March 1st Women Intercultural Network & US Women Connect Presents “Winning Strategies for Gender Equality” 10:00am , Monday March 1, 2010 Church Center 2^nd floor Our stellar panel this year includes Elahe Amani,  Co-Chair, WIN, Welcoming; Jean Shinoda Bolen, The Millionth Circle; Olivia Calderon, New America Foundation; Gloria Feldt, Women’s Media Center; Clare Winterton, International Museum of Women; Tae Yoo,  Cisco Sytems;  Hon. Jackie Weatherspoon,  New England USWC Coalition;  Rosemary Smithson, President USWC and Loretta Ross, SisterSong,  Moderating.  The panelists will address their  paradigms and strategies for moving gender equality and human rights forward locally and globally – what works and what are the possibilities for the next  ‘innovation’ decade.  An open forum will follow for Q&A and audience participation.  As an opening panel for the UN NGO CSW, this session is an opportunity to make connections for the coming week and share scheduled events.  Everyone is welcome.

March 4th As part of the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women Conference AIDOS – Italian Association for Women in Development presents The Women’s Movement In Iran: 15 Years After Beijing 4 pm – 5:30 pm Main Auditorium – Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission 221 East 52nd Street – New York Featuring: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi and other Iranian Women’s Rights activists including Parvin Ardalan discussing the situation of Iranian women 15 years after the Beijing Conference: domestic violence, women and minorities, and strategies of the women’s movement towards empowerment. The panel will be coordinated by Daniela Colombo, AIDOS President

March 5th San Francisco Department on the Status of Women: Presentations at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, NGO Parallel Session, Beijing +15 ( Co-sponsored by Women Intercultural Network )   Violence Against Women: Perspectives from Bahrain, Ecuador, Iran and the US 4 pm – 5:30 pm, Friday, March 5, 2010 Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission, 221 East 52nd St. (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues) Exceptionally dynamic elected and appointed women leaders representing communities from Bahrain, Ecuador, Iran (Elahe Amani, Co-Chair of Women Intercultural Network will discuss their perspectives on violence against women and the strategies they have promoted in accordance with the Beijing Platform for Action. What new integrated measures to prevent and eliminate violence against women have been explored? What have studies of the causes and consequences of violence against women revealed? What do we now know about the effectiveness of preventive measures? What is the status of the fight against trafficking?  This international and cross-cultural  panel will shed new light on these issues that impact all women.

March 5th Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) in cooperation with The New School for Social Research presents 2020 Vision: Mobilizing for Women’s Rights and Eliminating Violence against Women March 5, 2010, 9:30am – 4:30pm John Tishman Auditorium at the New School for Social Research 66 West 12th Street, New York, NY Seats are limited. RSVP online or by email. As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, women’s rights leaders build upon our collective experience to secure our vision for a future free from violence and grounded in equality both locally and globally. Keynote speakers will highlight major challenges to women’s empowerment and share a roadmap for success in the second decade of the 21st century. Melanne Verveer, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA Mary Robinson, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1997-2002 Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace laureate, 2003 Panels Securing Women’s Safety and Dignity: Mobilizing for a World Free of Violence against Women Asma Khader (Jordan), Sindi Medar-Gould (Nigeria), and Jacqueline Pitanguy (Brazil) will discuss grassroots mobilization and awareness-raising strategies including street theater and organizing men, youth, and target constituencies in academia, the media, health, and justice sectors. They will discuss connections between mobilization efforts and international conflict resolution and peacekeeping mechanisms such as UN Security Council resolution 1325. Movement Building from the Local to the Global: What the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Means for Women at the Grassroots Lina Abou Habib (Lebanon), Wajeeha Al-Baharna (Bahrain), and Parvin Ardalan (Iran) will discuss the Arab regional CEDAW campaign Equality without Reservation, the Claiming Equal Citizenship campaign for equal nationality rights, and the One Million Signatures campaign to reform discriminatory family laws in Iran and how they have transcended traditional political, economic, and cultural barriers to mobilize women’s rights activists at the local, national, and international levels. Mahnaz Afkhami, President of Women’s Learning Partnership, and Arien Mack, editor of Social Research, will moderate. For more information: 301-654-2774 wlp@learningpartnership.org | www.learningpartnership.org  

March 7th   Women Intercultural Network Presents “From Social Media to Social Action – Women’s Media in Action” Sunday, 7 March, 2010 // Time: 2pm – 3:30pm Location: Church Center Building for the UN, 777 UN Plaza, New York A panel of three action-based women will discuss how they utilize media to mobilize social action in civil society. Elahe Amani, co-chair of WIN – Women’s Intercultural Network will discuss the role of twitter in the civil rights movement in Iran. Lys Anzia, Founder/Editor-at-Large of Women News Network will share her knowledge as a journalist. Parvin Ardalan, the award winning women activist from Iran , will share how the Iranian women’s movement utilizes cyberspace for coordinated efforts to change discriminatory laws in Iran . This event is sponsored by the Women’s Intercultural Network, a Non-Governmental Organization in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).