We are witnessing an unprecedented level of engagement of anti-rights actors in international human rights spaces. To bolster their impact and amplify their voices, anti-rights actors increasingly engage in tactical alliance building across sectors, regional and national borders, and faiths.

This “unholy alliance” of traditionalist actors from Catholic, Evangelical, Mormon, Russian Orthodox and Muslim faith backgrounds have found common cause in a number of shared talking points and advocacy efforts attempting to push back against feminist and sexual rights gains at the international level.

Holy See

• Key activities: As the government of the Roman Catholic Church, the “Holy See” uses its unique status as Permanent Observer state at the UN to lobby for conservative, patriarchal, and heteronormative notions of womanhood, gender identities and “the family”, and to propagate policies that are anti-abortion and -contraception  

• Based in: Vatican City, Rome, Italy.

• Religious affiliations: Catholic

• Connections to other anti-rights actors: US Christian Right groups; interfaith orthodox alliances; Catholic CSOs

Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)

• Key activities: Self-described as the “collective voice of the Muslim world”, the OIC acts as a bloc of states in UN spaces. The OIC attempts to create loopholes in human rights protection through references to religion, culture, or national sovereignty; propagates the concept of the “traditional family”; and contributes to a parallel but restrictive human rights regime (e.g. the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam).

• Based in: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

• Religious affiliations: Muslim

• Connections to other anti-rights actors: Ultra conservative State missions to the UN, such as Russia

World Congress of Families

• Key activities: International and regional conferences; research and knowledge-production and dissemination; lobbying at the United Nations “to defend life, faith and family”

• Based in: Rockford, Illinois, U.S.

• Religious affiliation: Predominantly Catholic and Christian Evangelical

• Connections to other anti-rights actors: Sutherland Institute, a conservative think-tank; the Church of Latter-Day Saints; the Russian Orthodox Church’s Department of Family and Life; the anti-abortion Catholic Priests for Life; the Foundation for African Culture and Heritage; the Polish Federation of Pro-Life Movements; the European Federation of Catholic Family Associations; the UN NGO Committee on the Family; and the Political Network for Values; the Georgian Demographic Society; parliamentarians from Poland and Moldova, etc; FamilyPolicy; the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies; and HatzeOir; C-Fam; among others

Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam)

• Key activities: Lobbying at the United Nations, particularly the Commission of the Status of Women to “defend life and family”; media and information-dissemination (Friday Fax newsletter); movement building; trainings for conservative activists

• Based in: New York and Washington D.C., U.S.

• Religious affiliations: Catholic

• Connections to other anti-rights actors: International Youth Coalition; World Youth Alliance; Human Life International; the Holy See; coordinates the Civil Society for the Family; the Family Research Council (U.S.) and other Christian/Catholic anti-rights CSOs; United States CSW delegation

Family Watch International

• Key activities: Lobbying in international human rights spaces for “the family” and anti-LGBTQ and anti-CSE policies; training of civil society and state delegates (for example, ‘The Resource Guide to UN Consensus Language on Family Issues’); information dissemination; knowledge production and analysis; online campaigns

• Based in: Gilbert, Arizona, U.S.

• Religious affiliations: Mormon

• Connections to other anti-rights actors: leader of the UN Family Rights Caucus; C-Fam; Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH); the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH); World Congress of Families; CitizenGo; Magdalen Institute; Asociación La Familia Importa; Group of Friends of the Family (25 state bloc)

World Youth Alliance

• Key activities: Advocacy in international policy spaces including the United Nations, the European Union, and the Organization of American States for “the family”, against sexual and reproductive rights; training youth members in the use of diplomacy and negotiation, international relations, grassroots activities and message development; internship program to encourage youth participation in its work; regular Emerging Leaders Conference; knowledge production and dissemination

• Based in: New York City (U.S.) with regional chapter offices in Nairobi (Kenya), Quezon City (The Philippines), Brussels (Belgium), Mexico City (Mexico), and Beirut (Lebanon)

• Religious affiliations: primarily Catholic but aims for interfaith membership

• Connections to other anti-rights actors: C-Fam; Human Life International; the Holy See; Campaign Life coalition

Russian Orthodox Church

• Key Activities: The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), capitalizing on its close links to the Russian state, has operated as a “norm entrepreneur” in human rights debates.  Russia and the ROC have co-opted rights language to push for a focus on “morality” and “traditional values”  as supposed key sources of human rights.  Russia led a series of “traditional values” resolutions at the Human Rights Council and has been at the forefront of putting forward hostile amendments to progressive resolutions in areas including maternal mortality, protection of civil society space, and the right to peaceful protest.

• Connections to other anti-rights actors: Organization of Islamic Cooperation; Eastern European and Caucasus Orthodox churches, e.g. Georgian Orthodox Church; U.S. Christian Right including U.S. Evangelicals; World Congress of Families; Group of Friends of the Family (state bloc)

Other Chapters

• Key opposition discourses
• Key opposition strategies and tactics
• Key impacts on the international human rights system

Read the full report

Other Chapters

• Key opposition discourses
• Key opposition strategies and tactics
• Key impacts on the international human rights system

Read the full report

The theme of the 14th AWID International Forum is: “Feminist Realities: our power in action”. 

In our 14th Forum, we will celebrate and amplify Feminist Realities that are around us, in all stages of development. 

We want to make this Forum our Feminist Reality - a place where you can inhabit a different world, where you bring your victories, the solutions you have devised; what makes you feel stronger, hopeful and ready to go on. It will be different from any other convening you have previously attended. 

We urge you to join us in co-creating this world. It will be worth it!

Each Forum has a theme that reflects the needs of our membership and movements, and responds to our analysis of the current context.

The global context

Currently fascisms, fundamentalisms, authoritarianism and unfettered corporate power are gaining momentum globally. We see these threats converging with the State to shape public norms, narratives, and policies,  entrenching a culture of fear, hate and incitement to violence in public discourse. States, previously the target of advocacy and rights claims, in many cases no longer feel accountable and in some cases themselves don’t have the power to uphold rights.

This time of volatility, complexity and uncertainty requires creativity in how we organize across movements, coherence in what we demand and daring in what we propose. 

From Feminist Futures to Feminist Realities

AWID’s 2016 Forum centered on Feminist Futures and the conditions needed to bring such futures about. It was clear then, and remains evident now, the enormous challenge for many social justice movements to think outside of the current system for structural solutions. Imaginations can become narrowed from long experiences of inequality and oppression. But what we also heard then and we see all around us is that feminist movements are indeed living and promoting rights-and justice-oriented realities and solutions in big and small ways. 

Indeed we see an urgency to mobilize from a place of hope, rather than from a lowest common denominator - hope that is grounded in the certainty that across the globe, however imperfectly, are experiences and practices that embody more just ways of being in the world and that by sharing, strengthening and building on these experiences, we can help them grow their influence.

These are not impossible dreams, but lived realities. This sense of possibility is a spark to re-examine and re-appreciate the transformative dimensions in our work. 

A few examples of Feminist Realities across the globe

At AWID, we understand feminist realities as the living, breathing examples of the worlds we know are possible.  We understand these diverse feminist realities as reclamations and embodiments of hope and power. They are embedded in the multiple ways  that show us that there is a different way of living, thinking and doing-- from the daily expressions of how we live and relate to each other, to alternative systems of governance and justice. Feminist Realities resist dominant power systems such as patriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy. 

These are powerful propositions that orient us toward a vision of what is possible, and show how feminist organizing is blazing a path toward justice in movements and communities around the world. 

• In a deeply marginalized Black community in Jackson, Mississippi, an experiment in solidarity and cooperative economics is taking place through Cooperation Jackson. An ambitious plan to build community ownership outside of capitalist modes of production.

• In West Africa, women farmers are resisting land grabbing and refusing industrialized agriculture projects, boldy claiming We Are The Solution, in a campaign to build agro-ecological solutions that center women farmers and their knowledges as the solutions to feed communities and mitigate climate change

• Similarly, in India, 5,000 women have come together to develop community-based food sovereignty systems based on local knowledge, including grain and seed banks

• Women in Mexico have created a moneyless economy project created by and for women and everyone they know. In El Cambalache everything has the same value: people exchange things they no longer need for things they want as well as knowledge, abilities and mutual aid that people would like to share. El Cambalache was built on the anti-systemic, anti-capitalist values of local social movements

• In Rojava, Kurdish people are building democracy without the state and Kurdish women offer Jineology as a framework for challenging patriarchy, capitalism and the state, creating systems and institutions to put this framework into practice

• In the UK, Anarcho Agony Aunts are a sex and dating advice show, covered from a feminist, antifascist, anarchist perspective. Hosts Rowan and Marijam are reclaiming space from the alt-right in giving people (mostly men) a space to ask tricky questions in a judgment-free zone. 

• The African Feminist Judgment Project drafts and disseminates alternative judgments for important African landmark cases on a range of legal issues. At the heart of the project is propositional feminist judicial practice and alternative feminist judgments that contribute to African jurisprudence, legal practice and judicial decision-making 

• The Usha Cooperative in India was founded when mainstream banks refused services to sex workers in Sonagachi. Sex workers self-organized to prioritize their economic concerns and set up their own financial institution. The Usha Cooperative is cooperative bank of over 20,000 sex workers and has provided over USD 4.7M in loans to 7,231 sex workers in a span of one year. With a membership entirely of sex workers, the bank provides real ownership and influence over the cooperative’s governance and management, pioneering ways for individuals and communities on the margins to build economic power on their own terms. 

• In Puerto Rico, a community land trust is helping to transform an informal settlement around a polluted and flood prone river channel into a sustainable community. It provides a new model for improving informal settlements in cities without them then becoming unaffordable for the original residents.

• In several Latin American countries activists are providing peer-to-peer counselling and accompaniment on medical abortion, reclaiming women´s right to decide over their bodies as well as to medical knowledgde. (for safety reasons, no links are provided.

The 14th AWID international Forum

The AWID Forum will be organized around 6 thematic anchors:

• Resources for Communities, Movements and Economic Justice
• Governance, accountability and justice
• Digital Realities 
• Bodies, pleasure and wellbeing
• Planet and living beings
• Feminist organizing 

Learn more about these anchors

Building on those realities, we expect the 2020 Forum to:

• Build the power of Feminist Realities, by naming, celebrating, amplifying and contributing to build momentum around experiences and propositions that shine light on what is possible and feed our collective imaginations
• Replenish wells of hope and energy as much needed fuel for rights and justice activism and resilience
• Strengthen connectivity, reciprocity and solidarity across the diversity of feminist movements and with other rights and justice-oriented movements

The Forum is a collaborative process

The Forum is more than a four-day convening. It is one more stop on a movement strengthening journey around Feminist Realities that has already begun and will continue well beyond the Forum dates.

Join us on this journey!

Learn more about the impact of the forum through these stories

by Alejandra Laprea, Caracas, Venezuela (@alejalaprea)

I live in a country of the impossible, where there are no bombs yet we are living in a war.

A war that exists only for those of us living in this territory.

I live in a country no one understands, which few can really see, where various realities co-exist, and where the truth is murdered time and again.

I live in a country where one has to pay for the audacity of thinking for oneself, for taking on the challenge of seeing life another way.

I live in a country of women who have had to invent and reinvent, time and again, how they live and how to get by.

I live in Venezuela, in a time of an unusual and extraordinary threat.

Since 2012 my country has been subjected to an unconventional war. There are no defined armies or fire power. Their objective is to dislocate and distort the economy, affecting all households, daily life, the capacity of a people to dream and build a different kind of politics, an alternative to the patriarchal, bourgeois, capitalist democracy.

Venezuelan women are the primary victims of this economic war. Women who historically and culturally are responsible for providing care, are the most affected and in demand. However, in these years of economic and financial embargo, Venezuelan women have gone from being victims to the protagonists on the front lines defending our territory.  

Battles are fought from the barrios, kitchens, and small gardens. We defend the right of girls and boys to go to school, and to be given something so simple as some arepas for breakfast.

Arepas are a kind of corn cake that can be fried, roasted or baked and served sweet or savoury as a side or main dish. It is a staple in the diet of all Venezuelans.

In Venezuela, arepas mean culture, family, food sovereignty, childhood nostalgia, the expert hands of grandmothers molding little balls, the warmth that comforts you when recovering from illness.

Arepas connect us as a people with the pre-Colombian cultures of corn, a resistance that has endured for more than five centuries. They are the Caribbean expressed differently on firm ground.

They are an act of resistance.

When my mother was a girl, they would start grinding the dry corn early in the morning to make arepas. The women would get up and put the kernels of corn in wooden mortars and pound it with heavy mallets to separate the shells. Then they would boil, soak, and grind the corn to make dough, and finally they would mold it into round arepas. The process would take hours and demand a lot of physical effort.   

In the mid-20th century a Venezuelan company industrialized the production of corn meal. For an entire generation that seemed like an act of liberation, since there was now a flour that you could simply add water to and have hot arepas in 45 minutes time.

But that also meant that the same generation would lose the traditional knowledge on how to make them from scratch. My grandmother was an expert arepa maker, my mother saw it as a girl, and for me the corn meal came pre-packaged.

In the war with no military, the pre-cooked corn meal came to be wielded as an instrument of war by the same company that invented it, which was not so Venezuelan anymore: today the Polar group of companies is transnational.

We women began to recuperate our knowledge by talking with the eldest among us. We searched in the back of the closets for our grandmothers’ grinders, the ones we hadn’t thrown away out of affection. Some families still prepared the corn in the traditional way for important occasions. In some towns there were still communal grinding stations which had been preserved as part of local history or because small family businesses refused to die. All of these forms of cultural resistance were activated, and we even went so far as to invent new arepas.

Today we know that in order to resist we cannot depend on one food staple. Although corn arepas continue to be everyone’s favourite, we have invented recipes for arepas made of sweet potato, cassava, squash, and celery root.

We have learned that we can use almost any root vegetable to make arepas. Cooperative businesses have developed semi-industrial processes to make pre-cooked corn meal. In other words, we have recuperated our arepas and their preparation as a cultural good that belongs to all.

“Entretejidas” [Interwoven women]

by Surmercé, Santa Marta (@surmerce)

My artivism aims to decolonize our senses in everyday life. I like to create spaces that communicate how we weave together our different struggles, and that render visible dissident (re)existences, other possible worlds, and living bodies here in the SOUTH.

“We carry one another towards the future”

by Marga RH, Chile, UK (@Marga.RH)

Let's take care of one another

As we continue to fight in our struggles, let us remember how essential it is that we support each other, believe each other, and love ourselves and our sisters. When this system fucks us over, we must take time to look after our (physical and mental) health, that of our sisters, and to understand that each one of us carries unique stories, making us fighters in resist

Until dignity becomes a habit

These portraits are inspired by the voices of resistance and protest movements in Latin America, especially by the key role that feminised bodies play in these struggles. It is a tribute to the grassroots feminist movements in resistance.

With up to 2,500 participants on-site and 3,000 virtual/hybrid participants, it will be the largest AWID Forum ever. We envision multiple spaces for meaningful connection, learning, exchange, strategic conversations, healing and celebration. It is the first time we gather in this space since the pandemic, and we can’t wait.

Colectivo Moriviví is an all women artistic collective. Our artistic production consists of muralism, community-led muralism, and protest performance/actions. Our work is about democratizing art and bringing the narratives of Puerto Rican communities to the public sphere to create spaces in which they are validated. We believe that through artivism we can promote consciousness on social issues and strengthen our collective memory.  

As part of their participation in AWID’s Artist Working Group, Colectivo Morivivi gathered a diverse group of members, partners and staff to facilitate a collaborative process of dreaming into, informing, and deciding on the content for a community mural through a multi-stage co-creation process. The project began with a remote conceptualization with feminists from different parts of the planet brought together by AWID, and then it evolved to its re-contextualization and realization in Puerto Rico. We were honored to have the input of local artists Las Nietas de Nonó(@lasnietasdenono), the participation of local women in the Community Painting Session, the logistics support from the Municipality of Caguas, and FRIDA Young Feminist Fund’s additional support to the collective.
 
The mural explores the transcendence of borders by presenting bodies like a map, in an embrace that highlights the intersection of the different feminist manifestations, practices and realities. 
 
We also thank Kelvin Rodríguez, who documented and captured the different stages of this project in Puerto Rico:

About Colectivo Morivivi 

ترجمة مارينا سمير

أكوسوا هانسون، فنانة وناشطة مقيمة في أكرا في غانا. تشمل أعمالها على ميادين الإذاعة والتلفزيون ووسائل الإعلام المطبوعة والمسرح والأفلام ومعارض القصص المصورة والأعمال الفنية ثُلاثية الأبعاد والروايات المصورة. تتمحور نشاطية أكوسوا حول قضايا الوحدة الأفريقية والنسوية، مع اهتمام خاص بتقاطع الفن مع الثقافة الشعبية والنشاطية. حائزة على ماجستير في الفلسفة في الدراسات الأفريقية، مع التركيز على الدراسات الجندرية والفكر الفلسفي الأفريقي. أكوسوا مبتكرة مود جيرلز، وهي سلسلة روايات مصورة، تتابع مغامرات أربعة أبطال خارقين يقاتلون من أجل إفريقيا خالية من الفساد والاستعمار الجديد والأصولية الدينية، وثقافة الاغتصاب ورهاب المثلية الجنسية وغير ذلك. تعمل كمذيعة في Y 107.9 FM، غانا.

هل اختبرتم من قبل لحظات من الصفاء الذهني العميق أثناء أو بعد ممارسة الجنس؟

في هذه الرسومات، تنخرط فتاة القمر وادجيت في ممارسة حميمية مع شيطان ثنائي الجندر. من بين فتيات القمر الأربعة، وادجيت هي المُعالِجة والفيلسوفة ووسيطة العرّافة. هي تقوم بذلك من أجل إطلاق عملية علمية وروحية، تُطلِق عليها تسمية «الاستنارة بضوء البدر». خلال هذه العملية، تشكّل تسلسلاً زمنياً حيّاً بين ذكرياتها وحواسها ومشاعرها ورؤاها وخيالاتها. إنّها أحد أشكال السفر عبر الزمن من خلال الذبذبات، من أجل اكتشاف ما تُسميه «تجلّيات الحقيقة». أثناء التجربة، تتضمّن إحدى رؤى وادجيت الضبابية اقتراب نهاية العالم نتيجة تدمير الناس للبيئة في خدمة الرأسمالية الشرهة؛ وذكرى طفولة حول دخول المستشفى بعد التشخيص بمرض نفسي؛ ورؤية لأصل قصّة فتيات القمر يظهر فيها الرمز التوراتي نوح، كفتاة قمر سوداء من عصر قديم تحذّر من أخطار التلوث البيئي. 

تمتدّ ممارسات الـ»بي دي إس إم» إلى أبعد من كونها كينك مرح يقود لاستكشافات حسّية، فبإمكانها أن تكون طريقة للتعامل مع الألم العاطفي والصدمات. لقد كانت وسيلةً للتعافي الجنسي بالنسبة لي، بتقديمها نمط للتحرّر الجذري. تطهيرٌ ما، يحدث، عند وقوع ألمٍ مادّي على الجسد. يقع هذا الألم في وجود تراضٍ، فيستخرج ألمًا عاطفيًا، كما لو كان «يستدعيه». نزول السوط على جسدي يسمح لي بتحرير مشاعر مكبوتة: توتّر، اكتئاب، شعوري بغياب دفاعاتي في وجه ضغوطاتٍ تُغرقني أحيانًا. عند الانخراط في الـ»بي دي إس إم» كسبيل للتعافي، على العشّاق أن يتعلّموا كيف يكونون شديدي الوعي ببعضهم البعض، ومسؤولين عن بعضهم البعض. فحتى لو كانت الموافقة قد أُعطيت في البداية، علينا أن نكون منتبهين لأيّ تغيّرات قد تطرأ أثناء الممارسة، خاصةً مع احتدام المشاعر. أتعامل مع الـ»بي دي إس إم» بفهمٍ لأنه ينبغي أن يكون الحبّ والتعاطف أساسًا لعملية الاستسلام للألم، وبذلك أخلق مساحة أو أنفتح للحبّ.

إن الاهتمام برعاية ما بعد وقوع الألم يُعَدّ استكمالًا للعملية. يمكن لذلك أن يحدث بطُرُقٍ بسيطة جدًا مثل الاحتضان، التأكّد ممّا إذا كان الآخر يرغب في شرب الماء، مشاهدة فيلمٍ معًا، مشاركة عناق أو حتى مشاركة سيجارة حشيش. يمكن لهذه الرعاية أن تمتثل لأيّ ما كانت عليه لغة حبّك المُختارة. مع إدراك أنّ جروحًا قد فُتِحَت، تُعَدّ هذه المساحة من الاحتواء ضرورية من أجل استكمال عملية التعافي. إنّه أكبر درسٍ في ممارسة التعاطف وتعلّم كيف تحتوي شريكك/ شريكتك حقًا، نظرًا لحساسية تمييع الحدود الفاصلة بين الألم والمتعة. بهذه الطريقة، يصبح الـ»بي دي إس إم» أحد أشكال أعمال الرعاية بالنسبة لي.

بعد ممارسة جنسية فيها ممارسات «بي دي إس إم»، أشعر بصفاء ذهني وهدوء يَضَعاني في مساحة إبداعية عظيمة ويمكّناني روحيًا. مشاهدة الألم يتحوّل آنيّاً لشيء آخر هي أشبه بتجربة سحرية. وبالمثل، تجربة الـ»بي دي إس إم» المحرِّرة على المستوى الشخصي تسمح لوادجيت بالوصول إلى المعرفة المُسبَقة والحكمة والصفاء الذهني مما يساعدها في واجباتها كفتاة قمر في مواجهة الأبوية الأفريقية.

وُلِدَت «فتيات القمر» أثناء عملي كمديرة لـ»دراما كوينز»، وهي منظمة فنّية شبابية ناشطة في غانا. منذ تأسيسنا في 2016، استخدمنا وسائط فنّية مختلفة كجزءٍ من عملنا الناشطي النسوي والبيئي والعموم- أفريقي. استخدمنا الشِعر والقصص القصيرة والمسرح والأفلام والموسيقى لمناقشة قضايا مثل الفساد والأبوية والتدهور البيئي ورهاب المثلية الجنسية. ناقَشَت أعمالنا المسرحية الافتتاحية مثل «خَيّاطة شارع سان فرانسيس» و»حتى يفيق أحدهم» مشكلة ثقافة الاغتصاب في مجتمعاتنا. كما يُزعم أن «مثلنا تمامًا» كانت من أوائل الانتاجات المسرحية في غانا التي تناقش بشكل مباشر قضية رهاب المثلية الجنسية المتغلغلة في البلد. كما ساهمت «جامعات غانا الكويرية»، وهي ورشة لصناعة الأفلام الكويرية لتدريب صنّاع الأفلام الأفارقة، في تدريب صنّاع أفلام من غانا ونيجيريا وجنوب أفريقيا وأوغاندا. وعُرِضَت الأفلام المصنوعة في الورشة في مهرجانات، مثل فيلم «فتاة رضيعة: قصة شخص بيني الجنس». ولذلك، فإنّ الانتقال إلى وسيط الروايات المصوّرة هو تطوّر طبيعي.

منذ حوالي سبع سنوات، بدأتُ بكتابة رواية لم أكملها أبدًا عن حياة أربع نساء. في عام 2018، فتحت «مبادرة المجتمع المفتوح لغرب إفريقيا» (OSIWA) فرصة مِنحة أطلقت إنتاج المشروع وتحوّلت روايتي غير المكتملة إلى فتيات القمر. هناك جزءان من فتيات القمر، يتكوّن كلّ منهما من ستّة فصول. الكُتّاب والمحرّرون المساهمون في الموسم الأول هم سوهايدا دراماني، وتسيدي كان تاماكلوي، وجورج هانسون، ووانلوف كوبولور. كتّاب الموسم الثاني هم يابا أرما ونادية أهيدجو وأنا. قام الفنان الغاني كيسوا وستوديو «أنيماكس إف واي بي»، وهو ستوديو رسوم متحرّكة وتصميمات وتأثيرات بصرية، بالرسوم التوضيحية للشخصيات وصياغتها مفاهيميًا.

لقد كانت كتابة فتيات القمر، بين 2018 و2022، عملَ حبٍّ بالنسبة لي، بل بالأحرى، عمل من أجل التحرّر. أهدف أن أكون مجدِّدة في الشكل والأسلوب: لقد اهتممت بتحويل أنماطٍ أخرى من الكتابة، مثل القصص القصيرة والشِعر، لتلائم بنية القصص المصوّرة. تستهدف فتيات القمر مناقشة القضايا الكبرى وتكريم النشطاء الموجودين في الحياة الحقيقية، من خلال إدماج الرسومات والنصوص، كما يحدث في القصص المصوّرة عادةً. قراري بمركزة النساء الكوير كبطلات خارقات، وهو أمر نادر الحدوث في هذا النوع من الفن، أصبح له معنى أكبر بكثير عندما بدأ يتطوّر أمر خطير في غانا في عام 2021. 

شهد العام الماضي تصاعد في وتيرة العنف ضد مجتمع الميم عين في غانا، والتي بدأت بإغلاق أحد مراكز مجتمع الميم عين. أعقب ذلك اعتقالات تعسفية وسجن أشخاص مشكوك في انتمائهم للطيف الكويري، كذلك أشخاص متّهمين بالدفع بـ»أجندة مثلية». تُوِّج ذلك بتقديم مشروع قانون ضد الميم عين في البرلمان الغاني تحت إسم «حقوق الإنسان الجنسية اللائقة وقِيَم الأسرة الغانية». يُزعم أن هذا المشروع هو أكثر مشاريع القوانين توحشًا ضد الميم عين كان قد صيغ في المنطقة، وقد أتى لاحقًا على محاولات سابقة في بلاد مثل نيجيريا وأوغندا وكينيا. 

أتذكّر بمنتهى الوضوح أول مرّة قرأت فيها مسودة مشروع القانون. لقد كانت ليلة جمعة، والتي عادةً ما أستريح أو أحتفل فيها بعد أسبوع عمل طويل. لحسن الحظ، سُرِّبت المسودّة وتمّت مشاركتها معي على مجموعة واتساب. أثناء القراءة، تسلّل إليّ شعور عميق بالخوف والتوجّس مما أفسد ليلة استراحتي. 

اقترح المشروع معاقبة أيّة مناصرة للميم عين بالسجن من خمس لعشرة سنوات، وبتغريم وحبس أي شخص يُعرّف نفسه باعتباره مثلي أو مثلية أو عابر أو عابرة جنسيًا أو ينتمي لأية فئات جنسية أو/وجندرية غير نمطية، إلا إذا «تراجع» وقَبِل الخضوع لعلاج تصحيحي. في مسودة مشروع القانون، حتى اللاجنسيين جُرِّموا. انقضّ مشروع القانون على جميع الحرّيات الأساسية: حرّية الفكر وحرّية الوجود وحرّية أن يتمسّك الشخص بحقيقته ويعيش بها. انقضّ مشروع القانون أيضًا على منصّات التواصل الاجتماعي والفنّ. لو مُرِّر هذا المشروع، ستصبح فتيات القمر عملاً أدبياً محظوراً. ما تقدّم به مشروع القانون كان شرًا خالصًا وبعيد المدى، لقد صُدِمت لدرجة الاكتئاب من عمق الكراهية التي صُنِع منها هذا المشروع. أثناء تصفّحي موقع «تويتر» تلك الليلة، وجدتُ انعكاسًا للرعب الذي شعرت به بداخلي. لقد كان هناك بثًا مباشرًا للمشاعر، حيثُ كان يتفاعل الناس فوريًا مع ما يقرأونه: من عدم تصديق إلى رعب إلى خيبة أمل شديدة وشعور بالأسف عندما أدركنا المدى الواسع الذي رغب المشروع في الانقضاض عليه. البعض غرّدوا عن استعدادهم لجمع ما لديهم والرحيل عن البلاد. بعدها، وكعادة الغانيين، تحوّل الأسف والخوف لدعابة. ومن الدعابة أتى الحماس لتصعيد المقاومة. 

لذلك، فالعمل مستمرّ. لقد صنعتُ فتيات القمر لتوفير شكلٍ بديلٍ من التعليم، ولتوفير المعرفة حيثُ قمَعَتها أبوية عنيفة، ولخلق مساحة ظهور لمجتمع الميم عين حيثُ تمّ محوه. من الضروري أيضًا أن يحصل الـ»بي دي إس إم» الأفريقي على منصّة لإظهاره حيثُ أنّ الكثير من الـ»بي دي إس إم» المُمثَّل أبيض. إن المتعة الجنسية، سواء من خلال الـ»بي دي إس إم» أو غيره، مثلها مثل أنماط الحبّ اللامغاير جنسيًا، تتخطى العرق والقارّة، فالمتعة الجنسية وتنوّع خبراتها قديمة بقِدَم الزمن.

Our women ancestors form a circle
Sacred, alive, powerful
We are in the middle
Feeling their strength.
The drum beats a sound of earth  
Our skin dresses in colours
We are green, red, orange, blue, violet, black
The drum beats a sound of earth  
A voice vibrates, a scream emanates, a song rings out, lulling to sleep, awakening consciousness.
The drum beats a sound of earth  
A gaze of complicity, friendship profound.
The drum beats a sound of earth  
Ours is but one heart, beating a rhythm of the soul, inviting us to move, inspiring desire, and showing us a path.
One of communal togetherness, power of the people, self-government, a women’s revolution of subversive communal care.
The drum beats a sound of earth  
And I invite you to join, to be voice, skin, gaze, seed, fire, song, communion.
The drum beats a sound of earth  
And I invite you to discover it, to love it, to know it, and to defend it from the heart of the community
 
For 25 years they have lived along the same dusty streets, at the top of a hill named after a lion. They come from different places, many from traditional farming communities. Their skin is the colour of rebellion, the colour of a cardon cactus, because in them lives the spirit of the semi-arid Lara State, which is where their love for life comes from, their appreciation, care and protection of water and land. They are heiresses of the Gayon and Ayaman lineages, Indigenous communities that lived and live in the northern part of Lara State.

From the time they were very young they learned that maternity is a role from which it is not easy to escape. Caring for children, home and husband, washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning—everything had to be impeccable, people insisted.

And that was life—that and violence, insults, abuse, hitting, scheming, complaints were to be expected. It seemed almost natural, and that is how they spent their days. Everyday life on those dirt streets living in little houses of tin sheet metal without any electricity or running water. That was poverty, the precarity of when a man would arrive, yes, a man, a project. And then, an unusual revolution because it came about without war.

Then they were invited to go out, they were invited to take to the streets and occupy public space. In the process, the women tore down doors and windows, broke chains, let their hair down and they felt free, free like runaway slaves, Caribbean rebels, freedom fighters.

And those concepts of independence and sovereignty are something that those who had the chance to study had read about, but feeling it, feeling like the protagonists of a process of social transformation—that is an important victory that we have to mention and we cannot forget.

At the top of that hill one can feel the complicity, the shared fire, the years of struggle. They tell of how one of them would go around with her parasol in the afternoons from house to house having coffee and conversing with the people she would invite, convincing them
We are going to make a community council!
Let’s move forward together as a community!
Let’s make plans for education, sports, health, nutrition, a women and gender equality committee, the economy.
We can form our own People’s Government so our Neighbourhood can Be Beautiful!

And that is how the houses came, the doctor’s office, daycare, electricity, potable water. These are some of the community’s achievements, some of our common dreams come true.
And you might ask how a cuentera, a storyteller, made her way to a hill with the name of a lion
And I will tell you: it’s that I was born rowdy, always fighting, I was born a wanderer my grandmother would say, born ready Comandante Chavez would add, from so much walking, grumbling, fighting, and doubting that military man, that I would end up becoming convinced by the community project, by the idea of self-government, of the people managing their own resources, of all the power going to the communities, and so I was convinced.

But I knew something was missing because the women, the women of the community kept building up the people’s power and putting our hearts in the anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist fight, but there is something that hurts and continues to affect us. There are wounds from a patriarchy still present.
So one day, I found myself crying and the drum of the earth beat and our women ancestors spoke.
I found myself surrounded by a group of women who held me up, who contained me as I spilled over in front of them, as it both hurt and liberated me at the same time. That is how I discovered that love among women heals you, saves you, and that our friendship is profoundly political and that sisterhood is a way of being, of living life. From that moment on I never felt alone again, I never felt like an island again, because I know there is a group of women who carry me, bring me, love me, care for me and me for them. I know that this way of becoming a feminist with the mysticism of women loving life is an experience of feeling connected and loved by women, even if you never see them again. How not to want this that happened to me, to happen also to other women, this new beginning, this birth of a new heart is a gift from the goddesses that must be shared.  

So I decided to join the women and I began walking from community to community to learn about others’ experiences. We began debating health, education, nutrition, we began preaching the anti-patriarchal word and calling for communities free of machismo. We insisted on recovering ancestral knowledge, intuition, we decided to defend life by talking about abortion and we found ourselves laughing, crying, debating, reflecting. I find myself with Macu, with the China, Yenni, Carolina, Maria, Ramona, Irma, and even with our sister Yenifer who left us not long ago.

This is my homage to them, the women of the hill, the lioness women, the ones who without a doubt have sown a seed in me with so much force it now beats with my heart.
Without a doubt they blaze a path, they are the ones who make caring for a family possible, collective care. They are also a force, a force in a territory that fights to overcome the embargo, the patriarchal violence, the political treason, to overcome the bureaucracy and the corruption.

Without a doubt they blaze a path
Without a doubt they are a compass
Without a doubt they are the heart of the community

Thank you.

Dear feminist movements, 

Love is what keeps our feminist fire burning. Along with care for our communities, anger and rage in the face of injustice, and the courage to take action. 

In September 2022, we stepped with great excitement into our leadership roles at AWID, as Co-Executive Directors. We felt the warmth and embrace of the feminist sisterhood as you welcomed us. 

Reflecting on our most precious memories as feminists, we recall powerful moments of togetherness at street protests, sharp analysis, and brave voices shaking the status quo at gatherings. We held those intimate conversations into the night, laughed for hours, and danced at parties together.

We understand the desire to change the world as an essential ingredient of feminist organizing. We can never forget that we are the ones we have been waiting for, in building alternatives and shaping our future. Yet, vibrant feminist energy cannot be taken for granted and must be safeguarded in many ways. In this, we will continue to be vigilant. Greater and equal access to care and wellbeing, to healing and pleasure, are not only instruments to prevent burnout and sustain our movements, though that is an important function; first and foremost, they are the way in which we hope to live our lives.

We are thrilled to roll up our sleeves and work with you. AWID’s new strategic plan “Fierce Feminisms: Together We Rise” reflects our conviction that now is the time for us to be fierce and unapologetic in our agendas while making an effort to connect across movements and truly get to know each other’s realities, so that we may rise together - because, for us, this is the only way.

Our plans include the long-awaited AWID Forum! We look forward to meeting you all in person and online in 2024. We are hearing from you the need to connect and recharge, to rest and heal, to be challenged and inspired, to share good food, and to laugh and dance together. Few things in this world are as powerful and transformative, as feminists from all parts of the world coming together, and we truly hold our breath for this moment, because we know the magic that we can create together. 

Our membership engagement has taken on a life of its own through the AWID Community (our online platform for members), and our focus on building connection and solidarity resonates with many of you. Please join and connect with us and others in feminist movements around the world. We know the importance of connection in a time and space where the rules are not made for us, and we hold close our community, where each of us matters.

Together with our fantastic AWID colleagues, we promise to do our best to support feminist movements, as is the mission and purpose of AWID. Please hold us to account.

For the past 40 years, you - feminist movements - have shaped AWID’s history, and pushed us to be braver, creative, and radical. 40 is a fabulous age, and we look forward to another 40 years with you all. We are looking forward to the partnerships, calls to justice, collaboration, policy influencing, and badass feminist power that you all bring in navigating the ever-increasing backlash on gender, racial and environmental justice. We have so much to learn from you and from each other, as we collectively build the worlds we believe in.

Cindy Clark and Hakima Abbas, thank you for paving the way for us and preparing us to fill your enormous shoes. We always appreciate all those on whose shoulders we stood and continue to stand. We understand ourselves to be part of a broader movement landscape, feminist histories, presents, and daring futures. 

AWID’s Board of Directors, we are grateful to you for the support and feminist love you show us, and for your commitment to Global South leadership and the co-leadership model. We send our love and respect to each and every AWID colleague, we feel honoured to be working with such an exceptional feminist team of dedicated professionals.

This is our first time writing a love letter together, how could we conclude it without expressing love, care, and respect for each other? It’s a pretty intense relationship we’ve stepped into! We both bring our different and diverse perspectives and skills to our work, and as individuals, we also bring our lived experiences and authentic selves. 

Together with you all, we are a story in the making, a part of a beautiful woven - and often beautifully challenging - tapestry that continues into the future. We had fun starting this journey together with each other and with you, and we very much hope to keep the romance alive.

In solidarity, with love and care 
Inna and Faye 
 

Save the date!

21 February 2023, Member Mixer 5 on Feminist Politics with Faye and Inna.

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