International Women's Day Forum

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Thursday March 09, 2006 16:30 by Labour Youth

There was an excellent attendance at the public forum hosted by Labour Youth on the topic of "Is Feminism Dead?" in Wynns Hotel on Wednesday night. The speakers Niav Keating of BODY, Liz Mc Manus T.D., Rossana Flynn of residents against racism and Ailbhe Smyth of WERRC argued why they thought Feminism was still relevant.

Niav Keating addressed the ongoing restrictions on the right of women to access abortion services in Ireland. Liz Mc Manus spoke of how the Dáil is still dominated by men with 87% of T.D.s been male. Rossana described the horros of Female Genital Mutilation which many asylum seekers in Ireland have fled from. Ailbhe Smyth gave an excellent and strong defence of feminism and encouraged everyone present to get involved in challenging patriarcy pointing out that if individuals in the room don't do it, you can't expect some one else to. (she put it a lot more eloquently than that).

There was a large number of contributions from the predominantly female floor and lots of peole signed up to the BODY contact list.