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AIA Past Events

January 17 @ 6:30

Women’s History Reads and Events:

• Women’s History Month 2023 — List of Wonderful Women – Check it out.
  Researched by Lois Gilbert and Liza Gilbert and printed in the La Crosse Tribune.
• 3 Ways You Can Fight for Equality in 2033 – Read more
  Ideas adapted from blog by Ava Lee-Green, eracoalition.blog
  
• Women’s History Month Quiz, by Lois Gilbert and Liza Gilbert – Take the Quiz
  Great women being remembered.
  
• Women’s History events, by Andrea Hanson 
  EVENTS
• “Understanding Iran’s Feminist Revolution”, a talk by Dr.Sona Kazemi.  Read more.
• International Women’s Day, March 8th, held at UWL – Click here to read about the event written by Multimedia Editor, Isabel Piarulli, (March 10, 2023).
  
• GREAT Movie “My Name is Pauli Murray” – Read More & See Poster – Google title view
  Short version shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZOfYTOtfig
  
• Phenomenal Women’s Dinner – A night of honoring all ALANA.  Read More.
• Support for Iranian and Afghan Women Event. Movie “Persepolis”  Read More .
  

AAUW has a strong national program called STEM Ed that includes summer camps. Learn more: STEMEd for Girls. Watch this space for more information about local and nearby STEM Ed events! Please contact me to join the committee.

How to pay AAUW 2023 dues.

AAUW dues have increased slightly to $93.00.
The breakdown is National $72.00 ($69.00 is tax-deductible); State $13.00; and Branch $8.00.

1. Online payment is the easiest.

Go to: https://www.aauw.org. Be sure to LOG-IN at the top click on.

In the next dialog scroll to the bottom and select RENEW.

You will be directed to take care of National first.

Then at the next page you select BRANCH. Ours will be towards the bottom:  WI – La Crosse, #4016.

Next you will be taken to the State page to select WI (again towards the bottom of the page).

The next page asks if you want to donate to the Greatest Needs Fund.

You will be able to edit anything on the next page. When okay, click NEXT.

At the end you will be able to select an option to print your renewal information.

2. If paying by check, please make your check payable to: AAUW – La Crosse Branch.

The form you need can be found at: https://www.aauw.org/membership/.

Send the form and payment to: Ann Brice, 211 29th Street South, La Crosse, WI 54601-4312.

AAUW National Life Membership is $1,440 and is fully tax deductible. When you sign up before June 30, there is a $100 savings because you can upgrade to lifetime membership for $1,340.

INTERVIEWS WITH NEW MEMBERS
The Membership Committee is trying to interview our new members so that we can share with you information about them. Hopefully, this is something we will continue to do in the future. Some of what I talked about with Monica Foster is below.

2023 INTERVIEW WITH MONICA FOSTER

Monica Foster received her Ph.D. at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. She is presently a Specialist in Psychology and Psychiatry at the La Crosse Mayo Clinic. To her La Crosse seemed to be a good fit because she enjoys making a difference. La Crosse a smaller city than most places she has lived. Monica spent most of her life in various cities throughout California and for the past few years she lived in Colorado.

I asked her about something in her life that she wanted to share with all of you. She said that she was adopted as an infant. Early in her life she was told that she was adopted and accepted it. Later in her life her birth mother got in contact with her and they had a good relationship. Her two mothers became good friends.

Some of her interests include hiking, photography, dogs, travel, and reading. She is presently reading the book “Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness” by Meghan O’Rourke, which examines the challenges faced by those with chronic illnesses. Monica highly recommends the book.

She joined AAUW because she wanted to get involved. It is a pleasure to welcome her to the AAUW-La Crosse Branch.

If you go
What: Understanding Iran’s Feminist Revolution
When: 6 p.m. Thursday, April 20
Where: UW-L Centennial Hall room 1309
Cost: Free

By: Emily Pyrek
https://lacrossetribune.com/users/profile/emily%20pyrek/

The death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of “morality police” last fall drew global attention to the plight of Iranian women, leading to the defiant removal of hijabs in a show of feminism.

Amini, who was Kurdish Iranian, died Sept. 16, 2022, after being detained for wearing her head scarf in a fashion that allegedly exposed some of her hair, against the government dress code. Her beating sparked outrage, yet Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has maintained the hijab is a “religious necessity” and a “legal matter” that women must “adhere to.”

An opinion article published in the Washington Post two weeks after Amini’s death by Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad and titled “Women are leading a revolution in Iran. When will Western feminists help?” sparked American Association of University Women La Crosse board member Erica Koonmen to ponder “What can we, in a fairly small Midwestern town, possibly do to show these women that they are not alone?”

Explained Koonmen: “Women are leading the new popular uprising against one of the main pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran: compulsory hijab. They are facing guns and bullets and demanding an end to a system of gender apartheid. … Alinejad (took) Western feminists to task for failing to show support for both the women in Iran and in Afghanistan, also fighting for basic rights.”

The call for allyship led the association, in partnership with the diversity, equity and inclusion programs at Western Technical College and Viterbo University and UW-La Crosse’s Racial, Gender and Sexuality Department, to form the Women Supporting Women Globally initiative. A series of programs to raise awareness and show solidarity with the women and girls of Iran and Afghanistan, the initiative kicked off last month with a screening of “Persepolis” and will continue Thursday with a talk by UW-L assistant professor Sona Kazemi.

At 6 p.m. April 20, Kazemi will present “Understanding Iran’s Feminist Revolution,” discussing the oppression she experienced during her childhood and teen years in Iran, her ongoing advocacy, and why the support of individuals worldwide is needed to help “overthrow the Islamic state” so Iranians can “build democracy and gender equality for themselves.”

Kazemi was raised in the Islamic Republic, a gender apartheid state where girls and women were treated as “less than human,” Kazemi said.

“One way in which the state does that is by using the veil, the hijab,” said Kazemi. “Hijab is not just a piece of fabric in Iran — it’s a social marker that you are a second-class citizen.”

When Kazemi started school, she was required to wear a hijab, and while she didn’t realize its meaning at the time, she recognized only the girls had to be covered. At age 14, Kazemi was walking when three people jumped out of a mini-bus, took hold of her and shoved her in the vehicle.

“I knew at that time it was the morality police,” Kazemi said. “Mahsa Amini was grabbed and killed in a detention center. I am amplifying her voice because I could have been her. I want to acknowledge the fact that every woman is in danger of dying at the hands of the morality police every day in Iran. It’s not the odd occurrence.”

Kazemi was held at what translates to a “center for the fight against political corruption” for seven hours, without food or access to a bathroom. After convincing the guards to give her a list of phone numbers for the families of those detained, she called each contact. Kazemi’s dad was the one to pick her up, and he “blamed me for being arrested.”

“He’s an open-minded person and he knew what happened to me was terrible,” Kazemi said. “But at the same time, he was trying to tell me that if I had covered myself better, this wouldn’t have happened to me. But there were women who were arrested with me that were so covered you couldn’t even see a strand of hair. So it makes me so mad when people say Mahsa Amini was arrested for bad veiling. No, Mahsa Amini was arrested for being a woman. And that’s the mistake that people make.”

Hello, My name is Anika Oplanic and I am the President of ALANA, our multicultural women’s club on campus.

ALANA is an organization that promotes building community between women of color on campus, as well as educating students about topics like feminism, womanism, heritage months, important court cases, and the importance of self-development through leadership building.

The annual Phenomenal Women’s Dinner, a night of honoring all ALANA has accomplished this year, as well as the accomplishments of women within our community. It will be Thursday, April 13th, from 5:30-8:00pm, with doors opening at 5:00.

During the dinner, we will be exploring the theme of “The Beauty of Our Community.” We will be hosting local business owners, including Melanin Beauty Bar, The Unspoken V, Thy Sacred Lyfe, and Healing Roots by Mia Simone. This will give students and community members the opportunity to support Black woman-owned businesses from right here in La Crosse

Additionally, we will be having UW’s own Prenicia Clifton as our keynote speaker. She is the UW System Youth Protection Director, an accomplished opera singer (The first African American person to sing in a Chinese opera house completely in Mandarin), and the founder of Seein’ is Believin’ – a foundation that specializes in advocating for youth mental wellness. She will be telling her story as to how she’s gotten to where she is today, and will be doing a workshop to help students to connect with themselves.

Furthermore, we will be honoring 2 of our own UWL staff as our Phenomenal Women Honorees of the night (as well as 2 other women from Wisconsin). These women have all done amazing things for their community, and they deserved to be recognized for it.