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Lectures
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| UNESCO: what credibility?The organization yields to censure and the arbitrariness of States | |
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| Editorial staff, 9/23/2006 |
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| As announced previously, Nadia Yassine was declared persona non grata at UNESCO’s offices where she was to give a talk on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 on “The Muslim women interpret the texts” in the Colloquium on "What is Muslim Feminism?". |
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| The Colloquium |
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| This cultural event was organized by the “Commission Islam et Laïcité (CIL)”at UNESCO’s offices on the 18th and 19th of this month. A whole host of women research workers renowned for their studies on Islam, women’s rights and particularly Muslim feminism were invited to take part in the two round tables of the Colloquium whose objective was to “deconstruct the stereotypes and understand the views and the emerging movement of Muslim feminism.”(1) Nadia Yassine received the invitation from the CIL last June and confirmed her participation in the beginning of July. |
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| Censure and Chaos |
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| On Friday, September 15, 2006, Nadia Yassine, having already arrived in France, learned from Pierre Sané, UNESCO’s under Director General for Social and Human Sciences and former Secretary General of Amnesty International, of the cancellation of her invitation for “too strong pressures exercised over UNESCO.”The decision surprised the organizers who kept in the course of Saturday and Sunday confirming to Nadia Yassine her participation. It was only on Monday, September 18, the very day of the opening of the Colloquium, that the coordinators of the Commission Islam et Laïcité confirmed to her the censure of UNESCO and expressed to her the solidarity of all the Commission’s members. |
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| Reactions |
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| • Monday, September 18, 2006 : The Commission’s first reaction was to write a communiqué denouncing such censure, and which was to be read by Alain Gresh, President of the Commission Islam et Laïcité, during one of the Colloquium’s opening speeches. Having been informed, the UNESCO decided then to start directly the workshops and to remove the two opening speeches from the program. |
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| The Commission Islam et Laïcité then sent the communiqué to AFP [French news agency] wherein its members expressed their surprise regarding UNESCO’s decision and asserted that they “regret such censure and such breach of the freedom of expression in a colloquium conceived as pluralist in the image of Unesco’s objectives and ideals.” (2) |
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| • Tuesday, September 19, 2006 : Siham Andalouci, member of “Présence musulmane”, of “Collectif des Féministes pour l’égalité” and Vice President of the “Commission Islam et laïcité”, expressed her solidarity by declining to lead the debate on “the Muslim women interpret the texts” in which Nadia Yassine was to take part. She emphasized that it was unfortunate that a debate on the female issue has been subject to the vagaries of foreign policies that authorize some women to speak and forbid others from voicing their opinions. She stressed that as a woman, citizen and Muslim, all her struggle, inside as much as outside the Muslim community, has been to show that women can assume their own choices, and that being a woman does not go against the right to have a free and responsible conscience and to have independent views. She then could not lead a debate in conditions that attest the opposite, while reaffirming her deep attachment to the spirit of the Colloquium. |
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| In the same surge of solidarity and inspired by the same principles, Ismahane Chouder, member of “Participation et Spiritualité Musulmanes” and of the “Commission Islam et Laïcité”, Vice President of the “Collectif des Féministes pour l’égalité”, declined to lead the second part of the debate on “the Muslim women interpret the texts”, denouncing thus the decision of UNESCO that boasts about defending human rights and democracy, and about promoting dialog and cultural exchange. She reminded of the importance of the plural nature of the scheduled approaches for the interest and the quality of the Colloquium. |
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| Two of the participants in the debate, Norhayati Kaprawi , Program Manager of the Malaysian organization “Sisters in Islam (SIS)”, Manager of Public Education, Communication, Documentation and Media, and Malika Hamidi, research worker in the sciences of education and society at Lille 3 University and Coordinator of the “European Muslim Network”, a think tank on the issue of Islam in Europe, and an active member of the civil society involved in field work and reflection on the issue of women, did not forget in the beginning of their talks to disparage such violation of the right to speak and to express their indignation with regard to UNESCO’s decision. |
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| UNESCO’s Explanations |
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| In front of such protests, UNESCO’s spokesperson had to explain the organization’s act: “It is a tradition of Unesco to conduct consultations with the countries of origin of the personalities invited to speak in its premises. Such consultations could not be conducted in the case of Mme Yassine”. The organisation’s press service confirmed “that Mme Yassine, unofficial spokesperson of the movement Al Adl Wal Ihsan and daughter of its leader Sheikh Abdessalam Yassine, will not give her talk scheduled on Tuesday afternoon because "the procedure of consultation with her country was not followed". (2) |
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| Solidarity |
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| The majority of the participants among the audience denounced vehemently the censure of Nadia Yassine and declared it was unacceptable for many reasons: - The international space that must be neutral.- The event that aspires to cross different analyses and views on Islam and feminism.- And the context of France, supposed to be democratic. |
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| Many were those who expressed their indignation to see an international institution use censure a practice used especially in the non-democratic states, among which are a great many Arab countries.The affair was incessantly mentioned and underlined throughout the Colloquium. |
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| Letters of indignation |
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| A letter of indignation was sent en masse to UNESCO by active members of the French and Moroccan civil society in which they expressed their indignation as to the arbitrary decision to exclude Nadia YASSINE from the debate on Muslim feminism. The signatories of the letter considered Nadia Yassine as a woman of dialog and commitment whose ideas are important to know and to discuss, and recognize the efforts she is been exerting for many years now to build bridges of peaceful co-existence and to establish solid foundations of serene dialog between the Muslim world and the West. UNESCO’s decision was thus judged abusive, sudden and ambiguous particularly because emanating from an institution that bears the standard of freedom of expression, human rights, respect of difference and dialog … The letter-petition cast doubts on such paraded principles: are they realities or just myths? |
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| Finally, Nadia Yassine was “present” at the Colloquium even if she was not there physically. Her “non presence” spoke volumes. It has uncovered the petty political scheming that goes behind the scenes and has especially cast doubts on “democracy” within international institutions, their “autonomy” and their presumed “neutrality.” |
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| (1) Program of the colloquium: www.islamlaicite.com(2) AFP’s dispatch of 9/18/2006. |
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