Panel To Discuss Women In Muslim World
March 30th, 2005


By Tom Dalton
Staff writer

SALEM — It may be the best conversation that takes place in this city this year.

On Monday, five panelists — four women and a man — will take part in a discussion on "Women and the Clashes of Culture, Politics and Religion."

One of the panelists, the director of education from the Salem Witch Museum, is local. The others are from Afghanistan, Iran, India and Pakistan. One runs a women's studies program, one is a translator, one teaches philosophy and one is a businessman who works with poor women artists.

This conversation — the 2005 Salem Award Foundation Symposium — would have been inconceivable just a few years ago. Although not billed this way, it is one of those discussions that could occur only in a post-9/11 world.

It will take place within the context of the Salem Witch Trials, since the annual Salem Award is given to keep alive the lessons learned from that dark moment in human history. But it will range far and wide and certainly, given the expertise of the panel, will focus on the state of Muslim women in a changing and often violent world. It is a subject the panel knows well.

One of the panelists, Shahla Haeri, a Boston University professor, made a film documentary in 2001 on six women presidential contenders in Iran. Another panelist graduated from a school of journalism in Kabul, Afghanistan. Another has co-edited two books on nonviolence.

The panel and the subject matter is a reflection of this year's recipient of the Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice — Fahima Vorgetts, a member of an organization called "Women for Afghan Women." Even before the United States attacked Afghanistan in retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and before the toppling of the Taliban, Vorgetts was working to empower women in Afghanistan.

Vorgetts will be presented with the award Monday at 5 p.m. at the conclusion of the symposium.

Once the Salem Award Foundation Committee selected Vorgetts, it assembled a panel that could discuss the issues that have shaped her life and work.

Kate Murray, the committee chairwoman, said she hopes the symposium will give the audience a better understanding of people and cultures that were unknown, or at least little known, to most Americans before 9/11.

"I think because of (9/11) there is more of an urgency for us to come to an appreciation of this culture and this religion and what is good and valuable about it," she said.

Murray also hopes that Monday's program will draw a wide audience from local communities, colleges and cultures.

"There are Muslims living on the North Shore, and we're hoping this will be an occasion for them to step out and help us learn about them," she said.

The Salem Award Committee has put on remarkable symposiums the past two years. The first focused on men and women who have been wrongly imprisoned, and last year's, which was on the roots of discrimination, included central figures in the Boston school busing crisis.

"This is our third symposium," Murray said, "and we feel we have really expanded our ability to fulfill our mission in terms of educating the local community about inequities around the world."