I am the one who turn the tap: will the women from the two shores contribute to build us a common destiny?

“I AM THE ONE WHO TURNED THE TAP: WILL THE WOMEN FROM THE TWO SHORES CONTRIBUTE TO BUILD US A COMMON DESTINY?”

Moderator: Daniela Irrera, University of Catania, member of the Assemblé des Citoyens de la Méditerranée – Reggio Calabria.

Guests:

Chaimaa Fatihi (MAR-ITA): Law Student, she is responsible of Public Relations for the Associazioni Giovani Musulmani d’Italia; she collaborates with the association ONSUR-Italia (Global Campaign to Support People of Syria), and with the project Child Again.

Marta Bellingreri (ITA): founder of the association Di.A.Ri.A. and author of “Lampedusa. Conversazioni sui isole, politica, migranti – Lampedusa, conversation on islands, politics, migrants”, she works as cultural mediator for unaccompanied minors. She participated at the documentary “Io sto con la sposa” (On the bride’s side), recently presented at the 71st Venice Film Festival.

Sara Borrillo (ITA): researcher of the University L’Orientale and for the Forum for the Problems of Peace and War in the Region of Tuscany, author of several surveys on gender and democracy in Arab countries, especially on the Moroccan movement of 2011 “20th of February”.

Video of the journalist Cristina Mastrandrea (TA): “La primavera siamo noi – We are the Spring” (2013), on Tunisian women.

Sara Borrillo tells us how the region of North Africa/ Middle East mobilised itself with the events of 2011, with different nuances and a big heterogeneity, through the complexity of the different movements that have risen. Speaking about Morocco, Sara claims that women are those who still suffer greater discrimination in the workplace, and they have difficulties to affirm themselves in public and private spaces. In fact in this region there still exists a patriarchal mentality, an instrumental use of Islam, although it is not discriminatory against the female universe. Additionally, in this region the so-called “family-code” is deeply rooted. Morocco is a country where the king has the temporal and religious power. The “20th of February Movement”, made up of activists belonging to different political and religious groups, driven by the wave of Tunisian and Egyptian mobilisation, has the objective to modify the corrupted and hierarchical system and to give a voice to the people who don’t have access to welfare. According to Sara there are two ways to analyse the movement: in a generational way, because the movement was trans generational, and in a gender perspective, because gender was one of the elements of fracture noy only among activists of political Islam, but also among those of the radical and progressive left. In the new constitutional text, for example, a new article on gender equality was planned, the art.19. Feminist groups supported this rewriting, but the progressive block of “the 20th of February” expressed its opposition, because according to them the modalities of the Constitutional review were not democratic. In any case, the constitutional reform was passed with a 95% of “yes” votes at the referendum, and now the feminist groups refer to the art.19 to organise training and awareness activities. There are still many obstacles for women: even though the Constitution includes the principle of gender equality, in the family laws we are still lagging behind. Sara reminds us that after 2011 a lot of associations distinct from the traditional ones have arisen, and they now protest in an alternative way (using for example the theatre stages or audio visual tools). The secular feminist groups too, are trying to release themselves from the stereotype of “French speaking elitists” through these means, and get closer to the social and economic issues of daily life.

 Marta Bellingreri and Cristina Mastrandrea on the other hand speak about Tunisian women and the evolution of civil society and movements after 2011. Marta emphasises that since 2011 more than 5000 new associations were born, and all of them use citizenship as their key word. The first need is to listen to a polyphonic choir, or to listen to thousands of Tunisian women’s voices that imposed themselves against the old “State’s feminism”. There are bloggers, feminist activists and new voices; these realities, born after 2011, represent a door into a universe that was once invisible, a universe that exists out of the Capital city. The upraising had the effect, on everyone who was not yet part of an association, of creating informal associations (such as it happened in Tunisia with the mothers who had lost their children in the sea). All the realities of such different women show us the situation in a mosaic like way. In regards to the constitutional aspects, Marta reminds us that in 2012 a lot of Tunisian women took to the streets to protest against the draft law which included an article in the Constitution declaring women as “complementary to men”, rather than equals. From then on, new militants adopted the definition to describe themselves as “ complementary between them and not to man”! With this new militant generation we see the difference between women’s groups as an added value. It is a complementarity, which represents “multiple identities”, where the gender relations are no longer looked at in a discriminatory manner. On the contrary, these differences are the first steps towards a transverse sight to extract the multiformity of associationism in the civic engagement. Marta concludes by naming the Constitution of 2014 (art.20-45-33), which led to a greater participation of women as citizens, trying to make these articles effective and not just a façade, with the aim of creating a substantial change. Chaimaa Fatihi is an Italian girl with Moroccan origins. She is active in the association of Young Muslims of Italy. She starts speaking about her experience of working in direct contact with Syrian women and about the laicism, a concept which has been abused in her opinion in Syria: women marched during the revolution to say “down with the regime”, a regime which defines itself as laic but actually is still constricting women’s freedom, both Christian and Muslim. For the second generation in Italy, these Mediterranean springs have been really important, because they have put the focus on the achievement of fundamental freedoms in their country of origin. In this way a lot of young people were motivated to participate, also personally, in the fight for freedom in these countries. On the other hand, the participation of the second generation in that fight has drawn attention to the rights situation in Italy as well. From the moment that we fight for the rights of women of our own countries of origin, it is impossible not to fight against the prejudices that are afflicting Muslim women in Italy. Those who wear the veil or are from a different culture are greatly discriminated against, and this makes the access to the employment world difficult. Therefore the role of second-generation girls is fundamental, because they can be the bridge to connect two or more different cultures, with the awareness that the problems we are faced with in Italy are the same as in other parts of the Mediterranean. To conclude, to answer the moderator’s question of identifying one or more key words that define the concept of Mediterranean Citizenship, Marta speaks about a “polyphonic choir” of women from the  Mediterranean basin, and evokes the two dimensions that are ever present in women’s life: “the space between private and public”, an old binomial that must be overcome. Sara takes up the issue about mobilisation, the idea of national and Mediterranean mobilisation: “we cannot talk about Mediterranean Citizenship without the possibility to move in this sea”, Sara says, emphasising the need to put pressure on our governments to revise the visa rules. Finally, Chaimaa evokes the respect of individuality and dialogue, among the dimensions of Mediterranean Citizenship, while Cristina Mastrandrea identifies the key word of “resistance”.