Global Roundup: Staying Alert to Global Patriarchal Fuckery

Welcome to Monday’s FEMINIST GIANT Newsletter.

cw: many of the news reports I’ve included in today’s newsletter can be triggering for some. They include intimate partner terrorism, violence by family members, murder and violence against women. Global patriarchal fuckery is violent. Patriarchy socializes men into believing they are entitled to our bodies, our time, our attention. One of the reasons I launched this newsletter is to keep yelling PAY ATTENTION because global patriarchal fuckery has worsened under the pandemic. The COVID19 pandemic is disproportionately disastrous for women and girls around the world.

In recognition of this, the long-running British soap opera East Enders returns on Monday after a three-month break with a trigger warning for the opening episode which shows that the mental and physical abuse suffered by Chantelle (Jessica Plummer) at the hands of her husband, violent and controlling Gray (Toby Alexander-Smith), has worsened throughout lockdown, and ends in her husband murdering her.

The BBC soap worked closely with Women’s Aid and Refuge on the storyline. The spike in intimate partner terrorism and domestic abuse in the UK during the pandemic lockdown is horrific and is reflected in many other countries. I am glad to see the BBC acknowledge that in such a popular show. Read more here:

Chantelle faces tragic end as EastEnders returns after three months off air

I made a couple of FEMINIST GIANT Dispatches from the Pandemic about the increase in violence against women, children, and queer people during lockdown. Here is one:

There are concerns for the health of Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh who has been on hunger strike for 28 days to draw attention to the plight of political prisoners in the country during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Golnaz Esfandiari @GEsfandiari

Prominent Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh is not planning to end her hunger strike, her husband says. Sotoudeh has refused to eat for 28 days to highlight the plight of political prisoners amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Reza Khandan @RezaKhandan4

اعتصاب غذای نسرین 28 روزه شد. 3 هفته است ملاقات‌هایش را قطع کرده است. با خبر شدیم طی روزهای گذشته به دلیل وخامت حالش، ساعاتی در بهداری بستری شده است. در پاسخ به درخواست‌های بزرگوارانی که خواستار پایان دادن به اعتصاب غذا بودند؛ با شرمندگی اعلام کرد قصد شکستن اعتصاب غذایش را ندارد.

The Iranian regime sentenced Sotoudeh to 12 years in Tehran's Evin prison last year after she defended women arrested for protesting compulsory headscarf laws.

A member of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), which played a central role in routing Daesh/ISIS from their Syrian stronghold, was killed by her brother in the Syrian town of Darbasiyyah, by male relatives angry that she had joined the women fighters.

Mona Eltahawy @monaeltahawy

A member of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) was killed by her brother in the Syrian town of Darbasiyyah, after she refused her male relatives’ demands that she not join the women fighters. kurdistan24.net/en/news/d0a689… h/t @rizikaoikonomik

Kongra-Star, a confederation of women’s organizations, recently launched a campaign called “She did not commit suicide, you killed her” after an increase in murders of women there and in other deaths that were officially ruled suicide, but where the women are believed to have been killed by male relatives.

The murder of Beritan is a reminder of the urgency of tackling what I call the Trifecta of Misogyny. The YPJ are the protection/fighting unit of the anarchist feminist revolution in northern Syria. They recognize that it is not enough to fight the State or murderous fascists like Daesh. The State along with the Street and the Home together oppress women. I am working on a book project about anarchist feminists. If you want to know more or to read excerpts from it as a work-in-progress, pledge to my Patreon.

I will be writing quite often about the Trifecta of Misogyny in newsletters to come.

In Pakistan, women journalists have been organizing against online abuse and harassment.

Mehreen Zahra-Malik @mehreenzahra

Last month, brave #Pakistan women #journalists came together to demand #PTI led government take action against campaigns of online abuse carried out in its name. Now we have broadened the scope of the movement & want an end to abuse by all political parties and state institutions

Police in Pakistan say a husband shot and killed his journalist wife at the couple’s home in a remote southwestern town before fleeing. Shaheena Shaheen was a TV host and reporter at state-owned broadcaster Pakistan Television.

Dawn.com @dawn_com

The killing of Shaheena Shaheen, a local anchorperson at state-owned PTV and editor of a local magazine, was the "result of domestic violence": Kech district police officer

dawn.comWoman journalist shot dead in Balochistan’s TurbatFamily of Shaheena Shaheen lodges first information report against the deceased’s husband.

In Malaysia, the Women’s Centre for Change, a non-profit organisation working to end violence against women & children, has issued a comic to help prevent and understand child sexual abuse

The Asian Feminist @theasianfmnst

A comic to help understand and prevent child sexual abuse. Malaysia's @WCCPenang plans to publish it in other languages as well. #CSA

WCC Penang @WCCPenang

Dear parents, child sexual abuse (CSA) is more common than you think. Do read ‘Lisa and her Secret’ with your child to learn about CSA and what they can do to seek help. #WCCHelps #ChildSexualAbuse #LisaAndHerSecret https://t.co/r3HFN9sdNs

Today is Labor Day in the U.S. and Canada. Here is an important reminder of the role of women in the U.S. labor movement.

Zinn Ed Project @ZinnEdProject

How many women you can name in U.S. labor movement history? Here are short profiles of more than two dozen women -- and of course there are countless more. #TeachLaborHistory #LaborDay

zinnedproject.orgWomen in Labor History - Zinn Education ProjectProfile. Zinn Education Project. 2014. Brief bios of a few noted women involved in the labor movement.

As white women who vote for fascist fucks like Donald Trump are being analyzed for the bootlickers of patriarchy that they are, it is important to see how women who support fascist fucks around the world engage in a similar dynamic of benefitting from a proximity of power to the detriment of so many other women. I am looking forward to reading this anthology published by the feminist Zubaan Books in India.

Zubaan Books @ZubaanBooks

'Women and the Hindu Right', edited by #TanikaSarkar and #UrvashiButalia, aims to assess the impact on women, as victims and survivors, of the rise of the right-wing as well as the growing presence of female militant leadership in these spaces. Buy it here tinyurl.com/y5vfeslu

Courageous Sisters Ghana, an NGO working to promote and protect Human Rights and Dignity of LBQT persons in Ghana, has published a report called OUR VOICES: Mapping the Needs of LBQ Women and Trans People in Ghana.

LGBT+ Rights Ghana @LGBTRightsGhana

OUR VOICES: Mapping the Needs of LBQ Women and Trans People in Ghana. RESEARCH REPORT BASED ON A COMMUNITY-LED STUDY IN FOUR ANGLOPHONE WEST AFRICAN COUNTRIES. By @Courageousister, Sisters of the Heart & Alliance for Dynamics Initiative. Click to download

lgbtrightsgh.orgOUR VOICES: Mapping the Needs of LBQ Women and Trans People in GhanaRESEARCH REPORT BASED ON A COMMUNITY-LED STUDY IN FOUR ANGLOPHONE WEST AFRICAN COUNTRIES. By Courageous Sisters, Sisters of the Heart, & Alliance for Dynamics Initiative. Click to Download

More news of feminist resistance to global patriarchal fuckery on Wednesday! Please share as widely as you can. Like and comment below and encourage others to subscribe.