Last week I had to chance to meet some exceptional ladies thanks to an Erasmus project called NETPOWER. I had the opportunity to exchanges ideas with European women part of the University Women Europe network. They believe a lot in friendship between women and the need of peace. In these incredible times we are living right now with the war in Ukraine I can say that the word “peace” suddenly gets another dimension. Did you ever believe we could be in this kind of war, where women need to flee with their children to stay alive, leaving their men behind?
One of the keynotes touched me a lot and also made me laugh. The CEO of Atria, the Institute on Gender Equality and Women’s History in Amsterdam , Dr. Kaouthar Darmoni, was with us. She is the perfect match of a very smart woman with the looks of a star and the humor of a stand-up comedian. Her grandmother believed that a woman that doesn’t gets married goes directly to the grave. Kaouthar wanted to prove her that via education women can also become happy and free.
Something that for us women in western countries is such an evidence: if you want to study it is very often possible to do so. It is not a guarantee that you will make it to the top, and especially not with the same salary, but hat s another topic.
For Kaouthar it was a brave gamble, a risk she was ready to take, lose her family and the women around her forever. Luckily she could make her family proud with a magna cum laude instead of a husband.
But her grandmother told her something : “…women in the west are also wear a veil, it is an invisible one, but instead of staying a woman, they decide to act like men”, I think her grandmother has a point.
Kaouthar also talked about the competitiveness between women and I am afraid I agree with her, we need to open our eyes for the women that act like crabs in a basket. I very often used this visual thing in my own keynotes, as I think it describes how some women behave with others…a pity and a big risk for the emancipation of women.
