Last week I attended two events at the Global Women's Rights Forum at USF. On Wednesday, I went to the inter-faith dialogue where Toni Battle, Bhawana Kamil, and Mary Waskowiak were the featured panel. The following day I attended the gender and justice panel addressing domestic work. Because I was unable to stay for the whole of it and for the purpose of keeping this blog post short I will focus on the former program event.
The Sisters in Spirit inter-faith dialogue was concerned with discussing how the search for social justice is inspired by a certain faith and more importantly by being a woman. Although these women each come from a specific positionally, which is highly influenced by her own spirituality, it can be seen that sisterhood ties them together. Each of them talked about how we are all connected. Toni Battle put it best by saying that we are all relations, you are me and I am you.
We have to be aware of this spirit and embrace it to make social change. This directly ties back to this year's Davies' topic of women and violence. To fight this violence, women must acknowledge their lineage and form communities. This makes me think of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace who were successful in ending the second Liberian civil war. Muslim and Christian women came together in a massive move of nonviolent direct action and demanded peace. They came together partly because of sisterhood and motherhood but it was more than this. It was an instance where the connections between people were being threatened, where there was a need to recognize that peace is dependent on the awareness of our ties.
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