On love to a movement

How does a movement start?
we get expelled by ghosts from a house, a family, and a nation
we arrive fatigued to a space (sometimes an actual address) but mainly to a state of being
preceded by a fallen star 
perhaps our arrival isn’t accompanied by fatigue, 
maybe accompanied by fear 
perhaps our arrival isn’t accompanied by fear 
maybe accompanied by anger 
from issues that keep on repeating themselves: 
a stab in the heart (read heartache) 
a bullet in the back (read betrayal) 
forced disappearances 
bodies sentenced by marriage, disfiguration, and chronic fatigue 
yet when we arrive, we gather, whisper, speak and weep. 
This is how our movements begin when we arrive at each other 
We become seeds,
This is how our movements start when we plant each other
Becoming flowers, sometimes just thorns, sometimes fruits,
we are each other’s oasis
to sing for the battles 
to make remedies 
to place the faces of our lovers, the shape of their smiles, the sound of their laughter 
the secret of turning silences into language
the detailed instructions of witches
our movement is: for all of us
when we arrive as seeds with the purpose of flowering. 

Sara AbuGhazal
www.badiya.blog

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)

First High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development, 29-30 October 2003

One of the follow up mechanisms to the Monterrey conference are the UN General Assembly High-level Dialogues on Financing for Development held every two years. In total eight roundtable meetings took place following the Dialogue on various issues including agricultural subsidies, trade, debt relief and funding of the MDGs. All the discussions focused on dealing with the structural hindrances on these issues that disadvantaged ‘developing’ nations.

Other follow up mechanisms to Monterrey included:

• The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) special high-level meeting, held annually, with the leadership of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and UNCTAD on the follow-up to the Monterrey Consensus. ECOSOC also devotes up to two days to deliberate the FfD agenda item during its substantive session.
• Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters, the specialized United Nations tax body, addresses the various tax policy issues identified in the Monterrey Consensus and provides a framework for dialogue with a view to enhancing and promoting international tax cooperation among national tax authorities. 

Il est temps pour le prochain forum de l’AWID en 2024.

Lorsque des milliers de féministes se réunissent, nous créons une grande force de solidarité qui a le pouvoir de changer le monde. Le Forum de l’AWID sera pour nous un moment de repos et de guérison ensemble, de connexion au-delà des frontières et de découverte de nouvelles orientations stratégiques courageuses.

La date et le lieu seront annoncés l'année prochaine, dès que possible. Nous sommes ravi.es et nous savons que vous le serez aussi. Restez à l'écoute!

Assurez-vous de nous suivre sur les médias sociaux et de vous inscrire à notre liste de diffusion pour rester informé!

ใหม่

จุดศูนย์กลาง: การเดินทางข้ามพรมแดน

ผู้เข้าร่วมประชุมจะได้เข้าร่วมตามสถานที่ต่างๆนอกเพื้นที่ในการจัดงานที่กรุงเทพฯ  และตามส่วนต่างๆของ โลกในแต่ละวันของการประชุม สถานที่ประชุมที่ผู้เข้าร่วมจัดการเองทั้งหมดนั้นจะเชื่อมต่อกับสถานที่จัดงาน
จริงในกรุงเทพฯเช่นเดียวกับบุคคลที่เชื่อมต่อทางออนไลน์        ผู้เข้าร่วมในจุดศูนย์กลาง Hub นี้จะสามารถ ดำเนินรายการในหัวข้อกิจกรรมต่างๆ เข้าร่วมอภิปราย แลกเปลี่ยน และเพลิดเพลินไปกับโปรแกรม ที่หลากหลาย

ที่ตั้งจุดศูนย์กลาง Hub จะประกาศในปี 2567

Un indice visuel est toujours utile

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

• El tema del Cuarto Diálogo de Alto Nivel sobre la Financiación para el Desarrollo, que tuvo lugar el 23 y 24 de marzo de 2010, fue El Consenso de Monterrey y la Declaración de Doha sobre la financiación para el desarrollo: estado de la aplicación y labor futura. Contó con cuatro mesas redondas sobre: la reforma de los sistemas monetario y financiero internacionales; el impacto de la crisis financiera en la inversión extranjera directa; el comercio internacional y las corrientes de capitales privados; y el rol de la cooperación financiera y técnica para el desarrollo, incluyendo las fuentes innovadoras de financiación para el desarrollo, en el impulso de la movilización de recursos financieros nacionales e internacionales para el desarrollo.
• También tuvo lugar un diálogo interactivo oficioso con diversos actores centrado en la relación entre la financiación para el desarrollo y la realización de los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio.

Imagine opening a door which takes you into a conversation with feminist activists in other continents. This portal will transcend the barriers of UN CSW by pushing beyond language barriers, unaffordable travel, unequal protection from COVID19, and racist visa regimes.

This week, we’re putting a virtual spin on CSW by connecting and amplifying feminist activists' voices, to challenge the discriminatory barriers that limit participation and influence. By setting up connecting “portals” in New York City, Nairobi & Bangalore, we'll host a physical-virtual hybrid space for feminists to connect their struggles and build collective power.

What are we covering? 

Day 1: March 6 - Accessibility

Day 2: March 7- Challenging Anti-Rights Actors And Corporations

Day 3: March 8 - Challenging Anti-Rights Actors And Corporations

Day 4: March 9- Reclaiming Multilateralism

Find the program for this week's activities here: 

Download full program here (PDF)

Bangalore Schedule (PNG)  Nairobi Schedule (PNG) New York City Schedule (PNG)

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.

Publication de la version zéro du document final, mars 2015

• La version zéro du document final (en anglais – datée du 16 mars), préparée par les co-facilitateurs, a été soumise à discussion pendant la seconde session de rédaction qui s’est tenue du 13 au 17 avril 2015.
• Pendant la session inaugurale, le WWG a insisté sur la nécessité de mentionner, dans la version zéro, les ressources qui seraient spécifiquement consacrées à l’égalité des genres et à l’autonomisation des femmes, comme cela avait été prévu dans le Consensus de Monterrey et la Déclaration de Doha.

Esta historia es sobre la manera en que un grupo cada vez más diverso de feministas del Pacífico se organizaron a lo largo de los años para asistir a los Foros de AWID, y el modo en que ese proceso lxs transformó en forma personal, como organizaciones y como movimiento a través de lo que aprendieron, descubrieron y experimentaron. Ilustra la importancia de los Foros como espacio que permitió que una región que tiende a ser marginada o ignorada a nivel global pueda construir una presencia sólida en el movimiento feminista, que luego es replicada en otros espacios internacionales de derechos de las mujeres.

Descarga esta historia

En sus propias voces: mira la entrevista con María Manuela Sequeira & Mónica Alemán

Accessibility and Health