International Panel: Live Blogging at JAWS 2008

Not able to make it to NH? Here is the latest from JAWS 2008.

International Panel:
Lois Raimondo (Staff Photog/Washington Post)
Paola Gianturco (Documentary Photog/Author)
Sahar Sarshar (Voice of America videographer and video/radio, Iran Channel)

First up:
Lois Raimondo:

Lois brings us pix from a piece on honor killings in Pakistan. Focusing on one assault of a woman in a rural village, Lois is able to attend the trial conducated by triabl leaders.

"All they wanted was choice." Lois visits a shelter for women and girls.

One young girl is the daughter of a drug-addict father and an imprisoned mother. Another woman is taking shelter from her husband after having an affair. "We are all sisters here," she says.

Next pics show women praying, mutilated women (usually by their husbands), sleeping one on top of another, playing. Another picture tells the story of a woman who had her masters in psych and had a baby....no husband came, no parents came. The hospital staff called the police and she was taken to the shelter. The baby then got sick and eventually died due to neglect. Its mother was very depressed and unable to speak when Lois arrived.

A woman who was raped by her father and bore his two children. Put into the shelter since she had two children out of wedlock.

In summary:
1. honor killings and what is going on.
2. what surrounds this issue. how do women survive? how can we tell the stories of what happened?

Paola Gianturco (Documentary Photographer/author)

Paola was truly affected by Beijing's Conference on the Status of Women. She left her life in business writing and took a one-year sabbatical to look into the life of women in the developing world. Ironically, this all came about as the result of reading an article in The Economist.

First pic: First book looked at women's artisans. Paola has now published various books....the second project arose from the first. As she was packing her camera in Gujarat (India), a woman approached her to offer access and understanding to a festival honoring a goddess. Second book then looked at festivals around the world that honored women. Seventeen were included but there are hundreds more. Together these festivals illustrated something interesting....women were honored for very different things (from reproductivity to warrior-like behavior).

Third book was about the people of Guatemala.....individuals (men, women, and children) rebuilding their lives after the bloody civil war.

Fourth book about women helping others....women helping others with the things that make life dark. Documented 123 women's groups in 15 counties.

Africa: One case in Zimbabwe....the issue of child rape. The new NGO "Girl-Child Network," has 4000 members ages 6-16. These young girls and women wrote poems about these issues....communities were mobilized after hearing of their experiences.

Vietnam: Women healing each other after abuse and domestic violence.

Morocco: Feminists have been working for 25 years to change the family code. Efforts were brought to a halt by Islamist women. King announced changes were momentous including some of the following.
1. men can only legally marry one wife
2. women must agree to be married AND divorced
3. women must inherit the same amount, not half as men.

Issue is that illiterate women don't know of these changes. One woman made it her mission that they be informed. She hired television actors to perform short pieces about these incredible developments...

Slovakia: Roma women facing discrimination. Grant-making organization funds their own projects. One includes a pre-school for Roma children since most Roma children are sent to state schools for the mentally disabled.

Brazil: Life after the favela? Life outside the favela? One woman provides education and arts classes for children in the favelas.

India: How do women and children work for their families? Photos follow children as they work on trains, platforms, etc. Another woman works to bring education to those who would normally only have time to work. Kids are taught hygiene, proper nutrition. Result is that 5000 children have transferred into public school as the fourth grade level.

Please feel free to contact those groups/festivals featured in the books. Check it out at the 'Celebrating Women' website.

Good source is Kavitha Ramdas (?) "Global Fund for Women," now the largest org in the world that gives funding to groups fighting for human rights of women and children.

Work methodology: (paraphrased, obviously) I consider that women in my books are my partners, not subjects. I explain exactly what I'm doing...I invite them to tell THEIR most interesting stories, stories that interest them the most...this can create moving results. I invite women to speak in their own language and use only female interpreters. This sometimes gives me people (interpreters) I'm not very confident about, quite frankly. The chapters are then drafted and sent back to the actual women to be re-read (in translation). This has given rise to very few corrections....(i.e. the correction of a medicinal plant in Ecuador, the spelling of Cameroon to Camerun). All of these techniques lead to a thoughtful collaboration.