Celebrating Dissent: Women Against Gods?

Celebrating Dissent: Women Against Gods? with Mineke Schipper

(De Balie) Womanhood has still not reached equality. For centuries in every religion, country, and culture, women have been oppressed and undermined. Men have been shaping religion and society, placing themselves at the center of it. How are we to understand the his-story and practice of oppression, to enable ourselves to change the future?

We dive into the theoretical framework of oppression and the history of women’s bodies. Several scholars speak out on the psychological and physical consequences of being undermined. They share their stories on how they resisted to bring about a more equal world.

Professor Mineke Schipper is a writer and former Leiden University Professor of Intercultural Literary Studies. She has worked with the Writers-in-Prison Committee of International PEN and was Chair of Index on Censorship in the Netherlands. The universality of human rights is central in her non-fiction books.

Atoosa Farahmand is a performance artist, dancer, and choreographer based in Sweden. For this program, she performs a dance on women breaking out of restrictions. Farahmand is currently working at IM (Individual Humanitarian Aid) as an artistic director. She is focusing on creating platforms for newcomers to come together and explore different forms of art.

Gita Saghal is a writer, journalist, filmmaker, and women's rights activist. She is the founder and director of the Centre for Secular Space. During the 1980s she worked for a current affairs program focused on Afro-Caribbean and Asian issues called “Bandung File” on Channel 4 TV. She made two films about the Rushdie affair.

Ibtissame Betty Lachgar is a clinical psychologist specialized in violence against women and sexual violence. She is leader of MALI (Alternative Movement for Individual Liberties), which is universalist, feminist, and secularist. She initiated the first LGBT movement in Morocco in 2012 but has been censored by the majority of organizations in Morocco, even progressive and feminist ones.

Rana Ahmad is an activist, Women’s Rights Campaigner and Ex-Muslim Activist. She hopes to help all girls to be free. After she discarded her religion, she had to escape because she was threatened with death by her family and the government in Saudi Arabia.

Maaike Meijer worked as a teacher, literary journalist, lesbian-feminist activist and professor of gender studies at Utrecht University and Maastricht University. She published a number of books and articles on Dutch literature and cultural theory, on poetry, songs, and on other forms of popular culture, on feminism, gender theory, and the ethics of representation. Her biographies on Dutch female-poets (M. Vasalis in 2011 and F. Harmsen van Beek in 2018) received wide acclaim in The Netherlands. She is currently working on a study of shifting cultural representations of masculinity.

• Livestream 8/31/19
• hdebalie.nl/agenda/women-against-gods
• debalie.tv
• Social media: vimeo.com/debalie
• youtube.com/debalievideo
• twitter.com/DeBalie
• facebook.com/debalie
• instagram.com/de_balie

Televisie: SALTO 1 - Publieke Omroep Amsterdam Iedere zondag om 20:00 uur. Herhalingen op diverse dagen en tijden. Uitgezonden video's: salto.nl/programma/de-balie-tv At5 - Onregelmatige uitzendingen. Site: debalie.nl.