The "consequences of ideological patriarchies in power" affecting women's lives -- such as the unholy alliance of the state and religion and globalization forces were discussed during July 02, the second day of the Asia-Pacific NGO Forum in Mahidol University, Nakorn Pathom, Thailand.

The second day of the Forum found women from all over the world discussing seemingly similar problems with little nuances in terms of culture and perhaps region, problems that are connected to the emerging issues that are confronting women. The day began with the first plenary session on "Celebrating Women's Gains.Confronting Women's Issues" which featured keynote speaker Patricia Licuanan from the Philippines who gave an overview of women's gains over the past years. Dr. Licuanan says it all began in Mexico in 1975 at the First Women's World Conference where issues such as violence against women (VAW), discrimination against women and issues of equality were raised to the UN level.

In 1995, Beijing held the largest women's world conference ever seen. While many issues in the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) were contentious, the conference ended with one of the most comprehensive international documents ever seen, addressing women's issues. One critical process for this to happen was the collaborative and consultative process that was undertaken by the women's movement worldwide to bring forth their positions to Beijing.

What have we gained over the years? According to Dr. Licuanan, there are now in almost all countries in the region national machineries for women to facilitate the implementation of the BPFA. Gender violence has been addressed through a wide range of interventions such as special police units to handle sex crimes; nearly all countries in the region have passes laws addressing violence against women or have amended old laws to strengthen the protection of women; data on reproductive health is now collected and there is increasing attention in the region on HIV/AIDS. The women's movement itself has transformed itself over the years with creating more links across boundaries and now have long-term plans and strategies for how to address the uneven power relations between men and women. There is now more understanding of identity politics where the many aspects of discrimination against women is understood as having intersectionality with race, ethnicity, age, class, religion, language, sexual orientation, disability, immigrant or refugee status. While Dr. Licuanan said there was much to celebrate about, there are still the growing and persistent issues of poverty, globalization, low wages for women, declining food security as agriculture shifts to export crops, reduced social services and basic education, and the heightened commodification or objectification of women in media. She ended her presentation by saying that while there is reason to celebrate, there are still many challenges ahead.

Further comments were supplied by Dr. Heisoo Shin of Korea, who as Vice-Chair of the committee that oversees the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) reminded the group that one of the major achievements over the past 10 years has been the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a recently established international court that tries crimes against humanity. Sex crimes such as systematic rape, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization or abortion are considered crimes against humanity. Dr. Heisoo reminded the group that the use of CEDAW as an international women's rights treaty and the ICC are critical tools to enforce standards of women's rights in our own countries. Dr. Nurgul Djanaeva of Kyrgyztan, pointed out that women's networks have increased capacities for creating a transnational women's movement through its networking among regional institutions. These alliances she said, have the capacity to strengthen the linkages among special institutions, take on regional monitoring activities, create and keep information flowing among each other and create an intellectual and political climate for the involvement of academics, decision-makers and among leaders of women's groups. Dr. Pawadee Tonguthai of Thailand brought forth the need to continue monitoring the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), goals established by the UN to address poverty, gender disparity in education, promote gender equality and empower women, address maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, ensure environmental sustainability and to develop global partnerships for development. Dr. Vanessa Griffen from the Pacific summarized it all by saying that while the women's movement has made great strides through its networking, it also needs to confront its weakness, that while the BPFA needs to be implemented and monitored, it also needs to be assessed critically to determine what has the BPFA done to change the lives of individual women.

The issue of impact of the individual women was addressed in Plenary 2 where the issue of religion and how religion is being used against women by the government was highlighted. The second plenary was entitled "Asian Women in Muslim Societies: Perspectives and Struggles" which featured keynote speaker Farida Shaheed of Pakistan. Additional comments were contributed by Rashidah Shuib of Malaysia, Mahboubeh Abassgholizadeh of Iran, Muzda Muha of Indonesia and Sehnaz Kiymaz of Turkey.

It was in this Muslim women plenary where the issue of religion was pointed out as a political tool being used by countries around the world "to force people into accepting narrow definition of self in which their multiple, non-antagonistic identities based on gender, citizenship, class, religion, ethnicity, etc are reduced to one single identity imposed by those who have usurped the right to speak for the willing or unwilling 'members' of that group." In Israel, religion is used to force religious practices on all; in France, their has been the controversy of the headscarf; it is not without reason she said that groups like Catholics for a Free Choice in the USA and Women Against Fundamentalism have been set up to address growing Jewish, Hindu and Muslim fundamentalism in the UK. The conservative religious forces reinforce each other thorough collaboration and confrontation. It was in 1994 when the Catholic Vatican joined forces with conservative Muslim forces to oppose women's rights at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Conference in Cairo, Egypt. Women, she pointed out, always bear the brunt of identity politics as they face violence and control over their choices. "In the Muslim contexts, the definitions of collective identities are increasingly hinged on the construction of a Muslim woman that is integral to the construction of 'Muslimness.'" The commentators from the different Islamic countries gave examples of the kinds of oppression that their women undergo "in the name of religion" such as the subjugation of sexuality, the assertion of political power over women by using superficial dress code such as the veiling issue, the lack of voice of young Muslim women, and the like. For those whose governments are undergoing reform, they, too expressed their disappointment at their governments' refusal to include women in the reform process. Thus, a suggestion from the floor during the open forum mentioned that these issues should be brought to the United Nations, that women should clearly deliver the message that religion should not be brought in the fore, for religion has been creeping in - if it hasn't already for some Islamic and predominant Catholic countries. Furthermore, the Muslim women also warned about the secular movements or countries using such terms as "democracy" and "liberation from terror" and flagging these religious-based issues to further their own hegemonic agenda. One recent - and perhaps most prominent - example they gave is the U.S. government's drive to "liberate" Iraq by going to war. The media was identified as pivotal in forging and legitimizing identities, because conservative political-religious groups are effective in using the media as well as the media being used by opposing forces to bash Muslims and perpetuate stereotypes. The media and the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) are the "power tools" being used by governments, the private business sector and often time conservative forces -- to propagate their ideological patriarchies.

These issues were raised in different media workshops/discussions in the afternoon, especially during "Section J Revisited: New Feminist Perspectives on the Interlinkages of Media and ICTs with Economic Globalization, Fundamentalisms and Militarism" by Isis International Manila. This workshop featured speakers such as Piush Antony from IT for Change in India, Najma Sadeque from Shirkat Gah in Karachi, Pakistan and Raijeli Nicole from Isis International Manila in the Philippines. Most people tend to ignore the connections of how the growing reach of corporate media monopolization and the cultural influence of powerful countries in less developed nations become obviously noticeable until it nearly obliterates local culture in the process of "content dumping." Amidst these discourses is the noticeable lack of women of the Asia-Pacific region who are almost absent in decision-making positions within media and ICT structures or are totally misrepresented through information dissemination, if they are mentioned at all. Thus, there is a call for women advocates to assert more space in terms of lobbying in the UN, and also an encouragement to re-examine the limitation of the BPFA's Section J (women and media) in light of these newly emerging issues concerning women.

Meanwhile, the Foundation for Child Development also touched upon these subjects as they conducted their workshop entitled "Girls and Media in the Mekong Sub-Regions," while the Iranian NGO-Training Center focused on the experiences of "Women Media Practitioners" in continuing these discourses. To directly listen in on these discussions of the Forum, please tune in to the special web broadcast being presented by the World Association of Community Broadcasters or AMARC. To listen in, please visit this link: <<http://www.amarc.org:8000/apngo>>. The broadcast is also available as downloadable files at the Isis International-Manila website at <<http://www.isiswomen.org/radio/ap-webcast.html>>. To download papers presented at the plenaries, please go to the official Forum website at <<http://ap-ngo-forum.isiswomen.org>>.