WHRD Tribute - 2017

We can have an intro here

And maybe a little bit more text here

In-person

Participants will come together in Bangkok, Thailand. We can’t wait!

¡Vente bien! Y muestra tus fuentes…

Si quieres esta concha, déjame ver ese papel (En serio, ¿dónde está el resultado de tu prueba? En versión digital está bien)

Free ebook on Women's rights and Religious fundamentalisms

Religious fundamentalisms have particularly high costs for women and girls

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In a global picture of rising religious fundamentalisms, this ebook details the grave human rights violations, and violations of women’s rights in particular, caused by state-sponsored fundamentalism, as well as by fundamentalist non-state actors such as militias, religious community organizations, and individuals.

It is vital to promote intersectional feminist understandings of power and privilege, and to apply these to questions of religion and culture.

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Un indice visuel est toujours utile

« La sexualité est fluide, et là mon vagin aussi. »
#FeministFestival #SextLikeAFeminist

第十四屆AWID國際論壇的主題是：“女性主義理念實現：行動的力量”。

在第十四屆論壇上，我們將表揚與彰顯在我們身邊，處於各種發展階段的女性主義理念實現行動。

我們希望將本次論壇變成我們的女性主義理念實現行動：在這裡你可以進入在一個不同的世界，帶著你的勝利佳績、你所設計的解決方案前來，分享讓你更加強大、充滿希望、做好前行準備的事物。本次盛會有別於您之前參加過的其他會議。

請您務必共襄盛舉，攜手創造世界。絕對值得​！

每個論壇都有一個主題，該主題反映了我們成員和運動的需求，並回應我們對當前背景脈絡的分析。

全球背景脈絡

當前，全球各地的法西斯主義、基本教義主義、威權主義以及不受約束的企業權力方興未艾。我們看到，這些威脅與國家協力形塑了公共規範、敘事論述和政策，在公共論述中深植了恐懼和仇恨的文化，並煽動暴力。國家，曾經是我們權利倡議和主張權利的對象，但在許多情況下，國家不再覺得需要負責，甚至在某些情況下，國家自己也不再具有維護權利的權力了。

這個動盪、複雜和充滿不確定性的時代，更需要發揮創造力，組織各種運動，保持需求的連貫性並大膽提出主張。

從女性主義的將來到女性主義的理念實現

2016年的AWID論壇以女性主義的未來及付諸實現所需的條件為中心。無論是當時還是現在都很明顯不過，對於許多社會正義運動來說，若想跳出當前的體制之外去思考結構性的解決方案是一個艱鉅挑戰。長期的不平等和壓迫的經驗會限縮想像力。但是當時我們周遭的所見所聞顯示女性主義運動確實生機勃發，以各種大小規模都有的方式推動了權利和正義為導向理念實現與解決方案。

我們確實看到了對於動員的迫切需求，但動員的起點不是從最低的共同點開始，動員應源於希望。這分希望源自於肯定，世界各地的經驗與實踐體現了更加正義的生存方式，儘管不盡完美，從這些經驗出發，藉由分享、加強與壯大，我們可以幫助其擴大影響力。

這些並非不可能實現的夢想，而是以實現的生活。凡事皆有可能的感受啟發我們去重新審視和重新欣賞我們的工作具備的轉化面向。

全球女性主義理念實現的一些例子

在AWID，我們知道鮮活的女性主義理念實現典範是，代表一個有望實現的世界。這些多元的理念實現經驗蘊含再現了希望和力量。深植於多種生活思考與實踐的方式，向我們證明有不一樣的可能：從我們日常生活和彼此之間的關係的日常表達到治理和正義的替代制度。女性主義理念實現經驗抵制諸如父權制度、資本主義和白人至上的宰制權力制度。

以上皆為強而有力的主張，引導我們看到具備可能性的願景，並證明了女性主義組織是如何在世界各地的運動和社群中開疆拓土，開闢通往正義的道路。 

• 在美國密西西比州傑克遜城一個被深度邊緣化的黑人社區透過傑克遜合作（Cooperation Jackson）平台，展開了社區團結和合作經濟的實驗，這項計劃雄心勃勃，有別於資本主義的生產方式，要建立社群共有精神。

• 在西非，女性農民對抗圈地並拒絕工業化的農業計畫，勇敢主張「我們就是解決方案（We Are The Solution）」，此運動旨在建立農業生態解決方案，以女性農民及其知識為中心，讓社群可以獲得溫飽並減緩氣候變遷

• 同樣，在印度有5000名婦女根據地方知識，共同建立了以社群為基礎的糧食主權制度，包括穀物和種子銀行

• 墨西哥的婦女開創了一個無錢交易的經濟計畫，該計畫由婦女主導，並為其他婦女以及她們所認識的每個人服務。在El Cambalache計畫中，一切交換物都具有相同的價值：人們用不再需要的東西去交換他們想要的東西，也包括想分享的知識、能力和互助。El Cambalache計畫建立在當地社會運動的反制度、反資本主義價值觀之上

• 在羅賈瓦，庫德人在沒有國家的情況下建立了民主制度。庫爾德婦女將女性學（Jineology）作為挑戰父權制度、資本主義和國家機器的框架，創建了將這一框架付諸實踐的制度和機構

• 在英國，Anarcho Agony Aunts是一個關於性和約會的諮詢節目，涵蓋了女性主義者、反法西斯主義者和無政府主義者的各種觀點。主持人羅文和馬里亞姆正在從另類右派中奪回空間，讓人們（主要是男人）在不受批判的空間內提出棘手問題

• 非洲女性主義判決計畫起草並廣傳了一系列關於重大非洲里程碑司法案件的另類判決。該計畫的核心精神提出了女性主義司法實踐和替代性的女性主義判決，對非洲法學、法律實務和司法決貢獻卓著。

• 印度的烏沙合作社（Usha Cooperative）是在主流銀行拒絕向Sonagachi地區的性工作者提供服務時成立的。性工作者自發組織起來，優先解決其經濟問題並建立自己的金融機構。烏沙合作社是一家合作銀行，服務2萬多名性工作者，並在一年內提供7231名性工作者470萬美元的貸款。該銀行完全由性工作者組成，為合作社的治理和管理帶來了真正的所有權和影響力，為個人和社群服務，開創了建立經濟實力的自主先驅模式

• 在波多黎各，一個社區土地信託基金協助了非正式居住區轉型為永續的社區，該社區處於受到污染的易氾濫河道。該基金為改善城市中的非正式定居區域點提供了一種新模式，如果沒有她們的幫助，當地的原始居民根本負擔不起

• 在幾個拉丁美洲國家，社運人士提供了醫療人工流產提同儕的諮詢和陪伴，奪回女性身體的自主權和獲得醫療知識的權利。（出於安全原因，此處未提供相關的鏈接）

第十四屆AWID國際論壇

AWID論壇將按照6大主軸安排：

• 社群、運動和經濟正義的資源
• 治理、當責與正義
• 數位化的現實
• 身體、愉悅和健康
• 女性主義星球與生命
• 組織女性主義運動

主軸詳情請見此

基於這些理念實現的經驗，我們希望2020年的論壇能夠：

• 鞏固女性主義理念實現的力量：通過點名、表揚、壯大和貢獻等方式，從這些經驗及主張出發，累積動能，凸顯可能性並豐富我們的集體想像力。
• 補充希望和能量的泉源：為人權與正義社會運動及韌性提供必要的能量。
• 加強聯繫、互惠和團結：服務各種多元的女性主義運動以及其他權利和正義為本的社會運動。

論壇是一個協作過程

該論壇不僅僅是一個四天的會議，是女性主義理念實現的運動茁壯旅程的一個中繼站，我們已經出發，論壇結束後也會繼續前行。

加入我們的旅程吧！

Nuestros mensajes clave para les activistas por la justicia climática en la COP30

Te animamos a usar este material para fortalecer tu labor de incidencia. 

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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.