Follow the Women?

When I first spoke to Detta Regan, the initiator and organiser, I got the impression that Follow the Women took a whole load of women to the Middle East in order to gain insight into women’s lives in the region, especially in, or as a result of, conflict. This impression was so strong that I wrote a press release to that effect, a press release which was checked and approved by Detta.

[A note on that same press release: “400 women from 39 countries including Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Iran and Iraq” turned out to be 223 women, from 28 countries not including Afghanistan, Tajikistan or Iraq. A few potentially good stories were complete non-starters.]

It turns out I was wrong, as were many of us, and we feel betrayed. Follow the Women can - and does - take on any cause, and any point of view, including (especially?) that of the sponsors. Apparently the organisation is “above politics”, though from the very first day and reiterated every day, politics dominated the speeches.

The first time we heard Detta speak in public was at the Sabra Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, which I spoke of below: she stood up and agreed with the passionate, and deeply political, Palestinian rhetoric. At the UNESCO opening ceremony it got worse: “All these things make me think that there’s a plot against this region. I’ll let you think about who’s behind it: it’s clear who’s benefiting” she said.

And there is the first clear statement of Follow the Women’s aims: “We are cycling for peace” she says. There is nothing about women, although the Yahoo group homepage says: "Follow the women is an ambitious initiative, to gather women to cycle for solidarity". It does not look promising: if it was about women it should have already been said. I came for the women: I don't know if I should I stick to my principles and just leave?