Fiesta Feminista 2007

Sorry for the long delay in posting. I've been rather busy the past two weeks. Anyhow, I attended Fiesta Feminista for the past two days, an event/conference held in University Malaya that brings all feminists in Malaysia together on a single platform. It wasn't a wholly feminist event however; there were several exhibition booths there by NGOs like Malaysian Aids Council (that gave out free condoms), Beautiful Gate foundation, Amnesty International, Centre for Independent Journalism etc.

The theme of Fiesta Feminista is Embracing Diversity. Indeed, there were many elements of FF that encouraged diversity. Many of the sessions held had Bahasa Malaysia/ sign language translation services. There were many participants on wheelchairs as well, not to mention a transvestite I noticed going into a woman's bathroom. True diversity, indeed.

I attended a session on Women, human rights and democracy, where the speakers spoke on CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) and religious conversion issues in Malaysia. Basically, CEDAW is an international treaty that promotes equality between women and men. If a government ratifies it, that means the government is obligated to follow the terms of the treaty. However, it's not legally binding. So, the most CEDAW can do if a particular government doesn't obey the terms of the treaty is just to put pressure on the government to obey it. Malaysia is one out of the 185 countries in the world that has ratified it since 1995. And has Malaysia actually obeyed CEDAW? Basically, a lot still needs to be done in terms of making laws in Malaysia more gender-sensitive. Marital rape, for example, is not recognized in Malaysia due to the sharia law.

The other session that I attended was a reading session: Young Women Speak Out by WWRP-AWAM, where four young women read out mostly original fictional writings. As they didn't use a mike, it was slightly difficult to hear them in the lecture hall. One young woman spoke on her unpleasant experiences of being the 'school slut', while another read out a rousing short story about a girl who was date-raped by her boyfriend.

There was also one funny performance during lunchtime where they dressed a tomboy up in a linen shirt, pink scarf, and slim-cut men's jeans--with a sign next to her saying Lelaki Lembut. Next to her, was a tall skinny guy in a vest and khaki pants, with a sign beside him saying Perempuan Kasar. Then, the facilitators, who called themselves a 'Gender Correctional Facility' made fun of the tomboy, saying that s/he wasn't man enough because s/he was wearing a pink scarf. Then, they proceeded to strip her, leaving her to wear a blue man's shirt and putting a dumbell in her hand. She was now Lelaki Sejati. The guy next to her was the funniest--they made him put on a spaghetti-strap, a skirt, and heels! Poor guy could barely walk. He was now Perempuan Murni.

Overall, Fiesta Feminista was an enlightening event. My only quibble is the food--dinner on Saturday evening only consisted of a small portion of fried rice with a little veggies and fishballs inside. That's it! But, I would not hesitate to go for their next event. There were a lot more men there than my initial expectations.