Commentary
In the hour's drive from my accommodation to the forum site my eyes avidly searched the city streets and countryside trying to take in every detail. I noticed the walls of the redbrick buildings were all painted white on the side that faced the street. I wondered at the significance of this and if it had been done for the sake of the 35,000 foreigners that had descended upon this place.

I wondered too about the decision to hold the Forum this far from the city. Perhaps our hosts were trying to make us feel at home, as if women felt at home in a suburban setting, away from the city centre. Had they been studying Western urban sprawl and come to the conclusion that women were happy and content in the suburbs?