Vimochana’s Blog

“The Daughters of Fire: India Courts of Women on Dowry and Related Forms of Violence” concluded on Wednesday in a fervent review and discussion about the three-day court.

Organised by Vimochana and the Asian Women’s Human Rights Council in partnership with close to 40 women’s organisations from throughout the country, “Daughters of Fire” drew some 2,000 women making this a significant event.

The six roundtables had over 200 women each, and dwelt on some pertinent problems relating to dowry and domestic violence.

The jury comprised academics, activists and artists, who shared their experiences of listening to the testimonies of the women.

Veena Talwar Oldenburg, historian and feminist writer, spoke about the history of dowry and how it had been perceived as a problem without any other surrounding issues.

“I dug into colonial archives. The 1853 census showed an appalling sex ratio, and it pointed out that communities which did not take dowry were doing so,” said Oldenburg, adding that unpacking the gap between these two aspects led her to new trails involving the varying aspects of dowry.

Shiv Vishwananthan, social scientist, said: “There has been much talk of India and China’s combined capacity to become economic superpowers, but the one thing that the two countries have been able to do efficiently is eliminate foetuses,” he said. “This amplifies the signs of globalisation,” he added.

It was agreed that the role of listening, and the methodology used was crucial to the effectiveness of the courts.

“We interwove the pain, the politics and poetry,” said Corrine Kumar, International Coordinator, International Courts of Women while Donna Fernandes of Vimochana spoke about the need for a court of this kind.

“The criminal justice system only looks at public violence and has certain parameters by which it judges a case. Violence against women takes place privately and some of the strongest testimonies are revealed in conversation,” she said speaking about the extent of the court’s reach.

The next World Court on “Migration, trafficking and HIV/AIDS” is being held in Bali, Indonesia, this month (August 09). - News report : The Hindu

From: lieve snellings, Belgium – Women in Black, Belgium
photogallery: celebrating activists of Daughters of Fire: India Court of Women:

July 11, 2009

Donna / Madhu
Co-ordinators
India Court of Women on Dowry and
Related forms of Violence against Women

The India Court of Women on Dowry and Related Forms of Violence Against Women
Dear Friends, 8th June 2009

Vimochana and Asian Women’s Human Rights Council, in partnership with several women’s groups from across the country and El Taller International, are organising Daughters of Fire: The India Court of Women on Dowry and Related Forms of Violence against Women from July 27 – 29, 2009 to be held at the Main Auditorium, Christ University, Hosur Road, Bangalore, India.

The Courts of Women have emerged from our collective concern with the increasing violence associated with the practice of dowry that is claiming alarmingly increasing number of lives of young women. As available official statistics are varied and contradictory an accurate picture is difficult While unofficial estimates put the number of deaths at 25,000 women a year in India, the actual figures if put together at the national level, would perhaps be too horrifying to even contemplate. There is of course no record of the countless who have survived the violence and who are left physically, emotionally and psychologically maimed and scarred for life.

In the ever widening spectrum of violence against women, dowry has come to symbolise the ultimate devaluation of women particularly in the context of the virulent culture of consumerism and materialism that is consuming all our lives.

The law too has failed to stem this rising tide of violence. The reasons are multiple and complex. They include non implementation due to corruption and collusion of patriarchal values on the one hand and the growing distance between the world of law and that of life on the other. The language and metaphor of justice it seems has been a fatal casualty in the gendered battle for rights and empowerment.

The India Court of Women on Dowry and other Related Forms of Violence against Women is an attempt to recover this lost language of justice. It is a public hearing that will listen to the voices of women who will share their personal testimonies of pain and resistance; expert witnesses who will offer their analysis on the nature and scope of this violence and the context within which it is taking new and more brutal forms; and a jury of wise women and men who will receive these testimonies and analysis and offer new ways to justice.

This Court is part of the larger global movement of the Courts of Women that through finding new ways to justice seeks to make violence against women unthinkable.

Some of you have been with us in the creation and holding of the over thirty five Courts of Women that have been held in different parts of the world over past eighteen years with your support, participation or expression of solidarity. Please know how precious your support is for the Courts of Women. We ask for your solidarity and support for the India Court of Women on Dowry and Related forms of Violence against Women.

We invite you very specially to support Daughters of Fire: The India Court of Women on Dowry and Related Forms of Violence against Women. To enable us to include you among the friends of the Court, please send to us a letter of solidarity.

Please let us hear from you.

With kind regards,

Shakun Mohini and Soha Ben Slama
Vimochana and El Taller International

Contact:
Vimochana79@gmail.com
eltaller.international@gmail.com