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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Pish posh Samer, I have read your paper and I find that it ignores the substantial contributions of the thinkers from the African Gender Insistute . The Feminist Africa Issue from 2010 titled "Rethinking Gender and Violence" is very good, and I think it would be a good one for you to read: <a href="http://agi.ac.za/journal/feminist-africa-issue-14-2010-rethinking-gender-and-violence">http://agi.ac.za/journal/feminist-africa-issue-14-2010-rethinking-gender-and-violence</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>One of the more cogent points is this one from </span><a href="http://agi.ac.za/sites/agi.ac.za/files/3._fa_14_-_feature_article_eva_ayiera.pdf">Sexual Violence in Conflict: a Problematic International Discourse</a> <em> by Eve Ayiera </em><i><o:p></o:p></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><blockquote><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"RotisSemiSerif","serif"'>"This problematic construction of gender and sex is the platform from which the international discussions and responses to sexual violence in conflict<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"RotisSemiSerif","serif"'>launch. The resulting conceptual framework affirms a patriarchal social order which normalises the aggressive, heterosexual, dominant behaviour associated<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"RotisSemiSerif","serif"'>with masculinity and the subjugation of females. .... Violence against women becomes an integral part of exerting power over women and maintaining a system of male hegemony. Sexual violence is feminised – it happens to women because they are female. The current discourse on sexual violence has been astute in analysing the patterns of sexual violence in conflict, but has failed to interrogate the normalisation of patriarchy as the basis for human interaction."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"RotisSemiSerif","serif"'></blockquote><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"RotisSemiSerif","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>To sum up and repeat the point, rape is a form of violence against women that happens because there is already a context that it's somehow to ok to be abusive to women. This is a global problem, and is not limited to any particular country. Specific instances of the crime tend to happen in a very specific cultural context, and to be deeply dedicated to understanding that context is an investment of considerable time and energy. Also it helps to have some understanding of intersectionality - which is the startling obvious idea that people are often subject to discrimination not just because they may be wealthy or poor, of some social standing or another, of some color or another, or of some other point of contention. They may be subject to discrimination for all or none of these reasons, and there is a considerable ripple effect on their lives and world outlook and may even have an impact on how they use something simple and utilitarian, like a cooking stove. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>I suggest that you read Eve Ayiera's whole paper. It is very good, and may help you with your thinking. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>I don't mind you raising the issue of marketing stoves. I actually have been tracking that meme or storyline that you've been talking about very specifically. I think it is a poor one, and I'm often surprised how it's managed to perpetuate its self, but that's not the reason that so many people build and distribute cooking stoves. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Cooking and eating is a vital activity, it's really at the core of everything, and improving the well being of others is a vital, and often generous activity. Many of us work in this field for very simple reasons. Babies who grow up in households with good stoves don't die of pneumonia. Women with good stoves are less likely to die of lung problems. Children aren't marred for life by burns. Families are able to have time for other activities, often improving the economic life of the family. Children have time for school work. Children with good lighting have better opportunities to learn to reading writing and mathematics. Families with access to cell phones can communicate more effectively with far flung loved ones. Many of us have seen the impact of a good cooking stove, and it is profound, and in the best cases it has a long lasting positive change in the life of that family. In the worst cases, it does the opposite of that. I'd like to believe that we're doing our best as a community to contribute to the best case scenarios. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Kind regards,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Erin Rasmussen<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>erin@trmiles.com <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces@lists.bioenergylists.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Samer Abdelnour<br><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, January 18, 2014 11:45 AM<br><b>To:</b> stoves<br><b>Subject:</b> [Stoves] Fuel and Forestry etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Otto, Paul, thanks for your comments, very helpful directions to follow up.<br><br><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Dear Erin,<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>It might be helpful if you could explain your outrage. Some people have been outraged once they realize how the lives and vulnerabilities of poor displaced women and girls are relegated through the stoves-rape rhetoric. Others have reacted to the suggestion that underlying racial/gendered stereotypes have been key to mobilizing well-meaning people to a cause that stoves can do little to address. It seems you are reacting to the very idea that the conversation should even take place, which would be a first.<br><br>If you read the paper you will find that I have certainly done my homework. The paper was certainly motivated by the disjuncture I witnessed in Darfur between the vulnerabilities of displaced people and the claims NGOs (in their marketing materials outside Sudan) promoted. The paper thus demands accountability of the humanitarian industry to the claims they promote, while insisting that the genuine vulnerabilities displaced peoples face cannot be so easily disregarded. These issues are very close to my heart: my parents were refugees displaced by violence, I've spent many months living/volunteering in refugee camps in Beirut, and I've also spent over 2 years doing research in across Sudan.<br><br>Perhaps it might reassure you that a number of gender scholars (including Sudanese) had reviewed drafts of the paper and have also been quite supportive of its direction. It is about to be published in a recognized scholarly journal, and the paper is already being included as required reading in courses in North America, the UK, and Asia. The recent short article has been widely shared, and I've had private encouragement from top officials working in UN agencies and NGOs in Sudan, including Darfur, and in New York, some of whom engaged stoves solely for its purported ability to stop sexual violence.<br><br>With regards to your specific points about user needs (etc.): though design and testing around user needs may be 'old news', it seems that efforts to develop universal standards has resurrected this important issue as Paul and Crispin (and others) note.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Warmly,<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Samer<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></body></html>