What makes up the daily life of the woman who lives in the North Caucasus? What does her sense of self consist of? What are her fears, dreams, and attitudes toward career, family life and relationships? What kind of changes she would like to see and bring about in her life? The research of Heinrich Boell Foundation «Life and the Status of Women in the North Caucasus» was conducted as a serious attempt to answer these questions.
Looking at the issue of Muslim displaced women as a displaced Muslim woman, I could relate to the struggle, and I could also refuse being framed in research as a passive factor, offering a new perspective on the issue. In our contemporary time, Islamophobia has become a recurrent phenomenon worldwide, in which a view of women as victimised is common; denying Muslim women the credit for their resistance and taking away the definition of their faith from them, while they as a subaltern can speak, build and resist.
As stated by architecture theoretician Helena Doudova in her recent article: Czech women architects, where do you go?(2015), although feminist tradition in Czech Republic is not really a strong one, the confidence of the new generation of young women architects can be recognized. Nevertheless she keeps asking whether this will be reflected on institutional and practical level too?
Although we suspect many women are practicing architecture without official authorization, there are no clear relevant data. We keep tracking numbers of the authorized ones - members of Czech Chamber of Architects. They create 22 % of all authorized members (WPS Prague 2015). Since 2008 women make more than 50 % of graduates on Czech faculties of architecture. We are left with questions: Where do we lose women in these professions? Why is it so and how can we overcome these obstacles?
Full article in English soon to be published. Czech version to be found on:
A circle among architecture and women emancipation.
A lecture series organized by Kruh ngo opens questions about positions of women in czech architecture. Tradition of feminism is not a really strong one in here, still new growing confidence can be felt. Will that be reflected on institutional and practical level?
