To Yasmin and Pete--my sincerest apologies.
My fellow Muslim sister, I am sorry for making you as an example of an "unknown senatorial candidate". You, like the others who aspire for change, deserve a Senate seat. I read what you accomplished in Mindanao and some of my friends, reminded me of your work and I am but equally impressed.
However, one note lang my beautiful sister---you forgot to wear our traditional hijab here in your photo. I suggest that you always wear your hijab. Be proud of your Muslim heritage. Be proud of being a Bangsamoro.
Let me reproduce, with your permission a blog entry on Yasmin Busran-Lao.
IN 2005 YASMIN BUSRAN-LAO was granted the Benigno S. Aquino Jr. Fellowship for Professional Development Award given by the American embassy and the Benigno S. Aquino Foundation. The award came as a surprise to the woman who had repeatedly spurned similar nominations by conveniently forgetting to submit her credentials. “I never expected to be publicly recognized for what I do,” she says. “Fighting for the rights of Muslim women and other marginalized groups is something personal for me. I get enough satisfaction helping people gain a certain control over their lives.”
What is not surprising is how this Psychology graduate of Far Eastern University came upon her advocacy. Yasmin recalls how, as an 11-year-old probinsyana, she had to contend with seatmates who would suddenly edge away when she was introduced before the class.
“Muslims were seen as devils, complete with tails and horns,” she recalls of the prejudice and stigma she had to put up with when her family moved to Manila in 1972. Like thousands of other families, they had to flee war-torn Marawi where private armies like the Ilagas and Barracudas had established a reign of terror. Her father, too, had just been appointed as the first Muslim judge in the Court of Appeals, and had to stay in Manila.
The experience, Yasmin says, made her conscious at an early age of the “impact of bigotry and discrimination on human relationships, especially on dignity and communal harmony.” It also made her a thorn in her mother's side. She recounts: “It was at the Quiapo mosque where I met these women who were abandoned by their Iranian husbands. This was during the time of Khomeini in Iran. The women were disowned by their families and kicked out of their homes, so I decided to bring them with me. I was running some sort of a woman's crisis center at home, and my mother could only shake her head.”
Soon, she was joining other activists when they visited Muslims in death row. “I just wanted to know what was happening,” says Yasmin. It was an unusual show of spunk for one who was only in her third year high school then.
Such dissonance ushered her into an existentialist phase at 16, when she studied the Qur'an, Buddhism and other religions to find where some oppressive practices were coming from. “They were not in the Qur'an, so why are Muslims embracing them?” she asked.
The questions led her to establish the Al-Mujadilah Development Foundation (AMDF) in 1997, shortly after she attended the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women as a representative of the feminist group PILIPINA. “In Beijing, I was able to interact with Muslim women from other countries,” recounts Yasmin. “I realized that much of the Islamic teachings we adhered to, particularly those pertaining to women, are not really what is in the Qur'an, but rather cultural interpretations of Islam.”
What followed was intensive research on the situation of Muslim women-from their domestic roles to reproductive health and poverty, from politics to the impact of armed conflict. “This we did in response to allegations that gender issues are Western issues that have no resonance in Muslim Moro communities,” says Yasmin.
Main advocacy
The Foundation was inspired by a Qur'anic verse, Al-Mujadilah (Qur'an verse 58), which, depending on one's source, either means “The Woman who Pleads,” “The Woman who Seeketh (Justice),” or “The Woman who Disputeth.”
The AMDF has been acknowledged by its partner networks for the significant role it plays in Maranao society, the Bangsamoro struggle, and society in general.
As an institutional partner, Oxfam NOVIB, the Dutch organization for international aid, had this to say about AMDF: “(It) has proven its worth in community organizing, convening of civil society organizations, organizing youth clubs for high school students, breaking the barriers with (Muslim) women theologians and other conservative sectors of the community, capacitating local government units (LGUs) in mainstreaming gender and pushing for the implementation of the gender and development (GAD) budget, legal literacy and popularization of the Code of Muslim Personal Laws, and the construction of a grassroots’ women training center. The AMDF has a good opportunity to further develop its distinctive role in the Lanao Sur area as a community-based nongovernment organization (NGO) advocating for women’s rights, peace and governance.
The Gaston Z. Ortigas Peace Institute has been working with the AMDF since its inception and has been supportive of its various initiatives on peace building in the region. The AMDF is a member of civil society third party mediator for the declaration of ceasefire and third party observer to the peace process undertaken by government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front. It has created venues for the diverse civil society organizations to come together, share perspectives and collaborate in addressing the various peace, governance, poverty and other social issues confronting Maranao society. It has also trained LGU officials on conflict resolution, negotiation, counseling and paralegal in selected municipalities and their consequent organization into Barangay Justice Advocates (BJAs).
PILIPINA recognizes AMDF as its affiliate institution in Lanao del Sur. As such, it acknowledges its pioneering and unique contributions in advancing the discourse and praxis of putting gender values and principles in the center of peacebuilding, right to self- determination and governance efforts in the Bangsamoro homeland.
CO Multiversity, on the other hand, as the partner of AMDF in crafting its community-based strategies, acknowledges the remarkable transformative processes the organization has been able to catalyze as breakthroughs in Maranao culture as it makes a difference in governance and electoral politics while taking stock of the challenges it has to face such as (a) sustaining existing initiatives in people’s planning and decision making process; (b) maximizing participation in the barangay development planning and management; (c) participating in the educational processes for electoral reforms; and (d) sustaining initiatives on gender mainstreaming.
In 2007 Yasmin also cofounded the Nisa Ul-Haqq Fi Bangsamoro (Women for Truth and Justice in the Bangsamoro) to respond to the need of Bangsamoro women for a deeper understanding of Islam from a feminist perspective and reclaim the spaces and voices of women in Islamic discourse and praxis. Under her leadership as its current chair, the foundation has initiated the following activities: (a) conduct of study group sessions and round-table discussions on Islam and gender; (b) conduct of evidence-based researches to address the issues of Bangsamoro women such as early and forced marriages, polygamy, divorce, inheritance, reproductive health and rights, political participation, and economic empowerment; (c) engagement with the regional government of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on gender-responsive governance; and (d) collaborate with the ARMM regional government and the Philippine Commission on Women on the development of a GAD Code for ARMM.
let's support the villar legarda tandem!
ReplyDelete“We share common vision for the country. Both have found common ground in our stand in leading the country. People were asking, ‘Bakit si Loren?...Bakit hindi?”
- Senator Manny Villar, 2010 Presidential Aspirant, November 2009
It is a good posting. I like it. It's pretty much impressive.
ReplyDeleteBathmate