{"id":374,"date":"2018-03-08T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/virtualseminar.icae.global\/?p=374"},"modified":"2018-03-07T16:18:01","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T16:18:01","slug":"comment-by-timothy-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/virtualseminar.icae.global\/?p=374","title":{"rendered":"Comment by Timothy Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Timothy Ireland comments on the article “Inclusion, diversity and exclusion: Thoughts from within Aswat \u2013 Palestinian Gay Women”<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

UNESCO Chair in Youth and Adult Education at the Federal University of Paraiba, Brazil<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>The issue of identity or to be more accurate \u2018identities\u2019, is at the heart of recent antagonisms in diverse countries. Identity refers to the multiple elements of our individual and collective identity. It includes such dimensions as ethnic, sexual, gender, national, linguistic, cultural identities. Implicit in the notion of identity is that of diversity, and diversity which is one of the supreme qualities of life in all its forms, demands understanding as the basis for living together. Understanding is not the same response as tolerance. Tolerance is passive. Understanding is active and has to be created. It is a learning process which involves educating both sides.<\/p>\n

For these reasons, Rima Abboud\u2019s article on the Aswat \u2013 Palestinian Gay Women\u2019s movement is important and illustrative. Aswat was born from the need voiced by a group of Arab women to express three different dimensions of their oppressed identities \u2013 that of woman, of Palestinian and of non-conformist sexual identity. And, at the same time, to assist Arab women to understand that these identities were shared by a number of women living in isolation and oppression.<\/p>\n

Aswat\u2019s strategy has been to educate and inform, recognising that the lack of education related to sexual orientation and gender identities leads to historical prejudice and to discrimination. The telling of personal stories both in workshops and through publications has been one of the principal strategies chosen to reach out to the LGBTQI+ population. But as Rima Abboud herself writes, \u201cInclusion (\u2026) is not merely limited to partnerships with groups and individuals with similar identities\u201d. This raises the question as to whether Aswat does not run the risk of preaching to the converted and of not reaching a wider public which needs to be educated to understand and accept sexual orientations which are different from its own.<\/p>\n

The challenge is not to reduce the struggle for recognition of the LGBTQI+ population to a question of sexual orientation but to understand sexual orientation as part of a more universal struggle for justice and equality. As Abboud says \u201cWe believe that one cannot promote LGBTQI+ issues without taking a stance against oppression, occupation and discrimination of other groups and peoples or by being complicit in orders that perpetuate oppressive and discriminative mechanisms\u201d.<\/p>\n

The different is always in some way threatening because it extrapolates our own experience. As adult educators our challenge is to explore the reality of diversity to help students comprehend the relation between diversity and life and to understand that rather than being threatened by what is different and converting it into a motive for inequality and exclusion, we need to recognise the infinite wealth and diversity of social experience and the knowledge generated in that process.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

These are the links to the AED 84\/2017 publication in three languages:
\nEnglish<\/a>
\nFran\u00e7ais<\/a>
\nEspa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n

Estos son los links para acceder a la publicaci\u00f3n en tres idiomas:
\nIngl\u00e9s<\/a>
\nFranc\u00e9s<\/a>
\nEspa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n

Voici les liens vers la publication en trois langues:
\nAnglais\u00a0<\/a>
\nFran\u00e7ais<\/a>
\nEspagnol<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow the ICAE Virtual Seminar also\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Para espa\u00f1ol favor usar\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>google translator<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/a>en los casos en que el art\u00edculo no est\u00e1 traducido al espa\u00f1ol<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\nVeuillez utiliser\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>google translator<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0pour traduire les articles qui ne sont pas en fran\u00e7ais<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Timothy Ireland comments on the article “Inclusion, diversity and exclusion: Thoughts from within Aswat \u2013 Palestinian Gay Women” UNESCO Chair in Youth and Adult Education at the Federal University of Paraiba, Brazil \u00a0The issue of identity or to be more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualseminar.icae.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualseminar.icae.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualseminar.icae.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualseminar.icae.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualseminar.icae.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=374"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/virtualseminar.icae.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386,"href":"https:\/\/virtualseminar.icae.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions\/386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualseminar.icae.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualseminar.icae.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualseminar.icae.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}