Women on the Frontlines of Conflict and Change

Join us for a very special live recording of ABC Radio National's Big Ideas program with Natasha Mitchell, and hosted by Monash University's Maureen Brunt Women and Democratic Change program.

From Iran to Afghanistan to Myanmar, how are women activists responding to rising threats to their human rights across the Indo-Pacific region and beyond?
As women fight back, how are brutally repressive regimes retaliating, and with what consequences?
What role can women leaders playing in the push for peace and democratic change?

Join Natasha Mitchell and Professor Jacqui True, Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against Women, with:

Dr Rana Dadpour on Iran's draconian actions against the Women, Life, Freedom movement and the 2022-3 protests which caught the world's attention.
Dr Farkhondeh Akbari on the Taliban's return to an extreme gender apartheid in Afghanistan after the exodus of international forces in August 2021.
Ms Isabella Aung on the four years of women's resistance in the armed opposition since Myanmar's military coup in February 2021.

Don't miss this timely and important spotlight on local and international scholars working at vital frontiers for women's rights.

SPEAKERS

Isabella Aung is a Research Fellow at the Myanmar Policy and Community Knowledge (MyPACK) Hub at the University of Toronto. She is also a UBC Myanmar Initiative Fellow. She currently serves as the Head of the Comparative Politics Diploma Program (CPDP) at Spring University Myanmar (SUM), an online institution providing access to higher education for refugee and IDP youths in and from Myanmar whose university education is disrupted by war and political violence.

Dr Farkhondeh Akbari is a Research Fellow at CEVAW, Monash University, where she researches inclusive peace, non-state armed actors’ diplomacy, feminist foreign policy and the Women, Peace and Security agenda. She received her PhD in diplomatic studies from the Australian National University. Her thesis examined the required characteristics for non-state armed actors to engage meaningfully in diplomacy for the purpose of peace settlements and studied the cases of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Farkhondeh leads a grassroots not-for-profit NGO in Afghanistan working on women's empowerment. She has a forthcoming book on ‘Women, Peace and Security in Afghanistan' (2025), and uses her scholarly research to advocate for women's rights and inclusive peace in Afghanistan.

Dr. Rana Dadpour is a Research Fellow at The Cairns Institute, James Cook University. Through mixed methodologies, she explores the intricacies of natural and urban environments and their impacts on and interplay with human experiences and perceptions, focusing on fostering liveable, sustainable, democratic, and inclusive places for all.

Location: Room 204, Learning and Teaching Building - refer to Monash University campus map: Clayton-campus-map.pdf

ABOUT CEVAW

The Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEVAW) is the world's first Centre to address the full range of forms of violence against women in Australia and the Indo-Pacific region.

Headquartered at Monash University, the CEVAW network comprises 13 Chief Investigators from six Australian universities, and 45 Australian and international partner organisations.

With a $35M investment from the ARC (Australian Research Council), CEVAW is poised to make significant global impact by examining the structural drivers that cause and compound violence against women, and pioneering new, evidence-based approaches to radically improve policy and practice across Australia and the Indo-Pacific.

The Centre mobilises survivor-centric and Indigenous approaches, interdisciplinary collaborations, and Indo-Pacific partnerships to deliver scalable approaches to eliminate violence against women across the legal, security, economic, health, and political systems of Australia and the region.

This Centre is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council.