Thursday 15 March 2007

Pinays Celebrate International Women's Day




(photos by ML)
In keeping with their yearly celebration of the IWD
International Women's Day (March 8), Philippine Women's
Forum e.V. (Babaylan Germany) and Babaylanes Internationales
held an information evening with a film showing of
Lualhati Bautista's story "Bata, Bata Paano Ka Ginawa"
at the Internationaleszentrum Stolzestrasse in Cologne,
Germany on March 9, 2007.
The film Bata, Bata Paano Ka Ginawa, starring
Vilma Santos, Albert Martinez, Ariel Rivera, Raymond
Bagatsing, Carlo Aquino and Serena Dalrymple and
directed by Chino Rono, tells of the story of Lea, played
by Vilma Santos a Filipina torn between her belief in herself
as an individual who has her own right to her own decision
and the expectation and tradition of Philippine society
regarding women as mothers and partners.
'If I am were a person who has no own identity, I would
never be a good mother,' declared Lea to her ex-husband
as the two searched for the reason for their failed marriage.
At the end of the film, Lea while giving a talk during
a graduation ceremony, she concluded: "The question how
the children are made is not really difficult. The most difficult
question is for parents to know how they would raise
up their children as decent, just and humane beings. For if
the children are molded as such, then we could offer them
a decent, just and humane society. We should all reach
for the stars and make our collective dreams come true."

The women agreed to hold another gathering to talk
about the film and specifically on the topic of Filipino
women and their rights and obligations as well as
privileges as mothers, partners and above all as thinking
individuals.
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