once again 3 middle aged men in suits and one dressed like a vicar shout at each other cross talking at speed and volume on bbc 2 newsnight.they happen to be muslim but in all the noise,its not possible to work out what the blazes they are ranting about. eventually one of them points out that in their representation of contemporary islam in britain there are no women on the panel(i thought it was a classic male rabble).if this is the way they replicate mainstream rule,i cannot be asked to listen. i was struck by the completely different experience of listening to a group of articulate,passionate,committed women debating the way forward for a womens mag,earlier in the year,and how when the emotional temperature went up,how differently,and collaboratively mysisters in struggle(please excuse my presumption here)dealt with their differences-nothing was lost from the variety and difference of opinion,but what emerged was a little healing,and a lot of constructive conversation about how that variety of views could be shared and developed. i came away from that conference inspired.i shrink from the male,tv ranting both depressed and ashamed that too many times my gender dont do any better,and how the class that want control of us,can only compete to dominate the rest of us......
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 23:09:05 +0000