The Next Generation of Young Female Leaders: Confident, In Control, and Visionary

“Many change agents focus on pathology. Instead, one must focus on vision.”

                                                                                                                                -Gail Straub

 Gail Straub, co-founder of the Empowerment Institute, held an eye-opening and profound leadership workshop with nine global scholars from Korea, Egypt, India, Afghanistan, Indonesia, South Africa, the United States, and Austria from September 17-19, 2012. Organized in advance of the launch of the Omega Institute’s new Women’s Leadership Center during the 2012 Women &Power conference near Rhinebeck, NY, Gail’s workshop imparted the tools and skills necessary to allow these dedicated young women to explore their own leadership styles and to identify the next steps for growth and empowerment.

The commonalities between the issues these women from around the world say they face are striking: across the board, the global scholars indicated that they needed help with boosting their own self-confidence, “owning” their achievements, finding a “mirror” to be able to accurately assess their efficacy as a leader, finding a balance between masculine and feminine as well as head-driven and heart-driven leadership styles, and being able to trust others. Although the women work in extremely diverse fields, including with female inmates in the United States, with sex workers in India, in interfaith and women’s empowerment projects in Indonesia, and in building shelters for women in Afghanistan,  they faced similar challenges in being able to fully claim and flourish in their leadership potential.

Gail helped the group to identify their own personal “limiting beliefs,” such as “In order to trust someone else I have to give up control,” and to redefine these beliefs to create achievable visions. She pointed out that most change agents focus on pathology—that is to say, they focus their attention on identifying and defining problems, which tends to cause the problem to grow and to limit an individual’s ability to find solutions to the problem. Instead, Gail encourages young leaders to focus on their vision—and the solution to the problem will follow.

Azza, from Egypt, has the following vision: “I want to be in control of my life—I want to get in the boat of life and guide the boat, not let the boat be guided by the waves.” Hyung Kyun, from South Korea, wants to “harvest the abundance of life.”

 

On September 22, Gail interviewed Azza, Samu (from South Africa), Manizha (from Afghanistan), and Tejaswi (from India) on stage at the Women & Power conference. These courageous young leaders got a standing ovation from the crowd as they shared their life experiences and hopes for their own future as well as for the futures of women in their communities. It is female leaders like these with whom SAVE liaises around the world to find new and sustainable ways of combating violent extremism, through the targeted and responsible inclusion of women in the security sphere.

SAVE Sister Archana Kapoor's work highlighted in recent Indepenent article: Radio for Change!

Change is in the airwaves in rural India

A traditional Muslim farming community is turning to the local radio station for advice on everything from sowing crops to health

The work of Archana Kapoor, SAVE Sister and long-standing Women without Borders representative in India, is highlighted in this recent article by The Independent. Archana is a visionary leader, peace builder, and film maker, dedicated to working for real and sustainable change with grassroots women in India, and on the global scale. She is a true woman without borders.


By Andrew Buncombe.
Originally published in The Independent, Friday, 27 April, 2012.

Beside a clump of sugarcane, brown and brittle, Mohamed Arif slipped out his electronic recorder and gently raised it towards the crouching farmer. What had gone wrong, he asked.

It was bad, said the farmer, his head wrapped in a white turban. Two years ago they had grown sugar cane and had decent results, but this year there had not been enough water. This time they could cut the cane only for animal fodder.

Mr Arif asked some more questions and then dropped the recorder back into his pocket. A couple of days later, edited with comments from local agricultural officials, the interview would make a bulletin for his radio station, Radio Mewat, and his interviewee, 61-year-old Mormal Khan, would almost certainly be among those tuning in to listen.

“Every day we listen to the evening programmes. We get a lot of information about what to sow and how to sow,” said the farmer. “I have a radio but we have no television. There is not a single television in the whole village.”

His wife, Jowri, said she liked to listen to the music and songs played by the station. She added: “When we are at home, I put it on. They talk about everything.”

There are more than 120 community radio stations operating across India. But over the last four years Radio Mewat has steadily built a reputation for helping one of the country’s most vulnerable groups, the Mewati, or Meo. A traditional Muslim farming community, the Mewati have long suffered cultural and economic discrimination. Today, although most of the community of more than 1m lives less than two hours from Delhi, in terms of job opportunities and access to health care and education, it is among India’s most marginalised.

“They demand change, but they have their own demands,” said Archana Kapoor, an activist and film-maker who has worked in Mewat for more than a decade and who established the radio station. “We have to help bring change, the way they want it.”

Before joining Radio Mewat, Mr Arif, who has three children, was employed as a freelance crime reporter for a newspaper in the town of Faridabad. It was hard work and often dangerous; once he was stabbed by someone he had upset. Now, regularly recognised by his listeners, he has become something of a celebrity.

“I was in fear for my life because I was always dealing with criminals. Now I am more relaxed, it’s a different atmosphere. It’s about learning as you go and sharing information,” he said.

Like the other members of the station, Mr Arif, 27, is himself Mewati and understands the challenges facing the community. They are simple things. Among the biggest are the absence of education, literacy and access to basic information. “Many families are ignorant about government schemes relating to developments in agriculture. Radio Mewat is the medium for distributing that information,” he said.

The station, which relies on government advertising for its revenues and has increased its programming from two hours a day to ten, has worked hard to gain acceptance among the conservative community, often suspicious of change. Ms Kapoor has held regular meetings with local leaders and while it does not permit religious broadcasts, a Muslim clergy member, Maulana Shaukat Ali, comes to the studio every week to record and broadcast Urdu lessons.

Asked about the reservations some members of the community have expressed about the potential ills of radio and television, Mr Ali said: “As long as you show the good things, then you can use any medium. If you are trying to promote bad things, then no medium is good.”

If the station’s agriculture beat is among its most important, then that of the health reporter is equally so. Its health reporter is also called Mohammed Arif. (The station’s staff differentiate between the two by using nicknames). Mr Arif, 23, is married with a child and joined the station from college.

“This is a rural area. Tuberculosis and nutrition are among some of the most important issues,” he said, seated at the yellow-painted building in the town of Nuh, from which the station broadcasts. “Earlier there was a big problem with childbirth, but since more attention has been given to rural health that has improved.”

One of his biggest personal tests was researching and then broadcasting programmes on safe sex. At first, he felt awkward discussing such a traditionally taboo subject, but now he is at ease. Most recently, he visited a village and discovered the government’s women’s health worker was not informing local women of their rights and denying them free lunchtime meals. “I informed the [village head]. He said he had not been aware of this. He called the woman and said ‘what you have been doing is wrong’,” said Mr Arif.

Confirming the notion that every individual has a story to tell given the chance, one of the station’s most popular programmes is “Gaon Gaon Ki Baat”, which consists of a profile of a different village. Given that the Mewati community is spread over 1,200 villages there is no shortage of potential subjects.

Many of the problems facing the Mewati people date from the early part of the 20th Century when the area became the focus of “reconversion” efforts by conservative Hindus. Mewatis, while identifying themselves as Muslims, shared many deities and religious holidays with Hindus. A Muslim revivalist movement, the Tablighi Jamaat was formed in Mewat in 1926 by Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi to strengthen and protect the faith.

Perhaps partly because of that, the people of Mewat suffered badly during Partition in 1947. The social scientist Shail Mayaram has written that at least 30,000 Meos were killed in one district alone. More than half the population fled to the newly-created Pakistan. The number would have been higher but for the entreaties of community leader Yasin Khan and the personal intervention of Mahatma Gandhi, who visited Mewat.

“There has been long-term marginalisation that has been happening for the last four or five centuries,” said Ms Mayaram, of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, in Delhi. “Now, land acquisition is an issue. They are losing control of their land. They do not know it is slipping out of their hands.”

The Meo have traditionally had an oral history. All of the reporters at Radio Mewat said they learned nothing about their culture at school and instead knew only from listening to the stories of traditional musicians, or mirasis. Growing up, they would sit together in the village squares and listen to cassettes of songs and stories.  Now, those songs and musicians are also featured on the Radio Mewat broadcasts.

Sajid Hussain is the station’s reporter on financial inclusion schemes. He has worked there for eight years. He too grew up listening to stories about his community but never learning about them at school. He said he was glad to be involved in a project that is finally helping his community. “All the literate people went to Pakistan, a part of our history went with them to Pakistan,” he said. “There was a vacuum.”

The SAVE Team Reports: Mothers' Hopes in Palestine

A view of the wall dividing Israel and the Palestinian Territories

We, the Women without Borders/SAVE team, have spent the last five days speaking to Palestinian women across the Occupied Territories. The vast majority live in villages or refugee camps, many of them in close proximity to settlements where they experience with hostile interactions on a daily basis. Most women are housewives, often with 8-10 children, and their education is basic. What they all have in common: one of their sons is usually in prison, often as young as 14 or 15. Their family members do not know how long they will stay in prison.

All the mothers we have spoken with are highly concerned about the impact of the ongoing conflict and everyday encounters with Israeli soldiers. 

Additionally, everyone we have spoken to says the situation is now much worse than it was a few years ago-movement has been severely restricted, Israelis and Palestinians now almost never meet, and many have no idea whatsoever as to what life is like on the other side of the wall. All Palestinians over the age of 45 speak Hebrew, as there used to be far more exchange between the countries. The young generation is now cut off in terms of language, movement, and economic access.

The decorated Palestinian side of the wall

Today, all mothers insist that education is the only way their children can have a better life. One of the mothers summed it up quite succinctly: "there was a time when it was important to throw a stone so the world knew where Palestine was. But this is behind us. Our children now need to be educated so that the world knows where Palestine is." Another said "education is our resistance, not violence."

It is quite clear that a collective shift in attitude is taking place, sadly in a period of time where the windows of opportunity seem to be shutting again. 

Our direct conversations with the women challenge the international stereotype of Palestinian mothers who proudly send their sons off to become martyrs and cluck to celebrate their "fait accompli." The mothers say that they want to see a better life for their children, and that they shouldn't have to face the same hardships as their parents. There are many examples, such as Nadwa's narrative: she recalls her two and a half-year-old son twirling and singing "the soldiers will get my brother Ali." She was horrified that even her youngest son was aware of what was happening. She asks herself what this will do to his psyche, if such events calibrate his childhood memory.

Bustling daily life for women on the streets of Ramallah

We met several of the women in a refugee camp community center. Our SAVE partner invited them to speak with us, and many walked away from our conversations expressing hope that our trip will lead to workshops that will address their concerns and help them to be better prepared to tackle the most delicate issues of violence and conflict with their children.

Our trip will continue in the coming week with stories from Israeli settlements and the capital city of Tel Aviv. Follow our live tweets at SAVEalerts. 

A breathtaking view across the desert

Best from Jerusalem,

Edit Schlaffer and the SAVE Team

After Norway: Women's Voices for the Way Forward

Floral tributes to those who lost their lives in Norway  
© Johanne Dohlie Saltnes

The attacks in Norway are a wake-up call for all of us. Social polarization among Europe`s diverse ethnic and religious communities has the potential to challenge the fundaments of social cohesion which is the fabric that holds open societies together. Stereotypical assumptions about “the other” rather than robust bridgebuilding efforts have set the stage for the ideologies of hate, social polarization and exclusion.

Norwegian flag flies at half mast © Johanne Dohlie Saltnes

Multiculturalism is not a promise and not a threat, but always a work in progress, and its success is based on open communication, participation and fairness from and for all parties involved. Our daily observations will certainly confirm research findings showing that interactions across communities have not been established except for high-level dialogue efforts which have tended to take place between elites, while prejudice, real and projected problems and mutual suspicion in society at large have persisted. Systematic people-to-people contact across community divides at all levels need to be encouraged. The function that women can play in this regard is significant. Their role as educators of the next generation and key players of civil society is often under-estimated or overlooked.

SAVE is currently reaching out particularly to mothers to build their self-confidence and political awareness, and sensitize them to currents of radicalization in their communities in order to position them as key allies in the creation of the social cohesion needed to ensure a stable future for all of us.

Please read the perspectives of SAVE Sisters and leading women from around the globe on how Europe and the wider world can move towards a future where we are able to live together peacefully.

Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities, U.S. State Department
In my role as Special Representative to Muslim Communities, I have traveled all over the world -- to every region -- and I see firsthand the impact lexicon and actions have to communities. How we talk about each other, treat each other, and talk with each other matters. It is important that people of every faith, ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic group treat each other with dignity and respect. Knowledge of “the other” is immensely important. If you can learn about someone who is different, you can form the foundation for a relationship and increased understanding. One way to build respect is to work on projects or issues that are of mutual interest to distinct communities. By working together on challenges like health, childhood education, or the environment, bonds can be formed that are stronger than the differences between people. At the U.S. State Department we are mobilizing President Obama’s call to action for mutual interest and mutual respect. This year, Secretary Clinton launched the 2011 Hours Against Hate campaign (www.facebook.com/2011hoursagainsthate), which asks young people around the world to volunteer their time for someone who doesn’t look like them, live like them, pray like them. Bigotry and hate-language is increasing around the world, while at the same time I see young people across the planet talking about the world they want to live in—a world where old barriers are broken and people can come together to work on common challenges. This campaign is one small step toward creating stronger communities that embrace and celebrate diversity. We all must do our part.


Anita Pratap, Indian journalist living in Oslo
This tragedy is so deep it has wounded Norway's soul. Not even in their wildest nightmares could Norwegians conceive that a disaster of such epic proportions would strike them. A shocked and bereaved nation stands united. They are united not only in their grief, but also in their shared values. This tragedy is a wake up call to remind us that serpents lurk even in Eden. For, if there is a paradise on earth, it is indeed Norway - not only for its spectacular natural landscape but also in epitomizing the best human values of tolerance, peace, egalitariaism, gender rights, transparency, ethics and rule of law. While they could not prevent this tragedy, Norwegians have also shown us how to move forward - with the silent majority strongly reaffirming multiculturalism as well as these cherished universal human values that Norway epitomizes. Muslim immigrants and ethnic Christian Norwegians mourned together - for among the dead were young Muslims who had integrated with the democratic political mainstream. Despite the national outrage against the perpetrator, Norwegian citizenry defended his legal rights. It is by exercising our cherished human values and reaffirming our faith in multiculturalism during times of gravest provocation that we defeat violent extremists who are the real enemies of peace and tolerance.

Sasha Havlicek, CEO/Director, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, London
What we have seen with the tragic events in Norway is how certain narratives that have regained mainstream momentum across Europe can provide a sense of moral justification to those that would do harm. With such painful evidence of how dangerous extremist ideology is in all its guises, we must also tackle the subtler, widespread narratives that serve to part-justify those views. We must stand together across communities to be successful. Women who have been directly affected by extremism are doing just that through SAVE. Whether extremisms lead to violence or just to fuelling suspicion and division, they are a problem that weaken our society and that we have to address together.

Hibaaq Osman, SAVE Board Member, Cairo
This tragedy has touched me in a very personal way. I have children the same age and I send them to camps and just to think that these kids were shot at close range is despicable. The Islamophobia in Europe and the US has been of the utmost concern to us, politically and otherwise, and this tragedy should be blamed on all the political parties, media, bloggers and radio programs that are encouraging these right wing groups and campaigning on this issue. The hatred is now focused on the Muslims but soon it could be on everyone who looks different and thinks different. We should fight together against terrorism, racism and extremism by remembering and taking to heart Pastor Martin Niemöller’s courageous words:

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Fahmia Al-Fotih, SAVE Yemen
We have not recovered yet from the heinous terrorist acts that hit Bombay recently. An now the mass killings in Norway have strongly shaken the world specially as the act happened in a place known for peace and a country that annually presents Noble Prize for peace! The heinous act has also shaken some common concepts and stereotypes related to terrorism and extremism in which Muslims are always the first suspect. That has also reassured the world that terrorism knows no religion, no culture and no specific place. It is a threat for all and which rings the alarm for all of us that we should work collectively and look for serious actions and ways to prevent more massacres.

Carla Goldstein, Director of the Women’s Institute of the Omega Institute, New York
The Norway tragedy could happen anywhere - no place or people are immune from terrorist violence. The ending of extreme violence will not happen solely by traditional law enforcement, military, or retributive responses, so we must take up the extraordinary effort of building a new way of living on the planet together. Globalization connected us through transportation and information superhighways, and now we must build a new kind of superhighway – an empathy superhighway -- based on the understanding that the well-being of every individual is deeply connected to the well-being of all people and all living things. This empathy superhighway will connect us through compassionate and loving relationships, and will provide the networks and mechanisms to reconcile our differences, heal past traumas, and find ways to share the world’s precious resources more equitably and sustainably. The good news is that this work is well underway, and women are taking a leadership role in communities around the globe. Women who have suffered from losing their loved ones through violence, or who themselves have suffered from rape or domestic violence, are joining a global anti-violence movement and saying “enough is enough.” They are risking everything to reach across enemy lines and build a more peaceful world. Throughout history there has been a call to the women of the world to join together to end the bloodshed of war -- and the profound grief from Norway raises again the urgency of that call.

Norma Shearer, CEO of Training for Women Network, Research Partner of Women without Borders, Belfast
I stand in solidarity with Norwegian women and the people of Norway following the unacceptable violent attacks on 22 July 2011. This violence is an assault on democracy itself and young people attempting to engage with democratic processes. We in Northern Ireland know something of the grief which accompanies these horrendous and indiscriminate acts of violence and our thoughts and prayers are with the surviving victims and the many grieving families who are left so devastated. Of note in the wake of the attack was the speculation that those responsible were Islamic extremists which brings to light the anti-Muslim ‘tendencies’ that are attempting to embed themselves into Western Europe. There needs to be a policy debate and action from all state actors over whether governments are too ‘tunnel-visioned’ when it comes to combating extremist violence. There is the danger that by focussing solely on Islamic militants it contributes and encourages greater anti-Muslim sentiments as well as detracting from the threat of home-grown radicals not associated with Islam. Combating radical extremism requires dealing with these embedded ‘tendencies’ which in so many cases are learnt in the home, highlighting the important role of the mother in educating the next generation as either radical extremists or tolerant accepters of the “other”. My prayers and thoughts go out to all those in Oslo who have lost innocent loved ones and friends who are the very fabric of the future of society. It will take many years for the grief and hurt to heal and if any good can come of such a tragedy it will require courage, vision and education in order to allow us all to live in peace, understanding and tolerance.”

Siham Abu Awwad, SAVE Palestine
As a human being and especially as a woman, I believe we can always solve our problems through non-violent actions. I believe that Islam is always the religion of peace so I am sending my support to the Norwegian people in the hope that it’s the last violent action in Norway. I live in a crazy country full of violence and daily I meet mothers who are full of pain. As a member of SAVE, I, my organization and my nation are against all the faces of terror.

Pamela Philipose, Senior Journalist and Director of Women's Feature Service, Delhi
I remember reading somewhere (I think it was in Rushdie's Midnight's Children), that on the day Gandhi was shot dead, the one thought running through the minds of Muslims in India was this: "God, let it not be a Muslim." The presence of terrorism inspired by Islam is without doubt undeniable, but the Norway tragedy reminds us how untenable and dangerous are facile positions like "All terrorists are Muslims". In fact it is precisely such attitudes that contribute towards creating the horrifyingly delusional world of killers like Breivek. The Norwegian tragedy reminds us that geographical stereotyping doesn't work in a world connected by rapid travel, the internet and hatreds of various kinds. The bomb attack and shooting exposed the fact that reality is always far more complex than the human imagination can comprehend. This attack should be seized as a moment to build bridges between Europe's diverse communities in ways that are imaginative, humane and non-bureaucratic. The main vehicle for this is education, education and more education. Not just in schools but also in neighbourhoods and government apparatuses. Women are largely absent in conflict resolution. Their voices and experiences must inform policy discussions at all levels.

Beatriz Abril Alegre, who lost her brother Óscar in the 2004 Madrid train bombings
We have just come to realize how dangerous racism is. Maybe some people thought that the threats in Europe come from the outside; however, now we see that this is not a question of nationality or religion, but a question of extremism, whichever form it may take, all of them with fatal consequences. I send my condolences to all those families who have lost their loved ones, whose life has changed forever. I encourage them to fight their grief not with hatred or revenge, but with tolerance and peace: the only way to a better world.