Last week, PBS’s Need To Know aired a great interview with Leymah Gbowee, a leader of the nonviolent women’s movement – chronicled in the powerful documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell – that drove Liberian dictator Charles Taylor from power in 2003, in which she discusses how their victory has empowered women in Liberia and the volatile situation in the Ivory Coast.

While seven women protesting in the Ivory Coast were shot dead at the beginning of March, Gbowee believes they will be able to stop President Laurent Gbagbo, but stresses that it may take time:

People tend to think that what was accomplished in Liberia was an overnight thing by the women… No. We did three years of mobilization. We did three years of sensitization. We did three years of bringing people to understand the agenda for peace. Ivory Coast has been having this problem up and down for a while now. And people are still — especially women’s groups, they’re still divided, based on political lines.

Gbowee, who now runs the Women Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSEN-Africa) in Ghana, also offers some extremely important advice to the women of Egypt, who were active participants in the nonviolent uprising that ousted Mubarak earlier this year. As she watched that revolution unfold, she said:

I was excited but I was also very cautious. One of the things that usually happens, women come out… and form part of the protests. Unfortunately, we focus so much on the protest that we forget to develop our political agenda. So by the time the protest is over and the negotiation around politics and leadership and all of these different things start happening, we don’t have it. We don’t have anything to contribute. And then we’re scrambling and we’re fighting and at the end if we get anything, we get the dregs of it.

She then argues that the women of the “Arab Spring” need to stay engaged, keep protesting and demand what’s theirs.

If the women of Egypt and the women of Tunisia think that it’s going to come on a silver platter by virtue of the fact that there are videos that show them protesting alongside men, they’ll miss it. They’ve missed the point. They’ve missed everything. It’s now time for them to start their own revolution.

The Plural + Youth Video Festival, which is organized by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), has just announced that it is accepting entries for this year’s festival.

We partnered with Plural + to give the first Waging Nonviolence Award last November to a wonderful film about undocumented immigrants and military recruiters, and we will be continuing this exciting collaboration this year. According to the press release for the festival:

This year again, young people between the ages of 9 and 25 are invited to submit short videos of one to five minutes in length. The videos should express participants’ thoughts, experiences, questions and suggestions on migration, diversity, integration and identity, highlighting their realities as well as ideas on developing a peaceful coexistence in diverse cultural and religious contexts.

The aim of PLURAL+ is to ensure youth engagement in these important issues both at local and global levels by mainstreaming their voices through a variety of media platforms and distribution networks (broadcast, video festivals, conferences, events, Internet, DVD) around the world.

[...]

A prestigious international jury will select three winners in three age categories (9-12, 13-17, 18-25). Each winner will be invited to New York, all travel expenses paid, to present  their work at PLURAL + 2011 Awards Ceremony at the Paley Center for Media on 10 November 2011.

PLURAL+ partner organizations will also award other exciting prizes and professional opportunities. Including co-productions and a chance for awardees to gain international exposure by presenting their work at film and video festivals, conferences and events around the world.

PLURAL + 2011 deadline for video submission is 1 July, 2011. Early submission are encouraged. Further information, including guidelines, regulations, awards, and the entry form can be found at the PLURAL+ website at: www.unaoc.org/pluralplus

 

• In Yemen today, tens of thousands of people prayed in the streets for the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule, while hundreds of thousands of people attended anti-Saleh demonstrations in at least 14 other provinces, including Aden, Taaz, and Hadramout, around the country.

• In Sryia, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in several Syrian cities today, despite the government’s lethal crackdowns on protests.

• Prominent Jordanian journalists and rights activists staged a silent protest on Thursday over the detention in Syria of Reuters correspondent Suleiman al-Khalidi, who was arrested while covering Syrian protests.

• A group of Iranian university students staged a protest rally on Wednesday in front of the UN office in Tehran, condemning the crackdown of protests in Bahrain as well as in other Arab countries.

• Chinese paramilitary police crushed a five-day protest on Thursday by up to 2,000 Chinese villagers who complained that they weren’t being paid enough to relocate for one of China’s largest hydroelectric power projects.

• Thousands of protesters rallied outside the New Hampshire Capitol in Concord on Thursday to oppose budget bills they say curb collective bargaining rights for state workers.

• Students at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York walked out of class Thursday to protest state and city budget cuts.

• Teachers in South Florida held rallies Thursday as part of a countywide walk-in to protest deep state cuts in education.