Peggy Jackson studied history in Oxford, then worked as a chartered accountant in London and Edinburgh, before ordination in the Church of England in 1987. She has worked in a variety of parish settings in Derbyshire, Hemel Hempstead and Mortlake (south-west London). She was among the first women to be ordained priest in the Church of England in 1994, and has been active since on issues affecting both lay and ordained women – including work with survivors of sexual abuse, the Refuge movement and people affected by domestic violence.  She has been an active member of Women in Theology, WATCH (Women and the Church), GRAS (Group for the Rescinding of the Act of Synod), the Ecumenical Network of Women in Ministry and other women’s networks, working to combat gender discrimination in the Christian churches. For Southwark Diocese, until May 2009, she was Dean of Women’s Ministry, and served on the Bishop’s Equal Opportunities Committee. She now has care of three small parishes in the rural Vale of Glamorgan, as well as being Archdeaon of Llandaff.  She is currently the most senior woman cleric in the Church in Wales.

You are actually the hightest ranking woman in the Church in Wales. How hard was shattering the stained glass ceiling? Can you forecast other women following your path in the foreseable future?

My appointment was certainly a first for a woman in the Church in Wales at this level, and very welcome; but I’m not sure it has shattered the stained glass ceiling – more like just a large crack. The credit for it goes to the Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Llandaff, Rt Revd Dr Barry Morgan; it was he who decided to use his discretionary power of appointment to offer me the job. All I had to do was to say ‘yes’!  I did, however, feel ready to accept a senior post – because I had worked steadily through all my ministry, to develop appropriate experience, and to be involved for the church in wider community issues.  So I believe I am fully-qualified.  But it then needed the combination of both myself being ready, and the Archbishop wanting to take such an initiative, to bring about the appointment.

I would love to see other women clergy accepting senior posts in Wales. However, this is a relatively small Anglican province, and Welsh clergy tend to stay within the province for all their ministry. That means there are relatively few ‘middle-ranking’ posts available, where people can gather sufficient experience to be able to grow into senior roles. We must keep the pressure on, to encourage women clergy from the start, to expect that they will be on equal footing with male colleagues throughout their ministry, and to seek as much responsibility as they can handle at every stage of their ministries.

-Could you describe the reactions to your appointment within and outside anglican circles?

In Anglican circles, I received many messages of support, and delight that a woman had at last been appointed to senior post in Wales. That came especially from friends in the Church of England, where I had worked for over twenty years – but also from men and women in Wales, who welcomed the initiative taken by the Archbishop, to see that women’s ministry was further developed.  For a minority of others, the Bishop’s action was a disappointment, because it reminded them that he was now determined to see that women and men are treated equally in future. A few were disappointed because the post had been given to an English person, instead of a ‘home-grown’ cleric, and some of the men, because it meant that they, themselves, were now less likely to reach a senior position. But for all these feelings, I have found people so far very welcoming and courteous.

Outside Anglican circles, I don’t know that very many people have particularly noticed – though one or two women ministers have seen it as an encouraging sign for women generally.

-Women in episcopate is still an unfinished business in the Church in Wales (and in England as well). What's happeing right now about it? Do you think that having, in the meantime, more women senior clergy could be a way to push things?

This could be a short, or a very long answer! 

In England, the legislation for women bishops is still being fought over, clause by clause, in a Committee of General Synod, and I expect will take years yet, before it is passed. The main issue is whether or not to allow special provisions for opponents of women bishops, so that they can ‘avoid’ having to engage with women as clergy or bishops; and, if there is provision, what form that should take. For me and others, there is a hope that General Synod will reject any such discrimination, and that women themselves will refuse to be consecrated bishops in such unfair circumstances – but that might mean a long delay.

In Wales, the bench of Bishops has firmly decided that they will not allow any such discriminatory arrangements for opponents of women’s ordination. As a result, the vote for women bishops was lost in Governing Body by a small number of votes. We hope that the proposal will come back again at some future date, and could then be passed – but I don’t know when that might be. Passing the legislation is a quicker process in Wales than in England. On the other hand, once it is passed in England, we can expect a number of women to be made bishops fairly quickly.  But in Wales (as in Scotland, where it is already theoretically possible to have women bishops), all bishops are elected, not appointed – and I think it would be a long time thereafter before a woman was sufficiently senior and well-known, to be elected as a bishop.

I think it is essential in the meantime that more women are offered, and accept, senior clergy positions – for both men and women to see that they are ready and able to take  responsibility.

-Speaking about the anglican world in general I feel that women more often than not are not on the radar. Anglican leaders are not outraged that in some provinces women cannot become deacons or, speaking about more dramatic issues, they do not denounce violence against women or war rape like in Sudan or Congo. Racism is attacked but sexism is still allowed. What do you think?

I completely agree with you. I think in many cultures where Anglicanism is strong, there is still not enough regard for women as individual Christians, able to speak from their own authority as baptised persons, and to represent what is normative for human-beings. Christian faith should be a liberating force in their lives, but is not always so.  I think this is still true, even in the more liberal western cultures, where most of our male leaders seem not to care enough that there is such gender discrimination against women.  Our churches are guilty of hypocrisy, in that we preach against the trafficking of women and girls into the sex trade, and we denounce domestic violence (most of which is perpetrated against women), yet we fail to see that it is the prejudice and behaviour of our own organisations, which implicitly supports and perpetuates such injustice.

-Women clergy in some ecomenical and interreligious circles are seen as a problem by conservatives. What can you tell about your own personal experiences? How women from more conservative religions (roman catholic, evangelical, orthodox jewish, muslim) react seeing you?

I am aware that for some people I, as a woman cleric, am a real problem! But I think the reasons are different in each case.  It is sometimes easier for people to focus on women clergy as the problem, when the real problem actually lies elsewhere.

Roman Catholics, for instance, say that ordained women in the Anglican Church are a bar to greater unity. Yet we have precious little evidence that the Roman Catholic hierarchy are ready to move closer to Anglicans, even if women were not ordained. The Pope still does not officially recognise the orders of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and regards the Church of England, not as a ‘Church’, but only an ‘ecclesial community’. The problem is not really about women, but much deeper than that.  On the other hand, there is a growing body of opinion within Roman Catholic circles that is already calling for Roman Catholic women to be ordained. They are good friends to us, in sharing the cause, to win proper recognition for women in all our respective institutions.

Evangelicals sometimes deride us for unbiblical behaviour, as women who are claiming authority to speak and lead in church structures. But our divisions with them are much wider than just our different opinions about women. We differ radically in our understanding of what it means to be true to Scripture and to live according to the Bible. I can cite as many texts, which reveal women in leadership in Biblical times, as can evangelicals who seek to keep women as subordinate. Again – women may be said to be the issue, but it’s much more than that.

With regard to other faiths, I have had relatively little contact so far – and our discussions have always been very amicable, and  full of mutual respect. I think, on all sides, we have seen our different attitudes towards women’s roles, and the different way in which our faiths regard women, as symptoms much more of our prevailing cultures, than of our religious beliefs.  Again – it is good for women to be having these dialogues in interfaith forums, because we begin from a shared sense of knowing and valuing ourselves first as women, and only secondarily as members of a faith community.

-I have noticed, to my own frustration, that feminists are usually not interested in women clergy and yet they keep repeating that all religions are equally discriminating of women. In my opinion they should congratulate and celebrate religions and churches that have make progress. What's your experiences about it?

I think many feminists have struggled for too many years, with religious organisations that refused to see the discrimination that was being perpetrated – and that is why they now tend to disregard ‘all religions’, and assume none are just towards women. They may be right!  and I well understand where these feelings have come from - yet it makes me sad. My own experience, coming to faith as an adult in the 1980s, was that, as I was ‘entering’ Christian circles, and finding a Saviour who could  fulfil my human life, I met (as it were, in the doorway), and was helped enormously by, a number of other women, who believed exactly the same as I did myself, yet were then giving up on Christianity, because they had had enough of its prejudiced attitudes and behaviour.

I hope in time that some will return, although Christianity and its churches need to do a lot more, to win back the respect that was lost during those years. My own feminist friends keep a close watch on what the church is saying and doing, and on how it is treating women clergy, such as myself.  They have not turned their backs on God, I’m glad to say.  I’m happy for them to stay on the fringe of formal church structures, as long as they can keep that integrity in their faith – and as long as they are still willing to talk and maintain friendships with me!

-How is the situation of women clergy in Wales in non-anglican denominations?  

I don’t know a great deal about women clergy in non-Anglican denominations in Wales, although I have met one or two, and found them delightufl colleagues.  My sense is that, although in theory their denominations treat women more fairly, with equal opportunities for senior posts, in practice, they are not in so very different a place. There is still a way to go, for their women to be equally regarded, when it comes to appointments to senior posts.

-What could be done so that the anglican communion is a beacon of hope for women's equality worldwide in the religious sphere?

Good question!  I think we should be rejoicing in our women who do hold senior office, especially our women bishops, including such significant figures as Katherine Jefferts-Schori, the Presiding Bishop of  The Episcopal Church, in the United States. They make women’s leadership delightfully ‘normal’ – and are just jolly good at what they do!  I think the Anglican Communion should be ready to honour and celebrate the diversity of cultures within its worldwide communion, and therefore the diversity of ministries that are raised up to bear witness to the gospel in those cultures. We should not be trying to force other provinces to conform to what we, or anyone else, have decided is right for Anglican structures in our own time and place. The proper respect, with which Anglicans should treat each other across the world, should become our pride and defining feature, and thus bear its own witness to the gospel we proclaim.  That will be the best way, in the end, for women across the world to be honoured, as the fully human-beings that they are, and for them to grow into the fullness of their own humanity in Christ.

I am a researcher interested in gender studies, human rights  and Islam, i did my MA in Malta university my thesis topic was Islamic feminism in Egypt

I established with my friends a new non governmental organisation for women rights in Egypt called  Nazra which mean a look in Arabic

Nazra is intersted in promoting women rights in egypt and the middle east , it consisted of young researchers and activists

I am blogging on www.taboohat.blogspot.com with my friends about the taboos in egyptains society, me and my friends are coming from differnt religious and political backgrounds

also i am blogging in english alone in www.atbrownies.blogspot.com

When it comes to women's rights is it correct to say that Egypt stands somewhere in the middle among arab countries both from more egalitarian and enlightened conutries like Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey and more mysoginist ones like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and others

Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey acheived good steps towards gender equality after wining the battle of modernisation against the fudmentalist powers in the societies, while the fundamentalism is growing in Saudi Arabia,Iran and Somalia. The case is differnet in Egypt where the feminist movemnet is facing growing fundamental forces in the socitey. Egypt is suffering from gender discrimnation but the feminist movement is struggling to promote gender equality.

Tthe Egyptain feminist movement began in the beginings of the twenith century, it is the leading feminist movement in the region. The egyptian feminist movement struggled to acheive gender equality for egyptian women

-According to the news sexual harrassment in the streets sems to be very widespread in Egypt more than in other arab countries. Why

Sexual harrassment is widely spread beacuse of the weak laws that criminalize this awful crime. The law must stipulate harsh punishment for this crime. Recently the court stated 3 years in prison for a high profile harrassemnt case and it is deemed to be a case law.

-More separation between religion and politics, a reform within Islam or a combination of both. What is more likely to happen in Egypt and what solution you advocate the most? Why

Recently there are efforts to reform Islam to reach its goals which are justice and equality. There is effort to reread the holy texts and eliminate the patriarcal explanitions of Islam to promote women rights for example there is  Zeinab Radwan an egyptain theologian who is working to end the masculine hegomony on the religious hermeneutics and she did great work on the khul'a divorce law, also there is collective effort done by an egyptain ngo working as a think tank to reinvestigate the islamic history to highlight the contributions of women in that glourious history. I belive that Islamic feminism is the school of thought that can make a difference in the women status in muslim countries; there is so leading efforts to end the isolation of muslim women and to criticizese the misoginist interpertations of Islam one of it is the international solidarity network women Live Under Muslim Laws WLUML and Sisters in Islam in Malaysia .

-Can you tell some positive developments for women in Egypt that happened recently

As i stated before the court judgement in the sexual harssament case is considered to be a landmark in this regard. Also there is the appointment of the first female registrar for marriage, in addition to that the offical ban for the female genital mutilation in the children law after a great strrugle for the women rights activists and there is efforts to amend the family law

-What are the main priorities for women in Egypt right now

The main priorities of the women in Egypt are the reform of the family law and increasing the political participation of women in the next parlimentary elections.

-Non-muslim religious communities hold, while to a lesser extent, sexist views and cultural norms of women. Are women within these communities begin to challange them

There are calls to requestion the patriachal notions in the christian minority traditions. There are also efforts to fight the FGM in the christian community . To sum up the christian coumnity is witnessing debate on women rights and roles. 

-Who are the public figures who are standing out to be counted for women's rights in Egypt and/or in the diaspora community

Women rights is not in the agenda of many political figures, the feminist movement is working to sensibilize the public figures . In this regard it is worth mentioning that recently a new minstry was established for the family, the new minister Moshira Khatab the formal head of the meternity and childhood council is playing a key role in promoting women's rights in Egypt, also there are the head of the women rights NGO like Nehad abo el Osman and Azza Soliman and in the dispora comunity there is the highly profiled thinker Nawal Saadawey.

Johanna Heden is a recent graduate; she studied Math and Economics at Stockholm University for four years, and did her Master’s in Gender and Social Policy at the London School of Economics. Today she is based in London where she works for the international solidarity network Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML).

Ms. Heden’s interest and knowledge concerns many areas related to gender issues: economics and feminism; queer studies; and religion and culture - how multiculturalism affects gender and feminism in societies such as Sweden.

Please note that in this interview Ms. Heden represents only her own opinions and thoughts.

-Sweden is considered a paradise for women and has an almost perfect record in terms of women's equality and yet rape and violence against women go on unabated. It seems that something is missing in the picture or that people are not connecting the dots. What's your opinion about these two situations that are in total contradiction?

Yes, Sweden has the highest number of rape reports in Europe, and only a 10 percent conviction rate. I believe that this is a sign that gender equality is not yet present in the Sweden society. However, the high number of rape reports does not necessarily mean that Sweden has a lower level of gender equality compared to other countries in the EU. Three possible reasons are the following.

First, in the Swedish Juridical system the term “rape” is defined very broadly. Many acts that would be classified as sexual assault in other European countries are classified as rape in Sweden. For example, if a man over 15 years old has sex with a girl under 15 years old it is considered as rape in Sweden.  If a man has sex with a very drunk woman it is also considered as rape. This naturally implies a higher number of rape reports compared to other countries (in other countries women would report sexual assault rather than rape).

Secondly, due to a relatively high level of gender equality in Sweden and the liberal view of sex and sexuality, Swedish girls have a more risk prone behaviour compared to girls in many other countries. Teenage Swedish girls behave in many ways just like boys, they do get drunk, they do have one night stands; both which might imply a greater risk of getting raped in a country where gender equality has not yet been fully implied, such as Sweden and most counties in the world. It is a shame that girls cannot be as free as boys in today’s societies without being exposed to a risk of getting raped.

Thirdly, and maybe the most obvious, women in Sweden tend to report rape to a greater extent than women in other countries. Being in raped is not so much stigmatized as it might be in other countries. Also, maybe Swedish women have a bigger trust in the legal system when it comes to sexual assaults.

-According to news reports the Swedish judiciary is not prosecuting rapists seriously. Is this happening because they don't want to be accused of racism when the rapist is an immigrant or because they are general laxist on crimes?

In the Swedish juridical system, it is very difficult to convict someone for rape. To judge someone for rape, the court has to claim the suspect guilty beyond doubt. To claim that someone is guilty beyond doubt is really difficult when it comes to rape. Especially when the rape occurred in a domestic settings and word is against word, and most rapes in Sweden occur in domestic settings.

I do not think it has anything to do with people being afraid of being racist, especially since many of the possible rapist that are free today are not immigrants.

-There has been a heated debate among feminists about whenever to consider honour killings as a specific form of violence against women that needs a specific answer or not. What is your opinion?

I think this debate is more abstract; it is a debate mostly regarding concepts. Most feminist do recognize that violence against women look different, and most feminist recognize that women need different help depending on what type of violence they are subjected to, whether it is a husband who is the abuser or if it is the father, cousins and family. The disagreement among feminist in Sweden is whether we should label this different type of violence differently. The question is whether we gain anything from distinguishing honour violence from other types violence against women, or doing this, do we just stigmatizes certain groups of people? Why not use the same terminology for all violence against women?

People in Sweden often wrongly believe that honour killings are a Muslim phenomenon, but honour killings can be found in many religions and societies. In the Swedish society the phenomenon of honour killings can be, and has been, used by ant-immigration forces who which to stigmatize Muslims, who want us to believe that Islam is oppressive, that Islam is barbaric, that Islam is worse than any other religion.  Hence, in what way does it help anti-racist feminists to distinguish honour killings from other types of violence against women? What do we gain from doing that?

I have not yet been convinced that we should use the term “honour violence”, even though I absolutely can understand some benefits from using it. However, whether using the term honour violence or not, I do believe it is dangerous to blame a problem, such as violence against women that exist everywhere in a society, on a certain group of people, such as Muslims. Yes Muslims may kill their women, but so also among Swedes, Italians, Christian etc. Not all men of course, but some men within all groups.

I do want to point out that I believe that women subjected to different types of violence need different help. The Swedish society needs to be better to help girls from other cultures/societies, who are subjected violence, violence where the abuser is the father and other members of the family.

-Do you see cultural relativism at work when it comes to fight violence against women in all its forms?

I do think we should respect different cultures, and I do not want to say that one culture is better than another. I want to live in a multicultural society; I think we all have lots to learn from each other. However, I do not think that culture is something static and non-changeable; rather I believe cultures change all the time. Therefore no-one can justify any oppression (against women or other groups) by saying “this is my culture”.  Also, who gets to speak for, and represent, a culture? I don’t think that those who are oppressed within a culture would agree that this is their culture and hence nothing can be done about the oppression they face.

So, to sum up, I guess my answer is both yes and no. I do believe in multiculturalism, but not in cultural justified violence, or cultural justified oppression.

-There is a lot of talking about integration. But are we supposed to accept and respect sexist cultural norms that consider women as inferior?

No

-Do you have public names, both male and female, who are outspoken in their condammetion against violence on women?

Femal: Gudrun Schyman – Leader of the Feminist Party (she stirred quite an uproar in the white male middle classes when she compared the Swedish patriarchy with the Talibans)

Male: Claes Borgström – Former Swedish Ombudsman in Gender Equality. (He suggested that Sweden should boycott the World Cup in Germany 2006, because of the “stables” with prostitutes that were set up outside the football arenas).    

-Are minority ethnic groups taking seriously the issue of women's equality? Are government official asking them to do so?

Many minority ethnic groups are taking gender equality seriously. Some minority ethnics groups (and many native Swedish men and women) are not taking gender equality seriously.  The government is getting better on putting pressure on Swedes who do not fulfil their gender equal obligation. Now it is being discussed that all children should participate in sexual education, and no-one can refuse their children sex-education by referring to culture or religion.

 -While it's not the primary concern of your work but have you noted homophobia and jew-hatred from the same people who holds deep sexist attitudes?

Many sexist people are very conservative people, and most conservative people are also homophobic. For example, very conservative religious groups within most religions are homophobic and sexist: Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Hindus etc. Conservative interpretation of ANY religion is often sexist and homophobic. You can find anti-Semitism among conservative Christian groups and Muslim groups, and probably many other groups as well.     

-What  would you answer to a male community leader who tells you women are not equal to men in his culture and you can't say him anything otherwise you are a racist?

I would ask him why he has the authority to act as a representative for a whole culture.  I would mention all the women within his culture who fight for women’s rights (there are progressive women everywhere), and ask him why he represents the culture more than these women do. I would further argue that culture is not static and given by God, it is constantly changing.