SASKATOON – The women’s movement received an invigorating breath of encouragement and congratulations at two recent world conferences in China, says a Saskatoon woman.
“The way women networked with each other, at the grassroots, it was heartening. At times I was really excited by it. It was an enormous psychological boost,” said Nayyar Javed. She was a delegate to both the official United Nations conference of 20,000 women from around the world and the preceding nongovernmental forum that drew 30,000.
The challenge now is to get the countries to carry out the ambitious programs outlined in the action documents.
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Javed, president of the Immigrant Women of Saskatchewan, said countries will “try to run away from their commitment as much as possible” but those dependent on money from the United Nations will have to make some changes even though the “motivation is not to change women’s position but to get aid.”
Javed said there were times she was proud of Canada at the conference, especially on women’s health rights.
But she was confused when Canada threatened to stop its anti-racism programs if the delegates could not agree on a clause supporting freedom for sexual orientation.
Promote family life
Another delegate to the UN conference, Reform MP Sharon Hayes, was also upset enough to return home early. The Port Moody, B.C. politician said in a news release: “My reason for attending the conference was to emphasize the importance of family in Canada and women’s contribution to our families. My goal was to be the watchdog for Canadian families.
“I decided to return early to warn Canadians about the dangerous implications of the anti-family, radical feminist agenda that the Canadian government has endorsed wholeheartedly.”
Javed, who attended a workshop at the conference called Values for the 21st Century at which Hayes spoke, said it was an unusual mix of conservative women from North America and fundamentalist Muslims. She said the delegates who spoke there were either “lying through their teeth” or don’t understand the issues.
“They were trashing feminists and gays for destroying family values. … They reduced the reproductive health debate to an abortion argument.”
