The Feminist School

Humour as Soft Repression in Aqa'ed al-Nesa: Notes on the Macro-Politics of Ridicule vis-à-vis Gender / Mostafa Abedinifard

admin — 2013-05-22T12:05:52Z

FeministSchool: The following article is written by Mostafa Abedinifard, [1] University of Alberta, about Aqa'ed al-Nesa:

Ridicule, Social Control and Norm-Reinforcement: A (Western) Historical Overview

In this short essay, I conjecture on the macro-political dynamics of ridicule—as a form or aspect of humour—in its relation to gender order. As a significant type of social order, gender order refers to the pattern of gender relations between and among men and women at the level of a whole society. Therefore, rather than dealing with micro-relations, “gender order refers to the current state of a macro-politics of gender” (Flood 235). Unlike micro-politics, which takes the individual as its unit of analysis, macro-politics is the politics of the aggregate, thus dealing with such collective identities as groups of people, institutions, and the states. Within the dynamics of such politics, I am particularly interested in how ridicule, as a disciplinary practice, may affect the social order. The extant literature on humour identifies many interpersonal and social functions of humour. Of these, the functions of “enforcing social norms and exerting social control” (Martin 150)—often relying on ridicule for their effectiveness—are of paramount importance to my inquiry.

Ridicule signifies “the act of making fun of some aspect of another [which] involves a combination of humor and degradation and encompasses a range of activities like teasing, sarcasm, and ritualized insults” (Wooten 188-189). References to ridiculing laughter date back to Greek philosophy, and to the works of such figures as Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. However, systemic thoughts on the ridiculing aspects of humour first emerge in the works of the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, whose thoughts on the matter are later developed into what we now recognize as the superiority theory of humour (Roeckelein 95-7). Concerns with ridicule continue after Hobbes, but tend to decline gradually by the emergence, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, of humour theories which significantly shy away from ridicule—in particular the incongruity and the relief theories (Morreall 9).

The French philosopher Henri Bergson, in his Le rire: Essai sur la signification du comique (Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic), partly revives the previous prominence of ridicule. Bergson deems the useful social function of laughter to be its social corrective function, which he embeds in his more complex argument about “the comic [as] ‘something mechanical encrusted on the living'” (qtd in Billig 127). Preoccupation with the corrective function of ridicule randomly continues in the twentieth century, with some scholars emphasizing ridicule as a social control and norm-reinforcement strategy. However, ridicule only becomes the subject of a book-length research by the publication in 2005 of Michael Billig's Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour. As a prominent work in the emergent field of critical humour studies, Billig's book seeks to advance previous claims about the disciplinary aspects of ridicule. Somewhat venturesomely, Billig contends that humour, in the form of ridicule, plays a universal and hence necessary role in maintaining all social life. “Without the possibility of laughter,” he asserts, “serious social life could not be sustained” (5, 200). [2] While proving Billig's claim is well beyond the scope of this writing, or any other separate endeavour for that matter, in this short essay, I would like to foreground a couple of historical cases which reveal, on a macro-political level, the disciplinarity of ridicule vis-à-vis gender as an important structure of social relations in almost all societies. The cases are hoped to support and at the same time hint towards extending Billig's contention.

Ridicule as Soft Repression: The Case of Contemporary Western Gender-Based Movements

In her essay, “Soft Repression: Ridicule, Stigma, and Silencing in Gender-Based Movements,” sociologist Myra Marx Ferree makes a case for the powerful function that the informal social control strategies of ridicule, stigma, and silencing have occupied in non-state actors' attempts to block or disarm gender-based movements in the West throughout the twentieth century. Ferree aims to transform our conventional understanding of repression as “only in terms of violence and state action,” which she deems as “hard repression” (97). Thus, she draws our attention to how in the past two decades, social movement scholars have noticed various women's movements which have taken place as decentralized activities pointed towards institutions other than the state. Ferree marks such women's movements as “the very epitome of” similar civil movements in the twentieth century that have “include[d] a variety of non-state institutional targets and change strategies that depend on cultural subversion as much or more than stone-throwing confrontation” (86).

In such movements, Ferree states, “it is the change in values, perspectives, culture, norms, expectations and behavior in the public at large that is the real goal of the movement, and state action, if any, is one of many means to its end, not an end itself” (87). Thus, the state, if it ever intends to respond to such movements, tends to “co-opt” rather than to “quash” them (86). With such decentralized protest movements directed at changing the civil society, Ferree suggests, a different model of understanding the dynamics of social movement is needed (88). Thus, as opposed to the more familiar hard repression model, mostly expected from the state, Ferree conceptualizes the notion of soft repression which is distinguished by “the collective mobilization of power, albeit in non-violent forms and often highly informal ways, to limit and exclude ideas and identities from the public forum” (88). This new model of repression constitutes the three strategies of ridicule, stigma, and silencing.

Ferree extends ridicule from what she deems a micro-level of analysis to the realm of groups and collective identities. Thus, in delineating ridicule's role in soft repression, not only does she refer to the elementary schoolers' social practice of mocking “fags,” “queers,” and “dykes” as instances of discursive acts directed towards policing boundaries and enforcing conformity, but she also expands the effects of ridicule to groups and movements as aggregate identities. By doing this, she views ridicule as “a tool explicitly put to use to diminish and disarm cultural challengers who are mobilizing or mobilized.” Ferree reminds us of the “mocking abbreviation” of “women's lib” that the women's liberation movement received immediately after its advent, and of such labels as “bra-burners” and “feminazi[s]” as the movement's followers have sometimes been called by. She leaves no doubt concerning the importance of such seemingly insignificant labels, when she later demonstrates how some Western public media's use of stigmatizing terms in reference to feminists has in fact significantly diminished the number of women who self-identify as “feminist” while simultaneously increasing “the proportion of women who considered the term ‘feminist' to be an insult.” [3]

Ferree's observation of ridicule as a tool for soft repression is strongly reverberated in the case of a late Safavid (1532-1736) humorous text in Persian, titled Aqa'ed al-Nesa (Beliefs of Women). [4] However, while Ferree explores the role of non-state actors' ridicule in suppressing “gender-based movements”—i.e., the deployment of ridicule by non-state agents for sustaining a well-established or long-standing gender order—in the case of Aqa'ed al-Nesa we note how ridiculing humour could be employed by state-affiliated entities to support state-initiated hard repression vis-à-vis the social and particularly the gender order. At a critical juncture during the Safavid dynasty, Aqa'ed al-Nesa was apparently written by a state-affiliated clergyman with the specific purpose of supporting certain serious and harsh measures that the state had already launched in order to re-define many mores in the social life of its subjects in Isfahan, the then capital city of Persia.

On the Repressive Humour of Aqa'ed al-Nesa

Aqa'ed al-Nesa (عقائد النسا), which is described as “a specimen of Persian humour, a jeu d'esprit” by its first 19th-century English translator James Atkinson, was “probably written during the reign of [the eight Safavid king] Shah Sulayman (r. 1666-1694).” Its author was “the cleric Aqa Jamal Khansari (آقا جمال خوانساری) (d. 1710)” (350), who announced his intention in writing the book to be a critique of what he self-proclaimed as the “superstitions” practiced by many of his contemporary women (Babayan 350).

Khansari, a renowned faqih (i.e., Islamic jurisprudent) at the time, satirically writes Aqa'ed al-Nesa as a summary account of several imaginary religious resalahs (i.e., booklets containing frequently asked questions regarding the shari'a and its practice in daily life) purportedly written by five female faqihs whom Khansari similarly fabricates for satirical effects. These female faqihs are, seemingly in a tongue-in-cheek manner, named: Bibi Shah Zeinab, Kulsum Naneh (this one has become an alternative title to Khansari's text), Khaleh Jan Agha, Baji Yasaman, and Dadeh Bazm-Ara. Khansari holds these fake figures accountable for legitimating a set of beliefs he tends to deride throughout the sixteen short chapters of his book.

Like a typical religious resalah, Aqa'ed al-Nesa opens with the three vital topics of the ritual ablutions (vozu), daily prayers (namaz), and fasting (ruzeh). The list continues with further subjects some of which which, compatibly with Khansari's jocular tone throughout the book, descend into topics which do not normally appear in genuine resalahs, and actually contradict conventional Islamic jurisprudence: marriage, wedding nights, childbirth, bath-houses, musical instruments and their occasions, marital relations, food for vows [nazr], amulets and talismans, those to whom women are accessible [mahram] and those to whom they are denied access [namahram], the favourable answering of women's prayer, house guests, vows of sisterhood [sigheye khahar-khandegi], and things they send each other” (Babayan 379; Katirai xvii-xviii).

Khansari's text, perhaps due to his own declaration that it is a criticism of superstitious beliefs, had mostly been regarded and read accordingly by scholars. More recently, however, the book has been suggested as a document worthy of historiographical investigation. One such investigation is historian Kathryn Babayan's highly insightful essay titled “The Aqa'id al-Nisa': A Glimpse at Safavid Women in Local Isfahani Culture.” In this paper, Babayan puts Aqa'ed al-Nesa in its socio-historical milieu in order to re-imagine “the world of urban women in seventeenth-century local Isfahani culture” (349). According to Babayan, Aqa'ed al-Nesa marks a critical “juncture in Safavid history, on the eve of an orthodoxy” when Imami Shi'ism was being successfully embedded and institutionalized within the Safavid state. More specifically, this procedure entailed a reaction against “the more eclectic and tolerant darvish [i.e., sufist] culture of the classical Safavid era (1501-88)” preceding this new era. Due to this transformational reaction, a major redefinition of social moralities, including those of gender roles and gender politics, was undertaken. In order to make a successful transition, the Safavid court issued unprecedentedly harsh edicts regarding the social and moral behaviours of people, who had enjoyed strikingly further social and religious freedom during the classical Safavid era. For instance, wine and all non-shar'i activities were banned (thousands of bottles of wines were broken); music and dance were prohibited at all ceremonies; the veil became mandatory; and women were banned from lingering in public places, and from appearing in public without the accompaniment of a mahram relative.

Babayan's contextualization enables us to regard Khansari's text as a historically consequential instance of the strategic deployment of ridicule as a disciplinary tool for soft repression vis-a-vis social, but particularly, gender norms as they were being adopted and appropriated by his contemporary women. The text's disciplinarity was apparently hoped to be achieved by putting to embarrassment, if not to shame, those women who, heedless of the newly established social order by the late Safavid state, would still want to choose to continue their own previous forms of life. Throughout the text, our renowned faqih author makes frequent derisive references to the jocularly named old female ‘olamā, whose characters sound to us as incongruously ridiculous as they would probably seem to the text's immediate audience. Such references frame all the other derisions throughout the text, which is aimed at ordinary women who would still be willing to follow the ridiculed maxims. In fact, in his introduction, Khansari explicitly defines his audience to be “any woman who is of age and who is inclined to superstition” (Babayan 362; Katirai 1, my emphasis).

As far as the gender relations and their connection with religion are concerned, Aqa'ed al-Nesa discloses the prevalence among Khansari's contemporary women of many non-conformist behaviours and acts which he is determined to discipline and repress. For this purpose, Khansari frequently utilizes the technique of depicting such widespread gendered acts as ludicrously incongruous with what he presupposes as the genuine religious and/or social mores. As a case in point, in part of the text it is revealed that some women simply ranked the compulsory daily prayers inferior to their own predilections, or that under certain circumstances women simply chose to dispense with the compulsory prayers. Such circumstances, as ironically disclosed by Khansari, had to do with the asymmetrical power relations such women apparently experienced in their marital relationships: “Further, when a woman is in the bath, and is amusing herself with her friends in cheerful conversation, or when she is listening to the fond protestations of a lover, and has not leisure for more serious calls on her thoughts, prayer is not required; nor is it necessary when women have guests, nor when they go to see a bride, nor when a husband goes to a journey, or arrives from a journey. But should a woman, whilst engaged in prayer, happen to discover her husband speaking to a strange damsel, it is wajib for her to pause and listen attentively to what passes between them, and if necessary, to put an end to their conversation” (Atkinson 24-25).

In another part, the author, while complaining that women claim much more freedom than they must be religiously and conventionally allowed within their marital relations, reveals his concerns about women's homosociality: “And if [a woman] wishes to undertake a little journey, to go to the house of her friends for a month, to attend the baths, or enjoy any other pastime, it is not fit for the husband to deny those wishes, and distress her mind by refusal. And when she resolves upon giving an entertainment, it is wajib that he should anticipate what she wants, and bring to her all kinds of presents, and food, and wine, required on the festive occasion. And in entertaining her guests, and mixing among them, and doing all that hospitality and cordial friendship demand, she is not to be interrupted or interfered with by her husband saying ‘What have you done? Where have you been?' And if her female guests choose to remain all night, they must be allowed to sleep in the woman's room, while the husband sleeps apart and alone…” (Atkinson 56-57). “Inasmuch as Aqa Jamal was deriding such female expectations,” Babayan observes, “Isfahani women played more than the obedient and submissive role the purist clergyman, Majlisi II, paints for wives in his contemporaneous essay on Imami Shi'i practice, Hilyat al-Muttaqin (1081/1670), a role Aqa jamal would have also deemed more appropriate for pious women” (369).

Numerous other examples of Khansari's mocking his contemporary women's gendered behaviour could be mentioned. All such examples—in light of Babayan's contextualization as well as of Ferree's discussion—could serve to support the above conjecture about the strategic deployment of ridicule as an informal social control strategy and as soft repression in Aqa'ed al-Nesa. If this is the case, we might be able to claim that other than reinforcing firmly settled social orders (as argued by Billig and others), ridicule could also be employed to fortify newly projected social orders. In this latter case, however, it appears that the nascent order must have already gained some degree of cultural hegemony—or at least some sovereign coercion, as witnessed in the case of Aqa'ed al-Nesa—since “ridicule is [almost always] ‘the prerogative of the powerful,' not an option for the weak and the oppressed” (Murphy 128). [5]

Works Cited

Atkinson, James, trans. Customs and Manners of the Women of Persia, and their Domestic Superstitions. London: n.p., 18.

Babayan, Kathryn. “The ‘Aqa'id Al-Nisa': A Glimpse at Ṣafavid Women in Local Isfahani Culture.” Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Patronage, and Piety. Ed. Gavin Hambly. New York, NY: St. Martin's, 1998. 349-381.

Billig, Michael. Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour. London: Sage, 2005.

Ferree, Myra Marx. “Soft Repression: Ridicule, Stigma, and Silencing in Gender-Based Movements.” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts & Change 25 (2004): 85-101.

Flood, Michael. “Gender Order.” International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities. Ed. Michael Flood et al. London: Routledge, 2007. 235-236.

Katirai, Mahmud, ed. Aqa'ed al-Nesa. Tehran: Ketabkhaneh-ye Tahuri, 1349 [1970].

Kuipers, Giselinde. “The Politics Of Humour In The Public Sphere: Cartoons, Power And and Modernity in the First Transnational Humour Scandal.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 14.1 (2011): 63-80.

Martin, Rod A. The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Academic P, 2007. Print.

Morreall, John. Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

Murphy, Peter. Studs, Tools, and the Family Jewels: Metaphors Men Live By. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001.

Roeckelein, Jon E. The Psychology of Humor: A Reference Guide and Annotated Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood P, 2002.

Shubnell, Thomas. Men vs. Women: A Complete Book of Lists. Charleston, SC: Createspace, 2008.

Wooten, David B. “From Labeling Possessions to Possessing Labels: Ridicule and Socialization among Adolescents.” Journal of Consumer Research 33(2006): 188- 198.

[1] Mostafa Abedinifard is a doctoral candidate in the Comparative Literature Program at the University of Alberta. His current research interests include critical theory, masculinities studies, disability studies, and humour studies. His dissertation work involves the power dynamics of ridicule in its relation to gender orders of societies.

[2] For an overview of Michael Billig's book, see here.

[3] The contemporary English jokelore confirms Ferree's observation. In a joke collection called A Complete Book of Lists: Men vs. Women, for instance, under the “Woman Personal Ad Translator” list we have: “Feminist: Fat” (Shubnell 86). As Giselinde Kuipers reminds us, the “humourless feminist” is a prevalent target in jokes: “How many feminists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? That's not funny!” (73). (It is noteworthy that sense of humour as a personal characteristic has a history. In modern times, the lack of a sense of humour is associated with “personal shortcoming” and thus can denote an insult [Kuipers 75].)

[4] As the text's editor Mahmud Katirai remarks, there exist various manuscripts of Aqa'ed al-Nesa in Persian. Accordingly, the current translations also probably vary. For the 1832 English translation by J. Atkinson, see here. For the 1881 French translation, by Jules Thonnelier, see here.

[5] I am thankful to Afsaneh Najmabadi for bringing to my attention Aqa'ed al-Nesa as well as Babayan's essay on it.

Ehren- und Kuratoriumsmitgliedschaft für Nasrin Sotoudeh

admin — 2013-04-19T14:38:21Z

FeministSchool: Die Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte (IGFM) hat bei ihrer 41. Jahreshauptversammlung in Bonn die Ehren- und Kuratoriumsmitgliedschaft von Nasrin Sotoudeh bekannt gegeben. Sie ist eine der bekanntesten iranischen Menschenrechtsaktivistinnen und hat als Anwältin unter anderem zahlreiche Frauenrechtlerinnen und politische Aktivisten vertretten.

Die iranische Journalistin und Frauenrechtsaktivistin, Mansoureh Shojaee, sprach bei der Mitgliederversammlung von IGFM über Nasrin Sotoudeh, die seit 2010 in Haft ist.

Zu dem Anlass ihrer Ehren- und Kuratoriumsmitgliedschaft bei IGFM hatte Nasrin Sotoudeh aus dem Evin-Gefängnis in Teheran eine Botschaft geschickt, die von Mansoureh Shojaee vorgetragen wurde.

Im Folgenden lesen Sie Mansoureh Shojaees Rede und die Botschaft von Nasrin Sotoudeh.

Mansoureh Shojaees Rede:

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

ich freue mich sehr, dass ich heute hier bin und Ihnen Nasrin Sotoudehs Botschaft zu ihrer Ehren- und Kuratoriumsmitgliedschaft der IGFM vortragen darf. Es ist mir eine Ehre, dass mir diese Aufgabe von Nasrin Sotoudeh aufgetragen wurde. Erlauben Sie mir, einige kurze Sätze über Nasrin zu sagen bevor ich Ihre Botschaft vortrage.

Nasrin Sotoudeh Langarudi begann ihre Arbeit vor 22 Jahren als Journalistin unter dem Pseudonym Nasrin Setayesh. Wenige haben bis heute die wahre Identität dieses Pseudonyms erkannt. Nasrin Setayesh führte Interviews und schrieb Reportagen für die Zeitschrift "Fenster des Dialogs". Sie schrieb in Zusammenarbeit mit verschiedenen reformorientierten Zeitungen wie Jame'eh, Tus und Sobhe emruz über viele Jahre mit voller Verantwortung und journalistischer Ethik. Nachdem sie ihr Jurastudium mit einem Master abgeschlossen hatte, beschäftigte sie sich als Anwältin noch mehr mit gesellschaftlichen Aktivitäten und veröffentlichte seitdem ihre Artikel unter ihrem eigenen Namen in den Zeitschriften und Webseiten.

Ihre Bemühungen, die Hinrichtung von Kindern unter 18 Jahren zu verhindern, machten sie als Verteidigerin der Rechte der Kinder bekannt. Ihr ehrliches Engagement für die Verteidigung der Frauenrechte, Menschenrechte und Kinderrechte haben einen tiefen Eindruck im historischen Gedächtnis der iranischen Bevölkerung hinterlassen.

Sie war Mitglied im Anwaltsverband Markaz, beim Verband der Verteidiger der Menschenrechte, beim Verein zum Schutz der Kinderrechte, bei der Kampagne Eine Million Unterschriften sowie beim Zusammenschluss der Frauen zur Thematisierung ihrer Forderungen während der Präsidentschaftswahl 2009.

Nasrin Sotoudeh gehörte zu den Anwälten, die mit der Entstehung der Kampagne Eine Million Unterschriften 2006 die Gründerinnen und Mitgliederinnen der Kampagne kostenlos vertreten hat. Ebenso war sie Anwältin vieler Journalisten, Studierender, religiöser und ethnischer Minderheiten und von politischen Gefangenen.

Sie wurde am vierten September 2010 verhaftet weil sie ihren Mandanten vertreten hatten. Sie wurde zu elf Jahren Haft, Berufs- und Ausreiseverbot verurteilt. Dieses ungerechte Urteil wurde im Berufungsverfahren auf sechs Jahre Haft verringert. Allerdings ist dieses Revisionsurteil die Fortführung des gleichen ungerechten Prozesses. Sie ist nun im Evin-Gefängnis.

Nasrin wurde durch mehrere gute Eigenschaften und besondere Charakteristika bei der iranischen Bevölkerung und auch weltweit bekannt und beliebt. Aber ich möchte heute als ihre ewige Freundin, Bewunderin und Mandantin nur von einer ihrer Eigenschaften sprechen. Eine Eigenschaft, die wie eine sprudelnde Quelle ihre anderen guten Eigenschaften hervorbringt. Diese Eigenschaft ist Nasrins Vertrauenswürdigkeit bei allen Rollen, die sie bisher übernommen hat.

Wenn sie Mutter ist, ist sie verantwortungsvoll und liebevoll mütterlich und sogar in Haft und fern ihrer Kinder setzt sie ihren Hungerstreik bis zur Todesgrenze fort, um das Recht ihrer zwölfjährigen Tochter zurückzubekommen und die Aufhebung des Ausreiseverbots zu erreichen. Wenn sie Anwältin ist leistet sie in ständiger Begleitung ihrer Mandanten bei den Gerichtsverhandlungen, in der Öffentlichkeit, in legalen und öffentlichen Versammlungen und Demonstrationen Widerstand. Sie bleibt in Haft und bemüht sich um die Verteidigung ihrer Mandanten. Als Ehefrau ist sie aufopferungsbereit, und als Aktivistin ist sie pflichtbewusst. Als Freundin ist sie vertrauenswürdig und als Journalistin informativ und lehrreich. In allen diesen individuellen und sozialen Rollen strahlt sie durch ihr pflichtbewusstes Verhalten und ihre Art eine emotionale Sicherheit und Zuversicht aus. Dies ist den Menschen nicht verborgen geblieben und machte aus ihr ein beliebtes, vertrauenswürdiges Gesicht.

Die internationalen Preise wie der Menschenrechtspreis in Italien und der Sacharowpreis sowie die Unterstützung der Menschen in Form von Petitionen, Kampagnen und Versammlungen zeugen von dem allgemeinen Vertrauen ihr gegenüber. Ihre Vertrauenswürdigkeit ist ihre schönste Eigenschaft, die zu einer beidseitigen Liebe zwischen ihr und der engagierten iranischen Bevölkerung und nun auch der Welt führte.

Die Botschaft von Nasrin Sotoudeh

Sehr geehrte Vorsitzende, sehr geehrte Mitglieder der IGFM,

ich freue mich sehr, dass ich heute als Ehren- und Kuratoriumsmitglied dieser wohlbekannten Organisation zu Ihnen spreche. Letztendlich gehören wir alle einer größeren, weltweit verbreiteten Gesellschaft der Menschenrechtsaktivisten. Wir sind Mitglieder der weltweiten Menschenrechtsfamilie. Auch in meinem Land Iran wird seit vielen Jahren das Thema Menschenrechte von den Aktivisten ernsthaft verfolgt.

Ich möchte diese Gelegenheit nutzen, um auf einen der Fälle von Menschenrechtsverletzungen hinzuweisen, welcher leider auch in meinem Land vorkommt. Die Sippenhaftung verstört und belästigt die Familien der gesellschaftlichen und Menschenrechtsaktivisten. Sobald eine Person aus politischen Gründen oder aufgrund ihrer Überzeugung angeklagt, verfolgt oder verhaftet wird, werden gleichzeitig auch ihre Familienmitglieder und nahestehende Personen unter Beobachtung gestellt, und in den meisten Fällen werden auch sie juristisch verfolgt oder sozialen Diskriminierungen wie Entlassungen, Ausreiseverboten und anderen gesellschaftlichen Verboten ausgesetzt.

Der Hauptgrund für meinen letzten Hungerstreik, der 49 Tage andauerte war die Fokussierung auf die Sippenhaftung. Eine Bestrafung, die sogar unsere zwölfjährige Tochter betroffen hatte. Nun sind Familienmitglieder von vielen politischen Gefangenen auch gleichzeitig in Haft und viele Angehörige sind gefährdet, verhaftet zu werden. Bei manchen politischen Gefangenen sind mehr als zwei Mitglieder ihrer Familie gleichzeitig in Haft.

Die Sippenhaftung ist eine der ungerechtesten Menschenrechtsverletzungen in Ländern wie Iran. Es ist notwendig, dass die Öffentlichkeit und Menschenrechtsinstitutionen ihr eine besondere Aufmerksamkeit schenken.

Ich beende meine Rede mit Erfolgswünschen für Ihre angesehene Organisation und für alle Mitglieder der weltweiten Menschenrechtsfamilie und auch mit dem Wunsch, dass Recht und Gerechtigkeit überall auf der Welt verwirklicht werden.

Mit herzlichsten Grüßen Nasrin Sotoudeh Evin-Gefängnis, April 2013

Honorary Membership and Board of Trustees for Nasrin Sotoudeh / Jacqueline Elizabeth

admin — 2013-04-19T14:33:07Z

FeministSchool: The German Section of the International Society for Human Rights (IGFM) held its 41st Annual Conference in Bonn this past weekend whereNasrin Sotoudeh's honorary membership and appointment to the advisory board of the International Society for Human Rights was announced.

Nasrin Sotoudeh is one of Iran's most-known human rights activists and an attorney who represents numerous women's rights activists andmembers of the democracy movement. Because of her work for human rights, Sotoudeh has been in jail since 2010. However, it is also because of her work that Sotoudeh was requested to become a member and appointed to the advisory board of the International Society for Human Rights.

Max Klingberg of the IGFM stated, "Nasrin Sotoudeh is one of the most important human rights activists of our time. Her courage and bravery have impressed the world. Her absolute and nonviolent commitment to human rights is directed against acts of brute force by the authorities and in support of freedom and the rule of law but overall she simply works for humans because they are humans. She acts not for ideological or religious reasons, but because there are people who need help. We (the IGFM) are happy, grateful and proud that Nasrin Sotoudeh has accepted the honorary board of trustees and a member of the International Society for Human Rights."

Amidst the many risks and obstacles of sending a message from Evin Prison in Tehran, Sotoudeh sent a letter anyways to be delivered by her dear friend Mrs. Mansoureh Shojaee, an exiled Iranian journalist and internationally recognized women's rights activist. The letter was written in Farsi and was translated into German by Parisa Tonekaboni.

Shojaee felt it was not only important to share Sotoudeh's letter with the General Assembly of ISHR on Sunday but also to speak to Sotoudeh's character as well. Shojaee spoke of Sotoudeh as a woman with great strength and commitment. She stated Sotoudeh takes on many roles but she always stays true to each individual role.

“If she is a mother, she is responsible, loving, and motherly… If she's a lawyer she is in constant company of her clients in the court proceedings, in public, in legal and public meetings and resistance demonstrations. … As a wife she is selfless and as an activist she is dutiful. As a friend, she is trustworthy and as a journalist she is informative and educational. In all these individual and social roles her dutiful behavior and her way of an emotional security and confidence shines through.” Sotoudeh's letter further reinforced Shojaee's words describing her character, as the letter revealed that she will do anything she can even from within prison walls to end human rights violations. Sotoudeh used the letter as a platform to draw attention to and end violations against the families of political prisoners in Iran. Sotoudeh explained that her 49 day hunger strike was in protest to discrimination against her family, especially her 12 year old daughter.

Sotoudeh ended the letter by wishing success to “all members of the global human rights family” and also hoping “that law and justice are achieved everywhere in the world.”

A hymn for Nasrin Sotoudeh on the occasion of New Year / Mansoureh Shojaei

admin — 2013-04-10T16:36:55Z

FeministSchool: The 6th of the Persian month of Farvardin (March 26th) is the birthday of the Prophet Zarathustra; it is also the day when he began to pray his creator. My New Year message: We regard every day as auspicious, signs of a marvellous spring keep growing, the font of spring is the New Year; our eyes garner every day new marvels and they will last until the month of Khordad (June/July) : a vernal exhilaration of humanity, of earth and heavens. When the heat of summer arrives, their intensity will decline.

It is the third New Year far from home; not only is the arrival of spring not felt, there's no calendar. Well, in fact there is a calendar, but it does not show correlations between solar and lunar events, and, of course, bears no relation to the Western calendar; it coincides with the latest information about Iran. This calendar does not mention seasons, nature, Zarathustra or anything like that. Its raisons d'être are events impacting Iran, and their increasing or decreasing importance. For instance, the day the year changes is the one some prisoners were released on furlough and Nasrin Sotoudeh's unexpected arrival at home; in the same way, Farvardin 1st (March 21st) is the birthday of a dear one in Iran, Favardin 5th (March 24th) the day when Kasra Nouri, one the dervishes detained in Adel-Abad prison of Shiraz, passed out on the sixth day of his hunger strike.

Farvardin 6th, after one week on furlough, Nasrin will have to go back to prison. I could not remember Zarathustra's birthday or the day he began preaching, but on the sixth day after Norooz, I picked the phone up several times to contact Nasrin but hung it up gently. The new calendar is filled with suitable days for conversations, also full of anguish to know whether I should malke contact; it matches my destiny, always doubtfully expecting, waiting for anothers' decision, balancing whether to write. Above all, do not create more trouble, do not bother others, do not…. Reza Khandan's quiet and sad voice telling that the connection worked, the voice says that uncertainty disappeared, that they are just back from a trip… Nasrin's firm and gentle voice, making me feel somewhat embarrassed, which at last frees me from stress.

The usual gentle greetings, advice from a lawyer who is always concerned about the prisoners' conditions, then empathy, and she is somewhat unhappy about the official propaganda regarding her furlough, so far from truth; she says that this too short furlough does not compensate for heavy and unjust sentences, it does not solve any problem. She says that when her parents died, she was granted only one day's furlough; she speaks sadly and bitterly of her parents' deaths. She says that now, on the sixth day, she must return to prison and not spend the rest of the holidays with her husband and children. She says that these too short furloughs are not the remedy for all these sentences, all these injustices. She says the remedy could be showing respect to all the people suffering from unjust sentences, who are tired of so much inequity. She says the remedy could be to fix the fate of countless prisoners in limbo about their fate (many prisoners have no legal status, charges, sentences, are in preventive detention, etc) to grant them a fair and humane trial. She says that the prisons are full; many youth were sentenced for showing interest in their fellow-countrymen's fates, which endangers their future. She says how to ask for freedom under these circumstances? She says that the repeal of all unfair convictions is her vow for the New Year. She says that her furlough was too short, she had to join her fellow detainees, she then said good-bye.

In my calendar, Farvardin 6th is Nasrin's prayer for her friends' day. May her life last long and her words last forever.

Hymne à Nasrine Sotoudeh à l'occasion du Nouvel-An / Mansoureh Shojaei

admin — 2013-04-08T21:17:51Z

FeministSchool : Le 6 du mois persan de Farvardine (26 mars) est le jour anniversaire du prophète Zarathoustra ; c'est aussi le jour où il a commencé à prier son créateur. Mon message pour le Nouvel-An : nous considérons chaque jour comme faste, les signes d'un merveilleux printemps vont croissant, la source du printemps c'est le Nouvel-An ; chaque jour nos yeux engrangent de nouvelles merveilles qui dureront jusqu'au mois de Khordad [juin/juillet ] : une joie de vivre printanière, de l'homme, de la terre et du ciel. A l'arrivée de la chaleur de l'été, leur intensité ira diminuant.

C'est le troisième Nouvel-An loin de la maison ; non seulement aucun ressenti de la venue du printemps mais encore aucun calendrier, en fait il y a bien un calendrier mais il n'indique pas les concordances solaires et lunaires et bien sûr pas non plus la concordance avec le calendrier occidental ; il coïncide avec les plus vieilles informations sur l'Iran. Ce calendrier ne mentionne ni les saisons, ni la nature, ni Zarathoustra, ni rien de tout ça. Sa raison d'être, ce sont les évènements qui frappent l'Iran, et leur importance qui va croissant ou décroissant. Par exemple, le jour du changement d'année correspond avec la libération provisoire de certains détenus et l'arrivée inopinée de Nasrine Sotoudeh chez elle, de même que le 1er Favardine (21 mars) correspond à la naissance d'un être cher en Iran, le 5 Farvardine (24 mars) au jour où Kasra Nouri, l'un des derviches détenus à la prison d'Adel-Abad de Shiraz s'est évanoui au sixième jour de sa grève de la faim. Le 6 Farvardine, après une semaine de liberté provisoire, Nasrine devra retourner en prison. Je ne me souvenais plus de la date de naissance de Zarathoustra ni celle du début de sa prédication mais, le sixième jour après Norouz, j'ai plusieurs fois décroché le téléphone pour contacter Nasrine, et je l'ai raccroché tout doucement. Tous les jours du nouveau calendrier sont pleins de jours propices aux relations, pleins aussi de l'angoisse de savoir s'il faut ou non prendre contact ; il correspond à mon destin, toujours attendre dans l'incertitude, attendre la décision des autres, savoir si je dois ou non écrire. Surtout, ne pas créer davantage de problèmes, ne pas gêner, ne pas… La voix tranquille et triste de Réza Khandan qui dit que la relation est établie, la voix dit que l'incertitude a disparu, qu'ils viennent de rentrer de voyage… La voix décidée et gentille de Nasrine, un peu gênée qui enfin me libère de mon stress.

Il y a d'abord eu les gentilles salutations habituelles, les conseils de l'avocate de toujours qui se soucie de la situation des prisonniers, et puis l'empathie et puis elle en voulait un peu à toute la propagande officielle autour de ses libérations provisoires, bien loin de la vérité ; selon elle, ces libérations provisoires, trop courtes, ne compensent pas les peines lourdes et injustes, elles ne résolvent aucun problème. Elle dit qu'à la mort de ses parents, elle n'a eu qu'une permission d'un jour ; elle parle avec une grande tristesse et une grande amertume de leurs décès. Et maintenant, au sixième jour, elle doit retourner en prison sans finir ses vacances avec son mari et ses enfants. Elle dit que cette libération provisoire trop courte n'est pas le remède à toutes ces condamnations, à toutes ces injustices. Elle dit que le remède serait de respecter les personnes qui souffrent de condamnations injustes et qui sont fatiguées de cette injustice. Elle dit que le remède serait de fixer les innombrables prisonniers dans l'incertitude sur leur sort (de nombreux prisonniers n'ont pas de statut légal, accusé, condamné, en incarcération préventive, etc…) de leur permettre d'être jugés équitablement. Elle dit que les prisons sont pleines, que de nombreux jeunes ont été condamnés pour s'être intéressés au sort de leurs compatriotes, ce qui met leur avenir en danger, alors comment penser à réclamer la liberté dans ces conditions ? Elle dit que l'abrogation de toutes les condamnations injustes, est son vœu du nouvel an. Elle dit que sa liberté provisoire est trop courte, qu'il lui fallait rejoindre ses codétenues, alors elle a dit au-revoir.

Le 6 Farvardine de mon calendrier a concordé avec le jour de la prière de Nasrine pour ses amis. Qu'elle ait longue vie et que ses paroles soient éternelles.

Les Femmes que nous sommes / Shirin Bahramirad

admin — 2013-03-16T20:31:19Z

FeministSchool : Discours de Shirine Bahramirad à l'exposition d'Amnesty International intitulée « Gardons le Cœur de l'Iran en vie » le 8 mars 2013, Miesbach :

Ce soir, je voudrais vous expliquer que les problèmes des femmes en Iran ne sont pas aussi tranchés qu'ils le semblent, comment nous nous arrangeons pour conserver une partie de nos droits et comment le gouvernement conserve son emprise sur nous.

Mais je vais commencer par une anecdote.

En Iran, les droits de sortie du territoire, de travailler, d'étudier, de divorcer et de garde des enfants n'appartiennent qu'aux hommes. Beaucoup de femmes l'ignorent jusqu'à ce qu'elles rencontrent un problème et elles ignorent alors qu'il existe des solutions légales pour résoudre leur problème. Grâce au travail des groupes féministes, mon mari et moi avons appris que nous pouvions ajouter des clauses à notre contrat de mariage pour éviter cela, mais nous en ignorions la terminologie exacte. Nous avons donc contacté deux militantes féministes de premier plan Noushine Ahmadi Khorassani, qui est par la suite devenue l'une de mes amies les plus chères et Shadi Sadr. Elles nous ont envoyé des textes avec la terminologie adéquate. Ce n'était cependant pas suffisant ; il existe également des conditions : que tout soit écrit et signé dans un bureau d'enregistrement pour être opposable devant un tribunal, parce que ces droits ne sont pas considérés comme naturels et l'époux doit les transférer à son épouse durant une période déterminée (pour nous, 50 ans). Le notaire et l'employé du service de l'état civil ont tenté d'empêcher Bavand de le faire. Ce fut la première influence du militantisme féministe dans ma vie et depuis lors, j'ai milité.

A l'occasion de la journée internationale pour l'élimination de la violence contre les femmes (25 novembre 2010), Noushine a suggéré que nous confectionnions des marque-pages et je devais en illustrer certains. Noushine voulait des photos de différentes personnes, des jeunes et des vieux, des hommes et des femmes, des religieux et des laïcs, des conservateurs et des modernistes, qui devraient tous écrire une phrase dans la paume de leurs mains pour protester contre ces violences. Elle voulait démontrer qu'en dépit d'attitudes différentes, tous pouvaient soutenir cette cause. Et les photographes devaient tirer le portrait de gens ordinaires, pas de célébrités ou de personnes de premier plan.

J'ai une grande famille qui se rassemble tous les 15 jours dans la maison de ma grand-mère. Nous sommes environ 40 : nous sommes proches en esprit mais de caractères très différents. Ce soir-là, tandis que nous bavardions, j'ai compris que c'était une bonne occasion de prendre des photos. J'ai expliqué ce que je voulais faire à mes cousins, mes oncles et tantes et mes parents en demandant leur permission. Mes parents et deux de mes cousins plus âgés se sont portés volontaires. L'une de mes tantes voulait qu'on prenne son jeune fils en photo et il a commencé à croire en ce qu'il défendait auparavant. Je les ai conduit un par un dans un coin de la maison où mon mari écrivait une phrase dans la paume de leurs mains et je les ai pris en photo pour montrer leurs paumes au monde. Tous nous entouraient en nous disant : « Tiens-toi comme ça, tiens ta main comme ceci, met ton foulard, retire ton foulard, etc » et la soirée a continué. On peut encore voir certaines de ces photos ici.

Une des photos que l'on retrouve sur les sites féministes et sur la couverture d'un livre appartient à Sara qui a 33 ans maintenant. Son père est un fondamentaliste qui la réveillait pour les prières du matin. Il ne lui a pas permis d'étudier à l'université pendant un an parce que l'université se trouvait dans une autre ville. Elle voulait que sa photo paraisse sur les marque-pages pour s'opposer à son père. Maintenant, elle travaille et je suis sûre qu'elle ne récite plus ses prières et qu'elle lit des livres et des articles féministes.

Une des autres photos est celle de ma mère ; elle a toujours été très pratiquante. Avant la révolution, elle a été expulsée de l'école plusieurs mois car elle refusait de retirer son foulard à l'école. Son père ne lui a pas permis, ni à mon autre tante, d'étudier à l'université car ce n'était pas convenable pour des filles. Elle m'a eu ainsi que mes deux sœurs avant ses 30 ans. Elle est entrée à l'université la même année que moi. Elle dirige actuellement un foyer pour enfants où elle prend soin de 15 garçons ; elle en a adopté deux.

Une autre de ces mains appartient à Ali, 24 ans, qui vient d'épouser sa petite-amie, ce qui ne serait pas arrivé dans cette famille vingt ans plus tôt. La mariée a dit en plaisantant que le marque-pages serait pendu au mur pour qu'il le voie le reste de sa vie.

Comme vous le voyez, les choses ont changé et continuent de changer mais cela n'a pas été simple. La famille, les institutions gouvernementales et les militants ont joué un rôle dans ces changements. Voici une anecdote que je vais tenter de vous relater.

Environ deux ans après la révolution iranienne de 1979, la guerre Iran-Irak avait commencé. Le gouvernement de la république islamique avait déjà rendu le hijab obligatoire pour les femmes. La révolution culturelle avait commencé, « nettoyant » les universités de ses étudiants et professeurs occidentalisés. L'université a été et est encore à l'origine de la plupart des oppositions politiques. Les universités ont été complètement fermées pendant deux ans. Ensuite, les étudiants ont dû passer au travers des mailles d'un comité de sélection établi dans toutes les universités. Bien sûr, les femmes n'étaient pas vraiment bienvenues. Elles pouvaient ne pas passer le filtre du comité par exemple parce qu'elles étaient « mal voilées ». Beaucoup de cursus, considérés comme non convenables, leurs étaient interdits. Les garçons et les filles n'avaient pas le droit de se parler et leurs échanges se limitaient à l'échange de notes prises pendant les cours dans les couloirs. Et pourtant, le nombre de femmes à l'université a beaucoup augmenté sous le nouveau régime et elles ont vite été plus nombreuses que les hommes.

La ségrégation des sexes et les restrictions imposées aux femmes s'appliquaient également dans les écoles et dans la rue. La police de moralité était partout et arrêtait les femmes dont les cheveux n'étaient pas correctement couverts. Les réunions de famille se tenaient avec précaution pour que les gardes révolutionnaires ne les découvrent pas, hommes et femmes y étant mélangés.

A cette époque, les groupes féministes n'agissaient pas publiquement. Le nouveau gouvernement islamique avait exécuté tant de membres des partis politiques qui avaient joué un rôle dans la révolution que personne n'osait tenir de rassemblement public. Les groupes de femmes étaient surtout des cercles privés. Leur activité la plus remarquable était la tenue d'une commémoration annuelle le 8 mars au domicile d'une des membres. Il y avait aussi des réunions mensuelles qui consistaient en projection de films, lecture de livres ou en discussions sur les idées féministes. Les oratrices les plus connues en étaient Shirine Ebadi, Mansoureh Ettehadieh et Mehranguiz Kar.

Après une période de reconstruction sous la présidence de Rafsandjaini, Khatami entra en fonction en 1997. C'était le candidat du parti réformateur, et, bien qu'étant clerc, il ouvrit le pays au militantisme. Les militants du droit des femmes ont finalement pu défendre leurs demandes de façon plus explicite. On trouva des espaces publics pour débattre des réglementations. Le nombre d'associations, de journaux et d'éditions féminines augmenta. A l'université, les études sur les femmes et la différentiation des sexes firent leur apparition et la toute première commémoration publique et légale de la journée internationale de la femme a été organisée le 8 mars 2000, ce qui eut pour effet la création du centre culturel féminin. Ce centre devint célèbre pour son approche innovante : manifestation et éducation concomitantes, ce qui par la suite servit de modèle à la campagne Un Million de Signatures.

Le centre a commencé par demander publiquement au gouvernement de ratifier sans condition la Convention sur l'Elimination de toute forme de Discriminations contre les Femmes, exprimée dans leur première lettre d'information appelée la Lettre de la Femme. Ce fut la première lettre ouverte signée par des militants du droit des femmes. Le centre culturel des femmes a commencé à recueillir les signatures de tous, militants ou non et à organiser des ateliers d'éducation.

Le gouvernement de Khatami a envoyé, en vain, la Convention à un parlement dominé par les conservateurs. Il y eut des manifestations organisées par les forces conservatrices et les jeunes clercs de Qom, le Vatican iranien, qui s'opposaient à la Convention.

Les militants du droit des femmes ont continué à faire feu de tout bois pour rejoindre la Convention. Le 8 mars 2003, le centre a organisé une manifestation au parc Laleh de Téhéran, parmi les orateurs, Shirine Ebadi, Noushine Khorassani et Shadi Sadr, pour protester contre le rejet de la Convention par le parlement. Lorsque Shirine Ebadi a gagné le prix Nobel plus tard cette année-là, le projet de ratification a gagné davantage de soutien.

Malgré tous ses efforts, Khatami n'a pas réussi à faire voter la ratification de la Convention par le parlement. Le sujet refit surface en 2009 lorsque la Coalition des Forces Féminines fut formée. C'était juste avant l'élection présidentielle de 2009 lorsque le contrôle culturel très serré s'est relâché temporairement. Les militants du droit des femmes ont saisi l'opportunité pour promouvoir leur point de vue. Noushine Ahmadi Khorassani a inauguré le Mouvement de la Convergence en demandant à divers groupes féministes de soutenir les candidats qui acceptaient d'incorporer les demandes des femmes dans leurs programmes politiques. La ratification de la Convention était l'une des principales demandes. Avec l'assignation à domicile des candidats favorables au mouvement, l'espace de liberté s'est de nouveau refermé.

L'ère Ahmadinejad aura été l'une des plus sombres pour les militants du droit des femmes depuis la révolution. La séparation des sexes à l'université a refait surface et s'est accéléré sous la pression du gouvernement. Dans certaines universités les filles et les garçons ont cours à des jours différents et beaucoup de professeurs laïcs ont été poussés vers la retraite.

Dans un geste soi-disant progressiste, Ahmadinejad a nommé, pour la première fois depuis la révolution, une femme, le Docteur Vahid Dastjerdi à la tête du ministère de la santé et de l'enseignement médical. Il est assez amusant de constater que son attitude envers la santé et le bien-être de la femme a été la plus sexiste jamais constatée. Elle a proposé la séparation des sexes à l'hôpital, s'est opposée à la Convention et est revenue sur la politique de contrôle des naissances menée depuis la guerre.

Le gouvernement d'Ahmadinejad a essayé de faire voter la loi de protection sur la famille. Cette soi-disant « réforme », surtout la section qui traite de la polygamie, a suscité une grande opposition des militants du droit des femmes. Ce projet suggérait que le mari n'avait pas besoin de la permission de la première épouse pour se remarier, il lui suffisait de prouver au tribunal qu'il en avait les capacités financières. Cette section du projet a été retirée sous les vives critiques des militants, des juristes et des journalistes.

Un autre projet de loi traitait de l'émission de passeport pour les femmes. Jusque-là, les femmes célibataires pouvoir obtenir un passeport et se rendre à l'étranger alors que les femmes mariées, quel que soit leur âge, avaient besoin de l'autorisation de leur mari pour déposer une demande. Le projet de loi initial tentait d'interdire aux célibataires de moins de 40 ans d'obtenir un passeport sans la permission officielle de leur tuteur, père, grand-père paternel, oncle ou juge religieux. Les militants du droit des femmes et de la société civile n'ont pas mis longtemps à s'y opposer. Le projet a donc été révisé et la limite d'âge a été retirée : aucune femme de plus de 18 ans n'avait le droit de quitter le pays sans l'autorisation de son tuteur, ce qui fut également critiqué et le projet a finalement été rejeté par le parlement.

Pour conclure, retour à la réunion familiale chez ma grand-mère. Il est maintenant clair, je l'espère que des filles comme Sara ne sont pas des exceptions. Les pères les plus conservateurs peuvent de nos jours permettre à leurs filles d'étudier dans une université lointaine parce que l'éducation est culturellement très importante pour les parents, et se faisant, la jeune-fille se met hors de portée du contrôle familial. Les grandes villes comme Téhéran permettent à des filles comme Sara, qui a fini par poursuivre ses études, de voir d'autres femmes jouir de leurs droits, ce qui les aide à échapper à la vie que leurs pères avaient prévue pour elles ! Ces changements sont possibles grâce à une combinaison de facteurs. La lutte féministe pour le changement des lois, pour l'éducation et pour présenter leurs demandes encore et encore y joue un grand rôle.

Ma mère croit encore en son hijab. Pour elle, il ne s'agit pas d'une loi du gouvernement. C'est sa religion et sa propre décision. Par définition, elle n'est pas féministe. Mais elle nous a appris à faire ce que nous pensions être bien. On ne nous a jamais forcé à porter le hijab ni à pratiquer la religion. Elle nous a toujours poussées à être indépendantes, à étudier et à travailler pour que nous ne dépendions pas de nos maris. L'éducation supérieure n'était pas une option, c'était une obligation. En entrant à l'université alors que nous étions déjà adolescentes, elle nous a prouvé qu'on pouvait avoir une maison pleine d'enfants et continuer ses études en même temps. Elle s'occupe à présent de 15 garçons, porte toujours le voile et récite toutes ses prières.

Ce que je veux dire c'est que ma mère et Sara n'étaient pas les seules à réussir à briser les barrières et à atteindre leurs buts dans un pays où la répression des femmes est soutenue par la loi. Il y a des millions de femmes qui, malgré toutes les restrictions qu'on leur impose, ont vécu leurs rêves sans avoir à rejeter catégoriquement un style de vie traditionnel ou à trahir leur religion. Il y en a d'autres qui sont aussi laïques que vous. Tout cela est possible grâce aux efforts des militants des droits des femmes comme celles dont vous voyez aujourd'hui les affiches.

Das weibliche Herz der Revolution

admin — 2013-03-14T10:17:23Z

Das Gelbe Blatt: Die 32-Jährige erzählte von persönlichen Eindrücken der Frauenrechtsbewegung in ihrem Land und stellte dar, was die Arbeit der Frauen bewirkt, deren Porträts und Lebensläufe in der Ausstellung zu sehen sind. Sie setzen sich im Iran für die Rechte der weiblichen Bevölkerung ein und landen dafür im Gefängnis. So wie die Anwältin Nasrin Sotudeh, die sich im Land für alle eingesetzt hat, die schutzlos sind oder „aus dem Weg geräumt“ werden sollten: Frauen, misshandelte Kinder, minderjährige Straftäter in der Todeszelle, Oppositionelle. Für ihren Einsatz hat Sotudeh 2012 den Menschenrechtspreis des Europaparlaments erhalten. Wann sie ihn in Empfang nehmen kann, ist ungewiss, denn sie ist derzeit selbst in Haft. Wie viele andere Frauen, aber auch einige Männer, setzt sich Sotudeh dafür ein, dass Frauen im Iran ihre Rechte kennen und auch ausleben dürfen. Dinge, die für die weibliche Bevölkerung in westlichen Ländern wie Deutschland selbstverständlich sind. Wie Bahramirad berichtete, sind die Universitäten im Lande noch immer der Ursprung der meisten politischen Gegensätze. So durften vier Jahre nach Beginn der Revolution 1979 Frauen zwar Unis besuchen, mussten sich jedoch an strenge Regeln halten: etwa die kompletten Haare unter dem sogenannten Hijab verstecken. Außerdem wurde den Männern und Frauen nicht erlaubt, miteinander zu sprechen. In den Straßen und an den Schulen sorgte die „police of morality“, eine Moralpolizei, dafür, dass alle Frauen verhaftet wurden, die sich nicht an die Regeln hielten. Als der radikale und fundamentalistische Mahmud Ahmadinedschad 2005 Staatspräsident im Iran wurde, „brach die dunkelste Ära für die Frauenrechts-Aktivisten an“, wie Bahramirad berichtete. Nur unter der heftigen öffentlichen Kritik wurde etwa ein Gesetzesentwurf verhindert, der vorsah, dass Männer – die im Iran mehr als eine Frau heiraten dürfen, aber dafür die erste Ehepartnerin um Erlaubnis bitten müssen – diese Erlaubnis nicht mehr einholen müssen, sobald sie vor Gericht beweisen können, dass sie zwei Haushalte finanziell unterstützen können. Trotz der vielen Kontroversen und unüberwundenen Barrieren ist es laut Bahramirad aber mittlerweile möglich, dass viele Frauen im Iran ein Leben voller Tradition und Moderne führen können. Auch Dank der Frauenrechtlerinnen.

Die Feierstunde zum 8. März im EVIN Gefängnis

admin — 2013-03-13T08:07:19Z

FeministSchool: Immer wieder kann man über gewisse Meldungen die aus Iran zu vernehmen sind, nur staunen und denken_ wie ist so etwas überhaupt möglich! Ich meine nicht die wirklich schlimmen Nachrichten die es massenweise gibt. Nein, Meldungen die am ersten Blick so unglaublich erscheinen, dass man nicht meint sie glauben zu können. Nd doch haben sie sich ereignet haben und über sie wird ganz „normal“ berichtet.

Bei manch‘ so einer Meldung denke ich: das kann auch wirklich nur in Iran passieren!

Beispiel : während am 8. März 2013 iranische Frauen den Weltfrauentag öffentlich nicht begehen dürfen, feiern weibliche Gefangene im Evin Gefängnis den 8. März nach allen regeln der Kunst!

„Die Politischen“ Frauen hatten dafür mit den geringfügigen Mittel die ihnen zu Verfügung standen, in der Frauenabteilung einen Saal vorbereitet. Dort sieht man ein improvisiertes Poster mit dem Entwurf des Umschlags von „Das Zweite Geschlecht“, einige frische Narzissen und eine kaligraphische Tafel die besagte „ Die Befreiung der Frauen ist denkbar“

Es gibt feierliche Ansprachen: erste Rednerin ist eine studentin die seit 4 Jahren schon „sitzt“. Sie spricht vom Vermächtnis der Frauenbewegung das andere hinterlassen hätten und das „wir“ weiterzuführen haben.

8. März sei ein Ruf zu diesem Thema.

Dann spricht die inhaftierte Anwältin Nasrin Sotoudeh, ihres Zeichens EU Sakharow-Preisträgerin für Menschenreche, 2012, in absentia. Auch eine nur in Iran denkbare Paradoxie. Sotudeh spricht natürlich über Gesetze die das Regime versucht im Parlament durchzubringen, besonders in den letzten 2 Jahren. Frauen-rechte und Bewegungsradius soll noch weiter eingeengt werden. Das sogenannte Familiengesetz das die Poligamie legalisieren will; das neue Gesetz alleinstehenden Frauen das Reisen zu verbieten, u a m.

Frauen leisten widerstand und protestieren. Hoffentlich werden sie letzlich verhindern, das das Parlament diese Einschränkungen als gültige Gesetzte sanktioniert.

Zwei politische Gefangene haben dann das wort. Sie halten gemeinsam quasi ein Podiumsgespräch und betitelten es “ Mütterliche Erfahrungen von Poltischen Gefangenen”. Die eine erzählt, dass schon ihre Mutter Zeit im Gefängnis verbracht hatte; in den 80er Jahren . Damals habe sie das Gefühl eines Kindes kennegelernt, dessen Mutter eine Gefangene ist. Jetzt ist sie in der Rolle der Mutter . Es sind ihre drei Töchter, die sich auf der anderen Seite der Gefängnismauer aufhalten – und sie, eine gefangenen Mutter, ist drinnen .

Beide sprechen das Dilema an, eigenen Kindern gegenüber glaubwürdig zu sein; wenn sie behaupten “ Du bist mir das allerwichtigste im Leben- mein Kind” In den Blicken der Kinder kreist dann die Frage „ wirklich ? und das hier ... ?“ Eine der zwei Panelistinnen erzählt von der Erfahrungen die sie auf den unwegsamen Versuch machte, selbst in Haft eine Art Nähe zu ihren Töchtern aufrecht zu erhalten

Die „Feier zum 8. März geht weiter“ es folgen Gedichtrezitationen über gefangene Frauen, dann Ansprachen zu der vom System nicht tolerierten Institution „ Mütter von Laleh Park „ ( ihre Kinder haben in Folgeereignissen von 2009 Wahlen, in der Protestbewegung ihr Leben gelassen ) „Die Mütter“ versammelten sich mitKerzen und Blumen erstmal in Laleh Park ( spöter auch in andren parks) und versuchten gewaltfrei zu protestieren . In ihren Versammlungen wiesen sie auf fehlende Jusitz und die willkür hin, dessen Opfer ihre Kinder geworden waren.

Gila Baniyaqoub ist jetzt daran, eine sehr bekannte und mutige Journalistin, Akivistin der „Kampagne für eine Million Unterschriften für Gleichstellung“. Sie erzählt von den Einzelheiten der Kampagne, wie sie und Gleichgesinnte von Tür zu Tür gegangen waren und in entlegensten Ortschaften, Mädchen und Frauen darüber aufklärten, was die Kampagne bedeutet und bezweckt.

Shiva Nazar Ahaari erinnerte an die fast 100 jahre dauernde Bemühung der Iranerinnen sich einzubringen und für ihre Rechte zu kämpfen. „Wir treten aber immer noch auf der Stelle“ . Die Tochter des einstigen präsidenten Haschemi Rafsanjani, Faezeh ( pardoxie) auch inhaftiert, kommt zu Wort. Sie spricht zum Thema „Frauen und leitende Positionen „ und sagt, dass die Revolution Frauen nicht nur Einschränkungen gebracht habe, sondern unerwartete Wege eröffnet habe die davor undenkbar gewesen waren. Sie bringt den Vorschlag im Parlament ein Frauenquota einzuführen.

Am Schluss der „Feierstunde in Evin“ überreichen gefangenen Frauen 4 Anerkennungstafel an 4 Frauen die am längsten in Haft gewesen sind. Einige von ihnen 4 Jahre, andre 5 Jahre lang haben sie im Evin verbracht. Eine der Frauen ist seit Februar 2006 bereits in Haft. Sie ist zugleich die Jüngste der Gefangenen.

Die „Feier des 8. März“ in Evin wird mit dem Kennlied der iranischen Frauenbewegung beendet: „ Oh frau, das gegenwärtige Leben, die Zeit der Sklaberei ist vorbei, eine andere Welt ist denkbar....“

Ausserhalb der Gefängnismauer durfte 2013 eine solche Feier nicht stattfinden

Source in Farsi:

http://www.feministschool.com/spip.php?article7278

The Women We Are / Shirin Bahramirad

admin — 2013-03-10T21:42:57Z

FeministSchool: The following article is Shirin Bahramirad's speech delivered at Amnesty International Exhibition Titled ‘Keep Iran's Heart Beating' on 8 March 2013, Miesbach:

I would like to tell you tonight how women issues in Iran might not be as black and white as it appears and how a kind of balance is preserved between how we manage to get part of our rights and how the government maintains its grip upon us.

But let me begin with a story.

In Iran, the right to travel abroad, work, study, divorce and keep the custody of children belong to men. Many women remain unaware of such legal restrictions until they face it and don't know there might be legal ways for bypassing them. Through the efforts of feminist groups my husband and I had learnt we could add certain conditions to our marriage certificate to prevent this but didn't know the exact wording. Hence, we contacted two prominent feminist activists, Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani, who later became one of my dearest friends, and Shadi Sadr. They sent us some texts showing the required wording. However, this was not sufficient and the conditions were also needed to be written and officially signed at a registrar's office to be accountable in court. This is because these rights are not considered natural and the groom has to transfer them to the bride for a specific time period (50 years in our case). The registrar and wedding official were trying to advise Bavand against it. This was the first effect of feminist activism on my very personal life and I became engaged in their activism since then.

For the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Nov. 25th 2010) Noushin suggested we make bookmarks for which I was to take some pictures. Noushin wanted images of different types of people, young or old, male or female, religious or secular, traditional or modern who would write a sentence on their palm in protest to such violence. She wanted to show how people, despite their different backgrounds, could support the cause. And the photographs was supposed to portray ordinary people, not celebrities or prominent figures.

I have a huge family which gets together every other week in my grandmother's house. There are about 40 of us which makes a strange crowd: we are close in spirit but so different in character. That night, as everyone were chatting I realised it was a very good opportunity to take the pictures. I explained my intentions to my cousins, aunts, uncles and my parents and asked their permission. My parents and two of my elder cousins volunteered. One of my aunties wanted her little boys' picture taken, so he grows believing in what he was once advocating. I led them one by one to a corner of the house where my husband wrote sentences on their palm and I took their pictures showing their palm to the world. Everyone gathered around us saying, ‘Stand like this, hold your palm like that, wear your scarf, don't wear your scarf', etc. and the night went on. You can see some of the pictures here.

One of the images which found its way to feminists websites and a book cover, belongs to Sara, today 33. Her father is a fundamentalist and used to force her to wake up for the morning prayers. He did not allow her to go to university for one year because the university was in another city. She was eager to have her image on the bookmarks to go against her father. She is working now, I'm sure she doesn't say her prayers anymore and reads feminist books and articles.

Another image belongs to my mum: she was always religious. Before the revolution, she was banned from school for months because she refused to remove her headscarf at school. Her father didn't allow her and my other aunt to go to university because it was not considered appropriate for girls. By the time she was 30, she had me and both of my sisters. She went to university the same year as I did. She currently runs a children's shelter taking care of 15 boys and has adopted two of them.

Another one of these palms belongs to Ali, 24, who just got married to his girlfriend, which could not have happened in a similar family twenty years ago. The bride joked that the bookmark will be hung on the wall for him to see for the rest of their life.

As you see, changes have happened and are still happening, but this has not been a straightforward process. Family, governmental institutions and activists have played their role. There is a history to this which I try to review.

About two years after the Iranian revolution in 1979, Iran-Iraq war began. The Islamic republic government had already made hijab compulsory for women. The Cultural Revolution was underway, ‘cleansing' universities of westernised students and professors. The university was and still is the origin of most political oppositions. Universities were completely shut down for two years. After that, students were filtered by a selection committee set up in each and every university. Women of course were not so welcome. They could fail the committee for reasons such as ‘bad hijab'. They were also prohibited to enter many programmes considered unfit for women. Boys and girls were not allowed to talk to each other and their relationship would be restricted to exchanging class notes in the corridors. However, women's presence in university increased highly under the new regime and they soon outnumbered men.

Sex segregation and restrictions for women were not any better at schools or in the streets. The morality police was everywhere and would arrest women who did not cover their hair properly. Mixed family parties were held with much caution so that revolutionary guards would not find out.

Feminist groups in this period were not active in the public realm. The new Islamic government had executed so many members of political parties which played a role in the revolution that nobody dared to hold a public political gathering. Women's groups consisted mostly of private circles. Their most remarkable activity was organizing an event each year on March 8th at a member's house. Some monthly meetings were also held, varying from film sessions to book readings or discussions on feminist ideas. Some of the most well-known speakers included Shirin Ebadi, Mansoureh Ettehadieh and Mehrangiz Kar.

After a period of reconstruction under Rafsanjani, Khatami took the office in 1997. He was the candidate of the reformist party and although a cleric, he opened the country to activism. Women's right activists finally got the chance to advocate their demands more explicitly. Public spaces needed for debating regulations emerged. The number of women's societies, journals and publishers increased drastically. Women and Gender Studies were introduced to universities and the very first public and legal ceremony for International Women's day was organised on 8 March 2000 resulting in the establishment of Women's Cultural Centre. The centre became known for its new approach i.e. protesting and education at the same time, which later served as a model for One Million Signatures Campaign.

One of the centre's first public demands was to ask the government to unconditionally ratify the CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women) expressed in their first newsletter called Woman's Letter. This was the first open letter signed by women's right activists. The Women's Cultural Centre started collecting signatures from activists and non-activists and organized educational workshops.

Khatami's government sent, to no avail, the CEDAW bill to a parliament dominated by conservatives members. There were several demonstrations organised by conservative forces and young clerics in Qom, the Vatican of Iran, in opposition to the bill.

Women right activists continued to use every opportunity for joining CEDAW. On March 8th, 2003 in a demonstration at Laleh Park in Tehran organised by the centre, speakers including Shirin Ebadi, Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani and Shadi Sadr protested to the parliament's rejection of the bill. When Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize later that year, the support for the bill gained even more momentum.

Despite all the efforts, Khatami did not succeed in getting the bill pass the parliament. The issue, however, was raised again in 2009 when the Convergence of Women's Forces was formed. This was just before the 2009 Presidential Election when the strict cultural control temporarily loosened. The women's rights activists used the opportunity to enforce their agenda. Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani initiated the Convergence Movement asking various feminist groups to support candidates who agreed to incorporate women's demands in their political agenda. Joining CEDAW was among the major demands. With the house arrest of the pro-movement candidates, the open space was closed once again.

Ahmadinejad's period was one of the darkest eras for women's rights activists after the revolution. The sex segregation in universities re-emerged and accelerated under governmental pressure. In some universities, different days were assigned to male and female students and many secular professors were forced to retire.

In a pretentious progressive gesture, Ahmadinejad appointed, for the first time after the revolution, a woman, namely Dr. Vahid Dastjerdi as the head of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education. Ironically enough, she took a sexist approach to women's health and well-being which was unheard before. She proposed sexual segregation of hospitals, opposed to the CEDAW and finally reversed the birth control policies developed after the war.

Another bill which Ahmadinejad's government tried to pass was the Family Protection Law. This so-called ‘reform' particularly the section on polygamy, stirred much opposition amongst women's rights activists,. The bill suggested that the husband did not require the first wife's permission to remarry. It was sufficient if he could prove to the court that he is financially capable of doing so. This section of the bill was removed under heavy criticism from activists, lawyers and journalists.

Another bill dealt with the issue of passports for women. Until then, single women above 18 could receive a passport and travel abroad while married women of any age needed their husband's legal consent to apply for it. The initial draft of the bill tried to prevent single women below 40 from getting a passport without an official permission from their guardian, being the father, a paternal grandfather, or uncle or a Sharia judge. The women's right and civil activists were quick to object. The bill was then revised and the age limit was waived. Now, no woman above 18 was allowed to leave the country without a guardian's permission. This was also challenged and the bill was finally rejected by the parliament.

I would go back to the familial gathering at my grandma's to conclude. It is now clear, I hope, that girls such as Sara are not exceptional examples. The most traditional fathers might today allow their daughters to study in remote university because education is culturally very important to parents. This takes the daughter out of the reach of familial control. Opportunities available in big cities allow girls such as Sara, who finally continued her studies, to see other women benefiting from their rights. This helps them to escape the life their fathers have planned! These changes are made possible by a combination of factors. Feminists struggle for changing the laws, educating others and raising the demands over and over again plays an important role in this.

My mum still believes in her hijab. For her it is not a governmental law. It is her religion and her own decision. By definition, she is not a feminist. But she taught us to do what we feel is right. We were never forced to wear the hijab or to be religious. She always encouraged us to become independent; study and work so that we wouldn't need to be looked after by our husbands. Higher education was not an option but a must. By entering university at an age when all of us were already teenagers, she proved to us that it was possible to have a house full of children and continue your studies. She is now taking care of 15 boys, still wears the veil and says all her prayers.

All I want to say, is that my mum and Sara were not the only ones who could break the barriers and achieve their goals in a country where suppression of women is supported by law. There are millions of women who, despite all the restrictions imposed on them, follow their dreams without having to completely reject a traditional life-style or betraying their religion. There are others who might be as secular as some of you. This has been made possible by the efforts of women's rights activists such as those whose posters you will see today.

Gender, environment and place based globalism / Wendy Harcourt

admin — 2013-02-20T17:36:19Z

FeministSchool: The follow article is Wendy Harcourt's lecture in “Conference on Agriculture and Sustainable Rural Development in Times of Crisis: Critical engagement from a gender perspective” on January 25 2013:

My contribution to this conference is to share with you how I am trying to rethink issues around sustainable development and environmental studies from a feminist political ecological perspective with some thoughts on gender, environment and place-based globalism in the context of the multiple crises we are facing.

Outline of the talk

I start my talk by defining some of my analytical premises informing my feminist political ecology approach. I then move on to look at some examples of women's mobilizing in defense of their territories in the movements towards food sovereignty and slow food.

I look at these mobilizations as part of what I call place-based globalism where women defend their own and their communities' livelihoods, and in so doing, challenge the current unjust global production, trade and consumption patterns around food production.

Gender relations as part of the environment

In speaking about gender and environment, I start from the premise that there are core gender differences in the experience and responsibility towards the environment and maintaining livelihoods. These gendered differences are not rooted in biology per se, but rather are shaped by gendered processes that determine resource access and control as well as ecological change interacting with class, caste, race, age, culture and ethnicity. Gender relations inform the struggle of men and women to sustain ecologically viable livelihoods and the prospects of any community for sustainable development. The meaning of community and environment differ from place to place but environmental rights and justice are deeply enmeshed in and determined by gender relations.

Place-based globalism.

In understanding the links between gender and environment, I am particularly interested in how women experience the environment in place. I understand place as beginning with women's bodies, as the place closest in, and moving out to include locality, territories, and global spatial processes that are also informing and determining place and the environment. In maintaining community and family livelihoods, it is often women who are the most responsible and who take a lead in defending the safety and wellbeing of their community and environment. I am interested in how these struggles by women to defend their environment in place offer sources of creativity, culture, and alternative development, which interact with global processes through what I am calling place based globalism.

Place based globalism then, includes women's struggle for the right to live and work in a healthy environment, the right to take responsibility to protect ecologies, livelihoods and natural resources from over use, extraction and destruction. It also includes women's rights to healthy and well body; the right to produce, prepare and consume healthy and culturally appropriate food; the right to care for the household, the community and landscape. In this context, women's collective action against environmental degradation and the search for food sovereignty, health and wellbeing, and cultural integrity can be understood as a global place based political response to unhealthy economic and environmental development policies. Women's collective struggles to retain control over the global commons are shaping and challenging inequitable neo liberal capitalist globalization and development processes.

Feminist Political Ecology

I would like to propose that as we rethinking sustainable development in times of crisis, place-based globalism can be seen as the basis for re-visioning political practice at a global scale, based on specific gendered local experiences. In this re-envisioning I share the principles of feminist political ecology. As set out by Dianne Rocheleau feminist political ecology:

• Acknowledges the interconnectedness of all life and the relevance of power relations including gender relations in decision making about the environment.

• Recognizes power relations underlying the structures which operate to the benefit of certain classes and groups

• Seeks to understand how specific ecological and livelihood systems are linked into national, global environmental economic and political systems which shape enable and limit the local

• Questions the presumption of technological progress and the domination of nature

I would also add to this set of FPE principles, the vision of Silvia Federici on the commons.

Federici argues for a feminist inspired reconstruction of the commons that could build new communities based on quality relations, principles of cooperation and responsibility: to people, to the earth, the forests, the seas and the animals. She speaks about ‘commoning reproduction'. By pooling resources of reproduction, she suggests we could disentangle our livelihoods from the world market as women ‘refuse to accept that our reproduction occurs at the expense of the world's other commoners and commons'.

She proposes that if reproductive labor is recognized as an important sphere of human activity, women can reshape the commons to become the foundation of new forms of social reproduction in order to meet our basic needs and to guard against ecological disaster.

Moving on from these premises underlying my talk, I now turn to some examples of women's place- based activities in the struggle for food sovereignty.

Gender, crises and bioeconomies

Producing, preparing, finding and consuming the food we put on the table is a complex gendered process. It is about social and cultural traditions, labour, love, economics and power within the home, society and in the market place. In today's globalized world, the industrial agricultural system operates through highly complex networks which link political and economic interests, agricultural and marketing practices, consumer demands and acts of care in the preparation of food eaten at our tables.

The wave of food crises since 2008 has opened up to the popular imagination critical questions about who dominates these complex agro-industrial networks and consequently who has access to food, whether at national, community or household level. The global attention given to the food crises and the recent surge of interest in ‘feeding the world' by agribusiness is creating a new bio-economy based on the enclosure of southern land, accompanied by a normative appeal to securing world food and green fuel. Large scale agribusiness have begun to appropriate enormous amounts of land for agro-industrial enterprises and biofuel production.

In the process of this land grabbing, the number of land conflicts has grown, as well as open resistance and struggle against government pro-investor policies often led by women. Women smallholder producers in different places around the world, refuse to give up their traditional claim to usufruct rights to the land in order to produce food for the family/community – making it difficult for agro-industry to appropriate all the land.

The bio-economy is changing gender relations. Women and men adjust differently to agro-industrial production. Even if women are earning more (a sort of feminization of rural labour in the agro industries seems to be happening), within this bio-economy there continues to be a strong gender division to the entitlement to productive resources, land, life-stock, agricultural facilities and credit as well as divisions within the household allocation of food. Women have a crucial role in providing food, even if they have little access to credit, land, training, and the use of rudimentary technology.

As feminist research shows, the model on which the agro business determining global food production and consumption is built is flawed. The assumption is that providing food in rural areas is an individual or family concern, so if women earn more, then their families will eat. However, in most rural communities women provide not only for their immediate family but also for other children, orphans, families, poorer labourers, the unemployed and youth. Food security is not just about money to buy food. The time and access to resources other than cash to meet caring obligations to the community are critical. What is determining food security are non monetary values - charity, benevolence, generosity, gratitude, caring and helping. All of which are based on personal interactions, time and networking that inform livelihoods and well-being. Rural women's identity is wrapped up in these obligations, responsibilities and capacities to provide food for others.

Because the vision of underlining agribusiness and rural agricultural projects does not take into account the broader gendered food ‘network' or ‘system' the collective and community-oriented aspects of food security, articulated by smallholder women is not heard and women are responding by mobilizing against agribusinesses in various place based global actions.

Women place based global struggles for food sovereignty

One of the most known networks mobilizing against large agrobusiness is La Via Campesina. With around 300 million members, La Via Campesina brings together peasant and indigenous movements in the struggle for territorial recognition and rights, addressing inequities in access, ownership, and control of resources. In its actions around the world, starting in the late 1990s La Via Campesina calls for food sovereignty or the right of self-determination of local communities to produce their own food in their own territory and to govern, manage, and care for their eco-systems and natural wealth.

La Via Campesina is a globally networked source of resistance to the crisis driven bio economy and an important example of place-based globalism which puts gender at the centre of its call for social justice and equity. It has been a key vehicle for rural women to advance women's economic, cultural and social claims to equality.

The call to food sovereignty is both a mobile and a mobilizing utopian vision. It encompasses human rights, women's rights and the right of each nation to maintain and develop its own capacity to produce its basic foods respecting cultural and productive diversity. It expands people's sense of possibility and sketches the contours for a common project that challenges, historical power inequalities and in doing so critiques neoliberal economic development by nurturing an alternative imaginary.

Since its founding, Via Campesina has promoted a “female peasant” identity that is politicized, linked to land, food production and the defense of food sovereignty—built in opposition to the current agribusiness model. At the heart of La Via Campesina, the struggle of women is situated at two levels: defending their rights as women within organizations and society in general, and the struggle as peasant women together with their colleagues against the neoliberal model of agriculture

The women of La Via Campesina see their struggle as not only economic and class based, but also cultural in that they ask for a revalorization of their traditional wisdom regarding the production of food, the selection and management of seeds, the breeding of animals, and the care of the earth and nature.

Symbolically at La Via Campesina events the opening mística - a ceremonial act which recognizes peasant and indigenous values and ideals - is seen as nourishing the spirit of struggle. The preparation of the mística is principally the task of women as the tangible expression of peasant culture and represents a challenge to and definance of the modern economic systems that oppress and marginalize them.

La Via Campesina also operates in Italy. More well known though is the slow food movement founded in 1986 to protest at the opening of McDonald's in Rome. Slow Food has around 360 convivi chapters in Italy which promote local artisans, local farmers, and local flavors through taste workshops, wine tastings, and farmers' markets.

Slow Food's motto is that “eating is an agricultural act and producing is a gastronomic act.” The organization addresses issues of food, globalization and ethical production with the emphasis on connecting producers with socially invested consumers, or co-producers. Slow Food promotes the importance of well-produced and good-tasting food and for the defense of cultures of meal and food production in the face of ‘fast food' based on the industrialized production, distribution and economies of scale. Slow Food aims to protect and support small producers, and to link them with those who are making decisions high up in the food production change - the consumers, educational institutions, chefs and cooks, and agricultural research institutions.

Since 2004 a global meeting called Terra Madre (mother earth) is held in Turin bringing together the slow food network of food communities and producers.

Terra Madre brings together the different workers in the global food chain – the rural food producers with those that value their work and want to sustain good meal cultures. Thousands of producers from 130 countries together with 1000s of cooks and researchers in support of local sustainable food production have come together to oppose food production methods in the globalized market place. Slow Food's concept of ‘Virtuous Globalization', for example, posits that a global system like Terra Madre can assist farmers by creating a network of self-sufficient local economies, and the powerful interdependent linkages forged through these connected local economies holds the capacity to confront neoliberal structures.

Talking to women farmers and producers who participate in the convivi, many women lead these local groups as they struggle to establish eco-farming and to keep rural sector going in Italy. Though they point out that gender dynamics at the top of the organization is male dominated. Issues like class, gender, ethnicity, are still to be clearly addressed and talking about “food communities” needs to be further nuanced in relation to issues around democracy and equality. Slow Food as both a food-centered narrative and practice is an interesting place based global movement responding and shaping the social and economic changes and processes brought on by capitalism, technology, and its informational and bureaucratic complexities.

From my observations in Bolsena, Slow Food offers an interesting space where local- foods initiatives can link with synergies with tourism as women producers generate financial support through relationships with socially- and environmentally-conscious tourists. I should not that slow food is quite an elite organization. La Via Campesina is far more politically engaged in global politics of food. And in Italy there are other movements that are more radical again, even clandestine in their defiance of European food policies around local production of for example eggs, milk and cheese.

Rethinking rural economy and food production

These examples of women's place based globalism illustrate the way connections are formed that support local struggles through globally networked campaigns, knowledge sharing and advocacy. These political struggles are local but with a wider reach so that places are not isolated but stretch beyond the local environs in a complex global interaction of flows of information that support local mobilizing.

As women mobilize to safeguard their environment, food sovereignty, bodily integrity, livelihoods and future they are part of the growing networks of people's environmental justice movements in a strong challenge to current global production and consumption patterns, agricultural and trade agreements and development policy. These place-based global networks link different gendered experiences of environment, community and self in ‘rooted networks' of cooperation. They are shaping and changing social and ecological ways of understanding environment and gendered knowledge within it.

To quote the Turkish anthropologist Arif Dirlik, place-based global politics approached through the experience of women is ultimately generating a new language of cultures of development so that we may begin to think and act in the world in new ways. And, as Rocheleau stated in 1996, as women redefine their identities, and the meaning of gender through expressions of human agency and collective action emphasizing struggle, resistance and cooperation… they have also begun to redefine environmental issues to include women's knowledge, experience and interests.

Conclusion

In responding to the crises we need to build from these experiences and challenges to the unsustainability of the current agribusiness model. We cannot separate out the local experiences of injustice and gender inequality from the global agro business industry. Place-based mobilizing in response to the crises show that confronting the crises requires far more than just better policies, or more efficient international agreements between business and state institutions.

Place-based global responses to crises show that bringing change requires new values, and ways of working that value good food, safe homes, care for others and nature, generosity and reciprocity. These are romantic alternatives or feminine ways of life, but are pragmatic and needed shifts to economic and social processes that would shift agricultural and consumer patterns, recognize the importance of social reproduction and our collective responsibility we all have to the global commons.

Personally I take heart in the ways these links are being made in women's place based global practices, interwoven as they are with the crises. It is important in our activism and research that we break down concepts of global and local, agricultural and science, rural and urban. By refusing to put knowledge and action into silos we can find the holistic response needed to the systemic crises. For me that begins with understanding how to change the global within our own place acknowledging the interconnectedness of our lives, and the ways power relations are molding personal and global realities.