By Sarah Natchipolsky
Fourteen female speakers from around the world gathered at the University of Maryland on Tuesday and Wednesday to answer questions regarding the promotion of women’s role in society and inequalities women continue to face.
The conference, titled “Women in the World: Time for a New Paradigm for Peace,” was hosted by the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland. The chair is an academic program that works to promote scholarly discussion on how to achieve global peace.
Professor Hoda Mahmoudi, the chairholder of Bahá’í, kicked off the event with anecdotes of women who changed history. She referenced Harriet Tubman, the abolitionist who rescued slaves using the Underground Railroad, as well as Mahalia Jackson, the civil rights activist and gospel musician.
“Women have never shied away from making their contributions to the world, even under the most difficult of circumstances,” Mahmoudi said.
Mahmoudi’s opening remarks were followed by four keynote speakers and three panel discussions over the course of the two days. Topics presented by the speakers included how female negotiators can effectively promote peace in wartime situations, what women in recent history have done to overcome oppressive legislation and what happens to women who are deported from the United States.
For Kathryn Obisesan, a senior government and politics major and intern with Bahá’í Chair, attending the conference helped strengthen her understanding of and belief in feminism.
“I, in the past have almost in a sense shied away from feminism. Just because you hear the thing, ‘the voices that are the loudest are the voices that are heard.’ And oftentimes, I felt like the voices that were the loudest weren’t always in alignment with what I thought equality meant, equality for women particularly. But as I’ve kind of done more research, been able to attend things like this, look into more…what prominent, respected people are saying about feminism, I find myself being more and more informed about what that word truly means, what equality means, and particularly at this conference it’s adding to that understanding and that definition of why now I call myself a feminist.”
One of the panelists, Margaret Satterthwaite, spoke on how legal empowerment of women in indigenous communities could help combat climate change. Satterthwaite, a professor of clinical law at New York University, emphasized how important it is to allow these women to advocate for the ecosystems they are so attuned to.
“The peaceful world we seek depends on all of us recognizing that yes, the breath we take here in Maryland or Washington or New York or Nairobi or Mumbai, comes from the rainforest, from the Amazons of this world. And that the only durable proven way to safeguard the health of the lungs of the world, while also upholding human rights is to ensure that indigenous custodians of that sacred space have legal title to their customary territories, and the right to determine what happens within this land. To do this, we must follow these women leaders within their communities.”
Laura Sjoberg, another panelist and a professor of political science at the University of Florida, argued in her presentation that gender equality movements tend to exclude those who don’t fit into the gender binary, such as transgender women. She found the conference valuable in providing her with perspectives she may not otherwise get to hear from in her research.
“I always enjoy listening to people who do research that is on similar subjects as mine but that I’m not always exposed to and that’s one of the things I really love about listening to all of these talks.”
The Bahá’í Chair will host its next event, its Annual Lecture 2019, on Oct. 10 titled “Even a Moon Shot Needs a Flight Plan: Genetics and Ethics in the Obama Administration.”