Examining implications of war on women

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/mojab2.jpg” caption=”Shahrzad Mojab”]A lecture this week will examine the implications of the Iraq war on women in the Middle East.

The Women's Studies Speakers Series Program will present a lecture by Shahrzad Mojab, director and professor of the Women's and Gender Studies Institute, on “Occupation, Militarization and Resistance: The Case of a Kurdish Women's NGO in Iraq”. It will be held Thursday, Nov. 24, 2:30 pm, BSB B135.

Mojab's presentation will examine, from a critical feminist perspective, the politics of nation-state building, civil society, and NGOization in war-torn Middle East.

“The focus is on the case of Iraqi Kurdistan where women since the end of the Gulf War of 1991 have participated in a state-building project initiated within this region,” says Mojab. “The nature of this state-building project is changing rapidly as a result of the 2003 US occupation.”

Mojab will argue that NGOs are promoted by the US, the European Union and the UN as the venue for addressing major issues such as economic development, political reform, and gender equality. The presentation will then critique this project by arguing that NGOization of war-torn countries and dictatorial states, which is being facilitated by capitalist globalization, is presented as an alternative to social change and social movements. The presentation is based on fieldwork in northern Iraq in July-August 2005.

Mojab's specialty includes educational policy studies with a focus on policies affecting the academic life of marginalized groups in universities; comparative and international adult education policy; adult education, globalization and learning. Her areas of research and teaching are: critical and feminist pedagogy; power and difference in the workplace; women, state, globalization and citizenship; women, war, violence and learning; and comparative analysis of lifelong learning theory and practice. She has conducted extensive research on immigrant women's access to employment and training in Canada and the impact of war and violence on women's learning in the diaspora.

Beginning this week, McMaster's School of the Arts will present a radical reworking of Shakespeare's Henry V. Reworked by director Peter Cockett, an assistant professor in the School of the Arts, the production examines the relationships between power, violence and the construction of gender. Through the use of cross-casting and multi-media, it highlights the gendered rhetorics used to make and describe war in the play and in our society today.

The show run from Nov. 18-27. All shows are in Robinson Memorial Theatre, in Chester New Hall. Click here for showtimes, tickets and further information about the show.

Click here to read a recent Daily News story about the production.