Guatemala - Rural Women Diversify Incomes and Build Resilience
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Priority Areas
Supporting feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements to thrive, to be a driving force in challenging systems of oppression, and to co-create feminist realities.
Building Feminist Economies is about creating a world with clean air to breath and water to drink, with meaningful labour and care for ourselves and our communities, where we can all enjoy our economic, sexual and political autonomy.
In the world we live in today, the economy continues to rely on women’s unpaid and undervalued care work for the profit of others. The pursuit of “growth” only expands extractivism - a model of development based on massive extraction and exploitation of natural resources that keeps destroying people and planet while concentrating wealth in the hands of global elites. Meanwhile, access to healthcare, education, a decent wage and social security is becoming a privilege to few. This economic model sits upon white supremacy, colonialism and patriarchy.
Adopting solely a “women’s economic empowerment approach” is merely to integrate women deeper into this system. It may be a temporary means of survival. We need to plant the seeds to make another world possible while we tear down the walls of the existing one.
We believe in the ability of feminist movements to work for change with broad alliances across social movements. By amplifying feminist proposals and visions, we aim to build new paradigms of just economies.
Our approach must be interconnected and intersectional, because sexual and bodily autonomy will not be possible until each and every one of us enjoys economic rights and independence. We aim to work with those who resist and counter the global rise of the conservative right and religious fundamentalisms as no just economy is possible until we shake the foundations of the current system.
Our Actions
Our work challenges the system from within and exposes its fundamental injustices:
Advance feminist agendas: We counter corporate power and impunity for human rights abuses by working with allies to ensure that we put forward feminist, women’s rights and gender justice perspectives in policy spaces. For example, learn more about our work on the future international legally binding instrument on “transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights” at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Mobilize solidarity actions: We work to strengthen the links between feminist and tax justice movements, including reclaiming the public resources lost through illicit financial flows (IFFs) to ensure social and gender justice.
Build knowledge: We provide women human rights defenders (WHRDs) with strategic information vital to challenge corporate power and extractivism. We will contribute to build the knowledge about local and global financing and investment mechanisms fuelling extractivism.
Create and amplify alternatives: We engage and mobilize our members and movements in visioning feminist economies and sharing feminist knowledges, practices and agendas for economic justice.
“The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing”.
Arundhati Roy, War Talk
Related Content
لغتي ليست واحدة من لغات الاستطلاع الرسمية ولدي صعوبة بتعبئته. ماذا يمكن أن أفعل؟
تلتزم جمعية حقوق المرأة في التنمية بالعدالة اللغوية ونأسف على عدم توفر الاستطلاع بلغات أخرى في الوقت الحالي. إن كنتم/ن بحاجة لدعم من مترجم/ة أو أردتم/ن تعبئة الاستطلاع بأي لغة أخرى، الرجاء الكتابة لنا عبر البريد الالكتروني: witm@awid.org
Сколько времени занимает заполнение опроса?
Ориентировочное время для завершения опроса составляет 30 минут.
Não me sinto à vontade para partilhar o nome do meu grupo e as nossas informações de contacto com a AWID. Devo preencher o inquérito ainda assim?
Absolutamente, estas perguntas são opcionais, e valorizamos o seu direito de permanecer anónimo. Queira preencher o inquérito independentemente da sua decisão de partilhar o nome do seu grupo, organização e/ou movimento e as respetivas informações de contacto connosco.
متى ستكون نتائج الاستطلاع جاهزة؟
سنقوم بتحليل الردود على الاستطلاع للوصول للاستنتاجات الأساسية والنتائج خلال المنتدى العالمي ل AWID في بانكوك، وعن طريق الانترنت في ديسمبر (كانون الأول) 2024. الرجاء التسجيل هنا لحضور المنتدى.
Solidarity: membership why page
Solidarity
We take a position in solidarity with each other and diverse struggles for justice and freedoms. We strive to mobilize and strengthen collective action and practice meaningful ways of working with each other.
What Our Members Say - En
What Our Members Say
Publications - Homepage - eng
Publications
Kindle for your feminist fire! Browse AWID’s research on funding, WHRDs, movement building, fundamentalisms, economic justice, feminist monitoring & evaluation and more
Snippet - Section Two Funding Resources in One Place - EN
A Universe of Funders & Funding Commitments
Ours report 2021 summary
Today, a complex and evolving network of anti-rights actors is exerting more influence in international and regional spaces as well as domestic politics. Anti-rights actors are entering multilateral spaces (spaces where multiple countries come together for international collaboration) to transform and undermine them from the inside out. They employ a range of persuasive discourses to gain legitimacy, often co-opting the language of rights and justice to hide their true agendas.
This report is the second in a series on human rights trends reports produced by the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs). As well as analysis of key anti-rights actors, discourses, strategies, and impacts, the report features inspiring short stories of feminist action, and knowledge-building exercises to help strengthen our collective resistance.
The effect on our rights has already been grave, but this is not a done deal. We can all play a part in resisting anti-rights agendas and reclaiming our rights.
Filter for funders that support initiatives in your geographical area.
فقدان الكلام | كلمة العدد
كلمة العدد
فقدان الكلام
بدأنا التخطيط لعدد المجلّة هذا مع نانا داركوا قُبيل مهرجان «ابدعي، قاومي، غيٍّري: مهرجان للحراكات النسوية» لجمعية «حقوق المرأة في التنمية» AWID، وانطلقنا وقتها من سؤالٍ هو بالأحرى ملاحظة حول حالة العالم، ورغبة في تغيير الاعتقادات السائدة: لماذا لا تزال جنسانيّاتنا وملذّاتنا تخضع للترويض والتجريم مع أنّه يتمّ تذكيرنا مراراً وتكراراً بأنّها لا تأتي بأيّ قيمة أو تطوّر؟ واستنتجنا أنّ جنسانيّاتنا، لمّا تتجسّد، فيها ما يتعارض مع النظام العالمي الذي ما زال يتجلّى من خلال ضوابط الحدود، والتمييز العنصري في توزيع اللقاح، والاستعمار الاستيطاني، والتطهير العرقي، والرأسمالية المُستشرية. هل يمكننا إذاً القول إنّ لجنسانيّاتنا قدرةٌ تعطيليّة؟ وهل يصحّ هذا القول عندما ننظر إلى واقع حركاتنا التي يتمّ الاستيلاء عليها ومأسستها في سعيها للتزوّد بالموارد؟
Feminist and women’s rights organizations don’t just rely on institutional funding, we resource ourselves. Our organizing is powered by passion, political commitment, solidarity and collective care.
These resources are self- generated and autonomous, and often invisible in our budgets, but they are the backbone of our organizing.
Sexting Like a Feminist: Humor in the Digital Feminist Revolution Snippet Small
Sexting Like a Feminist: Humor in the Digital Feminist Revolution
by Chinelo Onwualu
On September 2nd, 2021, the amazing feminist and social justice activists of AWID’s Crear | Résister | Transform festival came together not only to share resistance strategies, co-create, and transform the world, but also to talk dirty on Twitter.
Snippet - COP30 - Feminist Demands for COP30 Col 1
What We Reject:
Market-based false solutions
Ecosystem service trading
Green neoliberal economies mining
Geo-engineering
Fossil fuels
Military spending over climate funds
Climate finance as loans
Communicating Desire | Content Snippet
Communicating Desire
and Other Embodied Political Praxes
Communicating Desire
Host: We tend to think about communicating desire as something that is limited to the private intimacy of the bedroom and our personal relationships. But can we also think of this kind of communication as a structure, a praxis that informs our work, and how we are, how we do in the world?
Lindiwe
I believe that unfortunately in the past, expressing your sexuality has been limited. You were allowed to express it within the confines of your marriage, which was permitted, there have always been taboo and stigmas attached to expressing it any other way. When it comes to communicating, obviously the fact that certain stigmas are attached to expressing your sexuality or expressing your desire makes it a lot harder to communicate that in the bedroom or intimately with your partner. From my personal experience, I do believe that obviously if I feel more comfortable expressing myself outside of the bedroom on other matters or other topics, it’s easier for me to build that trust, because you understand conflict resolution with that particular person, you understand exactly how to make your communication special towards that particular person. It’s not easy. It’s something that is consistently done throughout whatever your engagement is, whether it’s your relationship or whether it’s casual and just in the moment. But I believe that confidence outside can definitely translate to how you communicate your desire.
Manal
Since childhood, a woman is raised with that, “you’re not allowed to talk about your body, you’re not allowed to talk about your desire,” which puts a heavy responsibility on women, especially girls in their teens when they need to express themselves and talk about these issues. So for me I think this is a big problem. You know, I have been married for more than 25 years, but still, until now, I cannot talk about my desires. I cannot say what I want or what I prefer, because it’s like I’m not allowed to go beyond this line. It’s like haram, despite it being my right. This is the case for all my friends, they just can’t express themselves in the right way.
Louise
Personally, I find that expressing our desires, my desires, however that expression comes in hand, has to do with the other, and the gaze that the other would have on me. So this is also something that we can link to cinema. And the gaze I would have on myself as well: what I think I am as an individual, but also what society expects of me and my sexuality. In the past, I somehow did the analogy between what happens in the bedroom and what happens in the workplace, because there is sometimes this dynamic of power, whether I want it or not. And oftentimes, verbal communication is harder than we think. But when it comes to representation in film, that’s a totally different game. We are very far away from what I guess all of us here would like to see on screen when it comes to just communicating sexual desires inside or outside the bedroom.
Online and Embodied
Host: We can think about the digital world as embodied: while it might be virtual, it is not less real. And this was made clear in the context of AWID’s feminist realities festival, which took place entirely online. What does it mean then to talk about sexuality, collectively, politically, in online spaces? Do we navigate virtual spaces with our bodies and affects, and in this case, what are the different considerations? What does it do to communication and representation?
Lindiwe
Social media makes you feel community-based. When you express what it is that you want or like, there is someone who’s either going to agree or disagree, but those who do agree make you feel that you belong to a community. So it’s easier to throw it out into the universe, or for others to see, and potentially not get as much judgment. And I say this very loosely because sometimes, depending on what it is that you’re expressing, it either will get you vilified or celebrated. But when it comes to the bedroom, there is an intimacy and almost a vulnerability that is exposing you and different parts of you that is not as easy to give your opinion on. When it comes to expressing your desire, speaking it and saying it and maybe putting a Tweet or a social media post, or even liking and reading other communities that are same-minded is a lot easier than telling your partner, “this is how I want to be pleasured” or “this is how what I want you to do next,” because of the fear of rejection. But not only that, just the vulnerability aspect – allowing yourself to be bare enough to let the other person see into what you are thinking, feeling, and wanting – I think this is where the difference would come in for me personally. I feel it is a lot more community-based on social media, and it’s easier to engage in discourse. Whereas in the bedroom, you don’t want to necessarily kill the moment. But I think that also kind of helps you understand going forward, depending on the relationship with the person, how you would engage thereafter. So I always know that if I try to communicate something and I fail to do so in the moment, I can always try to bring it up outside of that moment and see what the reaction would be so I know how to approach it going forward.
Louise
You know the question in films is, I don’t know if the male gaze is done intentionally or not. Like we don’t really know that. What we know is that the reason why sexuality in general has been so heternormative and focused on penetration and not giving any space for women to actually ask for anything in films, is because most of the people who have been working in this industry and making decisions in terms of, you know, storytelling and editing have been white men. So rape revenge is this very weird film genre that was birthed in the 70s, and half of the story would be that a woman is being raped by one or multiple people, and in the other half, she would get her revenge. So usually she would murder and kill the people who have raped her, and sometimes other people next to them. At the beginning of the birth of this genre and for 30 years at least, those films were written, produced, and directed by men. This is why we also want so much representation. A lot of feminists and pioneers in queer filmmaking also used the act of filming in order to do that and to reclaim their own sexuality. I’m thinking about Barbara Hammer, who’s a feminist and queer pioneer in experimental cinema in the U.S. where she decided to shoot women having sex on 16mm, and by doing so reclaimed a space within the narrative that was exposed in film at that time. And there is also then the question of invisibilization: we know now, because of the internet and sharing knowledge, that women and queer filmmakers have been trying and making films since the beginning of cinema. We only realize it now that we have access to databases and the work of activists and curators and filmmakers.
Resisting Colonization
Host: And this opens up the conversation on the importance of keeping our feminist histories alive. The online worlds have also played a crucial role in documenting protests and resistance. From Sudan to Palestine to Colombia, feminists have taken our screens by storm, challenging the realities of occupation, capitalism, and oppression. So could we speak of communicating desire – the desire for something else – as decolonization?
Manal
Maybe because my village is just 600 residents and the whole village is one family – Tamimi – there are no barriers between men and women. We do everything together. So when we began our non-violent resistance or when we joined the non-violent resistance in Palestine, there was no discussion whether women should participate or not. We took a very important role within the movement here in the village. But when other villages and other places began to join our weekly protests, some men thought that if these women participate or join the protests, they will fight with soldiers so it will be like they’re easy women. There were some men who were not from the village who tried to sexually harass the women. But a strong woman who is able to stand in front of a soldier can also stand against sexual harassment. Sometimes, when other women from other places join our protest, they are shy at first; they don’t want to come closer because there are many men. If you want to join the protest, if you want to be part of the non-violent movement, you have to remove all these restrictions and all these thoughts from your mind. You have to focus on just fighting for your rights. Unfortunately, the Israeli occupation realizes this issue. For example, the first time I was arrested, I wear the hijab so they tried to take it off; they tried to take off my clothes, in front of everybody. There were like 300-400 people and they tried to do it. When they took me to the interrogation, the interrogator said: “we did this because we want to punish other women through you. We know your culture.” So I told him: “I don’t care, I did something that I believe in. Even if you take all my clothes off, everybody knows that Manal is resisting.”
Lindiwe
I think even from a cultural perspective, which is very ironic, if you look at culture in Africa, prior to getting colonized, showing skin wasn’t a problem. Wearing animal skin and/or hides to protect you, that wasn’t an issue and people weren’t as sexualized unless it was within context. But we conditioned ourselves to say, “you should be covered up” and the moment you are not covered up you are exposed, and therefore it will be sexualized. Nudity gets sexualized as opposed to you just being naked; they don’t want a little girl to be seen naked. What kind of society have we conditioned ourselves to be if you’re going to be sexualizing someone who is naked outside of the context of a sexual engagement? But environment definitely plays a big role because your parents and your grannies and your aunts say “no, don’t dress inappropriately,” or “no, that’s too short.” So you hear that at home first, and then the moment you get exposed outside, depending on the environment, whether it’s a Eurocentric or more westernized environment to what you are used to, then you are kind of free to do so. And even then, as much as you are free, there’s still a lot that comes with it in terms of catcalling and people still sexualizing your body. You could be wearing a short skirt, and someone feels they have the right to touch you without your permission. There is so much that is associated with regulating and controlling women’s bodies, and that narrative starts at home. And then you go out into your community and society and the narrative gets perpetuated, and you realize that you get sexualized by society at large too, especially as a person of color.
Resistance as Pleasure
Host: And finally, in what ways can our resistance be more than what we are allowed? Is there a place for pleasure and joy, for us and our communities?
Louise
Finding pleasure as resistance and resistance in pleasure, first for me there is this idea of the guerrilla filmmaking or the action of filming when you’re not supposed to or when someone told you not to, which is the case for a lot of women and queer filmmakers in the world right now. For example, in Lebanon, which is a cinema scene that I know very well, most of the lesbian stories that I’ve seen were shot by students in very short formats with “no production value” as the west would say – meaning with no money, because of the censorship that happens on an institutional level, but also within the family and within the private sphere. I would think that filming whatever, but also filming pleasure and pleasure within lesbian storytelling is an act of resistance in itself. A lot of times, just taking a camera and getting someone to edit and someone to act is extremely hard and requires a lot of political stance.
Lindiwe
I have a rape support group. I’m trying to assist women to reintegrate themselves from a sexual perspective: wanting to be intimate again, wanting to not let their past traumas influence so much how they move forward. It’s not an easy thing, but it’s individual. So I always start with understanding your body. I feel the more you understand and love and are proud of it, the more you are able to allow someone else into that space. I call it sensuality training, where I get them to start seeing themselves as not sexual objects, but as objects of pleasure and desire that can be interchangeable. So you’re worthy of receiving as well as giving. But that’s not only from a psychological point of view; it is physical. When you get out of the shower, you get out of the bath, and you’re putting lotion on your body, look at every part of your body, feel every part of your body, know when there are changes, know your body so well that should you get a new pimple on your knee, you are so aware of it because just a few hours ago it wasn’t there. So things like that where I kind of get people to love themselves from within, so they feel they are worthy of being loved in a safe space, is how I gear them towards claiming their sexuality and their desire.
Manal
You know we began to see women coming from Nablus, from Jerusalem, from Ramallah, even from occupied 48, who have to drive for 3-4 hours just to come to join the protests. After that we tried to go to other places, talk with women, tell them that they don’t have to be shy, that they should just believe in themselves and that there is nothing wrong in what we are doing. You can protect yourself, so where is the wrong in participating or in joining? Once I asked some women, “why are you joining?” And they said, “if the Tamimi women can do it, we can do it also.” To be honest I was very happy to hear this because we were like a model for other women. If I have to stand for my rights, it should be all my rights, not just one or two. We can’t divide rights.
Over the past few years, a troubling new trend at the international human rights level is being observed, where discourses on ‘protecting the family’ are being employed to defend violations committed against family members, to bolster and justify impunity, and to restrict equal rights within and to family life.
The campaign to "Protect the Family" is driven by ultra-conservative efforts to impose "traditional" and patriarchal interpretations of the family, and to move rights out of the hands of family members and into the institution of ‘the family’.
“Protection of the Family” efforts stem from:
rising traditionalism,
rising cultural, social and religious conservatism and
sentiment hostile to women’s human rights, sexual rights, child rights and the rights of persons with non-normative gender identities and sexual orientations.
Since 2014, a group of states have been operating as a bloc in human rights spaces under the name “Group of Friends of the Family”, and resolutions on “Protection of the Family” have been successfully passed every year since 2014.
This agenda has spread beyond the Human Rights Council. We have seen regressive language on “the family” being introduced at the Commission on the Status of Women, and attempts made to introduce it in negotiations on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Our Approach
AWID works with partners and allies to jointly resist “Protection of the Family” and other regressive agendas, and to uphold the universality of human rights.
In response to the increased influence of regressive actors in human rights spaces, AWID joined allies to form the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs). OURs is a collaborative project that monitors, analyzes, and shares information on anti-rights initiatives like “Protection of the Family”.
Rights at Risk, the first OURs report, charts a map of the actors making up the global anti-rights lobby, identifies their key discourses and strategies, and the effect they are having on our human rights.
The report outlines “Protection of the Family” as an agenda that has fostered collaboration across a broad range of regressive actors at the UN. It describes it as: “a strategic framework that houses “multiple patriarchal and anti-rights positions, where the framework, in turn, aims to justify and institutionalize these positions.”
“Don’t give up fighting because the struggle is not over; it has just begun”. – Marianna Karakoulaki
Since the summer of 2015, Idomeni, a village at the Greek-Macedonian border, has increasingly turned into a site of the largest unofficial refugee camp in Greece. At the end of May it was shut down by authorities. For a year now, Marianna Karakoulaki, a young woman originally from a small town in the north-western part of the country has been covering the refugee crisis in Idomeni as a freelance journalist.
With colleagues behind Greek riot police during a protest in Thessaloniki, Greece
Marianna has also been covering social protests and riots, mostly from Thessaloniki where she has been living for the past couple of years. Reporting for several media outlets, including Deutsche Welle (DW), IRIN News, and the Middle East Eye, she additionally produces TV reports, recently being part of a Channel 4 News production: Macedonia: tracking down the refugee kidnap gangs which has won several awards including ‘TV News Story of the Year’ from Foreign Press Association in London.
Feminism, a red thread
“I absolutely and without any doubt identify as a feminist, it’s part of my identity along with being an atheist and a leftist.” – Marianna Karakoulaki
Throughout Marianna’s experiences, education and work, feminism has been a red thread throughout her life. She feels she has “always identified with feminism, without actually knowing what it was”, from her teen years and all through her Master’s degree studies in International Security at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Marianna has countered occasional bouts of depression, and alongside studying about movements and the struggle for equality, feminism has inspired and given her a new approach to “pretty much everything”.
“It [feminism] entirely changed my academic focus, political ideology, and general approach to life. That is the reason I always wear a necklace with the feminist fist.” - Marianna Karakoulaki
During a protest at the Greek-Macedonian border next to the newly built Macedonian fence
In her work, Marianna tries to focus on feminist subjects aiming to give voice to those on the margins especially in Greece seeing “gender related issues are either ignored or not covered as they should be.”
But even though she has been reporting about the refugee crisis for the past year, she has been, as she tells us, deliberately avoiding writing a story on refugee women.
“The main reason for that is that I don’t really want to intrude in refugee women’s lives just for the sake of a good story; I have heard some stories that would have been worth publishing, but for a reason it never felt right as these people are in a vulnerable position. Their voice needs to be heard but there is the right moment for that and for me this is when they finally reach a safe space where they are protected.” - Marianna Karakoulaki
A bit more about Marianna
In her current academic work, she is one of the directors and editors of E- International Relations (E-IR), an online academic publication, where she is currently editing a book on migration in the 21st century due to be published in late 2016. Marianna has also taught at several workshops in Greece on gender equality, gender issues, and the diversity of feminisms and has written papers and articles on abortion rights specifically in the United States of America, as well as about feminist and women’s issues in the Middle East.
Marianna joined AWID as a member because:
“I joined AWID as it’s an organization where its priority areas are very close to my ideology and focus, plus it is giving a voice to those in parts of the world that cannot be heard, and I like that.”
And in answer to the question “what change would you like to see in your lifetime?” Marianna responded:
“If I had to choose a change that I’d like to see in my lifetime, that would be equality that will come from a bottoms-up approach; that will demand time, effort, and devotion. It will also demand a re-approach of the movements’ tactics and strategy. I also have a utopian dream of a world without nations and borders based on self-organisation, but that is rather impossible.”
«No dejen de pelear porque la lucha no ha terminado: recién empieza.» – Marianna Karakoulaki
Desde el verano (boreal) de 2015, Idomenei, un pueblo ubicado en la frontera entre Grecia y Macedonia, albergó el campamento no oficial de personas refugiadas más grande de Grecia. A fines de mayo de 2016, las autoridades lo cerraron. Desde hace ya un año, Marianna Karakoulaki, una joven originaria de otra ciudad pequeña pero en el noroeste del país, ha venido cubriendo la crisis de las personas refugiadas en Idomenei como periodista independiente.
Con colegas tras la policía en una protesta en Thessaloniki, Grecia
Marianna también ha cubierto protestas y levantamientos sociales, en particular desde Thessaloniki donde vivió durante los últimos años. Es corresponsal de varios medios como Deutsche Welle (DW), IRIN News, y Middle East Eye. Además, produce informes para la televisión y recientemente intervino en una producción de Channel 4 News: Macedonia: tracking down the refugee kidnap gangs [En la pista de las bandas que secuestran refugiadxs en Macedonia; en inglés] que obtuvo varios premios, entre ellos el de cobertura noticiosa del año en televisión otorgado por la Asociación de Prensa Extranjera en Londres.
Feminismo, un hilo conductor rojo
«Me defino como feminista, absolutamente y sin ninguna duda. Es parte de mi identidad, al igual que ser atea y de izquierda.» – Marianna Karakoulaki
El feminismo ha sido un hilo conductor rojo que recorre todas las experiencias, la formación y el desempeño laboral de Marianna a lo largo de su vida. Considera que: «desde siempre me he identificado con el feminismo, sin saber qué era», ya en su adolescencia y durante sus estudios de Maestría en Seguridad Internacional en la Universidad de Birmingham, Reino Unido. Marianna hizo frente a crisis depresivas esporádicas y además de estudiar los movimientos y las luchas por la igualdad, el feminismo la ha inspirado y le ha aportado un nuevo enfoque «prácticamente sobre todas las cosas».
«El feminismo cambió por completo mis prioridades académicas, mi ideología política y mi enfoque sobre la vida en general. Por eso siempre llevo puesto un colgante con el puño feminista.» - Marianna Karakoulaki
Durante una protesta en la frontera entre Grecia y Macedonia cerca de la recientemente construida barrera fronteriza macedonia
En su trabajo, Marianna intenta abordar temáticas feministas para hacer que se escuchen las voces de los márgenes sobre todo en Grecia «ya que los temas de género son ignorados o no se los cubre como se debería».
Pero aunque lleva más de un año informando sobre la crisis de las personas refugiadas ha tratado, en forma deliberada, de evitar escribir sobre las mujeres refugiadas.
«La razón principal es que no quiero entrometerme en las vidas de las mujeres refugiadas solo para obtener una buena nota; escuché algunas historias dignas de ser publicadas, pero nunca sentí que fuera apropiado hacerlo porque son personas en una posición de vulnerabilidad. Es necesario que se escuchen sus voces pero hay un momento adecuado para hacerlo y para mí ese momento será cuando por fin lleguen a un espacio seguro donde estén protegidas.» - Marianna Karakoulaki
Un poco más acerca de Marianna
En su trabajo académico actual, es una de las directoras y editoras de E- International Relations [Relaciones internacionales electrónicas; E-IR], una publicación académica en línea para la que está editando un libro sobre migraciones en el siglo XXI que se publicará este año. Marianna también ha dictado varios talleres en Grecia sobre igualdad de género, otras temáticas de género y la diversidad de los feminismos. Escribió artículos académicos y periodísticos sobre el derecho al aborto en Estados Unidos así como sobre temáticas feministas y de mujeres en Medio Oriente.
Marianna se afilió a AWID porque:
«...es una organización cuyas áreas prioritarias son muy afines a mi ideología y a lo que yo priorizo. También porque le da voz a quienes viven en zonas del mundo desde las que no pueden ser escuchadas, y eso me gusta.»
En respuesta a la pregunta sobre qué cambios le gustaría ver en su vida, Marianna afirmó:
«Si tuviera que elegir un cambio que quiero ver en mi vida, sería una igualdad producto de un enfoque ‘desde abajo hacia arriba’. Eso llevará tiempo, esfuerzo y dedicación, así como una revisión de las tácticas y la estrategia de los movimientos. También tengo el sueño utópico de un mundo sin naciones ni fronteras, cuya base sea la organización autónoma, pero eso es bastante imposible.»
« Ne cessez jamais de vous battre parce que la lutte n’est pas finie ; elle vient juste de commencer. » – Marianna Karakoulaki
Depuis l’été 2005, Idomeni, un village situé à la frontière gréco-macédonienne, est progressivement devenu le plus vaste camp officieux de réfugié-e-s de Grèce. À la fin du mois de mai, ce camp a été fermé par les autorités. Et depuis maintenant un an, Marianna Karakoulaki, une jeune journaliste indépendante originaire d’une petite ville du nord-ouest du pays, couvre les événements qui se produisent dans ce village.
Accompagnée par des collègues derrière la police anti-émeute grecque durant une manifestation à Thessalonique
Marianna a aussi couvert les manifestations et les émeutes qui se sont déroulées principalement à Thessalonique, la ville où elle vit depuis quelques années. Outre le travail qu’elle effectue pour différents médias, dont Deutsche Welle (DW), IRIN News et the Middle East Eye, elle réalise également des reportages pour la télévision. Elle a récemment co-réalisé un reportage d’actualité, Macedonia: Tracking down the refugee kidnap gangs (Macédoine : sur la trace des gangs qui kidnappent les réfugiés, en anglais), qui a remporté plusieurs prix dont celui du meilleur reportage d’actualité pour la télévision décerné par l’Association de la presse étrangère à Londres.
Le féminisme, un fil rouge
« Je me sens absolument féministe, sans aucune réserve. Mon féminisme fait partie de mon identité, tout comme mon athéisme et mes convictions politiques de gauche. » – Marianna Karakoulaki
Le féminisme a été le fil rouge de la vie, de l’éducation et du travail de Marianna. Elle a l’impression « de s’être toujours sentie féministe, même quand elle ne savait pas encore vraiment ce que ce mot signifiait », et ce depuis son adolescence et tout au long de ses études de master en sécurité internationale à l’université de Birmingham, au Royaume-Uni. Pendant les épisodes dépressifs occasionnels qu’elle a connu et pendant toutes ses années d’études des mouvements et de la lutte pour l’égalité, le féminisme l’a inspirée et lui a permis d’adopter une nouvelle approche « d’à peu près tout ».
« Il [le féminisme] a entièrement changé mon orientation académique, mon idéologie politique et mon approche de la vie au sens large. C’est la raison pour laquelle je porte toujours autour du cou le poing féministe. » - Marianna Karakoulaki
Pendant une manifestation à la frontière greco-macédonienne à côté d’une clôture macédonienne nouvellement construite
Dans le cadre de son travail, Marianna tente de se consacrer aux questions féministes en donnant la possibilité à celles qui sont reléguées à la marge de s’exprimer, notamment en Grèce où « les questions relatives au genre sont soit ignorées soit insuffisamment prises en charge ».
Elle travaille depuis un an sur la crise des réfugié-e-s, mais elle a délibérément évité d’écrire un article sur les femmes réfugiées.
« J’ai pris cette décision tout d’abord parce que je ne voulais pas faire intrusion dans la vie de ces femmes dans le simple but de dénicher une bonne histoire. J’ai entendu des récits qui auraient méritées d’être publiées mais, sans vraiment savoir pourquoi, je ne me suis jamais sentie autorisée à raconter la vie de ces personnes dans telle situation de vulnérabilité. Il faut que leurs voix soient entendues, mais il y a un bon moment pour le faire, et je pense qu’il faut attendre qu’elles atteignent enfin un espace sûr dans laquelle leur protection est assurée. » - Marianna Karakoulaki
Quelques informations complémentaires sur Marianna
Dans le cadre académique, elle est membre de l’équipe de direction et de rédaction de E- International Relations (E-IR), un site académique pour lequel elle dirige la publication d’un livre sur les migrations au XXIe siècle, à paraître fin 2016. Marianna a également dispensé des cours lors de différents ateliers organisés en Grèce sur l’égalité de genre, les questions de genre et la diversité des féminismes. Elle a également écrit des articles sur le droit à l’avortement notamment aux États-Unis mais aussi sur les questions féministes ou relatives aux femmes dans le Moyen-Orient.
Marianna explique comme suit sa décision de devenir membre de l’AWID :
« Je suis devenue membre de l’AWID parce qu’il s’agit d’une organisation dont les domaines d’action prioritaires sont très proches de mon idéologie et de mes préoccupations et qui donne la parole aux personnes du monde entier que l’on entend jamais, et j’aime beaucoup cela. »
À la question « quel changement aimeriez-vous voir se matérialiser de votre vivant ? », Marianna apporté cette réponse :
« Si je devais choisir un changement que j’aimerais voir survenir de mon vivant, ce serait l’instauration d’une égalité issue d’une approche venue de la base ; cela demandera du temps, des efforts et du dévouement. Cela exigera également une refonte des tactiques et stratégies des mouvements. Je fais aussi le rêve utopique d’un monde sans nations ni frontières fondé sur l’auto-organisation, mais je crains que cela ne soit pas possible. »
Pour en savoir plus sur Marianna, n’hésitez pas à consulter son site internet (en anglais)
