Author Topic: International Women's Council (IWC)  (Read 4087 times)

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Offline DaveIronside

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International Women's Council (IWC)
« on: August 28, 2019, 10:15:22 PM »

Since becoming the Queen of Royal Seleucid it has become my opinion more than ever that Mundus is a world shaped by women. We live in a time when more nations than ever have Heads of State who are women, such as Queen Klara of Lodja and Empress Beatrice of Rokkenjima. Furthermore we have nations with women Heads of Government such as Prime Minister Henrietta Quinn of East Moreland. Yet it is not these women who shape Mundus, it is those who maybe do not command such authority who shape our world. It is the mother and wife who control a families budget, yes in many nations it is the man who is the primary bread winner but they hand their money over to the woman of the house who goes and spends it as wisely as possible to provide everything the family needs. When a member of the family is ill it is the women of the house who act as carers, despite often being ill themselves. A child spends more time with its mother than any other person in its formulative years and so the mother passes on her morals, her expectations and much more. It is therefore true that Mundus is a world shaped by women.

Yet while we celebrate these everyday heroes who give us the world we live in there are those women who inspire others to do more than they believed possible to ensure a brighter future for themselves, their families and even the whole of Mundus, while juggling the expectations of womenhood. Take Musaevna Kadyrov from Tamora, a women helping steer a multi-billion dollar business empire towards success while still finding time to have raised three children. We have  Samira Hanifnejad, a Tamoran film director winning awards and making inspiring masterpieces in an industry dominated by men. In science we have great heroines, one of Mundus most experienced astronauts is East Moreland's Rachel Dixon who has visited the Moon's surface twice and inspired girls across her homeland to study sciences. Fairuza Kuto followed in Rachel's footsteps, not only overcoming the prejudice women in science can face but also the improbability of coming from one of our worlds poorest nations and becoming the first Zimalian in space. Should I have a daughter I know she could follow in the footsteps these trailblazers have forged.

In the sports world we have Sammy Lawson and Daisy Greechan and their back and forth swings to be the Greatest Athlete in Mundus history, not greatest women, but simply the greatest. Add to that Midshipman Oficer Greechan is a decorated military officer and again we have fine examples for the future. In religion women set even more examples, be it the many Priestesses following in the footsteps of generation after generation of wisdow or the case of Reverned Mother Erin McGregor, a young woman tasked with guiding her faith back to the world's thoughts despite prejudice, misinformation and her young age.

It is when things go wrong in life that women are among the first to suffer, but among the first to raise to the challenge. Take the example of Lodjain Katerina Ignatiev. Despite the obstacles of her birth she did what was within her power to educate herself far beyond her socially prescribed station and is now a successful business woman and author helping pull other women out of the class confines they are born into. It was such a shame an intelligent and determined young woman is forced to give away her morality just to provide a better Life fir herself and her family. It is women such as her we must raise out of danger and with this in mind I hope to introduce the International Women's Council to give women a strong voice in the International Community so that in the same way a mother protects and nourishes her family women can protect and nourish each other and thus make Mundus thrive.

I therefore will be hosting an initial meeting of the Council and a celebration of inspirational women in the Palace at Ipsus. It is my hope women will come, tell their stories, share their ideas and help form this Council.

Regards

Queen Chyrssa of Royal Seleucid.


OOC- No sign ups etc, I've mentioned this idea to a few people so do have some characters I know are coming. They shouldn't neccessarily be government officials etc, so for example Daisy Greechan is attending as a private individual.



The Palace had over the last two days been turned literally upside down, the King had left for his honeymoon with Queen Haniyah whom he had married just a week earlier and as such that left Chryssa the run of the huge red stone building. The lawns and gardens were crossed with several small canals irrigating the lush gardens that sat in contrast the the dusty arid streets that surrounded it. Room had been prepared for some of the guests, mainly those Chryssa approved of, such as those from Tamora and even Olivia Robertsson from Nya Aland. Others however, such as the one time prostitute from Lodja had been found rooms in a nearby 5-star hotel. Chryssa suspected some would even fly in the morning of the conference but wasn't really concerned by that.

The weather was as usual opressively hot and even at 9am, the appointed hour for arrivals, the heat haze was already shimmering away. The Queen had ensured that a large canopy had been set up over the veranda, there was a kind of banked semi circle of seats capable of sitting close to 100 women. It had been designed to look something a little like what an ancient Senante may have looked like somewhere like Neu Urburzis. At the foot of the bank was a kind of stage and a lectern where speakers could address the crowd. A TV crew, specially selected and made up of women stood ready to transmit the conference across Mundus on the internet and Princess Afrodhiti, King Heydar's sister, sat behind a long desk facing the crowd, she would be managing the scribes and civil servants who would be carrying out any paperwork or admin that would be required.

The first to arrive was Daisy Greechan who had stayed overnight in the hotel down the road. She had, as requested, arrived in her Naval uniform, the officer rank slides freshly added to her uniform and a new officers sword on her hip. Her Distinguished Service Cross twinkled from the quick polish she'd given it this morning. She was a tall woman, much taller than Chryssa and the pair meet Daisy snapped a smart salute. "Your Royal Majesty thank you for this invitation." Daisy formally.

"Midshipman Greechan......may I call you Daisy" Chryssa asked but didn't wait for the answer, "Its delightful to welcome you to the Palace, the first Morelander to visit since the unfortunate last visit by Morelanders" Chryssa watched Daisy shift awkwardly as the tall officer recalled the East Moreland operation that had for 24 hours captured the Palace. "Just one medal today? I was hoping to see your full collection but they'll be time for that later. Please come and take a minted tea with me." There was a large silver and glass jug of iced mint tea waiting for the guests and Chryssa poured some for Daisy signalling for her to sit.

"Thank you Ma'am" Daisy said taking her peaked cap off and cursing to herself that the naval uniform was rather warm for a day such as today. "I look forward to seeing where we can help." she sipped the tea and found it nicer than she expected.

"I do to." Chryssa said as the pair sat and exchanged small talk.

Offline RobertAgira

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Re: International Women's Council (IWC)
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2019, 08:21:52 PM »
Anna Davidson wouldn't have thought her duties would have taken her to Royal Seleucid but having spoken to Grand Duke Hugo Lascelles she'd been persuaded to come. As such she'd arrived this morning, gone to the hotel they'd been recommended and changed. She had opted for a smart black trouser suit with a red sash holding her symbolic sword denoting that she was the Lead Sword of Bakkermaya, nothing much beyond the ceremonial link between the Council of Swords and the Grand Duke but she was proud to be the first woman to hold the title. She was a little nervous about being in Ipsus, after all the Seleucid didn't have a great track record when it came to treatment of Cultists but this being such a large international event she suspected they'd have taken extra precautions to present a friendly face.

Anna recognised Daisy Greechan, she was after all a world renowned athlete and she felt sorry for her in the military uniform. Protocol though said it was Queen Chyrssa she should greet first. "Your Majesty" Anna bowed to the Seleucid Queen. "Thank you for the invite, I'm honoured to be here." She figured it was her environmental work that had earned her the invite rather than the Lead Sword role, after all the worlds first environmental treaty did bare her Duchies name and that was something she was exceptionally proud of. Anna then turned to Daisy, "Miss Greechan a pleasure, oh yes its Midshipman now isn't it?" Anna was refering to the recent promotion of the naval officer. "Congratulations."
« Last Edit: August 30, 2019, 09:46:26 PM by DaveIronside »

Offline Libby

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Re: International Women's Council (IWC)
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2019, 09:59:43 PM »
Maria Shvets had been selected by the Priestesses of Sessifet to attend the IWC event. It was an intriguing idea to her and sent a message that she approved of, women were the real driving force in the world. She'd tried to drag the Priesthood of Sessifet into the 21st Century through a combination of using social media, regular events that appealed to the youth and keeping her messages relevent. She suspected that she'd have a few things to overcome while here in regards to how her own views maybe didn't fit with what she knew of some of the cultures involved but that was half of the excitement. She had selected a long elegant purple dress but clearly unlike the Moreland Naval Officer she'd paid attention to the weather report and this was much lighter material so the heat didn't bother her. She had been warned that while the weather may be hot the reception may be a little cold because of the whole Akakois-Stasiuk marriage debacle. She disapproved of that marriage in the first place, a woman degrading herself by being one of a hareem and especially a foreign religion. She therefore intended to act like nothing had happened, after all she had not relationship with any of the people present. "Your Majesty" she gave a small bow to Chryssa, "Your Grace" she nodded to Anna and then turned to Daisy, "Miss Greechan." there was nothing but the name. "Lovely to meet you all." she added.

Offline Markus

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Re: International Women's Council (IWC)
« Reply #3 on: September 01, 2019, 03:52:51 PM »
Djerb, capital of the Tamoran Empire.
Imperial Palace


Alya, the First Wife of Emperor Abbas, was having a talk with Princess Thekla:

-Your people are too liberal about these things,  praising a prostitute for her "achievements" in the same speech that is supposed to be about role models is taking things too far.
-She wasn't praising her for her activity as prostitute.

-I don't think you get it. That woman is should be condemned; there is no excuse to present her as a victim. She is no victim she is profiteur of the worst kind.
 -I don't think the purpose was…Thekla didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence.

-I  get it, they want to get along with everyone. I don't really get what the Soter see in the Lodjans. Anyway, I will go nowhere near that event, I rather not be seen near a prostitute.
   
Thekla did not reply since she knew it was no point in arguing. She was beginning to understand just how strict were Tamorans in general and the Safavids in particular when it came to things that were deemed immoral. Not even associating with individuals engaged in such practices was permitted, and associating could mean something as minimal as attending the same event. Before she moved to Djerb, she always assumed that the Safavids were putting on a show for the world and that behind closed doors they would be more relaxed on such matters. Nothing could be further from the truth, if anything they proved to be worse and generally the kind of people that didn't like anyone outside their faith,  even other Tamorans. So Thekla knew better than get into an argument. She was more concerned if she was allowed to attend. She missed home and wanted to see Ipsus palace and her family. She never knew how much she cared for them until she started living with the Safavids.

-Can I go? She said meekly expecting to get a scolding and being prepared to make up an excuse.
-Yes, of course. We need to send someone there from the Imperial family as not cause offence and they are your family.

Thekla was surprised to see that when it came to family matters or at least to what they perceived as family matters, they were generally very understanding. She noticed that with her mother which was allowed full access to the women's palace without any restrictions.  Even when she would get in a fight with Alya ,she never cut her access to her mother in anyway.


-One thing though. Remember that we have good relations with the Soter.
- Yes. I understand.

At first when she got to Djerb she always assumed that "remember this and remember that " were some traditions or customs. She later found out that it meant much more than that, they were basically orders from the head of the family, in this case Abbas. So "having good relations with Soter" meant that Thekla would have to keep a secret any discussions as the one she had with Alya.



Royal Seleucid Air space
Musaevna's private jet



Princes Thekla and Musaevna were traveling together in Musaevna's plane to the IWC. Thekla didn't really understand what was the deal with Musaevna. She was a commoner after all with no trace of noble blood in her or her husband and held no government office. Yet she was a friend of Alya and had much influence at the Imperial Palace, influence which translated in both good business for her company and lots of money. Thekla would have preferred to travel alone but it wasn't her decision to make. She hadn’t really said a word other than the bare minimum much of the flight.


-Your Highness, it does help pass the time when you talk.
-I apologize, I didn't mean to offend.

- Tamoran nobles don't apologize, especially to non nobles. I think it's best if you don't do that.
- Sometimes I have a feeling that I will never be able to fit in no matter how much I try. I never seem to be able to get things right and half the time I don't get what the fuss is about like for example the latest…  Thekla stopped before finishing, for a moment there she forgot that she was talking to one of Alya's friends.

- The Lodjan prostitute scandal, you mean. Musaevna finished her sentence for her. I take it you have not paid much attention to what your Imam is saying. Prostitution is heavily frowned  upon in our faith, prostitutes aren't seen as victims but criminals.
- Tamora is not unique in that regard a lot of faiths see it like that.

- Perhaps. However, from what I've seen in my travelling abroad religion often doesn't play such a big role in other societies as it does in ours. It's mostly ritual and a private matter, the faithful don't act like they have a responsibility to police the faith and enforce good behavior through their actions.
- …

- You are not convinced?
- I was wondering more why are you going if that's the case.

Musaevna started laughing before replying:

-Not all of us are so… strict. It's not like I am going there for that woman anyway. I am interested in meeting the rest. That might be useful and talking to others helps.

Thekla relaxed a bit, Musaevna for some reason didn't seem so uptight and allowed her to feel more comfortable.





Musaevna and Thekla spent the night at the Seleucid Royal Palace. Both women also mentioned to Queen Chyrssa  how much Alya wanted to come but work at the Foreign Office stopped from doing so. Musaevna also said to Chyrssa just how much Alya enjoyed her time at the Jewel festival while  Thekla for her part brought jewelry as gift from Alya.

In the morning, princess Thekla and Musaevna came at the canopy. Musaevna was glad that this seemed to be a woman only event and there were no men around so she decided to take off her hijab. She kept it close to her in case of an "emergency". Both women wore abaya dresses in dark colors as it was appropriate for Manist women.

Thekla went to her sister Afroditi and gave her a hug as she missed her. Thekla arrived late the night before and didn’t get a chance to see her before now. She knew she would have to make this quick since she was supposed to go greet the mother and the quests rather than her sister.

"How are you sister? I am so glad to see you are here. I missed you a lot. I swear I should ask Heydar to reassign you as envoy to Tamora.  That way I could see you more often. " she said jokingly. " How are the Lodjans treating you?"


Musaevna made its way to the guests. She noticed the Helusians and Lodjans were already there. She decided to approach and greet them but first she greeted the host as the higher ranking of them all and frankly friendliest of them. She then greeted the Helusian Sword and afterwards the Lodjan priestess and lastly the Helusian sailor.

Musaevna noticed that the others expect for Maria Shvets seemed to be already engaged in a conversation so she decided to not interrupt and instead approached Maria:

”Priestess Shvets? It’s a pleasure meeting you. I am Musaevna Kadyrov, I help my husband run a business in Tamora. I admit never had the chance to speak to a priestess of Sessifet before. I also hear that you are “Priestess For Youth”. I think it’s wise that your faith places a focus on the young. If your youth are anything like ours then they need all the guidance they can get. As parents we are of course the first responsible to provide moral guidance but the Church or equivalent organization should be a close second I think.” Said Musaevna trying to strike a conversation about Sessifet  faith but attempting first to start with some common ground.

 “ Is this your first time in MidAranye? “ she also asked. “ I am asking since I see you are” properly” dressed for the weather here. “

Offline Achkaerin

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Re: International Women's Council (IWC)
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2019, 08:12:10 PM »
Normally a gathering such as this for a purpose such as this would have seen the attendance of either Crown Princess Serenity however she had a previous engagement with the Judge Advocate General of the Achkaerinese Armed Forces regarding her return to duty following losing her lower left leg. So it was Sakura Sheppard who found herself attending in Serenity's stead, not that Sakura was particularly bothered by it, after all this was far from the first time that she'd covered like this but that was the advantage she had of having a less rigid schedule. She arrived at the palace, dressed in casual clothes suited to the weather, and looked around, there were plenty of faces she recognized including some other Achkaerinese faces, after the cursory glance she spotted Queen Chyrssa and made her way over, even though the cause they were here for transcended the politics to a large extent observing diplomatic protocol was always a good plan. She waited until after first the Bakkermayan Lead Sword and then the Lodjan Priestess had greeted their host before making her own approach

"Your Majesty may I commend you for hosting such an event as this, I look forward to seeing how this develops." Sakura said

Over near the banked seating area two more Achkaerinese citizens were getting used to the environment these were Catriona Rowan, the CEO of Riviere Corporation and arguably the most influential business leader in Achkaerin and Charlotte Youngson, the trip to the council represented a rarity for both of them in that it was time abroad, for Charlotte it was her first trip abroad ever and to her was perhaps better described as the stuff of dreams - which was undoubtedly down to her having almost died on the operating table mere weeks earlier. They'd arrived before Sakura, introduced themselves to the Queen and then decided to get a drink and take in the scene.

"You need to stay hydrated." Catriona said handing Charlotte a drink of water "I'm not in the mood to be explaining to Luke why you got yourself into trouble on this trip."
"Thanks." Charlotte said "So who've we got?"
"Two local Princesses." Catriona said indicating Thekla and Afroditi "Queen Chyrssa is over there. There's also Bakkermaya's lead sword, a Tamoran businesswoman, a Lodjan Priestess, Sakura Shepard and Daisy Greechan. Want to meet any of them?"
"Sure." Charlotte said
"Ok then let's start with the locals." Catriona said, she helped the youngster to her feet and then made their way over to Thekla and Afroditi preferring to converse with them rather than go in at the deep end with the bigger names present around the Queen.

There were two other Achkaerinese people present first, and perhaps the most comfortable of most of the non A-listers as it were, was Rachel Kilkenny a noted actress and one of the stars of one of Achkaerin's largest film franchises, she'd been held up a little outside the palace due to a couple of fans wanting autographs, she stepped into the palace gardens and looked around she saw some Tamoran's and smiled a little, she knew that the genre of science fiction was pretty big in that country. She introduced herself to the host and then decided to go and see who she could find for a mingle.

And finally there was Sammy Lawson, the renowned cyclist and most decorated Mundus Games athlete. Having been mentioned in the letter announcing the days meeting it was perhaps inevitable that she would attend, she'd turned up in casual clothes with her Team Achkaerin t-shirt, a white and gold article of clothing worn on her top half, on the right sleeve were circles of gold, silver and bronze each indicated a medal she'd won, where she'd won it and what she'd won it for, on the left sleeve were midnight blue circles each displaying the logo of each of the Mundus Games she'd competed in, these were quirks of the Achkaerin team. She waited patiently for others to be greeted by the Queen, smiling a little a year ago the sports pages had made much out of her battle with Daisy to be the greatest athlete of them all and now here they were a year later with another Games under their belts in an entirely different situation. Who would have thought it eh?

Offline KrisNord

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Re: International Women's Council (IWC)
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2019, 09:17:28 PM »
The heat of a Seleucid day was something a Nord couldn't really imagine. Birgid Strand was certain upon stepping out of the air conditioned car she'd burst into flames but knew she couldn't very well take part from the car. She waited for a member of the Palace staff to open the car door and braced for the impact of the heat wave. The former CTO Secretary General swung her legs out and stood retrieving her briefcase before heading through the entrance and finding her way outside, at least the canopy provided some shelter. She made the usual rounds of greeting before finding herself a glass of water and a spot in the shade folding her jacket neatly onto the back of the chair.

Soon after she was joined by a second Nord, Olivia Robertsson had arrived, she was rather more accustomed to the heat having spent the last six weeks in Zimalia manning one of her medical trucks. The trainee doctor had two years ago been granted a rather decent sized prize for her work during the two crisis in Nya Nya Åland, she'd been expected by the government to have put it towards her studies but instead she'd purchased some old military trucks and set up a mobile HIV/AIDS education centre as well as mobile health clinic in Zimalia. She now spent her term time studying herself while the holidays she manned the trucks getting experience of health care or simply just driving them. She looked around bowed to the Queen of Royal Seleucid, greeted the others and then headed over towards her compatriot and took a seat. "Hello Miss.Strand" the youngster said politely as she took the chair.

"It's Birgid" the Nya Åland Foreign Minister said with a smile. "How's the truck driving?" she kept up to date with a lot of Olivia's work after all the youngster had been considered for one of the new 25 Jarldom's that had been created as a kind of awards system within the nation. Birgid herself had been named Jarl of Krokom despite not being an Ålander by birth and she suspected that once qualified as a doctor Olivia would probably find herself granted one of the new titles.

"Things are good, as always too many miles, not enough money and too many children to see to." she smiled. She enjoyed her time there and had many friends in some of the remote villages they'd travelled through and had lost track of the number of times she'd had kids running up to her to touch her blonde hair, at first it had bugged her but now it was a way to become friends particularly with the youngsters they tried to help.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2019, 09:44:34 PM by KrisNord »

Offline DaveIronside

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Re: International Women's Council (IWC)
« Reply #6 on: September 09, 2019, 10:22:27 PM »
OOC- Joint Ironside/Libby post

 Katerina Ignatiev had been amazed to receive an invite to such a function although when you considered she'd gone from owing thousands in student fees and loans to now having been able to buy herself a small castle perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise. Her route to success had not been the one that she would have selected for herself but needs must and as such her family were now out of poverty. Her flight over had been her first ever in first class and she'd booked herself a luxury hotel. As a little pleblian girl she'd dreamed of going to the fancy balls the rich girls did, she even remembered been ten years old and sitting on the corner next to the town hall with friends watching the debutants arrive for the fancy occasions and sneaked peaks in through the windows. Now she was the owner of a place that could host a ball if she wanted.

She arrived nervously and made a point to bow deeply to Queen Chryssa, after all she was the first Queen she'd ever meet and if she was honest she wasn't exactly sure of just how it was done. She also was unsure how she'd been received by the others there. Like the others had she made her way around introducing herself to everyone although she suspected most of the others either already knew each other or at the least recognised each other.

Queen Chyrssa had been making the most of catching up with Thelka and finding out how she was enjoying life in Tamora. Meanwhile she watched as the Lodjain Priestess all but blanked the new arrival despite being from the same country. Instead Maria turned her attention to  Musaevna Kadyrov. "Yes I was made Priestess for Youth along with a friend our Queen believed that our nation was at risk of not remembering where the traditions we follow came from. The faith is strong but stuck a little in the 19th Century in terms of presentation. We're merely attempting to bring us forward a few hundred years. I think in some ways we've skipped a generation in terms of faith." She explained, "That means our parents are perhaps not as clued up on the faith as they should. Our youth wing though is growing steadily thankfully. This is my first visit to Aranye as a whole, I've hardly been outside Albion." the young Priestess shrugged, " We perhaps will find more chances to travel if we can get others in the world to embrace Sessifet, that perhaps is our next step but I think we're some years off that."

Queen Chyrssa noted that everyone she was expecting had arrived (OOC-Feel free to take part assuming you've already been here) she rang a small bell to get everyone's attention. Once that was given she made her way over to the lectern that had been prepared for any speeches and the like. She made herself comfortable and picked up her note book opening it to the bookmarked page.

"Ladies I am thrilled that you all accepted my invitation. It is my hope that together we can set up  a Women's Leadership Organisation. Leadership can come in many senses, be it people such as the Pharoah to our North running a nation in her own right, to people such as Miss Greechan commanding troops in battle, down to religious leaders such as Priestess Maria. Even as a mother and wife a woman must exhibit leadership. It is the woman who will take the lead in ensuring her children grow to be good citizens and are well prepared for their future. We are all privledged to be in a position where we are recognised in our own particular fields and areas of having displayed good leadership and as such we must do what we can to help the next generation. We have seen several initiatives aimed at this in some regards. Take the Global Childbirth Initiative. We as women will know the dangers and pains of the miracle of child-birth, risking our lives to ensure the future of our families. We have however seen that danger begin to be tackled but still it exists. We must do more to protect women in all societies. With that in mind I have asked you all here as you represent what is best and most associated with your nations." Chryssa gave a sideways glance to Katerina and had to stifle a grin. "As such we must help ensure the woman in our nations are capable of accessing this organisation to ensure that they can take over our mantle of leaders one day. The youth are therefore people we must bring onboard. With that in mind I wish to introduce our special guest it is my belief that she is perhaps the most promising young leader on Mundus. Please welcome the Reverened Mother of the Bene Gesserit faith, Her Holiness Erin McGregor." The Palace doors opened and a black robed, bald headed young woman made her way forward, she was flanked on one side by a young woman wearing a military style dress uniform, it was the Truthsayer Stacy Bradshaw who knew a thing or too about social media, to her left was Karin Atreides a Missionara Protectiva while a red jumpsuited Nivedan Sprat, Honored Mates to Duke Niklaus Corrino brought up the rear.

"Thank you Your Majesty" Erin said as she replaced the Queen behind the stand. She smiled as Daisy Greechan, an officer in the East Moreland military stood and left towards the Palace. Erin did her best to hide a smile, she had expected to have some opposition to her attendance and brushed it off. "I have the priviledge in some ways of representing the youngest religion on Mundus as it is in a constant state of change, as we seek to gain new knowledge we constantly test and adapt what we believe. We seek to lead our followers towards greater knowledge and to do our duty to protect the whole of Mundus. It is with this in mind that I believe perhaps the Queen asked me to launch her idea. We must constantly adapt the way we tackle the world we live in. Woman must be empowered to do whatever it is their dreams, their society and their hearts tell them they must do. We must help them achieve whatever it is they wish, be that become an amazing mother like Niveden, be that a great scholar like Karin, a great warrior like Stacey or if I may blow my own trumpet a great member of a faith like myself. What we have in mind is an organisation that provides girls with experiences that help them become what they wish. Be that access to world class health care regardless of where in Mundus they reside. Be that giving them an education to support their families, be that ensuring they have a stable environment to allow their family to flourish. What Queen Chyrssa has outlined to me is the creation of this Women's Leadership Organisation to have five parts to ensure a healthy future.

1. A Healthy Mind - We must create a fund to support young girls gain an education, particularly in the sciences and engineering where often they are not permitted to thrive to the same extent of their male peers. We must as part of this create oppurtunities for young girls to experience the world outside their classroom and outside their homeland.

2. A Healthy Body - We must ensure women have access to health care, we must battle conditions such as breast cancer that threaten women and help groups such as the Global Childbirth Initiative expand so they can ensure no woman dies an unneccessary early death.

3. A Healthy Home - We must ensure all women are able to have a place they call home. It is in the home that women will help bring up the future of Mundus and across the globe there are many women on the street for various reasons. As such we must find ways to put safe roofs over their head.

4. A Healthy Heart - We must ensure women do not find themselves victims of exploitation, Queen Viktoria of Lodja in one of her final acts of Queen ensured that the use of rape as a weapon of war was included in the Uppsala Convention. Throughout conflict women have been forced into loveless sexual relationships, this must be tackled so that no woman finds herself the victim of sexual exploitation.

5. A Healthy World - Women are a driving force for creating a better world. Be it directly guiding a nation as I am honoured to or be it like Queen Chyrssa does by being a strong figure supporting her husband. We all have voices which can help the world find paths to peace, prosperity and stability. We must find ways for those voices to be heard.

With that said I once more thank Queen Chyrssa for her hospitality which has been second to none. On her behalf I now open the floor to suggestions on how we can bring about these five aims or invite others to deliver their thoughts."

With her speech over she motioned for the three others to take a seat somewhere while she purposely went and sat in Diasy Greechan's seat. "Oh, still warm" she said just loud enough for everyone to hear as she made herself comfortable.

Offline KrisNord

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Re: International Women's Council (IWC)
« Reply #7 on: September 15, 2019, 08:01:09 PM »
Olivia stood not sure what her reaction to the Bene Gesserit appearence should be, she concluded she wasn't a politician and so that was Strand's problem not hers. "If I may" Olivia had a folder of various sheets and soon began pulling bits and pieces onto the lectern. "It is very clear much of what was outlined in the five aims is true. I've seen many examples first hand. Those that don't know me allow me a moment to introduce myself. I'm Olivia, a trainee doctor from Nya Åland and I established a mobile medical practice in Zimalia that also seeks to educate people about conditions like HIV/AIDS. It's really important we educate women on these conditions. Studies show[1] that if you educate women on these dangers the infection rates across the whole community fall. When a 12% increase in girls school attendance happened in one area of Zimalia new infection rates dropped by 18% despite more people coming forward for screening. Clearly educating women causes this by a few reasons, first women are less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour, second they are likely to be more aware of how to protect themselves and lastly it can be seen that they are less likely to engage in sex work as they have qualifications to support themselves in getting employment to help their family. As such I think it is vital that we look to support education in many parts of the world. It has a huge impact not on just women's lives but the lives of their entire community. With women being the primary care giver for children we can also have a huge impact on their families future by ensuring they are educated. A woman is going to be the person spending the majority of time with their children, having an ability to teach your own child how to read for example has unmeasurable long term impacts. It therefore gives their whole family a head start in the world helping further drag some of the poorest families towards a better future.

I know that I am fortunate. I grew up in a country where women are given every bit as good an education as men. We are given oppurtunities and even at times more support in certain fields. There are countless women around the world who are denied a chance to have even the most basic of educations. I would therefore like to suggest that for each of these Health's we set some targets and then look at how those of us here, our friends, our politicians and our communities can work towards them. With that in mind I'd like to make it a target that we work to raise female global literacy rates substantially." With that said Olivia sat down.

Birgit stood, she had been musing on how to deal with the Bene Gesserit but figured addressing that situation would sidetrack the whole oppurtunity they had here. "I agree with Olivia. Now I would council against forming some kind of major international organisation. What we need is a committed network of us working towards targets and hopes. A wish list of what we want our world to be like. With that in mind I don't think we need to reinvent the wheel.

Healthy Mind we had the "More and Mundus" project of school exchanges set up by Tim Carpenter. If we can find ways of getting more girls involved in the project they will have an importunity to travel and thus gain cultural capital. We also had Melissa Lusk's idea of the Refugee University, thankfully a project that is less needed now but a partnership that saw Universities across Mundus provide freely accessible materials for educating people. Those resources still exist online somewhere, surely we can utilise them?

For the Healthy Body, I am proud to see projects like Olivia's but why not role them out to countries beyond Zimalia. We could use an organisation such as JET to help spread health care provision. There is also the Global Childbirth Initiative that has trained hundreds of midwives and I believe built five training hospitals globally. That is despite I believe having only a handful of members. I am also aware of work done by nations off their own back such as Tamora's own work in Zimalia, but this could be magnified with more co-operation. I imagine a partnership between Olivia and Tamora would have such an immense impact.

The Healthy Home project....this will shock you....we must take a note from the Borlanders. Utilising cargo containers they have built a whole township with decent quality housing in just four years, and I believe they have had to do so twice in that time. I have visited this settlement and while I believe the Borlanders are morally beyond hope their example of what can be achieved with so little resources is impressive. We could theoretically have stores of these homes made in any of our nations and shipped to where needed creating decent quality homes in areas of high homelessness. I know parts of our homeland are still considering using this method as we rebuild parts of the nation.

As for making sure women are not exploited this is more difficult, for a start defining and then finding exploitation can be difficult. Our nations will see things differently, Royal Seleucid allow men to take more than one wife and as a Nord I can see how some would maybe say this is men exploiting women, however Lodja have the exact reverse situation and again I would feel a similar way. What is clear though is that those involved do not feel exploited and having spoken with many Lodjains in my life I know they believe it is merely love and not exploitation. We must be careful using our native eyes to view what we see as exploitation.

As for the Healthy World I believe the Treaty of Wellow was a fantastic start to this. As for a more vocal outlet for women on the political stage I believe this is not needed. A recent survey showed 43% of Mundus' political leaders are female, 41% of Heads of State are female[2], globally we have a voice big enough to make the differences you wish to. What we need to work out now is what we want to use that voice to achieve beyond mission statements."

Strand was done and joined Olivia back in the seats
 1. Girls’ Education and HIV Risk,Marcella M. Alsan and David M. Cutler, Journal of Health Economics
 2. figures correct as of Feb 2019 - DaveIronside survey on Discord

Offline Markus

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Re: International Women's Council (IWC)
« Reply #8 on: September 18, 2019, 10:22:34 PM »
As Musaevna listened to the proposals and the reasoning behind she was surprised just how liberal they were. It was no secret that Seleucid were more liberal than Tamorans but such measures were in her opinion going too far even for them. It was clear that the measures were discussed and proposed with a liberal audience in mind since the attendees were mostly from liberal countries. Knowing the Seleucid and especially the Soter family, they were probably trying to appeal to them in order for the Soter to build influence. However, measures like the ones proposed would not be accepted in Tamora except for the very liberal parts like Attica, so she knew she had to present the Tamoran perspective on this and especially objections or she would be crucified at home. She was also aware of the fact that she couldn’t count on Thekla to voice the objections and that she had to be as diplomatic as possible as to not offend the hosts. 

As she approached the podium, she took out her hijab and put it on before reaching the podium. She didn’t want to appear in the press without it even if this was a women only event. She smiled at the audience and started speaking:

"First, allow me to take the time to thank our hosts for coming up with the idea and organizing the event. I would also like to thank her Holiness for the implication and the effort she put it.”
As she said that she made as quick bow of the head towards the Seleucid Queen and then the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother.

“I know some have expressed criticism for having a forum by women for women but I disagree with their view. There is nothing wrong with us meeting and talking about the issues that particularly concern us and trying to find solutions.”

“Before I begin addressing the points presented by Her Holiness, I think it’s important to state the premise from which I make these observation. I firmly believe women and men complement each other and serve different roles in the whole that is the family. I am here because I believe alleviating some of the problems women face ultimately serves the greater whole that is the family. I do not believe we are competing against men and with that being said let me briefly comment on the proposed goals. "

"On the Healthy Mind proposal, we all agree that education is important but we must also be careful not to push women into something they are not. I don't think there is anything wrong with the areas that are not science and engineering or that having women choose in large proportions something else than those subjects is something that must be changed or discouraged. As a mother I am willing to argue here for days that studying the book of Mani(ooc: Tamora’s major religious book) is more important than science and engineering and if my daughters would have told me that they would focus less on religion and more those two subjects I would have been very disappointed. We shouldn't force women to have the same interests as men, after all we are different than men. I also think that experiencing what is beyond your homeland is not something worth pursuing in it of itself. Young women should focus first on knowing well their homeland and only then if it is necessary, and I stress this, necessary, should think about traveling outside. What good does it do to spend time and money to travel abroad to study and bring experience home in a field such as law? The Tamoran law system is particular to us, it is close to the Pramorian one but otherwise women would just be better off studying more about our system. I have heard the Treaty of Wellow mentioned, surely less travel between countries for activities that can be done locally, such as education, is something that the proponents of the treaty can support.

On the Healthy Body goal, I agree that striving to improve access to health care is something that we should pursue.
 
On the Healthy Home, I think here the best solution is to encourage marriage at a young age. Married women do not end up on the streets; they are taken care of by their husbands and their families. So we should strongly encourage marriage in order to solve this problem that affects women in other countries.

For the Healthy Heart, if we are to stop the exploitation of women then we should take a stand against prostitution, as long as that remains legal not only are women going to continue to be exploited but governments will send the message that such exploitation is morally permissible and somehow okay. I would also argue that if countries want to reduce rape, sexual assault and generally help create a better environment for women then they should to segregate the sexes as much as possible whether it is in schools, public transport, workplace etc. As I said, women and men are different and we have different requirements and needs, creating spaces for each of the sexes solves a lot of the issues other nations are facing. 

For the Healthy World, I think initiatives such as these are a start. I believe creating an annual women’s forum where women from all over the world, be it Zimalia, Phuebra, Noobia or any other country can come to talk and debate ideas, share their experiences, how they handle issues and even learn from each other is perhaps a way to achieve that.

Now I agree with Ms. Strand’s position that we should avoid creating an international organization. I would also limit our goals to our home nations rather than expand to other nations. What I mean by this is that we Tamorans should work towards achieving our targets in Tamora, and the Seleucid in Royal Seleucid etc. I say this because Zimalia was mentioned here. While I do think Zimalia needs assistance, I think we need the Zimalians to first state what they want to achieve and help them if we can towards that goal. 

Lastly, since there are huge cultural differences between us I think it’s best if we leave each country to interpret the mission statements and set their own goals. After all something like combating the exploitation of women means two very different things in Tamora and Nya Åland so the goals will also be different.

Thank you for your time. “ 

Offline DaveIronside

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Re: International Women's Council (IWC)
« Reply #9 on: September 22, 2019, 08:45:57 PM »
Chryssa took to her feet again. "I think perhaps some people may have misunderstood what I propose. Let me have a second go. What I propose is an umbrella organisation that will be rather informal in its nature. While we may call it a Council it won't be like the failed CTO council or the Ardian Assembly. It will be more a way of nations finding support and partners for their projects. What I envisage is that we shall have some global targets a little like the Wellow one. For example to reduce rates of death in childbirth by a certain %. I'm sure this is a matter that all of us regardless of culture agree is a noble one. We can then have targets which can be interpreted in various ways, for example to have a higher percentage of women engage in education. To the Alanders this may be something they measure as more women attending their STEM subjects at University, for Tamora that may be more women in seminaries studying the Book of Mani. There are many projects however that I think we can support each other with. For example I would like to propose, if both sides are agreeable, a link between Tamora's efforts in Zimalia and Olivia's. I personally would be willing to put $1,000,000 towards Olivia's work with AIDS/HIV if Tamora agree to utilise their networks to set up a schedule for Olivia's trucks to visit areas they have contact with. This is how I see our group working. Think of it as glorified networking towards some common sense goals."

Offline Markus

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Re: International Women's Council (IWC)
« Reply #10 on: September 24, 2019, 09:16:19 PM »
Musaevna rose again and attempted to start by making a joke:

“I believe Your Majesty is right when she says that some misunderstood what has been proposed. That explains why some have been so quick to leave” referring to the Morelander women who chose to leave at the sight of the Reverend Mother of the BG.   

“I think setting targets and working towards them to the best of our abilities is the best approach. And if those goals are better archived by working together and trying to find partners then this informal structure is perhaps the best place to nurture the trust needed to build cooperation. “

“Regarding the proposal made by Your Majesty, Mr. Robertsson’s reputation precedes her. Though I admit I am not one to follow closely the affairs happening outside MidAranyre, I can still say that I have heard of Mr. Robertsson’s outstanding work in Zimalia” as she said that she have a quick glance at Olivia before resuming: “and I believe the Manist Association of Zimalia will be pleased to work with Mr. Robertsson should she agree to it.”