Global Feminism
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The Feminist Queries: Sheryl Wudunn
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The Feminist Queries: Tamara Abdul Hadi
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When Do We Call It "Gendercide"?
Update: Yoani Sánchez Detained & Beaten
Published November 07, 2009 @ 08:10AM PT
Yoani Sánchez, the 34-year-old Cuban blogger who was not allowed to leave Cuba and go to the United States to receive the Maria Moors Cabot Prize, was detained and beaten by Cuban state security yesterday.
"No blood, but black and blues, punches, pulled hairs, blows to the head, kidneys, knee and chest,'' Sánchez told El Nuevo Herald. "In sum, professional violence.''
According to Reuters, Sánchez said that she and two fellow bloggers were detained briefly on Friday by security agents and accused of being "counter-revolutionaries" as they walked to a demonstration against violence. This video captures the peaceful demonstration from that day.
In the past, it has been reported that the Cuban government does not hide its distaste for Sanchez, who is occasionally attacked in the government-run press as an enemy of the state. Currently, Cuba is said to have about 200 political prisoners, whom the government views as traitors working with the United States to toppled the Cuban government.
Demonstrating that she will not be silenced by the Cuban government's attacks, however, Sánchez has already written about the incident on her blog Generación Y. In her post she describes how she and her friend, Claudia Cadelo, were accosted by men driving a black car and then detained by the state police while being physically and verbally abused. Her blog receives more than 14 million page views a month and thousands of comments.
Additionally, a lot of the initial coverage about the incident came from Twitter where Sánchez and her friend Cadelo tweeted about being detained by the police and soon conversation spread quickly about what was happening. Individuals are expressing their support for the two women using the hashtag #yoani on Twitter to discuss the incident.
It is clear that while Sánchez has a huge following around the world, neither Cubans nor the government appreciate her internet presence. This recent post, which has been translated into English, demonstrates some of the attitudes in Cuba toward free speech:
"What do you do?" he asks me under the streetlights of Belascoain Street. I'm a blogger, I warn him, and the lights of Carlos III Avenue show me his suspicious and fearful face. "Look, don't go and tell what I just said," he says, changing the indulgent tone he used when picking me up amid the gloom. "I don't want you to publish later some nonsense about me on the Internet," he clarifies, while grabbing his crotch in a gesture of power. My straight hair is no longer a reason to trust me, now my eyes don't seem so almond-shaped, and when I explain-through my narrow lips-the subjects I deal with in my blog, it's as if I am threatening him, razor in hand, a dangerous criminal. I confirm, then, that his spectrum of classification stigmatizes not only some shades of color, but also certain leanings of opinion, those tones which are not carried on the epidermis but that also lead, on this Island, to displays of segregation and rejection.
Roots of Hope in Miami has already spoken out against the incident and is calling "on Cuban authorities to immediately cease all acts of violence against civil society youth leaders." It is my hope that there are no more acts of censorship or violence toward Sánchez and that she is able to continue writing about her views of the Cuban government.
The Movement To End Genocide
Published November 05, 2009 @ 11:57AM PT
For those interested in global women's rights, the Pledge2Protect conference in Washington, DC should be on your agenda this weekend.
From November 6 - 9, Genocide Intervention Network's (GI-NET) student-led division, STAND, is bringing together a powerful network of 1,000 students and community leaders and activists from across the country to Capitol Hill for Pledge2Protect: a conference designed to educate, empower, and highlight the work of activists who are driving the movement to prevent and stop genocide and mass atrocities.
In collaboration with core partners Save Darfur Coalition and The Enough Project, Pledge2Protect aims to eqip activists with grassroots organizing and advocacy skills, plus in-depth education on conflicts of concern.
I am going to be attending and speaking at the conference on Saturday. My panel is called, "Internet and Politics: Leveraging the Online Space for Social Change." I am speaking with Alan Rosenblatt, T. Neil Sroka, and Tom Burton. I hope it will be an engaging conversation about using online efforts to create conversation around important issues such as the women's rights movement and stop genocide efforts.
For those interested in attending, here are a few other panels relevant to women's rights:
Wars against Women and the Pursuit of Peace: the Case of Darfur
Speakers:
- Jehanne Henry, Researcher, Africa Division, Human Rights Watch
- Niemat Ahmadi, Darfuri Liaison Officer, Save Darfur Coalition
- Rebecca Hamilton, Author of the forthcoming book The Promise of Engagement; Open Society Fellow; Visiting Fellow at the National Security Archives
- Mohammed Ahmed Abdallah, MD, Physician and Professor of Medicine at el-Fasher University in Darfur, Sudan, until recently director at the Amel Center for the Treatment & Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture in Darfur (RFK Prize Winner)
Featuring fresh reports from the ground in Sudan and Chad, this panel will shed light on the daily challenges faced by Darfuri women who have survived years of displacement, violence, and the endemic use of rape as a weapon of war. Panelists will discuss what the concepts of peace and security would really mean for Darfuri women — addressing areas including protection from violence; mental and physical recovery and health; women’s ability to provide for the basic needs of themselves and their children; pursuing justice for crimes in Darfur; and women’s participation in peace negotiations. Panelists will highlight how the U.S., international community, and activists can impact the daily lives of Darfuri women.
Sexual Gender-Based Violence / Rape as a Weapon of War in Congo
Speakers:
- Professor Lee Ann De Reus, Professor at Penn State University and Carl Wilkins Fellow
- Dr. Roger Luhiriri, Human Rights Advocate, Columbia University / Panzi Hospital
Frequently called the “worst place in the world to be a woman”, panelists discuss current efforts to treat sexual gender-based violence and rape in Congo and steps that can be taken to help prevent it.
Let me know if you'll be able to make the conference and please stop by the panel and say "Hello!" You can also follow the conference via Twitter here.
Desperate Times Calls for Desperate Catholics
Published November 03, 2009 @ 07:34PM PT
As someone who was raised Catholic, went to 15 years of Catholic school and is still asked to rise at eight o'clock in the morning when I visit my parents to go to church, the following news is quite the shocking revelation: the Catholic Church is now accepting applications from Anglicans.
For those who are not well-versed Christianity, here's a quick definition of an Anglican: those who historically protest the Catholic Church and have been traditionally more liberal on their stances on the ordination of women bishops, gay priests and gay marriage.
But it looks like desperate times in the church call for desperate Catholics as being reported by Laura Flanders at Grit TV:
Now facing flagging attendance and shrinking contributions, some of that hard-lining is going soft. Given the chance to fill some empty pews, by allowing conservative Anglicans into the ranks, the Catholic Church is backing off. Those conservative Anglicans are disaffected by their own church's more liberal stances on contraception, gay rights and women's autonomy but they're not about to excommunicate pro choicers - not yet. So suddenly, Rome is willing to do as the Anglicans do.... and call debate over reproductive rights a difference of opinion. Heck, they're even willing to create loopholes to let married clergy stay married.
Fancy that. So what about all those fights over all those years? What about all those denied a place in their faith, and most of all, those who died due to botched and politicized abortions? All those who were forced to bear children against their will, or were infected with HIV due to lies about condoms - or no sex ed at all? Now we find out they suffered simply over a difference of opinion?
I personally believe that everyone needs a sense of spirituality and often religion can provide that. When I was growing up, the Church gave me an understanding of the concept of having faith and I gained an understanding of social justice and community service that I still appreciate to this day. However, the stances of the Catholic Church toward women definitely make even the Christmas carol hard to sing. It's a good thing to see the Catholic church opening up to other ideas about what the Bible means, but is it too little, too late?
Update: U.S. Agrees To Negotiate International Arms Trade Treaty
Published October 30, 2009 @ 12:09PM PT
A few weeks ago, I asked the question: Will the Obama Administration Support An International Arms Trade Treaty?
Initially, the answer to this question seemed like "No" given the fact that the U.S. didn't even speak about the ATT during their remarks to the UN General Assembly last month and typically don't express support for international treaties.
However, today at the United Nation, the vast majority of governments - 153 in total - agreed a timetable to establish a "strong and robust" Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) with the "highest common standards" to control international transfers of conventional arms. There is currently no global Treaty on the conventional arms trade. Most of the world's biggest arms traders - including the USA, UK, France and Germany - will now all back the UN process. Nineteen states abstained but are all expected to take part in the process. In the past the United States has explicitly voted "No" when presented with this treaty, but this time around, Zimbabwe was the only State to vote against.
"For too long, governments have let the flow of weapons get out of control causing pain, suffering and death in some of the world's poorest regions. With hundreds of thousands of people dying a year from armed violence, weapons that fall into the hands of criminals and rights abusers destroy communities and livelihoods." said Anna Macdonald of Oxfam International in a press release. "Governments must ensure that negotiations live up to the promise of setting the highest possible standards - this is a life and death situation for thousands of poor people worldwide."
During the debates on the resolution, many countries spoke out and underlined the need for the treaty to be based on international law, including international human rights and humanitarian law. There are estimated to be nearly 650 million small arms in the world today and Oxfam International has reported that 2.1 million people have died as a result of armed violence.
Women, in particular, are disproportionally affected by the arms trade as victims of it's violence. While available data supports the widespread assumption that most direct casualties of gun violence are men, particularly young men, women also suffer from firearms violence indirectly as displaced women and girls are vulnerable to rape and other forms of sexual violence as they flee violent areas, or when they search for firewood and even when they go to the bathroom at night. Also, after a conflict, women become the main breadwinners and primary carers when male relatives are killed, injured or disabled by gun violence. And women, like men, are caught in the crossfire, both in times of war and of peace.
The agreement in the UN today means that the eventual ATT will be negotiated in a series of UN meetings concluding at a UN Conference in 2012.
* The States that abstained were: Bahrain, Belarus, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, UAE, Venezuela and Yemen.
Cuba's Virtual Revoluciónista: Yoani Sánchez
Published October 21, 2009 @ 12:18PM PT
The latest target of Cuba's totalitarian government is Yoani Sánchez, a 34-year-old Cuban writer, editor and linguistics scholar. Last week, she became the first blogger to win a Maria Moors Cabot Prize given by Columbia University for journalism, but she was unable to be attend the awards ceremony due to the fact that the Cuban government wouldn't let her out of the country.
"We're going to keep trying to get her to come here for a few days. It's very difficult to tell who to talk to about it because the leadership of Cuba is so old, they probably don't even know what a blog is - we don't know where to apply pressure," said Josh Friedman, the Director of the Maria Moors Cabot Prize in an interview with Change.org.
Her two-year-old blog, called Generación Y, is filled with personal observations and social commentary from Havana, Cuba. It is some of the most vivid writing I have read about what is actually happening on the communist controlled island and I think it is really inspiring that a female writer has been able to speak out not only for herself, but an entire country through the use of the social web.
Clinton Global Initiative: Investing in Female Changemakers
Published October 21, 2009 @ 11:26AM PT
The plight of women and girls in the developing world is a book of sobering stories with very few happy endings. Year after year, we are reminded of some of the most jarring injustices of our time, most of which go unrecognized, let alone unpunished. And yet, hope for action is on the horizon. The Clinton Global Initiative, along with some inspirational stories to both humble and inspire us, just might have signal the arrival of this increasingly crucial issue to the forefront of the agenda.
The 5th annual CGI meeting, held this past September, serves as the gathering grounds for hundreds of influential leaders, scholars, business executives, celebrities, and journalists to discuss and engage in multi-sector cooperation towards a common development goal. Tackling poverty alleviation, climate change, and the promotion of economic opportunity - CGI annually highlights the most critical development issues of our time - topics worthy of the utmost global recognition and concern. This year CGI is again addressing these subjects, but to the hope of many there is a new issue on the agenda: the subject of investments in girls and women.
Adding this new component of CGI may very well begin elevating the issues of women's inclusion to a top priority on the global development agenda. CGI has an opportunity to truly assert women's development, making it an argument that can no longer be viewed as 'soft' or only relevant to women, elevating it from a distant second relative to poverty alleviation, AIDS prevention, climate change, etc. to other development issues. In fact, one could even argue that women's development underpins the advancement of each of these agendas.
Investing in women has a domino effect of sorts, with women's empowerment adding to the prosperity of entire societies. Women and girls who earn money reinvest up to 90% of it into their families, as compared to only 30% or 40 % by men. Furthermore, if girls' enrollment in schools increases by only 10%, the country's economy will grow steadily by 3%, showing again how investments in girls and women benefit both genders, community, and country. Top scholars and leaders are arguing more and more that investing in women, unequivocally, simply makes sense for everyone, and it is time we looked at how this agenda could play out, and took note of some of the key changemakers in this movement.
Can We Achieve Climate Justice Without Gender Justice?
Published October 15, 2009 @ 07:38PM PT
Today is Blog Action Day and the topic this year is Climate Change. I am a strong believer that we need to take drastic efforts to reduce the human impact on Mother Nature - save energy, reduce our addiction to oil (and red meat), recycle and compost - those are just the first steps. But I will say, it is hard to ask human beings to treat the Earth better when we can't even treat each other with enough respect to achieve global gender justice at the same time as we seek climate justice.
And when it comes to climate change - women are in a seemingly symbiotic relationship with Mother Nature as they are often disproportionally effected by the declining state of the environment as seen in this article by Care.org:
Women often lack the assets they need to build their resilience to a changing climate, said Christina Chan, a CARE senior policy analyst who participated in the march. The missing resources include land, credit, access to support services, new technologies and a place in decision-making bodies. The results can be tragic in disasters such as the back-to-back typhoons ravaging Southeast Asia this week.
''More women are injured or killed during hurricanes, floods and cyclones,'' Chan said. ''They are less likely to hear official warnings and to be able to swim or to escape quickly, especially if carrying young children. They are also less mobile than men, confined to their homes.''
In seeing how this relationship is intertwined it becomes clear that it's not about climate justice versus gender justice, but rather they must be mutually achieved.
Can we do both?
