Women Contesting Fundamentalisms and Other Forms of Intolerance

On March 11, I attended (with Team Wikipilipinas and Filipiniana.net) the UP Centennial Lecture in time for women's month. The topic was A Centennial Conversation: "Women Contesting Fundamentalisms and other Forms of Intolerance. The event is part of the UP Centennial Lecture Series which is a vital component of the celebration of UP's 100 years. WikiPilipinas and Filipiniana.net showcased the Encyclopedia of Philippine Women and Philippine Women's Studies Microsite.

The resource speakers were Prof. Carolyn I. Sobritchea, Ph.D (topic: Fundamental Ideologies and Practices: Threats on Women?), Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, Ph.D. (topic: Counter-acting Religious Fundamentalisms: An International Perspective) and long-term feminist activist for women's rights Ms. Reihana Mohideen (topic: Women and Political-Religious Fundamentalism: An International Perspective). The reactors were Ambassador Rosario Gonzalez-Manalo and Rina Jimenez-David.

Fundamentalism, as I understood it, is a defined set of beliefs. For example, the strict obedience to the "fundamentals" of a religion, culture, ethnicity. The movement of women and how they live their life are being limited by these fundamental beliefs.


Below are some quotes taken from the Lecture's Companion Information Material entitled Intersections created by Ms. Odine de Guzman of UP Center for Women's Studies:


1. "The control of women is crucial to fundamentalist politics that are informed by ideas of identity, and cultural and religious values. Fundamentalist groups go great lengths to keep women within the patriarchal home because women, as bearers of children, are believed to be repositories and transmitters of culture and purity of blood."


2. "While women hold this important reproductive role, they are not highly valued; in fact, they are jealously guarded just to secure the purity of the male line. This is seen in some communities in the veiling of women, the practice of clitoridectomy, the practice of widow burning, and the control of women's reproductive capacity by prescribing the ways to plan their reproductive health."


3. "The control of women's bodies can be overt or covert. One example of a covert form is the indistinguishable relationship between the Philippine government and the Philippine Catholic Church in which public policy on women's reproductive health is influenced by the beliefs of the Church, although the two are constitutionally separate."


4. Another example is Executive Order 003 of the City of Manila issued in 2000 by then Mayor Jose Atienza. the EO declares "the City promotes responsible parenthood not just as a method but as a way of self-awareness in promoting the culture of life while discouraging the use of artificial methods of contraception like condoms, pills, intrauterine devices, etc... denying the City's poor women and their families access to these supplies that are normally affordable to them through the public health centers"


5. "A woman is usually reduced to her body; her worth depends on her bodily functions. Jose Atienza, revealed a rather unsettling idea in his account of his own family planning practice. Accordingly, he and his wife have six children: "five came in quick succession:, while the sixth came years later. he says that was because his wife took the pill without my knowledge and I tell you, she became a devil, a demon, blaming what he thinks was hormonal imbalance brought on by the pill. Whether or not this was said in jest, language constructs reality."