On International Women’s Day, March 8, the first-ever West Asian Women’s Conference called called "Beyond My Veil and Yours," took place in New York City. The conference sought to change entrenched stereotypes of Islamic women, and gave attendees a reality check about the real-life women who live behind Islamic veils and beyond the wall of cultural ignorance. The event was held at the Limelight, a throbbing nightclub five days of the week that doubles as a reception hall and art gallery. A conference panel of Afghan-American women discussed the effects that Western stereotypes of Islamic women have had on their lives and careers. The two Uzbek women scheduled to speak – Mila Eshanova and Gulsara Mukumova — could not attend because of visa problems and flight cancellations.

The conference made clear that veiling, a custom prevalent in many parts of the Islamic world, is an extremely complex phenomenon. To many Westerners, it symbolizes oppression because the faces of women are covered in public. But many West Asian women actually consider the practice to be liberating because it frees them from external constraints, such as being judged by their appearance rather than intellect. In the Western mind, the women and the veil are one. The stereotype about veiling subsumes the woman underneath, and few further attempts are made to develop meaningful cross-cultural dialog.

The conference organizers chose the term "West Asia" to be inclusive. Other geographic designations, including the Far East, Near East, Central Asia, and the Middle East, all omit part of the territory where veiling occurs. As sweeping as the territory where women veil, the topics under discussion were very wide ranging. Panelists discussed such topics as the symbolism of veiling, the Afghan immigrant experience, the treatment of women under Taliban rule, and various forms of cultural expression. One panelist, Lida Ahmady, spoke about the road that led her from prayers and gardening to Chinese medicine.

The conference aimed to create such a dialog by encouraging participants to lift their own "stereotypical veils" and engage in frank talk about these issues. Shekaiba Wakili, a schoolteacher on Long Island, spoke about patterns of the Afghan immigrant experience that she wrote about in her work, "From Obedience to Liberty: The Afghan-American Women’s Experience in America." A conference highlight included Roya Ghiasy’s description of her artistic mural. On top of each fully veiled woman sits an exotic bird in an open birdcage. Instead of flying away, the colorful, long-tailed birds choose to roost where they are, an obvious parallel to the women underneath.

Beatrice Hogan, contributor, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Weekday Magazine and the United Nations Chronicle.