Monthly Archives: November 2007

16 days against vaw (25 nov.-10 dec.) 2007

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[in romana: Campania 16 zile de activism contra violentei 2006 si Brosura LF-Ro despre activism contra violentei de gen (PDF)]

16 DAYS OF ACTIVISM AGAINST GENDER VIOLENCE ’07 – Demanding Implementation, Challenging Obstacles: End Violence Against Women

Since 1991, the 16 Days Campaign has helped to raise awareness about gender violence and has highlighted its effects on women globally. Each year, thousands of activists from all over the world utilize the campaign to further their work to end violence against women. The campaign has celebrated victories gained by women’s rights movements, it has challenged policies and practices that allow women to be targeted for acts of violence, it has called for the protection of people who defend women’s human rights and it has demanded accountability from states, including a commitment to recognize and act upon all forms of violence against women as human rights abuses.

In the last decade, activism related to and awareness about the impact and consequences of gender based violence has grown dramatically. A wide spectrum of organizations, networks, and individuals are focusing on gender based violence as a critical issue and are campaigning globally and locally for protection from and prevention of all forms of violence against women (VAW).

While there has been much progress made, challenges still persist that hinder the effectiveness of the work being done by anti-VAW activists and organizations. The 2007 16 Days Campaign dedicates this year’s theme to overcoming those challenges and obstacles in order to gain long overdue results in the struggle to end VAW. In collaboration with others, the 16 Days Campaign seeks to help dismantle obstacles and overcome challenges posed by social attitudes and policies that continue to condone and perpetuate gender based violence.

Challenges and obstacles have been identified by activists in all regions of the world, and we have chosen to highlight a few of those here. These can be addressed both as demands to be made on the state or other institutions and as actions that we must take in our own work in order to achieve better results. A few suggestions for focusing advocacy in this year’s campaign include:

* Demanding and securing adequate funding for work against VAW;
* Calling for greater accountability and political commitment from states to prevent and punish all forms of violence against women in practice, not just in words;
* Increasing awareness of the impact of violence against women, including engaging in measures to end it by men and boys;
* Evaluating the impact and effectiveness of work to prevent violence against women;
* Securing the space for advocacy and defending the defenders of women’s human rights in their work to end gender based violence.

The 16 Days Campaign continues to highlight important issues raised in past years, including looking at VAW as a public health crisis, the intersection between HIV/AIDS and VAW, and the protection of women human rights defenders. The campaign will also promote valuable advocacy tools such as key recommendations from the 2006 Secretary General’s study on VAW. More information can be found in this year’s kit, including fact-sheets and information relevant for campaigning!

More on the 16 Days Campaign site:
About the 16 days
2007 Action Kit
2007 International Calendar (Romania)
Violence Against Women Bibliography & Resources

re: trafic

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Din Ziarul de Garda, publicatie independenta din Rep. Moldova axata pe investigatii privind coruptia larg raspandita, crima organizata, saracia, nedreptatile sociale, violarea drepturilor omului si traficul de persoane:

“Sclavia umana exista”
Nr. 121 (15 martie 2007)

Nadia este o victima. Atunci cand ABC News a filmat–o, nu a dorit sa isi arate fata. Cu patru ani in urma, ea a plecat de acasa pentru a gasi niste oportunitati mai bune. In loc de sansa cautata, ea a incaput pe mainile unei grupari criminale si a devenit sclava.

«Am fost dusa intr–o casa, unde mi s–a spus ca trebuie sa devin prostituata», spune tanara. «Nu am vrut sa fac asta. Aveam doar 14 ani.»

Nadia spune ca cei care au sechestrat–o au batut–o pana cand i–au rupt maxilarul. Dar ea nu putea nici macar sa fuga pentru ca i s–a spus ca familia ei va fi gasita si nenorocita.

Este greu de crezut ca astazi exista sclavie. Dar exista. Si actualmente acest fenomen se numeste trafic de fiinte umane.
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Fwd: Anunt Conferinta UNIFERO

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UNIUNEA INTERNATIONALA A FEMEILOR ROMANE, UNIFERO, Inc.
organizatie umbrela non-profit, inregistrata in Atlanta, USA, care actioneaza pentru sprijinirea femeilor din Romania, precum si a romancelor din alte tari, in rezolvarea diverselor probleme cu care se confrunta (sociale, educationale, familiale, etc.)

Anunta

Conferinta anuala care va avea ca tema:

‘FEMEIA ROMANA IN SECOLUL XXI:
TRADITIE, CONTINUITATE, VIZIUNE’

Lucrarile se vor desfasura in zilele de 27, 28, 29 iunie, 2008 la Vatra Dornei. Continue reading →

[Fwd: Women Lesbian gathering]

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please spread these flyers (es/en) in your region!

>>castellano por abajo>>

english version:

„Compañeras, we invite you to unite as we do and fight, for we together can build up a real autonomy, where we as women know, too, how we govern and how we govern ourselves; for it will be us to decide what we do.” (Quotation of a zapatist Compañera during the *First Meeting of the Zapatist Communities with the Peoples of the World* in December 2006)

*Dear **rebellious** women,*

An European WomenLesbianGathering is supposed to take place from the 28th of December 2007 to the 2nd of January 2008.

*The idea of the meeting is: *
– to exchange our experiences in social and emancipatory struggles,
– to discuss about possibilities and hindrances as well as the development, meaning and plurality of feminist forms of resistance,
– to exchange ideas of possibilities of international solidarity and support,
– to learn and teach creative abilities,
– to enjoy ourselves as well as to have fun and pleasure!
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The anarcha-feminist magazine RAG #1 (Dublin) – Rape Culture

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Sexual violence is a huge problem in our society. Sexual assault is not something that happens to other people elsewhere but is something that has happened to a significant number of people in any community, group or setting. Yet sexual violence is rarely talked about, the extent of it is not widely known and outside the feminist movement it is seldom taken up as a political issue.

—- This article sprang from a case of rape in a community of activists which, in the various meetings, workshops and discussions that followed, forced people to try to deal with a problem which is usually hidden. The whole issue proved to be quite divisive. It became clear to anyone listening that sexual violence is something of which a shocking number of women have their own personal experience. Continue reading →

Catre Alex Varzaru de la Academia Catavencu, care nu s-a bucurat de exclusivitatea de a scrie despre a doua editie a Ladyfest Romania din octombrie 2007.

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Draga Alex!

Mi se pare acum – la o distanta de vreo luna de la eveniment – ca nu am facut bine sa nu iti raspundem ceva mai robust la articolul despre Ladyfest (din nr. 41, 17-23 octombrie 2007). Ana si-a exprimat, cred, dezamagirea fata de text imediat. Raspunsul tau mi s-a parut radiant de ignoranta si nestiinta. Si condescending, of course. Dar cum majoritatea covarsitoare a romanimii nu a citit la viata ei/lui o boaba de teorie feminista, sa zicem ca asta este de ‘iertat’. Ceea ce mi se pare ingrijorator in ceea ce te priveste este altceva, si cred ca asta a vrut sa spuna Ana cand ti-a scris de articolul tau ‘lame’: demersul jurnalistic e cam schiop. Puteai sa raportezi conjunctura usor mai larga a evenimentului si atunci criticile tale nu ar fi fost atat de deplasate precum s-au dovedit a fi.

Sa vedem, deci, unde este problema.

1. Nu stiu de ce suna Ladyfest ca o reclama la tampon. Tu cate reclame la absorbante sau tampoane ai vazut care nu medicalizeaza menstruatia, sangele si care nu fac din acest aspect fiziologic ceva igienic, sanitar ? Si cate care – hai sa nu sarim peste cal sa zicem celebreaza, dar – macar adreseaza menstruatia ca ceva absolut integral vietii femeilor de o anumita varsta si nu ca a pain in the royal ass?
(Nu mai comentez asupra clarei ignorante in ce priveste istoria feminista a termenului lady si ce aport politic are astazi pentru ca te ‘scuz’ de aceasta ignoranta generalizata.)

2. A categorisi Ladyfest ca cel mai tare eveniment feminist din Romania este egal cu a inchide ochii la toate celelalte initiative grassroots si de mici proportii, independente, INSA nu exclusiviste care se petrec prin Romania. Din nou, partialitatea asta care are rolul de a captura cititorul iti cam stirbeste calitatea jurnalistica a scrierii. Si daca ’cel mai tare’ este la misto, atunci este in mod clar o judecata de valoare: imi pare rau de tine.

3. Pentru ca suntem inversunate feministe si de aceea facem marsul mi se pare din nou interpretarea ta. Relationarea aceasta cauzala mi se pare impregnata de judecati de valoare. Nu cred ca facem marsul pentru ca suntem inversunate, sau ca toate prezente acolo erau feministe inversunate.

4. Nemtoaicele si austriecele nu sunt activiste de profesie. Nu am idee de unde ai tras aceasta concluzie, care din nou se pare alimentata de impresii mai mult decat de fapte. Plus, ce barba mea inseamna activism de profesie? Una dintre ele este doctorand, cealalta preda la ELTE (echivalentul Universitatii Bucuresti pentru Ungaria), a treia lucreaza in invatamantul primar. Printre participantele straine erau web designeri, doctoranzi, cercetatoare. Poti spune ca era mai degraba lume ‘intelectuala’, desi ce inseamna intelectual in ziua de azi in care o diploma de 4 ani (acum 3) este doar baza pentru mai multa educatie?

5. Feminismul nu se lanseaza. Mi se pare din nou ignoranta si un soi de hegemonie intelectuala sexista sa crezi ca in Romania nu exista feminism sau nu au existat oameni care au scris despre proiectul egalitatii de sexe/gen. A, faptul ca habar nu avem ca astfel de persoane au existat este altceva. Denota ignoranta noastra individuala si ignoranta colectiva a unei colectivitati construite intr-un anume fel. Si aici ma includ si eu, de aceea nu sunt in stare sa recit din burta o lista lunga de nume.

6. Problema cu ‘privilegiul innascut’: faci aluzie ca feministele sunt de acord ca barbatii se bucura de un ‘privilegiu innascut’. Rawls foloseste acest principiu al privilegiului innascut ca si una dintre conditiile fundamentale ale lumii de astazi: place, nu place, ne nastem cu privilegii care depind de o suita de chestii si nu avem ce sa facem. Trebuie sa ne imaginam intr-o lume in care cu totii ne nastem in mod real egali. Mi se pare ca simplifici sau pui sub semnul intrebarii lucruri care sunt evidente de la sine. Nu inteleg pe baza carei ratiuni. Ordinea sociala patriarhala (si care este patriarhala! Dar din nou, depinde de cat ai citit sa intelegi cum se argumenteaza acest lucru …) este in genere benefica barbatilor si subordoneaza femeile. Dupa cum stim amandoi, lumea nu este alba-neagra. Intrebarea este cum putem analiza si vorbi despre acele zone gri.

7. Nu inteleg de ce conteaza ca Helga nu este dimensiunea madamelor de la meteo. I mean, ce relevanta are? De ce nu ai zis si ca Doris in schimb ia ochii jandarmilor? Sau ca Ana ar arata super bine pe un catwalk la Milan? I mean … please! Ca sa nu mai zicem de ce insinuezi despre ea: forta ei fizica sau violenta ei. Please!

8. Faci misto pe seama traseului. Poate ca demersul tau jurnalistic ar avea doar de castigat, si institutia pe care o reprezinti la fel, daca te-ar fi interesat sa purichezi establishment-ul de procedurile pe care le impune pentru astfel de evenimente. Poate ar fi fost interesant si relevant daca ai fi intrebat-o pe Ioana cat a trebuit sa se certe la primarie pentru ca sa nu se scurteze traseul in halul in care a fost scurtat, sa nu se modifice traseul pentru a include zone mai putin sigure, pentru a nu avea forte de ordine mai multe decat eram noi toate la un loc, pentru a avea jandarmi femei (sau si femei), pentru a avea un rally to begin with … Poate data viitoare vei considera de cuviinta sa mentionezi si aceste ‘banalitati’ … Si atunci calitatea scrisului nu va avea de suferit in asa masura.

Plus: nu trebuie sa violezi o femeie ca sa o abuzezi: poti foarte bine sa o pipai, sa o lovesti in treacat, sa o injuri, sa o urmaresti pentru a o intimida … Si asta se intampla si ziua in amiza mare si in cele mai centrale zone ale orasului. Nu trebuie sa fii in Ferentari si nu trebuie sa fie rom cel care iti abuzeaza spatiul personal si siguranta.

Imi pare rau pentru tine care crezi ca noi am taiat picioarele feminismului din Romania datorita unui eveniment ‘slab’. Nu stiu la ce te astepti tu … La o miscare ca cea a claselor muncitoare din decenii si secole trecute? De ce este atat de important sa impresionam? De ce este atat de crucial ca feminismul sa se manifeste in forme impunatoare, robuste, fortoase, as zice aproape intimidante pentru a putea fi observat, luat in seama, chiar lasat sa se exprime si incerca sa convinga? Mi se pare ca operezi din nou cu niste asteptari care sunt puternic alimentate de miscari mainstream si care – nu uita – de regula nu doresc sa se atinga sub nicio forma de status quo-ul patriarhal! Stii, predilectia aceasta spre forme de organizare ierarhice, monolitice din punct de vedere structural si cu toate vocile la unison este norma de la prima internationala comunista incoace. Nu este sigura modalitate de a produce schimbare, chiar daca tu sau o populatie legitimeaza doar aceasta forma de participare. Si daca te uiti la miscarile feministe de pe glob, inclusiv la cele din America latina, tari asiatice sau africane, o sa vezi ca de multe ori gloria este atasata ulterior unor evenimente care nu iti luau respiratia cand se intamplau.

Ceea ce zic tuturor, inclusiv mie: pune mana si citeste.

Numai bine,

Bori Kovacs

anti-gipsy racism and the symbolism of the female body

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Enikő Magyari-Vincze

[“Rasism antitiganesc si simbolistica trupului feminin”]

The attitudes and discourses of politicians, journalists, people from the street or internet users towards the recent act of violence and crime in Italy perpetrated – seemingly – by a Romanian citizen brings to the fore many (re)sentiments and ideas about “who we are”, or about “our” position in relation to those we think are superior/inferior compared to “us”, or about what we think “others” expect from “us” and what expectations “we” may have regarding “them”. Beyond the crime, these reactions symbolically express processes of cultural (self)positioning of people who are perceived and defined as “Romanians in Europe”. These processes take place after the political blessing of Romania’s accession to EU, and they obviously have material and existential consequences for those concerned. One realizes that the interpretation and explanation of a crime carried out in a given place and at a given time by an individual against another is not accidentally framed in particular terms. This is why we need to wonder what all these recounts, narratives and debates are about, what they do represent while also producing the events due to their interpretive power of attributing them certain meanings.
Below I will show that the all too politicized scandal denotes first of all that social exclusion, underlied/justified by the racialization of the excluded individuals or groups, is responsible for the recent anti-gipsy hysteria from Italy and Romania (which on its turn has well-defined political aims). The events also illustrate the way anti-gipsy racism – in order to legitimate and make more popular its actions or to increase its power for mobilization – appropriates and manipulates the female body, which has became on this stage a symbol of the Italian nation jeopardized by intruders perceived through their supposedly inferior (or even criminal) “race”.

In this case, too, trying to figure out what it is happening people make use of the classification systems they have acquired during their socialization as individuals and collectivities. Among them the ethnicized/racialized and the gendered classifications are prominent. The dichotomy between “Europeans” and “Romanians”, “westerners” and “easterners”, “Romanians” and “Roma”, or between “Italian woman” and “Roma man”, as any cultural distinction is produced through everyday social relations, but also in the context of particular political and economic interests. This distinction has well-defined social functions that point beyond the organization of the interpersonal relations on which it is used in a direct way and which it tends to interpret here and now. Because it is a distinction that superficially generalizes personal traits and actions attributing them a presumably universal or group-like character. Traits are not only allocated to groups, but the latter are automatically compared and organized in hierarchies (on different value scales ranging from ‘good’ to ‘bad’, from ‘civilized’ to ‘primitive’ and so on). As a result, certain groups are collectively excluded from the pool of “acceptable” or “normal” people, or even from “humans”. From the perspective of those who have the power to control classifications, but also for those who do not have means for self-representation, the stake of these symbolic games is to establish who is the winner and looser in this messy business and implicitly who deserves access to resources, rights or even life.
In a society that favors the individuals and collectivities belonging to ones own ethnic group and in which people try to explain differences and inequalities resorting to biology, we can expect that in critical situations ethnocracy and racism are going to become more visible and to manifest very intensively. In such cases they will mark social relations as racial by placing all the individuals assumed to belong to a certain category into one (inferior or superior) “race”. Moreover, they will initiate reactions against the “inferior races” (solutions similar to that of Hitler’s, Mussolini’s, or of Antonescu’s) borrowed from a past that suddenly becomes relevant for the present. In addition, racism and ethnocracy racialize traits, activities, phenomena and social problems, consequently anyone who or anything that is seen as inferior, unacceptable, not wanted or outsider, becomes “gipsy” or “gipsy-like”.
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violenza contro le donne e razzismo in Italia

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Stato sessuale
L’emergenza rimossa
Ida Dominijanni
(6/11/2007) Il Manifesto

Passano i giorni, monta l’onda razzista, cresce il delirio identitario, si gonfia il panico securitario, slitta in stato d’eccezione lo stato di diritto, precipita in senso comune fascistoide il senso comune democratico, e nel frattempo svanisce nella nebbia del rimosso il fatto, il dato, l’evento che a tutto questo ha dato origine. Una donna, italiana per caso, aggredita, seviziata e massacrata da un uomo, rumeno per caso.
Per caso, come per caso era inglese Meredith Kergher, massacrata a Perugia da qualcuno di cui non si conosce ancora il certificato etnico. Era italiana Chiara Poggi, massacrata a Garlasco quasi certamente da uno di casa. Era pakistana Hina, massacrata a Brescia nell’estate 2006 da suo padre e dai suoi zii pakistani perché voleva vivere all’italiana. Era italiana la moglie di un intellettuale illuminato di Pescara, massacrata e infilata in un cassonetto dal marito poco prima di Hina. L’elenco, si sa, non ha fine, e sovente non ha nomi. Solo volti senza nome e cifre senza volto, per quell’epidemia che ne uccide in Europa più del cancro e dell’infarto, e alla quale il nostro illuminato governo dedica un illuminato spot preventivo nelle prime serate tv.
C’è un’emergenza di cui occuparsi e preoccuparsi? Sì, c’è e non è quella rumena. Si chiama violenza sulle donne, e non ha né colore né passaporto, è transculturale e globale, e gode, a destra e a manca, di rimozioni e connivenze transculturali e globali. E’ insopportabile la strumentalità con cui l’omicidio efferato di Giovanna Reggiani è stato usato, da nefascisti e neodemocratici, per legittimare il repulisti dei rumeni dalle «nostre» strade. Ma non è bella nemmeno la facilità con cui quell’omicidio efferato scivola negli argomenti sacrosanti di chi i rumeni vuole difenderli e rifiuta di criminalizzarli. La questione sessuale affonda nel razzismo da una parte, nella solidarietà dall’altra. E’ inevitabile?
Non può e non deve. E’ un vecchio tic della razionalità politica (maschile), questo di «trascendere» i fatti e i corpi in «più alti» significati: l’immigrazione, la globalizzazione, l’insicurezza, la sicurezza… ma quel corpo di una donna massacrato da un uomo resta lì, con tutti gli altri corpi di donne massacrati da uomini, a chiedere anche un altro ordine del discorso. Questo ad esempio, che non sono solo i decreti emergenziali, la confusione fra responsabilità individuali e presunti «marchi culturali» collettivi, la sospensione reiterata dei diritti e dello stato di diritto – non sono sole queste le anticamere o le porte spalancate al razzismo, ai pogrom e alle pulizie etniche. C’è da sempre, nella cultura occidentale e non solo in quella occidentale, un indicatore certo dell’imbarbarimento razzista, ed è la riduzione del corpo femminile a cosa, la pretesa di averne piena disponibilità con le buone o con le cattive, l’identificazione del sesso femminile col carattere della preda e col destino della vittima e di quello maschile col carattere del predatore e col destino del carnefice. Sesso e carattere appunto: prima del nazismo venne Weininger.
Barriere di sesso e barriere identitarie crescono assieme, cadono assieme. Non uno degli uomini che hanno a cuore la sicurezza sarà credibile finché alienerà sui rumeni o su altri «altri» un’autocoscienza che non riesce a fare su di sé e sui propri vicini di casa. Non uno degli uomini che hanno a cuore l’accoglienza dei rumeni fra noi sarà credibile finché non si interrogherà sulle violenze di cui troppe donne rumene soffrono nelle proprie case. Ci sarà il 24 novembre una manifestazione di donne contro la violenza sulle donne. Sarebbe stato bello, civile, democratico se a convocarla fossero stati uomini.

http://diserzionisensibili.splinder.com/

Call for Ideas: Students Conference in European Feminist and Gender Studies

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Call for Ideas : Students Conference in European Feminist and Gender Studies; Utrecht, the 3rd June 2009

WeAVE (a Network for European gender studies students, postgraduate students, PhDs, post-doc researchers, junior teachers or anyone else interested in this field of study) is planning to organise a one day Student Conference, the 3 rd June 2009, in the frame of the 7th European Feminist Research Conference “Gendered Cultures at the Crossroads of Imagination, Knowledge and Politics” organised by the Thematic Network for European Women’s Studies, ATHENA3, the 4-7 June 2009 in Utrecht (the Netherlands).

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