different worlds were forced into awkward confrontation. At a workshop entitled “Politics of difference: single women,” a few third world women turned up expecting to talk about prostitutes, and the pressures on women in traditional societies to marry the men of their families’ choice. An articulate Indian woman stood up and gave a moving speech about shelters which she had organised for women who run away from their violent husbands, and are subsequently shunned by communities which simply do not recognise the right of women to live alone. A few Americans turned up at the meeting too to talk about the difficulty of living alone in Philadelphia (”People, like, think you’re lesbian”). Throughout the workshop, the two sides listened to one another in incomprehending silence.
If you are a subscriber, please log in »
This article is available to subscribers only
Subscribing to Prospect is the most reliable and convenient way to receive the magazine every month, and offers the best value.Subscription Types:
Online
An online subscription offers you complete and unlimited access to the entire website, including our searchable archive of every back issue of Prospect, and a PDF edition of each new issue: all this for just £20 per year. Purchase an online subscription »Renewal
Renew an existing subscription »Institutional access
If you are a library, business organisation or any other large institution that needs a multi-user licence, you can obtain institutional access.
Share
Subscribe to post comments
Print
