International: WISE - Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity 2006
Source:
WLUML networkers Some WLUML networkers participated in and attended the recently held WISE conference and have shared some of their impressions about the event.
The conference attracted a lot of publicity, the assumption appearing to be that the content of the event would gather strength just from bringing lots of interesting people together.
This seemed to be the first, coherent call for a women's shura council and the 120 women invited represented a diversity of regions (North America, western Europe, South America, MENA, Central/South Asia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Senegal), professions (lawyers, theologians/prayer leaders, doctors, politicians, writers, activists, academics, artists), and perspectives (ranging from the more conservative, 'change from within' camp; to the reformists who still advocate secular spaces/laws; to the more apolitical; to the human rights/WLUML-esque perspective.
There were also a number of younger women involved in 'creative methods of social change,' which included a woman writing children's books in the UAE aimed at young, Muslim girls; the editor of the new UK magazine "Q" (aimed at young, British-Muslim women and men); and a number of filmmakers and TV producers addressing the topics of Muslim women.
Much of the conference was spent discussing people's areas of expertise and current work and the most tangible outcome was the ample opportunity everyone had for networking and I kept hearing repeated comments along the lines of, 'Muslim contexts are more diverse than I had realized ... we should have more solidarity."
Unfortunately, the organisers tried to incorporate so much diversity and entertainment (and publicity) that the actual brainstorming/workshopping/discussion of what a women's shura council might look like and how to get there was condensed into literally the last three hours of the conference. In fact, a number of us had to leave in the middle of it to make our return flights so the idea is to maintain contact through emailing/blogging to continue the discussions started there, through regional discussion groups.
There were also a number of younger women involved in 'creative methods of social change,' which included a woman writing children's books in the UAE aimed at young, Muslim girls; the editor of the new UK magazine "Q" (aimed at young, British-Muslim women and men); and a number of filmmakers and TV producers addressing the topics of Muslim women.
Much of the conference was spent discussing people's areas of expertise and current work and the most tangible outcome was the ample opportunity everyone had for networking and I kept hearing repeated comments along the lines of, 'Muslim contexts are more diverse than I had realized ... we should have more solidarity."
Unfortunately, the organisers tried to incorporate so much diversity and entertainment (and publicity) that the actual brainstorming/workshopping/discussion of what a women's shura council might look like and how to get there was condensed into literally the last three hours of the conference. In fact, a number of us had to leave in the middle of it to make our return flights so the idea is to maintain contact through emailing/blogging to continue the discussions started there, through regional discussion groups.
