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WISEWORDS – WHAT WOMEN WRITE [DOWRY]
Posted by Charlotte on March 22, 2010
Tags: Dowry, Tower Hamlets, Wisewords, Women Writing
The wisewords book festival has been taking place all over Tower Hamlets as part of Women’s History Month, the two day event at the Women’s Library – host to various book panels and discussions – was a fantastic addition.
I attended the Friday activities including a panel about the new anthology Dowry; an author talk about Bollywood Weddings; a writers panel on Crime Writing; an author talk about The Woman Who Saved the Children and a panel about the Equality Illusion. This is the first of a few blogs about those panels.
Dowry is a collection of academic papers on various aspects of dowry practice with an emphasis on praxis – that is academic in action. The talk was led by one of the essay authors Tamsin Bradly, senior lecturer and course leader for social anthropology at London Met and editor Emma Tomalin, Senior Lecturer in religious Studies at the University of Leeds. Hanana Siddiqui from Southhall Black Sisters also attended to provide the view point of the UK based South Asian community.
The talk started off quite academic, with Bradly and Tomalin using a word heavy powerpoint to illustrate the contents of the book. They discussed the reality of dowry, the changes in dowry practices and the widespread misunderstanding of the practice in South Asia and the South Asian diaspora. The author and editor discussed the negative impact dowry can have – including an escalation in domestic violence and son preference extending to sex selective abortions and it’s emphasis on a heterosexual patriarchal norm. But they also covered some more positive points including the creation of an opportunity to pass on a daughters inheritance that she would not receive otherwise.
Siddiqui took to the podium once Tomlin and Bradly had set the scene and though she covered a lot I felt the presentation could have had stronger direction. Faced with an audience who didn’t necessarily know the work of Southall Black Sisters and got mired down in creating context for her work rather than talking about dowry practice within South Asian diaspora in Britain.
She did provide some great insights into the British attempt to ban dowry payments with the ‘Take no Dowry, Pay no Dowry’ campaign, led by men in the community not wanting to pay inflating prices, as well as the government’s failure in the 1980s and ’90s to consider the lives of South Asian women in Britain by turning a blind eye to patriarchal practices, justified by a multiculturalism discourse.
I have not yet read Dowry but I do believe that like the talk with Timlin, Bradly and Siddiqui it combines the ideas of academics and activists, creating a full picture nuanced with opinion and action. Praxis was a main staple of the talk and of the overarching outcome of the book and it’s possible they have created a new tool to help inform and move forward the debate on dowry and action to free women from the dangers that can surround it.
Tags for this post:Dowry, Tower Hamlets, Wisewords, Women Writing