Global Roundup: Senegal Woman President Candidate, Running to Inspire Women, Disability & Queerness, Queer Muslim Group Supporting Palestine, Black Women Embracing Natural Hair
Global Roundup: Senegal Woman President Candidate, Running to Inspire Women, Disability & Queerness, Queer Muslim Group Supporting Palestine, Black Women Embracing Natural Hair
Curated by FG Contributor Samiha Hossain
Presidential candidate Anta Babacar Ngom greets supporters during her electoral campaign caravan in Dakar, Senegal, March 11, 2024. AP photo by Sylvain Cherkaoui
Anta Babacar Ngom, a 40-year-old business executive, is a voice for both women and young people — groups hit hard by the country's economic troubles, widespread unemployment and rising prices. She has promised to create millions of jobs and a bank for women to support their economic independence.
The young girls I meet ask for my support. They do so because they know that when a woman comes to power, she will put an end to their suffering. I'm not going to forget them. -Anta Babacar Ngom
Few expect Ngom to emerge among the leading candidates for the presidency, but activists say the fact that a woman has made it to the presidential race for the first time in years reflects how women are inching ahead in the struggle for equality. Ngom is the first woman candidate to run for president in over a decade, reflecting how progress has been frustratingly slow in the minds of activists who say there has been a reversal among young people toward more traditional views of the roles of women in society.
We have to be there, even if we don't stand a chance. We don't stand a chance in these elections. But it's important that we have women candidates, women who are in the race. - Selly Ba, activist and sociologist
Some young women in Senegal are returning to the traditional notion of marriage, said Marième Wone Ly, the first woman to lead a political party in Senegal over two decades ago. She says there is a “regression” and erroneous interpretations of Islam can act against the forces of progress toward equality. Through the 1990s, Senegalese women mobilized through grassroots organizations. The country appointed its first woman prime minister in 2001, and in 2010 a law that required all political parties to introduce gender parity in electoral lists helped to drive up women participation in politics.
Ngom's supporters say they are proud to back a woman candidate and hopeful for a change in the next government.
Our children are dying at sea because of unemployment and job insecurity. Unemployment is endemic. Women are tired. -Aicha Ba, activist
The first woman runner to complete one of the world's toughest races has said she did it for "women worldwide". Jasmin Paris is one of only 20 people to have finished the Barkley Marathons in Tennessee, USA, since it was extended to 100 miles in 1989. She crossed the finish line on Friday with 99 seconds to spare before the 60-hour cut-off. Jasmin, from Midlothian, Scotland, said she wanted to test the limits of what she was capable of and inspire others.
The annual race at Frozen Head State Park involves five loops of roughly 20 miles (32km), with 60,000 ft (18,000m) of ascents and descents - twice the height of Mount Everest from sea level. Jasmine, 40, said she realised she had just minutes to spare to make the allotted 60-hour completion time as she neared the finish line. Her arms and legs are covered in scratches from the brambles she had to push through on the route, very little of which is on a path.
Jasmin slumped to the ground as she crossed the finish line, and said she felt "overwhelming relief" that it was finally over. But she said completing such a challenge was "mind-opening" and inspires you with confidence for your whole life.
But I'm glad that I kind of did it for women worldwide as well - not just runners - but any woman that wants to take on a challenge and maybe doesn't have the confidence. The idea that I might have inspired them to believe in themselves… that's huge, especially all the young girls - you know how hard it is to keep young girls in sports.. -Jasmin Paris
Jasmin, who was born in Hadfield in Derbyshire, said the isolation of the race was one of the biggest challenges. With her history-making race completed, Jasmin already has her sights set on her next challenge, the Scottish Islands Peaks Race on 17 May, followed by the Tor des Géants in Italy in September.
Dane Noonan, Catherine Cain and Bryson Eli want more people to understand what it is like to be queer with a disability. (ABC: Az Cosgrove)
Az Cosgrove from Australia writes about what it’s like to be queer with a disability. He reflects on the word “passing” that is used in the trans and disability community.
I am fascinated by the word. Pass by what? It denotes some kind of barrier; an invisible wall, like a pane of glass, one glittering face of the prism that I see through. It's these walls that we refer to when we talk about inaccessibility. -Az Cosgrove
Cosgrove says he started to see those walls five years ago when just days after he was meant to begin his medical gender transition, he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and the surgery that followed went dramatically wrong. He describes feeling alone until he met Bryson Eli, 32, at one of the monthly meetings of Queer Peers, a group led by Newcastle not-for-profit Community Disability Alliance Hunter (CDAH). Eli has cerebral palsy and complex mental health and cognitive differences. He defines inaccessibility as “the systemic barriers that exist for minority communities.” Cosgrove notes that it means that the concept of inaccessibility is far larger than it is currently understood to be which cannot simply be accounted for by the blue wheelchair symbol.
Dane Noonan, 27, describes himself as "gay as they come" and has a rare form of dwarfism called mucopolysaccharidosis type VI.
I knew I was different. Like an echo, I heard those words in my own voice, and then in the voices of almost every queer person I know. I grew up in a world not built for me, full stop…Being a person with a disability and also knowing that you're gay is a double whammy. -Dane Noonan
Catherine Cain, 44, is clearly proud of her wheelchair, but is still working on that pride in relation to her queer identity. Accessibility, Catherine said, is about more than just ramps.
Ramps are fantastic. Ramps to all things, please. [But] what we really need is the default of, 'There is no default' -Catherine Cain
Bilal Ahmed, left, and Jihan "JJ" Hussein have formed the grassroots organization Queer Halal Time and are raising money for a food drive and to help Palestinians in Gaza.
This Ramadan, a new group for people who identify as queer and Muslim in Canada is showing their love for the Hamilton community through food. Queer Halal Time is raising money for a food drive that will see them serve a home-cooked meal to anyone who needs it on the evening of April 4. A team of volunteers will serve food such as chickpea curry, fritters, roti and fruit chat. The group will be using the kitchen at Compass Community Health and partnering with a shelter to distribute the meals.
We don't want it to be canned foods or half-assed meals. We want to show the community we love, we care for you and we want you to have a good meal. -Bilal Ahmed, group's finance coordinator
Jihan "JJ" Hussein founded Queer Halal Time two months ago, alongside Ahmed. It's Hamilton's version of the Queer Muslim Network based out of Toronto, said Ahmed.
Being a queer Muslim person, definitely I've felt shunned by the religious community. Being in queer circles, I felt like I had to turn off the Muslim side of me. I felt I couldn't be my true authentic self. -Bilal Ahmed
But with over two dozen people having joined Queer Halal Time, meetups feel like "fireworks'' and a space to embrace both queerness and Muslim spirituality, they said. Allies are also welcome.
The group has already hit its goal of $2,000 for the food drive via an online GoFundMe page. All other money raised will go to the United Nations Relief Work Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinians in Gaza, Ahmed said. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is front of mind this Ramadan, Ahmed said.
There's a whole nation of people who are breaking fast eating grass, who don't have the privilege to drink water. It's pushed us to come together. -Bilal Ahmed
Lindsay Opoku-Acheampong’s film “Textures” follows three women in the US through the private and meaningful rituals of caring for their hair. She recalled the wash days in her childhood home, in the Dallas area, where she and her sister would wake up early on the weekends, put on their swimsuits, and trudge to their mother’s bathroom.
She would wash our hair in the shower and then set up her mini-salon kind of thing and press our hair. -Lindsay Opoku-Acheampong
Three of Opoku-Acheampong’s friends are the subjects of “Textures,” and they reveal tiresome parts of their hair-care routines that most Black women endure behind closed doors. The camera meets Taylor, Camille, and Azani at different entry points in their natural-hair journeys. Azani has probably been washing and setting her natural hair the longest. In one scene, after taking down a protective style, she spins a lock of hair into a three-strand twist. “It just feels like I’m doing my hair, you know? But I know that once I walk outside of this room—it becomes something more,” she says. Taylor sits on her bed while her fingers unravel golden braids to reveal a crinkled mane, which she struggles to comb through. It was the first time she did her natural hair on her own since childhood. “Being natural is an experience within itself,” Taylor says later in the film.
Opoku-Acheampong also produced and edited the documentary, which she filmed five years ago, during the first year of her graduate program at U.C.L.A. She shared that, like in her other projects, the intention behind “Textures” is to capture a narrative that is “deeply personal, but speaks to something more systemic, and wider.”
Samiha Hossain (she/her) is an aspiring urban planner studying at Toronto Metropolitan University. Throughout the years, she has worked in nonprofits with survivors of sexual violence and youth. Samiha firmly believes in the power of connecting with people and listening to their stories to create solidarity and heal as a community. She loves learning about the diverse forms of feminist resistance around the world.