ADDRESSING THE 'F' WORDS

This is the woman who started it all....PHILOMENE LUYINDELA, French teacher, translator and author of....

'Widening of the Womb and Other Stories', which gave rise to our Story Cafe discussion on FAITH & FEMINISM with the panel.....

DR MIRANDA PILLAY of SAFFI, the South African Faith and Family Institute's Theological Advisory Council on Gender Based Violence

REV BERRY BEHR chair of the Cape Town Interfaith Initiative and SA coordinator for the Charter for Compassion

MOONIQ SHAIKJEE lecturer and researcher in the Linguistics Dept at UWC with interest in intersection between language, gender, sexuality and faith

and of course Philomene herself who opened by suggesting that during this session we do not refer to God as 'he', and lit a candle.

Both panel.....

...and audience were intent.

Thoughts...

....some light moments....

...deep moments....

....issues....

...reflections,

...and some interest and input from men.

...questions....

...statements...

....and feelings.

And here are just some of the thoughts shared:
FAITH is inseparable from community.....is an evolving situation....is my connection to other people......a belief that there is something good. RELIGION is a man-made system, an issue of interpretation of texts...if God is male then male is God....it's time to rewrite texts  FEMINISM is calling back the pieces of our souls that have been scattered.....is focusing on people who have been oppressed.....between Faith and Feminism there is suspicion on both sides.....like black people, as women we have not recorded our stories. And on GENDER BASED VIOLENCE...we need .to retell our stories...faith institutions need to hand the mic to those who don't usually get to speak. 16 Days of Activism needs to be 365 Days.
We are prisoners of the thinking of the times. We need new stories.
Much more was said, much more is to be said. But for now a big thank you to the panel for their informed wisdom and to all who came to listen, for their thoughts and questions. Till next time. October 26 2019 WOMAN ZONE
​Images: Theresa Smith  Words: Nancy Richards