A l’initiative de l’écrivaine tunisienne Fawzia Zouari et soutenu par l’Organisation internationale de la francophonie s’est réuni, pour la première fois, à Orléans, du 26 au 28 septembre, le manifeste du Parlement des écrivaines francophones a été publié dans Le Monde le 28 septembre 2018.
« Nous voulons aussi faire en sorte que toute femme ou homme de plume puisse ne pas subir la répression, les intimidations, les fatwas en tout genre. »
Les Signataires : Marie-Rose Abomo-Maurin, Maram Al-Massri, Marie-José Alie-Monthieux, Ysiaka Anam, Dalila Azzi Messabih, Safiatou Ba, Linda Maria Baros, Emna Bel Haj Yahia, Nassira Belloula, Maïssa Bey, Lila Benzaza, Lamia Berrada-Berca, Sophie Bessis, Tanella Boni, Hemley Boum, Dora Carpenter-Latiri, Nadia Chafik, Chahla Chafiq, Sonia Chamkhi, Miniya Chatterji, Aya Cissoko, Catherine Cusset, Geneviève Damas, Zakiya Daoud, Bettina de Cosnac, Nafissatou Dia Diouf, Eva Doumbia, Suzanne Dracius, Alicia Dujovne Ortiz, Sedef Ecer, Charline Effah, Lise Gauvin, Laurence Gavron, Khadi Hane, Flore Hazoumé, Monique Ilboudo, Françoise James Ousénie, Fabienne Kanor, Fatoumata Keïta, Liliana Lazar, Sylvie Le Clech, Catherine Le Pelletier, Tchisseka Lobelt, Kettly Mars, Marie-Sœurette Mathieu, Madeleine Monette, Hala Moughanie, Cécile Oumhani, Emeline Pierre, Gisèle Pineau, Emmelie Prophète, Michèle Rakotoson, Edith Serotte, Leïla Slimani, Aminata Sow Fall, Elizabeth Tchoungui, Audrée Wilhelmy, Hyam Yared, Olfa Youssef, Fawzia Zouari.
Le manifeste a aussi été traduit en anglais :
The
Manifesto of the Parliament of
Francophone Women Writers:
« Freedom,
Equality, Femininity »
Upon
the initiative of the Tunisian writer Fawzia Zouari and supported by the
International Organization of the Francophonie, the Parliament of the French-speaking
women writers met for the first time, in Orléans, 26 – 28 September 2018, of
which we publish the manifesto.
The manifesto of The
Parliament of French Women Writers, was first published on 28 September
2018 at 3:59 pm and updated on 29 September 2018 at 11:15 am.
We,
French women writers, gathered on september 28th, 2018 in Orléans for our first
parliamentary session, decided to speak together, with one voice and in the
same language, because we are often questioned and we can not answer; because
others speak for us; because we want to be heard, speaking about ourselves,
about our own fate, about the world where we live and that is not always kind
to us. We want to end our silence, and as because we have the power of words we
give ourselves this collective voice and a perspective to history that so far
has been largely made without us.
Writing
is our passion, our profession, but it can neither be the place of our
solitude, nor of our confinement. The act of writing is like a home whose
windows open out to the entire planet. We want to come out of Sheherazade’s
night into the light of day.
Our
literature is not, as often insinuated, a literature that delights in
subjectivism and tears, its reluctance to be a policy or an ideology notwithstanding.
Our literature is our voice about the world. Our choice of the world. Combative
and serene. Decided and generous. That toys play with imagination. A literature
of all childhoods and filiations, a literature that seldom follows a specific
norm. What’s human and how it’s gauged.
Yes,
there is a literature reinvented in the feminine gender, that intends to be at
the crossroads of history and engaged in battles, all battles. That which
consists first and foremost in reaffirming the solidarity of women writers
amongst them and is not afraid to speak up about “sorority ».
We
want to oppose wars
We
want to create a network of writers, that encourages and sponsors the youngest
of us, and pushes us to read and write.
We
also want to ensure that any woman or man in the field of writing may not
suffer repression, intimidation, and fatwas of any kind. The impossibility of
passing borders.
We
want to oppose wars. All wars. Starting with the visible or insidious, veiled
or uncovered, directed against women: patriarchy in all its forms, rape,
harassment, genital mutilation, feminicide, domestic violence (seven women die
every day in Mexico, two in Argentina and one every three days in France).
Proof that women’s bodies continue to be, as much in the North as in the South,
a victim of power and a theater of conflict. Proof that controlling female
sexuality remains the ethos of every religion. when it is not subject to
commodification and degradation by the advertising industry.
War
against the war. The one whose civilians are the first targets. Motivated by
power struggles and murderous ideologies. We will fight terrorism, jihadism,
populism, hate speech, religious extremism and rejection of the other. And all
those who follow: these wandering, lost people, clinging to barbed wire, piled
on makeshift boats because their countries have denied them the prospect of a
future, because Europe left them with no other choice than washing up on its
shore like dead fish.
Let
us not forget this sentence of Aristophanes: « When war is the business of
women, it will be called peace! » Why ? Because every conscious and free
woman is a danger for dictatorships. Because every woman crossing borders
rehabilitates the discourse on otherness.
Letting
go of past disputes
This
era of violence and retreat is against the backdrop of a planet that is in a
state of panic and of nature that is vulnerable to globalization,
over-industrialization, consumerism and pollution. We, women, say that the
fight for protecting the environment is our fight. That the Earth is our only
real country. The one we want to pass on to our children.
We
say all of this together in one language: French. We are not ashamed of it. We
have no complex to express ourselves in what is no longer just the language of Molière.
On the contrary: we want to renew or recreate the discourse on French, break it
off from the terminology of war – « loot » and « language of the
colonizer » – and get rid of the litigation from the past. We make this
language our legitimate child.
And
we will teach him to speak of our origins, our journeys, the causes we hold
dear. We will teach him to modulate the singing of verses on our mothers’
lullabies, and this language we shall use in its noblest, fairest, and most
universal form. It will keep flowing, to expand its territory of hospitality,
to rejuvenate the source of our crossbreeding.
But
we will not only be there to point out imbalances and detect tragedies, as we
also want to give back to the world its beautiful voice, anchored in hope and
concerned for future generations. Restoring its social fabric and
rehabilitating its friendliness traditions. To create a modernity that has the
feminine attribute of knowing how to regulate differences and disputes.
We
dream? Well, that is good! Because the day women do not dream, it will be the
biggest nightmare for men. Let us dream! And let us do so such that our dreams
end up as a reason for the world. Through our voice we will build the only
civilization that is worth building: the universal civilization.
The Parliament of Francophone Women Writers
