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Global Roundup: Tearing up patriarchy's passport

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Global Roundup: Tearing up patriarchy's passport

Dissidents, anarchist feminists, and filmmakers telling patriarchy to fuck off

Mona Eltahawy
Sep 9, 2020
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Welcome to Wednesday’s FEMINIST GIANT Newsletter. Before I dive into this mid-week foray into feminist resistance to global patriarchal fuckery, a reminder to sign up!

What does a feminist revolution look like when the authorities in your country don’t give a fuck about the violence that patriarchy subjects you to?

It begins with rage. From February, this is Yesenia Zamudio, whose daughter María de Jesùs Jaime Zamudio was murdered in 2016:

Twitter avatar for @monaeltahawy
Mona Eltahawy @monaeltahawy
“I have every right to burn and smash things. I’m not gonna ask for anyone’s permission...because before they murdered my daughter they murdered many other women and what were we all doing? Crying and sewing from the comfort of our homes. That’s over now.”
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7:36 PM ∙ Feb 23, 2020
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And the rage transforms into action. Yesenia is now part of anarchist feminist collective Ni Una Menos’ occupation of the Mexico City headquarters of the National Human Rights Commission. The headquarters are “now our property, we’re not going to hand it over, it’s a squat for victims. We’re more suitable…for these premises than the parasitic people who were here before. We’re going to provide…legal advice ..and accompany [women] to prosecutor’s offices,” she said. Take time to appreciate and marvel at the photographs of the feminist activists in action in this thread I compiled. “We neither forgive nor forget.” Telling patriarchy to fuck off is powerful and this is the highlight of the year so far for me:

Twitter avatar for @monaeltahawy
Mona Eltahawy @monaeltahawy
The Ni Una Menos feminist collective has taken over the #Mexico City headquarters of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and turned it into a shelter for victims of gender-based violence. Incredible pics by @Usagii_ko via @Andalalucha h/t @chakes_ mexiconewsdaily.com/news/feminists…
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11:21 AM ∙ Sep 8, 2020
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“Now this is not just about politics. It is about family life, it is about relationships with husbands. We have a very patriarchal society but when the revolution is over that will have to change,” Natallia Kharytaniuk, a 35-year-old English tutor, Belarus.

Read this Reuters article about women protestors in Belarus and this one on the women-led opposition to appreciate the latest news from the country, where authorities tried to forcibly expel leading opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova but she tore up her passport in defiance and jumped out a car window to stay, her allies said Tuesday.

Twitter avatar for @monaeltahawy
Mona Eltahawy @monaeltahawy
Authorities in #Belarus tried to forcibly expel leading opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova from the country but she tore up her passport in defiance and jumped out a car window to stay, her allies said Tuesday.
news.yahoo.comBelarus opposition figure ‘tore passport to pieces’ to avoid expulsionAuthorities in Belarus tried to forcibly expel leading opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova from the country but she tore up her passport in defiance and jumped out a car window to stay, her allies said Tuesday.
3:01 AM ∙ Sep 9, 2020
75Likes38Retweets

What happens when the revolution goes home? What does that reckoning look like? Those questions fuel much of my work. They were at the heart of my first book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution. And those questions are at the forefront in Egypt and Iran where unprecedented numbers of women are speaking out about sexual violence and exposing their predators. It takes guts to speak out and patriarchy does all it can to shut you up: in Egypt victims - not perpetrators - of rape and witnesses in their support have been jailed. Watch a special edition of Middle East Matters on France 24, in which host Sanam Shantyaei focuses on the growing MeToo movement in the two countries.

She interviewed a rape survivor in Iran who has pioneered the online movement.

Twitter avatar for @France24_en
FRANCE 24 English @France24_en
The #MeToo Movement in the Middle East: a special edition brought to you by @MEastMatters. A rape survivor from #Iran 🇮🇷 tells @SanamF24 "I'm happy that eventually many women found the courage to break their silence. This paved the way for a long-overdue conversation."
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4:25 PM ∙ Sep 8, 2020
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And I told her that a predatory State will never give us justice; a feminist revolution will.

Twitter avatar for @SanamF24
Sanam Shantyaei @SanamF24
Part 2 of @MEastMatters: a conversation with @monaeltahawy about the #MeToo debate in #Egypt. She tells me: “for a revolution to begin, you have to have feet on the ground and courage that confronts the state. That courage in Egypt has begun online". 1/3
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6:36 PM ∙ Sep 8, 2020
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Watch the whole show:

Twitter avatar for @SanamF24
Sanam Shantyaei @SanamF24
Here is the full show. #MeToo in the Middle East: The women making a stand #کیوان_امام #تجاوز #سکوت_نکنیم
france24.comMiddle East matters - #MeToo in the Middle East: The women making a standThis week, we bring you a special edition of the show, focusing on the #MeToo movement in the region. Firstly, we head to Iran where women have used social media to break their silence on sexual viol…
1:36 PM ∙ Sep 9, 2020
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Not only do predatory states refuse to give us justice, not only do they jail victims and not rapists, but on the rare occasion when a rapist is held accountable, patriarchy swoops in to his rescue. Fascist fucks do not hide their hatred of women, cis and trans. From Trump in the U.S. to Bolsonaro in Brazil to others around the world, patriarchal authoritarians make no pretense. And Duterte in the Philippines served an outrageous reminder by granting an absolute pardon to a U.S. marine who had been found guilty of killing Jennifer Laude, a Filipino trans woman who was “found lifeless — neck blackened with strangulation marks and head rammed into a toilet — in a motel room in Olongapo City after a night out with Pemberton on October 11, 2014.”

Twitter avatar for @cnnphilippines
CNN Philippines @cnnphilippines
BREAKING: President Rodrigo Duterte grants absolute pardon to Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton, a US Marine who was jailed for the death of Filipino transgender woman Jennifer Laude, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Boy Locsin says. cnn.ph
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9:20 AM ∙ Sep 7, 2020
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Fighting back takes guts and comes at tremendous cost. Feminists in South Africa are supporting Yolanda Dyantyi a former Rhodes University student as she challenges a High Court judgement that upheld her lifetime exclusion from the university. Dyantyi was banned from the university for life after she was “found guilty of spearheading anti-rape protests” in 2016.

Twitter avatar for @ThandoGumedeZA
Thando Gumede @ThandoGumedeZA
#StandWithYolanda #RUReferenceList #rhodeswar 1/4 Dear President @CyriIRamaphosa, Do you know Yolanda Dyantyi? She was excluded from higher education FOR LIFE after protesting against RAPE CULTURE at the racist, sexist & fascist Rhodes University. This is Yolanda's Story.
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6:12 AM ∙ Sep 7, 2020
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A Nigerian film about lesbian love which went online to avoid censorship will make its world premier at a queer film festival in Canada.

Twitter avatar for @biwomdz
Pamela Adie @biwomdz
I’m very proud to announce that #ìféthemovie will make its World Premiere at the 30th Edition of @InsideOutTO LGBT Film Festival on October 1, 2020! THANK YOU to everyone who worked on this film with so much love! We did this!❤️💜 @Uyaiedu @Asurfoluseyi @Dynaziie @uzoamaka_a1 🚀
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3:00 PM ∙ Sep 8, 2020
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Here is the trailer for ÌfÉ, which means “love” in Yoruba, one of the languages spoken in Nigeria.

I highly recommend - and was glad to blurb - the anthology She Called Me Woman: Nigeria’s Queer Women Speak to read oral narratives of lesbian, bi and trans women.

Please share this newsletter as widely as you can.

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