EVENT - Nov 22 - Local Artists and Activists Share Their Compassion for Exploited Women

This press release just in from the Okanagan Institute Express ...a worthwhile event!

The sad news is that millions of women and girls around the world suffer sexual exploitation, acid attacks, rape, forced marriages and other unimaginable forms of violence and disenfranchisement. One out of every three women worldwide is physically, sexually or otherwise abused during her lifetime. The good news is that there are thousands of organizations around the world that reach out to those women and offer help, support, training, and education so that women can be self-sufficient. They also fight to change cultural attitudes and push for legal reform. Despite the odds women face, there are countless examples of women supporting each other to overcome the bleakest of circumstances. Helping them become economically empowered and providing protection and access to justice will enable these women to create societies that are more tolerant, less violent, less extremist, and more human and socially just.

On Thursday, November 22nd at 5 pm the ongoing Okanagan Institute Express series at the Bohemian Café, 524 Bernard Avenue, Kelowna presents Compassion: The Agency of Gender Justice. Join us as artists and activists Julie Oakes and Linda Edgecomb share their insights into the continuing tragedy of the global exploitation of women.

In her recently released novel, Hooks, visual artist and author Julie Oakes tells the stories of pain and struggle that are the reality of life for women young and old forced into sexual trafficking in India. In 2004, Oakes acquired a MA in Social and Political Science from The New School for Social Research in New York, a school known for its progressive philosophy. It was in preparation for her thesis - with the late Christopher Hitchens and Dr. Terry Williams as her expository writing advisors - that Oakes went to India. The notes compiled during two months of travelling from Mumbai to Karalla to Pondicherry to Rajisthan were the basis for the novel, published by Dundurn Press. With the help of fellow New School alumna Thoraya Mohammed and Action Aid in Hyderabad, Oakes was able to access case studies of prostitutes that formed the basis for the characters in Hooks. Oakes' writing of Hooks is informed by compassionate creative intelligence for eastern culture and looks at its universality. In describing her work Oakes writes, "Hooks is a novel about women who gain agency over their lives - both the prostitutes and the female journalist from New York. Being able to exert power over destiny means that there is no longer someone else who has control over the self. Agency in Hooks is gained through reciprocity, a righting of wrong action. Unfortunately, sometimes in the fight for agency, bearings are lost. Achieving the balance needed to walk independently, people grow and whether western or eastern, prostitute or journalist, change comes with a price."

A more assertive role in helping women gaining agency over their lives has directed Linda Edgecomb locally and internationally. Linda is a renowned speaker, writer and motivational coach. Her footprint has made an impact around the world. The Wall Street Journal has quoted her as being an expert in Shifting Peoples Perspectives on their work, their lives and their effect on their communities. More specifically Linda has been involved with a project in Nepal rescuing girls out of child labour and getting them into school. In November 2010, Linda co-ordinated students from Kelowna to take up their teacher's challenge to reach out to the young women of Kathmandu's United School. From her position on the board of IWEN, Inter-Culture Educational Network, Linda is raising funds to support women's rights to freedom, education and the courage to change their destinies. She is well known across North America as "The Scarf lady". She will be selling scarves to fundraise for IWEN's work in Nepal.

As Albert Einstein stated: "A human being is a part of the whole, called by us 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security."

Compassion: The Agency of Gender Justice takes place at the Bohemian Cafe, 524 Bernard Avenue, Kelowna. This marks the 241st event the Okanagan Institute has held since the Express series got underway in 2007. Advance registration is required at www.okanaganinstitute.com