The First AUAP Student English Speech Competition with the Theme of Equality for Women in Thailand
The first AUAP (Association of Universities of Asia and the Pacific) Student English Speech Competition was held on July 23-24, 2015 at Suranaree University of Technology in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the AUAP. “Equality for Women” was the theme of this conference that had assembled over thirty contestants from the leading universities of the region of Asia and the Pacific. Shekufeh Owlia from the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Atefeh Toghiani from the Faculty of World Studies of the University of Tehran represented Iran at this event.
The competition consisted of three different sections. The first was the delivery of a prepared speech followed by an impromptu speech and a question and answer session. Shekufeh Owlia made it to the top ten of all contestants and was awarded a certificate of merit. The top three winners were given the opportunity to join the AUAP-DHC Global Leadership Program that will be held in the month of August in South Korea.
Shekufeh Owlia, who addressed the topic of equality for women in Iran, acted as a mouthpiece for whole generations of Iranian women who, in the course of the past decades, have come to participate increasingly in every major sphere of life, including higher education, the film industry and the market place. She stressed that Iran has enhanced the educational level of women over the past three decades by reducing its rate of illiteracy, encouraging women to attend university and founding women’s studies programs. She argued, moreover, that the rise in the number of female students in all levels of higher education has led to a rewriting of gender roles within her society at large. Many Iranian filmmakers have equally sought to further this goal, she claimed, by portraying assertive female characters in their productions. She stressed, furthermore that most of the screenplays and memoirs written in the West about her country are steeped with images of oppressed female characters that render a distorted image of women’s position in contemporary, Iranian society.
Atefeh Toghiani talked about women’s lack of self-confidence in the Middle-East and explained how patriarchal values pass on from one generation to the next.
On the whole, this great event allowed students from different countries to exchange ideas on pressing issues in today’s world.
