Events
The UNI Women’s and Gender Studies program offers three interdisciplinary academic programs: an undergraduate minor, a graduate master of arts, and a graduate certificate for students enrolled in other degree-granting graduate programs at UNI.
The program also provides a full schedule of special events such as workshops, presentations, social activities and lectures. Please see our main page for a gallery of event listings that is updated as we have announcements or upcoming events.
Each year, we hold annual events like The Clothesline Project, Take Back the Night, and the monthly SWAG Research Forums. We also collaborate frequently with other departments, programs and organizations on campus for events throughout the year!
If you are interested in collaborating with Women's and Gender Studies on an event or initiative, please e-mail wgs@uni.edu.
Our Stories: Women of Afghanistan 2022
Cedar Valley Women's March 2021
Ukamaka Olisakwe 2021
The Clothesline Project 2020
Madonna Thunder Hawk 2020
Our Stories: Women of Afghanistan
Join WGS and our co-sponsors* for an event we are hosting "Our Stories: Women of Afghanistan" being held Thursday, October 27th at 4:00pm in Lang Hall 117 Auditorium.
Information about the panel and panelists:
In this panel discussion, Roquiya Sayeq, Zuhal Salim, Hakima Afzaly, Hasina Jalal, and Zamira Saidi address the status of women during the era of the Taliban rule and the subsequent period when the United States played an instrumental role in the transition toward a democratic Afghanistan. The event will be approximately an hour of videos and photos with each panelist discussing their individual experiences followed by 30 minutes of questions and answers.
Speaker backgrounds:
Hakima Afzaly - A current Fulbright M.A in Women’s and Gender Studies student at UNI, M.A. in Critical Gender Studies from Central European University and B.A. in Asian Studies from Asian University for Women in Bangladesh. She is slated to present her thesis project, "Media Framing of Marriage Practices in Afghanistan." this November at the National Women's Studies Association conference.
Hasina Jalal - A UNI Women’s and Gender Studies M.A. Alumna who is now studying as a PhD Scholar in Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. She most recently met with 16 representatives of key countries at the United Nations prior to the annual UN meeting in September 2022. In the meetings, discussions were had about the problems and challenges faced by the women and girls of Afghanistan. She is currently a recipient of UNI’s Gold and Bold award by the UNI Alumni Association.
Zamira Saidi - A J.D. candidate at University of Cincinnati, LLM. at University of Cincinnati, LLM at Brunel University of London, and B.A. in Law and Political Science from Kabul University.
Zuhal Salim - An employment services advisor in Upwardly Global, M.A. in International Relations from New York University, B.A. in Political Science from Kateb University, and a former diplomat to the permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the UN.
Roquiya Sayeq - A data scientist from EA Langenfeld, M.S. in Analytics from University of Chicago, and B.A. in Econometrics from Kabul University.
*Co-Sponsors for this event are: the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Patricia A. Tomson Center for Violence Prevention, Department of Geography, Department of Art, Department of Political Science, Department of Languages & Literatures, Department of Philosophy & World Religions, and Department of Communication & Media.
The Clothesline Project
Background:
Annually, the Clothesline Project is organized by the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at UNI in conjunction with Relationship Violence Awareness month in October to create awareness about the continual violence against women, children, men, the LGBTQ+ community, and other marginalized communities through the decoration (arts & writing positive words) of t-shirts. The year 2022 marks the 11th year we are honoring survivors and allies against violence to express their emotions and feelings by decorating a t-shirt. In the last 10 years, people on UNI’s campus have created and decorated 360 t-shirts for our collection. In honor of the victims and survivors of violence, the t-shirts are decorated in various colors that are coded and hung on a clothesline on a day of Bearing Witness. In past years, the clothesline hung around campus, throughout Sabin Hall, in front of Gilchrist, next to Rod Library, in front of the Campanile, and outside Maucker Union.
How it started:
The Clothesline Project originated in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, by a group of women after hearing that “while 58,000 soldiers died in the Vietnam War, there were 51,000 women killed around the same time by men who claimed to love them.” The statistic motivated the women to innovate a program that would speak up and reveal the issues of violence that women experience. A number of the women had personally experienced violence and wanted to find a revolutionary step to create awareness on this matter. Rachel Carey-Harper, one of the women who was a visual artist thought of hanging color-coded t-shirts on a clothesline in a public place to create awareness about the issue. Women at the time were the primary ones doing laundry and exchanging information while their clothes were hanging out to dry. This inspired the hanging of the decorated t-shirts on a clothesline to make it mirror a normal woman’s activity. This campaign got national attention and now is an international project organized to create awareness, to motivate people to take action, to allow victims to speak, and to comfort victims. The project affirms that it is in the honor of survivors who can make a difference by sharing their testimonies.
Sounds associated with the Clothesline Project:
The gong, bell, and whistle
Women are battered every 10 to 12 seconds in the U.S. by their partners. The gong indicates someone is being battered.
The bell indicates a woman has been killed in a violent attack. In the US, 3 to 4 women are killed by their partners each day.
The whistle indicates a reported rape. Keep in mind, most rapes are not reported. Every minute of every day more than one woman reports being raped in the US.
Color of shirts:
White represents women who died because of violence
Yellow or beige represents survivors of domestic violence
Red, pink, and orange represent survivors of rape and sexual assault
Blue or green represents survivors of childhood sexual abuse
Purple or lavender represents women attacked because of their sexual orientation
Black is for women assaulted for political reasons