July and August 2005

During the months of July and August 2005, Dr Fatima Sadiqi had a series of important meetings with SafetyNET partners and supporters. She met with Sunita Dhumale, Gayil Nalls, Linda Blick, Harriet Fulbright, Mike Uretsky, Hilary Clinton's Office, Safe Horizons, The Maharashtra Foundation, Altria, The UN, the World Bank, and the Feminist Press. She also got in touch with Mukta Dhumale.

During this period, Dr Sadiqi spoke about her new project: a Five-Point Plan of International Cooperation on Language and Women's Issues. This Plan is supported by a number of Moroccan, Arab, European, and American universities and institutions. Dr Sadiqi is working on links with 3 Asian universities: Tokyo University, Seoul University and the University of Kuala-Lampur. Part of the Plan is Global Synergy (with SafetyNET as an important component). Dr Sadiqi exposed her ideas on these issues in six US universities: University of Georgetown (Washington D.C.), Princeton University, New York University, University of Boston, MIT, University of Pennsylvania, in addition to Rutgers University where she was based during the two months she spent in the US. The Women Research Institute and the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Rutgers expressed keen interest in establishing links with SafetyNET. Dr Sadiqi is returning to Rutgers early 2006.

On July 12, 2005, Dr Fatima Sadiqi spoke about the recent spectacular impact of technology on the status of women in Arab-Muslim countries within the framework of her five-points Plan in front of a group of high-profile supporters of women issues: Ms Harriet Fulbright, Ms Linda Blick, Dr Mike Uretsky and two representatives of the Soros Foundation and the Open Society Institute (New York). Her Plan was very well received.

On August 24 2005, Dr Fatima Sadiqi and Dr Moha Ennaji were the keynote speakers in two major Safe Horizons Meetings in New York, coordinated by Linda Blick. These meetings were attended by an impressive number of people interested in combating violence against women and children; the ensuing debates were extremely fruitful. Among those present were Gabriella Villareal and Nadra Qadeer (from the Anti-Traficking Program), Toby Mailman, Jean-Pierre Kamwa, and Maria Blacque-Belair (from the Solace Program), Shawna Aarons (from Altria Corporate Services), Sunita Dhumale and Sunanda Mane from the Maharashtra Foundation.

In parallel to her new International Project, Dr Fatima Sadiqi is currently finalizing the co-editing of the Women Writing Africa Anthology (which will appear early 2007) and writing two books: one on Moroccan Feminism, Islam and Language Ideology and the other on The Real and Symbolic Power of Berber in Morocco.