
Clotilde Marquez Cruz

Women human rights defenders (WHRDs) worldwide defend their lands, livelihoods and communities from extractive industries and corporate power. They stand against powerful economic and political interests driving land theft, displacement of communities, loss of livelihoods, and environmental degradation.
Extractivism is an economic and political model of development that commodifies nature and prioritizes profit over human rights and the environment. Rooted in colonial history, it reinforces social and economic inequalities locally and globally. Often, Black, rural and Indigenous women are the most affected by extractivism, and are largely excluded from decision-making. Defying these patriarchal and neo-colonial forces, women rise in defense of rights, lands, people and nature.
WHRDs confronting extractive industries experience a range of risks, threats and violations, including criminalization, stigmatization, violence and intimidation. Their stories reveal a strong aspect of gendered and sexualized violence. Perpetrators include state and local authorities, corporations, police, military, paramilitary and private security forces, and at times their own communities.
AWID and the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD-IC) are pleased to announce “Women Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractivism and Corporate Power”; a cross-regional research project documenting the lived experiences of WHRDs from Asia, Africa and Latin America.
"Women Human Rights Defenders confronting extractive industries: an overview of critical risks and Human Rights obligations" is a policy report with a gender perspective. It analyses forms of violations and types of perpetrators, quotes relevant human rights obligations and includes policy recommendations to states, corporations, civil society and donors.
"Weaving resistance through action: Strategies of Women Human Rights Defenders confronting extractive industries" is a practical guide outlining creative and deliberate forms of action, successful tactics and inspiring stories of resistance.
The video “Defending people and planet: Women confronting extractive industries” puts courageous WHRDs from Africa, Asia, and Latin America in the spotlight. They share their struggles for land and life, and speak to the risks and challenges they face in their activism.
Challenging corporate power: Struggles for women’s rights, economic and gender justice is a research paper outlining the impacts of corporate power and offering insights into strategies of resistance.
AWID acknowledges with gratitude the invaluable input of every Woman Human Rights Defender who participated in this project. This project was made possible thanks to your willingness to generously and openly share your experiences and learnings. Your courage, creativity and resilience is an inspiration for us all. Thank you!
For each AWID Forum we call for contributions from a wide range of feminist and social justice movements to propose activities and create the Forum program.
For the 14th AWID international Forum, we want to make the program truly representative of the diversity of the movements.
That is why we put in place a new and engaging way to choose the proposals that will generate the final Forum program: the Participatory Selection Process (PSP).
The Participatory Selection Process is the final step in reviewing the activity proposals and selecting those that will be part of the official Forum program.
Step
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Step 1: Call for Forum Activities: Application submissions |
Step 2:
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Step 3:
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Step 4:
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Timeline |
December 2019 - mid.February 2020
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January-February 2020
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Summer 2020
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timeline to be adjusted
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People involved | Everyone interested in co-creating the Forum program |
AWID staff
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AWID staff; Content and Methodology Committee; Access Committee |
Shortlisted applicants
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Number of activities involved |
838 activities submitted
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306 applications selected
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126 activities selected
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50-60 most voted activities selected for the final Forum program |
We think a PSP is relevant for the AWID Forum because:
It places at the centre of the decision making process the communities who live the feminist realities that will be showcased and discussed at the Forum
It is consistent with our identity and our role as a movement support/ accompaniment organization.
It is in line with our vision of the Forum as co-created with different feminist and social justice movements, who shape the Forum through their participation in committees (content and methodology, access, artivist and host country), creating and facilitating activities as partners with AWID and also making decisions about the Program through the PSP.
It allows for greater diversity in the textures that will make up the Forum fabric (or in the voices that will compose the Forum song). It ensures we go beyond AWID itself and the movement partners that we already know and work with. It opens the door to the unexpected.
The initial idea came from AWID’s Co-EDs and staff. Before committing to a decision, we consulted some of the community funds that have been implementing participatory selection processes for years. These included FRIDA: The Young Feminists Fund, the International Trans Fund, UHAI - East Africa’s fund for sexual minorities and sex workers - and the Central American Women’s Fund. We consulted them to learn from their extensive experiences and get their feedback.
Financial autonomy, breaker of silence
ORGANISATION DES FEMMES AFRICAINES DE LA DIASPORA (OFAD) ASSOCIATION LES PETITES MERES PRODADPHE ASSOCIATION AMBE KUNKO (AAK)
Contribution of feminist organisations to the fight against violent extremism in Niger
Femmes Actions et Développement (FAD)
Self-financing: home banking for women
Rassemblement des Femmes pour le développement endogène et solidaire RAFDES
Food and food sovereignty for rural women
Association Song-taaba des Femmes Unies pour le Développement (ASFUD)
Feminist leaders, investing in positive masculinity, creating a new balanced social order: how to change mentalities?
Une societe cooperative, la chefferie traditionnelle des localites, les autorites administratives et les autres associations feminines ONG Centre Solidarite "Investir dans les Filles et les Femmes
Co-creating the sponsorship methodology.
NEGES MAWON
Millennium of opportunities to save the earth (MOST) by supporting climate justice for local and Indigenous communities in Congo Basin.
Jeunesse Congolaise pour les Nations Unies (JCNU), Association Genre et Environnement pour le Développement (AGED)
Envisioning an Asian Queer Feminist Politics
ASEAN Feminist LBQ Womxn Network Sayoni
Supporting the Self-Managed: Abortion Doulas, Acompanantes, and Radical Networks of support
inroads
Online Feminisms: How Women Are Taking Back The Tech
Feminism In India
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Sex Workers
Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW), The International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW AP)
Sustainable Feminist Leadership and Organizing - Personal and Collective Experiences
HER Fund, Institute for Women's Empowerment (IWE) ,Kalyanamita, AAF
Caribbean Realities: Black Sauna Radio
WE-Change Jamaica
Telephone Helplines Care and Women Experience
Generation Initiative for Women and Youth Network (GIWYN),Youth Network for Community and Sustainable Development (YNCSD), Community Health Rights Network (CORENET)
Sensuality as resistance; body movement workshop
UHAI EASHRI
Lesbian Disco Eastern European Style
Sapfo Collective
FitcliqueAfrica Feminist Utopia Installation, Trauma Healing and Self Defense Camp
FitcliqueAfrica (Fitclique256 Uganda Limited)
Queering Communications for an Open Internet
Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
Is the Way you Think about Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRHR) Ableist? Good Practices for Disability Inclusive SRHR Programmes and Advocacy.
Asia Pacific Network of Women with Disabilities and Allies
Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication
API Equality-LA, Sayoni, ASEAN Feminist LBQ Womxn Network
Feminist centred approaches to prosecuting sexual harassment in the world of work
Women's Legal Centre
Women in Conflict in Myanmar
Women's League of Burma, Rainfall
Caribbean Feminist Spaces, Creative Expressions & Spiritual Practices for Community Transformation
CAISO: Sex and Gender Justice
POP-UPS: Just Power: Popular Education Tools for a Feminist Future
JASS/Just Associates
UnAnonYmous: Queering Black African Diaspora Feminist Practices Sobriety
Digital Witchcraft: Magical Thinking for Cyberfeminist Futures
The Digital Witchcraft Institute
Building Womanifestos: Grassroot Women's Agenda for Change in Asia Pacific
Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development
Designing your astral travels
EuroNPUD, narcofeminists as a loose group
Collective Care
RENFA Rede Nacional de Feministas Antiproibicionistas
Music of our movements
Radical imagination
From waste to Ecofriendly coal
KEMIT ECOLOGY SARL
Collective care and insurgency of feminist antiracist movements under authoritarian and violent contexts
CFEMEA - Feminist Center of Studies and Advisory Services, CRIOLA - black women`s organization, Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras
Breaking Patriarchal Religion's Stranglehold on Family Laws that Affect Our Lives #FreeOurFamilyLaws
Musawah
Feminist approach to claim and control over lands within investment
Badabon Sangho, APWLD
Women's Global Strike: Our resistance, our future
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law & Development, ESCR-Net, Women's March Global
Towards an Inclusive ‘Mother Earth’
Disability Rights Fund, Open Society Foundation
From Inclusion to Infiltration: Strategies for Building Intersectional Feminist Movements
Mobility International USA (MIUSA)
The hidden stories of women with invisible disabilities: Art in action
The Red Door, Merchants of Madness, Improving Mental Wellbeing through Art
Public-Private Partnership and Women´s Human Rights: learnings from case studies in the Global South
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)
The Interconnected Journey: Our Bodies, Our Sci-Fi! <3
The Interconnected Journey Project, Laboratorio de Interconectividades
Compiling and Building: Alternative feminist vision to challenge the dominant world economic order
IWRAW Asia Pacific
Self-publication as a feminist act
International Women* Space
Good Practices of legal protection for gender & sexual minorities in Pakistan and their Intersectionality
Activists Alliance Foundation, Khawja Sirah Society, Wajood Society, Wasaib Sanwaro
Feminist Approaches to Counter Trafficking
IWRAW Asia Pacific, Business & Human Rights Resource Center
Critiquing individualism and state policies: transnational organizing against targeted violence
Masaha: Accessible Feminist Knowledge
Decolonizing Intimacy: How Queer Identities Challenge Heteronormative Family Structures
WOMANTRA
Yeki Hambe - Sex worker theatre
Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Task Force
Creating the Indigenous feminist reality: honoring the sacred feminine and building new paths for Indigenous women
Cultural Survival, International Funders in Indigenous Peoples
Eyes on Anti-prohibitionism by Brazillian Women
Mulheres Cannabicas, Tulipas do Cerrado
Black Feminist Truth Commission: Addressing Injustices to Revolutionize Intersectional Feminism as the New Reality
Black Women in Development
Community care is self care: true stories are told in safer spaces
Eurasian Harm Reduction Association, Metzineres, Urban Survivor’s Union, Salvage women and children from drug abuse
NO MOVES BARRED:Dancing connections between Disability,trans & sexual rights against violence
National Forum of Women with Disabilities, Autonomy foundation, Nazyk kyz
The Impact of Corporate Capture on Feminist Realities: Developing Tools for Action
ESCR-Net | Economic, Social, Cultural Rights Network
Reimagining AIDS: building a feminist HIV response
Frontline AIDS, Aidsfonds, IPPI (Indonesian Network of Women Living with HIV), UHAI-EASHRI (East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative)
Advancing Economic Justice towards Realizing Our Vision of a Feminist Planet
International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ESCR-Net
Sex Workers Cafe
Hydra e.V.
Adopting an ecofeminist approach in dealing with climate change and food security
Umphakatsi Peace Ecovillage, Human Rights Educational Centre
Connecting the grassroots with the international: experience from creative sex worker mobilisation in Europe
International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe, STRASS - French Sex Worker Union, APROSEX, Red Edition
Experiment with how innovative tech can help us feel safer when navigating our cities
Soul City Institute for Social Justice, Safetipin, Womanity Foundation
question “Are hierarchies within organisations UNfeminist?”
Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya National, Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
We all are different, but we do have joint shared values
UNWUD (Ukrainian network of women who use drugs), JurFem Association, Women's Prospects
A World Without Class
Bunge La Wamama Mashinani (Grassroots Women's Parliament)
Women Empower the Community
Institute for Women's Empowerment (IWE), Solidaritas Perempuan, ASEC Indonesia, Komunitas Swabina Pedesaan Salassae (KSPS)
Feminist Organizing: Transformational Leadership - Women Workers in Latin America Creating a Feminist Labor Movement and a Feminist World of Work
Solidarity Center
Acting Out, Acting Up : Disability-Feminism decolonising narratives of Stigma thro' Participatory theatre
Rising Flame, National Indigenous Disabled Women Association, Nepal, The Spectrum & Union of Abilities, The Red Door
Valuing and centering rest, pleasure and play
ATHENA Network
The African feminist judgment project
The Initiative for strategic Ligation in Africa (ISLA)
Voices from the frontlines: Bolstering collective power to end the incarceration of women worldwide
International Drug Policy Consortium, Equis Justicia para las Mujeres, National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, Women and Harm Reduction International Network
Queer Youth Organising: imagining in an era of human rights and sustainable development
African Queer Youth Initiative, Success Capital Organisation
Our Struggles Our Stories Our Strengths
Oriang Lumalaban, Pambansang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan
Breaking barriers for collective Indigenous climate action in Southeast Asia
Cuso International, Asia Indigenous Peoples' Pact
Love Positive Women: Going beyond romantic love to deep community love and social justice
Eurasian Women's Network on AIDS
Intersex and Feminism
Intersex Russia
Understanding the reproductive health experiences and needs of transgender and gender diverse people
Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN)
Because She Cares: Critical conversations on HIV activism as (un)caring work
Because We Care Collaborative
The Mississippi Food Systems Manifesto
Center for Ideas, Equity & Transformative Change, National Council of Appropriate Technology - Gulf South, MS Food Justice Collaborative, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Kurdish Women's Movement co-presidency experience as an example of a radical feminist realization: Co-presidency is our PURPLE line!
The Free Women’s Movement (TJA)
WOES -"Walking on Egg Shells"
Eldoret Women For Development (ELWOFOD), Mama Cash, Young women against Women Custodial Injustices Network
FREEDOM
Prison Isn’t Feminist: Exploring the impact and alternatives to reliance on police and incarceration
Migrant Sex Workers Project, Showing Up For Racial Justice
Bondo without Blood: A Feminist Reimagining of Sierra Leonean Rites of Passage
Purposeful
Liberated Land & Territories: A Pan-African Conversation
Thousand Currents (USA), Abahlali baseMjondolo (South Africa), Nous Sommes la Solution (west Africa/regional), Movilización de Mujeres Negras por el Cuidado de la Vida y los Territorios Ancestrales (Colombia), and Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (Brazil)
Popular Education and Organizing for a Feminist Economy
Jamaica Household Workers Union (JHWU), United for a Fair Economy, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL)
So You Wish To Mobilise With An Empty Wallet? Let’s Make It Happen!
Breakthrough India
Experience sharing establishing a network for women human rights defenders in East Africa: Ugandan perspective
Women Human Rights Defenders Network Uganda
Tech clinic
Stichting Syrian Female Journalists Netowrk
Building Inclusive Movements: Going Beyond Tokenism
Rising Flame
Justice & Healing for Survivors of GBV: an interactive debate on restorative justice and the anatomy of an apology
One Future Collective
Collective actions to ending transphobia through a feminist lens
Asia Pacific Transgender Network, Iranti, Transgender Europe
LBQ women & Asylum
Sehaq
Abortion and Disability: Towards an Intersectional Human Rights-Based Approach
Women Enabled International
Learn how to support the self-organizing of undocumented, migrant, and criminalized and sex workers communities
Buttrerfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network)
Self Care: A Fundamental Tool for Sustaining LGBTQI & Feminist Organizing
United and Strong Inc., S.H.E Barbados, Lez Connect
Reclaiming Young African Feminist VOICES-REALITIES-POWER for climate justice
Young Feminist organization Gasy Youth Up, Young African Feminist Dialogues
Women in action & solidarity: performing our realities (Asia & Africa)
Young Feminist organization Gasy Youth Up ( co-founder) , Young African Feminist Dialogues ( member)
Women in action & solidarity: performing our realities (Asia & Africa)
Women Performing the World (Asia/Africa)
Challenging patriarchy: Workers in entertainment sector
Women Forum for Women in Nepal (WOFOWON)
The non-citizens: issues of women's citizenship in the context of migrant, vulnerable communities in South Asia
NEthing
Visioning for voice in migration and climate crises
Women's Refugee Commission, The Feminist Humanitarian Network, ActionAid
In It Together: Women's Funds and Feminist Movements Co-Creating Feminist Realities
Mama Cash, Global Fund for Women, Urgent Action Fund - Africa
Co-creating magic with young feminist movements - participatory practices that spark joy
Feminist organizing, FRIDA The Young Feminist Fund (Community), Teia
Protection right of woman’s in difficult realities 3 organizations of women from marginally communities
NGO Asteria, Ermolaeva Irena and Bayazitova Renata. NGO Ganesha Musagalieva Tatiana. NGO Ravniy Ravnomu Kucheryavyh Tanya
Feminnale - traditions against art and expression
Bishkek Feminist Initiatives
Resistance through knowledge, arts and activism: creation of a feminist library in Armenia
FemHouse, Armenia
Conquering the UN System with Feminist Strategies (You Don’t Need to be a Lawyer to Have Fun)
Kazakhstan Feminist Initiative "Feminita", IWRAW Asia Pacific, ILGA World
Data. Huh. What is it good for? Feminist data and organizing for feminist outcomes
International Women's Development Agency, Women's Rights Action Movement, Fiji Women's Rights Movement
Criminalized Women’s voice, leadership and influence on laws, policies and practices in Kenya
Keeping Alive Societies Hope-KASH, Katindi Lawyers and Advocates, Vocal Kenya
From Colombia to the world, African women's changing force
Proceso de Comunidades Negras en Colombia -PCN, Solidarité Féminine por la Paix el le Develppment Integral -SOFEPADI,
Afro Queer Listening Lounge and Story-Telling Booth
AQ Studios, None on Record, AfroQueer Podcast
Reclaiming Bodily Integrity
GBV Prevention Network : Coordinated by Raising Voices
Learning from diversity
Circulo de Mujeres con Discapacidad -CIMUDIS, Alianza Discapacidad por nuestros Derechos -ADIDE, Fundación Dominicana de Ciegos -FUDCI, Filial Puerto Rico de Mujeres con Discapacidad
Football as a feminist tool
Fundación GOLEES (Género, Orgullo, Libertad y Empoderamiento de Ellas en la Sociedad)
Migratory constellations
LasVanders
Ecofeminist dialogues to defend territories
CIEDUR (Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios sobre el Desarrollo), Equit, Foro permanente de Manaos y Amazonia
La Frida BikesMoviment
La Frida Bike
Witchcraft, shamanism and other insurgent knowledge against patriarchy.
Colectiva Feminista MAPAS-Mujeres Andando Proceso por Autonomías Sororales
Experiences, learnings and challenges in managing holistic security of horizontal feminist organisations and of gender-dissidence in times of social and political crisis. The experience of the popular uprising in Chile of 18 October.
Fudación Comunidades en Interfaz
Food that we all know about
Las Nietas de Nonó, Parceleras Afrocaribeñas por la Transformación barrial (PATBA)
Practices of resistance against climate change of Indigenous women in Peru and Guatemala
Thousand Currents, Red de Mujeres Productoras de la Agricultura Familiar, Asociación de Mujeres Ixpiyakok (ADEMI, Ixpiyakok Women's Association)
Building Feminist Cities
CISCSA, Articulacion Feminista Marcosur
Stand in my place
Alianza Discapacidad por nuestros Derechos - ADIDE, Circulo de Mujeres con Discapacidad -CIMUDIS
Clearing the way for women's fullness of life, healing collective and historical traumas
Grupo de Mujeres Mayas Kaqla
Zapoteca Indigenous women challenged by nature
Houses of Care and Healing for Women Human Rights Defenders as part of Integral Feminist Protection: A Feminist Reality
Iniciativa Mesoamericana De Defensoras de Derechos Humanos, Consorcio Oaxaca para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la Equidad A.C, Red Nacional De Defensoras De Derechos Humanos en Honduras, Coletivo Feminista de Autocuidado
Healing your unicornix voice: Weaving ancient and digital technologies to sharpen the tongue
Feminist trajectories for an assisted motherhood protocol for women with disabilities
Circulo emancipador de mujeres y niñas con discapacidad de Chile, CIMUNIDIS, WEI
School for trans feminist children
Fundación Selena
REDTRASEX: Experience of Organization and Struggle for the Rights of Women Sex Workers in Latin America and the Caribbean
RedTraSex Red de mujeres trabajadoras sexuales LAC
Gender based violence and the world of sex work in Mexico
Brigada Callejera de Apoyo a la Mujer, "Elisa Martínez", A.C., Red Mexicana de Organizaciones Contra la Criminalización del VIH. Red Mexicana de Trabajo Sexual
Migration forces us to draw the path as we walk
Asociación de Trabajadoras del Hogar a Domicilio y de Maquila. ATRAHDOM
New narratives for Black women: body, healing and pleasure
Weaving memories and networks - Black Feminists strengthening Black feminisms in LAC
Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diáspora, Articulação de Organizações de Mulheres Negras Brasileiras (AMNB), Voces Caribeñas
Prior to her retirement, she held many high profile positions including member of the Court of Appeal of Uganda and Deputy Chief Justice of Uganda. She was the first Ugandan woman to hold the position of Chief Magistrate between 1973 and 1986 and the first woman to be appointed High court judge in 1986.
She was one of the first ever women papal knights in the history of the Catholic Church in Africa. She died of a heart attack.
Una identidad de género latinoamericana
El término travesti se trata de una identidad de género latinoamericana sin equivalente en otros idiomas, y exclusivamente femenina. Es una persona designada varón al nacer que se identifica como mujer, y siempre deben abordarse con el pronombre “ella”.
Travesti no es solo una identidad de género ubicada fuera del binarismo de género, también es una identidad cultural arraigada en los movimientos latinoamericanos. El término inicialmente fue peyorativo, pero luego fue re-apropiado como símbolo de resistencia y dignidad. Toda travesti es trans porque no se identifica con el género asignado al nacer, sin embargo no toda travesti se considera mujer trans, ya que travesti ya es una identidad de género en sí misma.
Referencia: Berkins, Lohana. (2006). Travestis: una Identidad Política . Trabajo presentado en el Panel Sexualidades contemporáneas en las VIII Jornadas Nacionales de Historia de las Mujeres/ III Congreso Iberoamericano de Estudios de Género Diferencia Desigualdad. Construirnos en la diversidad, Villa Giardino, Córdoba, 25 al 28 de octubre de 2006.
The menstrual cycle usually lasts between 27 and 30 days. During this time, the period itself would only go on for five to seven days. During the period, fatigue, mood swings, and cramps are the result of inflammation.
In traditional Javanese culture, this is the moment for women to rest and take care of themselves. During this moment, a woman would take Kunyit Asam, a jamu or herbal drink to soothe the inflammation. This elixir consists of turmeric and tamarind boiled together in a pot.
I still remember my first period - it was one day before graduation day in elementary school. I remember pedaling my bike feeling something warm running between my thighs. When I arrived home I did all I could to clean myself and then put on a menstrual pad. My mother came home from work about four hours later. I told her what had happened. She looked me in the eye and asked how I felt. I told her that it was painful, that my body was swollen in every place. Then she asked me to go with her to the backyard. I followed her to our little jungle, my mother sat down on the soil and smiled.
“See this slender leaf? This is the leaf of Kunyit, *empon-empon that leaves the yellow stain on your fingers. What’s most important is not the leaf, but the roots. You dig the soil and slowly grab the roots.”, my mother showed me how to pick Kunyit or Turmeric roots. Then we went to the kitchen where she boiled water along with some tamarind. While waiting for it to boil, she showed me how to wash and grate the orangey-yellow root. Then, we put the grated turmeric into the boiling tamarind water. “Tomorrow, you can make it for yourself. This will help you to feel better!”.
I remember the first time I tasted it - a slightly bitter taste but also sour. My mother always served it warm. She would also put some in a big bottle which I would place on my stomach or lower back for further relief. For days after, my mother’s hands and mine were yellow. My friends could always tell every time I got period because my hands would be yellow.
A year after my first period, I found out that you could get the bottled version in convenience stores. Still, I made my own Kunyit Asam every time I had my period because the one in the convenience stores was cold. It did not smell of wet soil and warm kitchen.
Fast forward, I am a 26 year old woman who casually makes this drink for friends when they have their periods. I’ve made some for my housemates and I’ve delivered some for friends who live in different towns. I do not grow turmeric roots in my garden, but I have grown and shared the love from my mom. What was once from garden to cup is now from *pasar to cup.
A couple of days ago, I asked my mother who taught her how to make the jamu.
“Who else? Yang Ti*! Your grandmother was not just a teacher”, said my mom. I was never close to my grandmother. She passed away when I was eight. All I knew from my mom was that she was a math teacher who had to teach courses after work. I had this image of my grandmother as a hard worker who was kind of distant with her children. My mom did not disagree with that but explained it came from her survival instinct as a mother. “She tried to make time. She tried. She taught me how to make jamu so I could take care of myself and my sisters”.
My mother is the second child out of seven, six of whom are girls. The reason my grandmother taught her is so that all of her children could take care of each other. While my mother was taught how to make the drink, my mother’s older sister was taught how to plant turmeric. Yang Ti knew which one loved the smell of soil more and which one loved the smell of the kitchen. My mother was the latter. She learned how to plant from my aunt, her older sister.
My grandfather worked in a bank but he got laid off when he was in his 40s. So, my grandmother had to do a side-hustle to support their children. My mother was in high school at that time when Yang Ti woke her and her older sister up at dawn. “Would you help me to pick some roots?”. Of course nobody said no. Especially if it was your mother, especially if you were born in Javanese culture where saying “no” sounded like a bad word. Together, the three of them went to the backyard, and they harvested empon - empon, rhizome, that was buried inside the soil. She grew many kinds of rhizome; temu lawak, temu putih, ginger, galangal, kunci, kencur, and kunyit. That was the day where my mother realized that her mother was never far away from her.
That was the day where she could spend more time with her mother. There, in the garden. There, in the kitchen.
“We’re sending these for Ibu Darti, the lady who lives across the river. Kunyit Asam for her and her daughters.”, said my grandmother to my mother and my aunt that day. They poured the Turmeric-Tamarind warm drink into a tall thermos and later my grandmother would deliver it on the way to school.
Over time, my grandmother got more orders for jamu. Everybody in the family helped her to make and deliver her jamu. The small business lasted only a few years, but that was what paid for my mother and her siblings’ education.
Today, my mother, who got laid off just a few days before I wrote this piece, harvested Turmeric and other roots. She’s making her Turmeric Tamarind drink from her kitchen.
My phone rang in the middle of this afternoon, a couple minutes after I boiled the rest of my grated turmeric. Today is one day after my period.
“Ingka, have you washed your pot after boiling those turmeric? It would forever be yellow if you don’t wash it right away!”
*empon-empon = roots like ginger, turmeric, etc. coming from the Javanese word “Empu” which means, something or someone that has deep knowledge.
*jamu = Indonesia’s traditional elixir made of roots, barks, flowers, seeds, leaves, and fruits.
*Yang Ti = Javanese term for grandmother, taken from the term “Eyang Putri” the female you look up to.
*pasar = the word for traditional market in Indonesian.
The more women support other women, the quicker we’ll see progress. Together we are stronger and make even more impact.
Mona fue una economista y consultora independiente sobre temas de género y desarrollo.
Fue profesora de economía y Directora del Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World de la Lebanese American University. Falleció repentinamente el 6 de enero de 2018.
Sus amigxs y ex-colegas dicen sobre Mona: «Cuando celebramos su vida, lo mejor que podemos hacer es comprometernos a continuar con lo que ella empezó: la igualdad de género, indefectiblemente.
L'une des dirigeantes fondatrices de la coopérative était Lohana Berkins, une militante, défenseuse et promotrice de l'identité trans. Lohana a joué un rôle crucial dans la lutte pour les droits des personnes trans et travestis.
Grâce à sa lutte, entre autres choses, l'approbation de la loi sur l'identité de genre a été obtenue. C'est l'une des lois les plus progressistes au monde, garantissant les droits fondamentaux des personnes trans et des travestis. Désormais, les personnes peuvent changer de nom et de sexe avec un affidavit et ont accès à des soins de santé complets sans intervention/approbation judiciaire ou médicale (Outright International, 2012).
The artwork is a photography and illustration collaboration between Siphumeze and Katia during lockdown. The work looks at black queer sex and plesure narratives, bondage, safe sex, toys, mental health and sex and many more. It was created to accompany the Anthology Touch.
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Ursula était une romancière américaine dont les genres littéraires de prédilection étaient la science-fiction et le genre fantastique.
Elle a connu le succès grâce à son roman « La main gauche de la nuit », où elle imagine une société du futur où les personnes sont ambisexuelles - leur sexe n’est pas déterminé. Parmi les premiers grands livres de science-fiction féministes, ce roman explore les influences du genre et du sexe dans la société. Ursula était une source d'inspiration pour ses écrits subversifs et originaux, ainsi que pour les thèmes du féminisme et de la liberté qui lui tenaient tellement à cœur.
En 1983, lors d'un discours au Mills College en Californie, elle a déclaré aux diplômé-e-s : « Pourquoi une femme libre ayant suivi une formation universitaire devrait-elle combattre Macho-Man ou le servir ? Pourquoi devrait-elle vivre sa vie selon son bon vouloir ? J'espère que vous vivrez sans avoir besoin de dominer et sans avoir besoin d'être dominé-e ».
Only a year after it was founded, the members of Nadia Echazú started to work in haute couture and organized a fashion show in the historic Bauen Hotel.
They showcased five models and some workers of the textile cooperative walked down the runway with their own designs.
This was revolutionary not only because they were designing alternatives to mainstream fashion, but also because they were creating accessible, inclusive clothes for all trans and travesti bodies.
Feminist economies should also be about feeling amazing and comfortable in the clothes we are wearing.