Monday 18 November 2013

Women-only cafes offer new versions of Palestinian public Space

Original source:http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=643647


Discreetly located at the foot of a staircase, the cafe offers a familiar scene: shisha pipes are stacked neatly on the counter, ashtrays dot each table, Lebanese satellite television plays in the background and steaming Turkish coffee is served to a table of regulars. 

Like many other cafes lining the busy avenues branching off of Ramallah’s bustling Manara Square, this is a gendered space. Male employees stand guard outside, surveying the entrance of the cafe with stern eyes.

Unlike most public establishments in Ramallah, Ladies is a cafe for women only.

When the cafe opened in early 2012, it was the first women-only cafe in Ramallah. As in most cities in Palestine, cafes in Ramallah are primarily a men-only affair. Many cafes and restaurants have mixed clientele and some even have delineated "family" sections, but for the most part women rarely frequent cafes on their own.

Ladies promised to provide a different experience, one that barred male clientele and instead offered a public space intended exclusively for women. The hope was that in a society where cafes are traditionally geared towards men, the creation of a women-only cafe would offer women equal access to the public sphere, but on their own terms.

Cafe owner Jamil Ali explains that in a woman-only space, women can feel comfortable and take off their scarves, smoke cigarettes and sit with their legs crossed, unlike in male-dominated cafes where these behaviors might draw attention. 

"She doesn’t want anybody to look at her," he says. "A thousand eyes will go to her, a thousand eyes." But in a public space frequented exclusively by women, she is free to unwind in a comfortable setting. 

In addition to creating a space accessible to women, Ali also sought to ensure that the cafe be economically accessible to a female-only clientele. As he explained, many mixed cafes charge prices out of reach for most Palestinian women. Although the entire menu was originally priced at 10 shekels ($3), after realizing that the prices were still too high for some patrons, the price of drinks were lowered to seven shekels ($2).

"Women don’t have to be on their guard." 

Unlike Jamil Ali, Susie Atilla didn’t set out to create a women-only space three years ago when she co-founded Diva, a cafe patronized predominantly by women inconspicuously located off of a main street in Bethlehem.

Atilla was originally encouraged by the male owner of the commercial center where Diva is located to open the cafe there because a number of other female-oriented businesses had locations nearby. Among Diva’s neighbors are a gym, hairdresser and a Turkish bath.

She explains that even though the cafe was open to a mixed clientele, "the reputation spread that it’s only for women."

"Some men get really embarrassed to come with their wives but we always tell them men and families are welcome!" she adds with a chuckle.

Susie and her sister, Nancy, started Diva as a project meant to provide them with an income for after their retirement from their day jobs. They hoped in the process to create a place where they and their friends could come and socialize. 

When asked about Ladies cafe in Ramallah, Atilla smiles. 

"It’s great for girls to be able to feel comfortable," in a cafe like Ladies. "Women don’t have to be on their guard."

She emphasizes that even though its location is somewhat isolated, Diva offers "privacy," and a place where women feel comfortable. 

The sentiment was shared by many patrons at Ladies interviewed by Ma’an.

A patron from the US uses the cafe as a space for lessons with teenage Palestinian girls she tutors. The parents of the girls, she says, feel comfortable knowing that the cafe only serves women and thus offers a secure public meeting spot for young girls. 

Many of the students’ parents usually only allow their daughters to go to school and come home, the tutor says, but when they heard about the cafe they welcomed the idea.

She concedes, however, that gender-segregated cafes "enforce the idea that girls have to do things in secret."

A Palestinian woman at the cafe adds, "It’s sick, the separation thing. Ramallah is better (than other cities in Palestine, but) you still find people who won’t let their daughters or wives go places."

This customer tells Ma'an that she sees a women-only cafe as another example of the kinds of separation between genders that persists in Palestinian public space. 

She adds that the cafe’s decision to serve an exclusively female clientele furthers the gender divide between men and women in public spaces. 

"The society and the mentality of the people is not going to change soon," she says with a shake of her head.

Creating public spaces for women 

Both cafes, though quite different in mission, have become spaces for women located in a larger urban context that offer comfort and privacy for their patrons. Neither cafe set out to change the fabric of Palestinian society, or the fact that most public establishments primarily cater exclusively to men. 

Rather, each cafe acknowledges the realities of a male-dominated public sphere by offering a place where women can feel comfortable.

Even though all-women cafes like Ladies "(enforce) the separation," a Palestinian patron says, they can also be seen as "a solution that make things easier for some part of society."

And for the many women who frequent Ladies and Diva, but feel uncomfortable or unable to patronize male-dominated establishments, these cafes offer a unique and inviting alternative that offers comfort, privacy, and access.

Atilla, the owner of Diva suggests that "some women in society feel like they need to have a place that is private and that’s where they feel comfortable."

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Maoist "sympathiser" Soni Sori granted bail by SC

Original Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/maoist-sympathiser-soni-sori-granted-bail-by-sc/article1-1150180.aspx

Soni Sori, the tribal teacher who was held in New Delhi last October on charges of being a Maoist conduit was granted bail by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, reports said.

 Sori was accused of receiving "protection money" on behalf of Maoists from the Essar Group. But she claims she was falsely implicated in a number of cases linking her to Maoist activities.
 
The Supreme Court had admitted Sori's bail plea in September and had sought response from Chhattisgarh government.
 
She had approached the apex court challenging the Chhattisgarh high court order denying them bail on July 8, 2013.
 
Sori has been lodged at the Raipur Central Jail since O
ctober 2011. 
 
She was arrested on October 4, 2011 in New Delhi by a Chhattisgarh police team. She was then taken to Dantewada for interrogation but was not produced before court.
 
Sori has alleged that she was raped and mistreated by the police.
 
The Chhattisgarh police claimed she fell in a bathroom. 
 

Wednesday 6 November 2013

Digging Deeper: Water, Women and Conflict

Original Source:http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/digging-deeper-water-women-and-conflict

It’s not just “carrying water from a water point, but it’s discharging responsibilities that a woman has for using and managing water which may make her vulnerable to violence and bring her into risky areas,” said Dennis Warner, senior technical advisor for water and sanitation at Catholic Relief Services (CRS), at the Wilson Center on August 29.
“It’s really like peeling an onion, quite frankly. All of these issues are embedded within one another,” said Sandra Ruckstuhl, a senior social scientist at Group W Inc. Ruckstuhl and Warner were joined by Carla Koppell, USAID’s senior coordinator for gender equality and women’s empowerment to talk about the relationship between gender, access to water, and violent conflict.
Women: Water Users and Managers
The water for washing clothing, bathing, and general household use is often found in remote locations that may also be insecure. Women, who are primarily responsible for these activities, are therefore vulnerable to violence, including rape and kidnapping. This violence has far-reaching health, social, emotional, and economic impacts on the women themselves, but also has cascading effects on their households and communities.
Warner noted that the design of water systems frequently prioritizes technical efficiency and cost savings but fails to anticipate the vulnerability of women and children or other social considerations. “We need to institutionalize this knowledge on the protection of women in all development sectors, but especially in water, because water is such an obvious and leading edge of development that is subject to so many of these problems,” he said.
In planning water points, therefore, CRS attempts to both improve access and enhance protection of women and children. In Darfur, for example, by providing separate and more secure water points for pastoral and agricultural groups, they reduced both the risk to women and tension between groups. 
Incorporating Social Factors
There is no linear progression from conflict to water access to gender dimensions that could lead to clear-cut interventions, said Sandra Ruckstahl; these issues “are nested within one another.” Citing case studies from India, the West Bank, and Gaza, she explored several factors that can impede water access in conflict situations, including the level of violence, state neglect, the role of non-state actors, and failure to build and/or maintain infrastructure. She also pointed to positive linkages, such as the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where an informal water management arrangement during the conflict created a foundation for post-conflict reconstruction. 
Ruckstuhl indicated that access to water is “defined not just by physical and environmental factors, but also by social factors.” Therefore, interventions should be based on disaggregated data that analyzes the behaviors, priorities, and concerns of different user groups within a conflict area. Furthermore, practitioners should consider secondary impacts, including “other development implications, in terms of productive time for education or to contribute to the local economy.”
Gender Is Core Issue, Not a Sideline
“Too often when we are talking about issues related to women, or gender dimensions, within any development or conflict context, people think about it as a sideline,” said Carla Koppell. She emphasized the centrality of women to the conversation, both because they are profoundly vulnerable and because their vulnerability has a “ripple effect on the entire well-being of communities.”
According to Koppell, interventions should take into consideration the different roles of women and men, and how those roles evolve in conflict situations. She warned against viewing women solely as passive victims and emphasized the importance of leveraging women’s roles as leaders within their families and communities in the search for solutions. 
“[W]hat we need to remember when we are talking about the nexus between water, conflict, and women, and I would say both women and gender issues as well, is that if we do a better job at building this into all of the interventions we’re working in…we will see better development results,” Koppell said. “I think we should all feel like this is quite core to our agenda…we should feel like it is a collective endeavor that we want to move forward together.”