VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHRL #0021/01 0071525
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 071525Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6219

UNCLAS BERLIN 000021 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/PGI JIM KUYKENDALL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KWMN XG PHUM GM
SUBJECT: MISSION BERLIN INCORPORATES WOMEN'S ISSUES INTO 
OVERALL AGENDA, TEAMS WITH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
REF: STATE 00124579 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY. Embassy Berlin's programming on women's 
issues has focused on a range of themes, including violence 
against women, discrimination, and raising awareness.  The 
Mission's approach has been to address issues that affect 
women within our broader agenda and to strengthen our ties to 
local women's organizations.  We have taken advantage of 
Germany's rich civil society, reaching out to women's 
organizations covering broad themes including domestic 
violence and female genital mutilation.  We plan to continue 
integration of women's issues and women's roles into our 
greater Mission agenda and develop programs in conjunction 
with women's NGOS.  The Embassy's very active chapter of the 
Federal Women's Program (FWP) has strengthened the Embassy's 
outreach to women's organizations, specifically with Terre 
des Femmes (TDF),raising awareness about problems within 
Germany as well as abroad.  END SUMMARY. 
 
Mission's Broad Focus 
--------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Women's concerns in Germany generally reflect those of 
women in many western countries, including the United States: 
domestic violence, discrimination, salary inequities, glass 
ceilings, and sexual harassment.  Germany's immigrant 
population has brought with it additional issues, such as 
honor killings and forced marriage.  The Mission addressed 
these issues both in our outreach to various societal and 
governmental groups, as well as within our congressionally 
mandated reporting.  ConGen Dusseldorf has focused ) and 
will continue to focus ) on expanding contacts with women's 
development NGOs and events that will benefit networking of 
these organizations with key women in politics, business, 
academia and the media.  This will be cross-cutting with 
contacts in minority organizations. 
 
¶3.  (U) As an example of our activities, in September 2006, 
the wife of then Ambassador William Timken and the Frankfurt 
CG engaged a group of Muslim women and German immigration 
specialists in a roundtable discussion at the Consulate 
General in Frankfurt.  Mrs. Timken discussed the Mission's 
Muslim outreach activities and encouraged the women to 
continue a dialogue with each other.  During a subsequent 
visit, Mrs. Timken visited their organizations and learned 
about their projects.  During the past year, Frankfurt DPO 
Doria Rosen hosted an Iftar reception for the group and the 
Consulate hosted a holiday party in December, expanding the 
number of participants.  ConGen Frankfurt regularly consults 
the group on a range of matters, for example on engaging 
minority youth. 
 
¶4.  (U) The Embassy's Political Section hosted a roundtable 
discussion on domestic violence in March 2009.  Twelve women, 
including three members of the national parliament, a 
Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women, and Youth representative 
and representatives of various women's organizations, 
discussed the problem and expressed interest in hearing from 
American experts about our approaches to addressing it.  As a 
follow up program, we plan to arrange video conference 
discussions with U.S. experts and these women participants on 
domestic violence. 
 
¶5.  (U) German journalist Andrea Roepke was recognized as an 
International Women of Courage Award finalist during an 
Embassy ceremony in March 2009, which highlighted her 
courageous journalistic work in covering right-wing extremism 
in Germany.  Roepke has combined her investigations into 
right-wing extremist associations with a look at how women 
are treated within such organizations and their roles.  This 
year, she is slated to participate in an International 
Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) that Mission Germany 
created to broaden perspectives on methods for addressing 
extremism. 
 
¶6.  (U) Last July, Public Affairs (PA) organized seminars 
with a visiting speaker on human resource management at the 
Universities of Frankfurt, Tuebingen and Freiburg.  She spoke 
on dual career couples, helping the universities progress in 
their thinking about women in academic research and teaching. 
 The University of Freiburg followed up with a letter 
thanking the Embassy and announcing the university's plans to 
establish a dual-career network based on the ideas at the 
seminar.  The event received extremely positive press 
coverage. 
 
¶7. (U) PA section is currently preparing the fall 2010 issue 
of the "American Studies Journal" on women's voices, which 
will feature well-known American writers from diverse ages 
(30-77) and backgrounds (probably German-Jewish, Turkish, 
Kuwaiti, Palestinian, and Iranian). 
 
 
¶8.  (U) In October, CG Duesseldorf programmed Barbara Balaj, 
a World Bank independent consultant, for a discussion on 
"Women in Post-Conflict Societies," hosted by the head of 
Medica Mondiale, a Cologne-based NGO supporting women and 
girls in war and crisis zones, and including representatives 
of the Bonn International Center for Conversion (including a 
research fellow on "Rape and War"), the spokeswoman for 
InWent, a non-profit organization with worldwide operations 
dedicated to human resource development, training and 
dialogue, and the spokeswoman for the German Development 
Service, a leading European development agency.  CG 
Duesseldorf also hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for women from 
politics, business, NGOs, academia, and the media, who found 
it a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences 
and start to build new networks.  The consulate will follow 
up with a series of network-building events to bring women 
together involved in the full range of activities described 
in para 2, to include speaker events and roundtables. 
 
Federal Women's Program 
----------------------- 
 
¶9. (U) FWP Berlin officially formed in September 2009 to work 
with grassroots women's organizations in Berlin.  They have 
since cultivated a relationship with Terre des Femmes (TDF), 
a German organization that tries to inform the public about 
the exploitation, abuse and persecution of women.  FWP 
members have volunteered in TDF's office, raised money to 
purchase a flag for TDF's observation of the International 
Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (November 
25), and displayed the flag in the Embassy where it was 
visible to visitors and passersby through December 10, 
International Human Rights Day. 
 
¶10.  (U) The FWP coordinator has begun attending meetings of 
Staedtegruppe Berlin, a grassroots women's collective working 
with TDF.  Possible future projects include activities to 
recognize International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female 
Genital Mutilation on February 6 and a project with the 
Amazonian Initiative Movement (www.aim-sierra-leone.de) in 
Sierra Leone. 
 
¶11. (U) FWP will screen the film "Desert Flower" 
(www.desertflower-movie.com), which tells the true story of 
Waris Dirie, a survivor of female genital mutilation (FGM), 
at the Embassy on January 27, 2010, with remarks by its 
director and co-producer.  After the screening, the 
filmmakers will be joined by FGM and violence against women 
experts from TDF for a short Q&A. 
 
¶12.  (U) FWP has been in touch with the Office of Civil 
Rights, HRO and the Equal Employment Opportunity counselor at 
post to organize sexual harassment prevention training at the 
Embassy.  FWP is also working with the Embassy Green Team, 
Management and Public Affairs on a proposal to be mindful of 
ways to be more environmentally responsible and socially 
conscious during our routine business.  We are also exploring 
if/how we may be able to support German nonprofits and NGOs, 
including grassroots women's organizations. 
 
¶13. (U) Ideas for future endeavors include an International 
Women's Day event in cooperation with Staedtegruppe Berlin. 
FWP is also brainstorming ideas for an activity in 
conjunction with the documentary "Football Under Cover" 
(www.football-under-cover.de), about an exhibition soccer 
game between a women's team from Berlin and the Iranian 
female national soccer team.  Similarly, FWP is exploring 
ideas for projects emanating from Greg Mortenson's book 
"Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, 
in Afghanistan and Pakistan" (www.stonesintoschools.com), 
which advocates promoting peace through girls' education and 
literacy. 
 
¶14. (U) Finally, on November 24, 2009, in the article 
"Advancing Women A Top Clinton Goal," "The New York Times" 
reported the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 
Discrimination Against Women is on Secretary Clinton's 
"treaty priority list."  FWP Berlin requests guidance on what 
we can do to support any efforts at ratification of this 
treaty. 
¶15. (U) This cable has been coordinated with the consulates. 
DELAWIE