Video from the Observatorio in Honduras

Unlearning the 'truths'

Unlearning the 'Truths'


Zimbabwe was hounoured with the presence of Professor Sylvia Rosila Tamale from Uganda. She gave a talk at the Zimbabwe Women’s esource Center Network (ZWRCN). The room was packed to capacity with a mixture of older feminist/activist and quite an impressive number of young women activists too. It was an hounour for me to be present in that room and listen to this magnificent woman speak.

Professor Tamale is the first woman dean in the Law Faculty at Makereke University, Uganda. She has done several work, some of it including ‘African Feminism: How Should We Change?" and also "Eroticism, Sensuality and "Women's Secrets Among the Baganda: A Critical Analysis" Feminist Africa, just to mention a few.

She spoke on ‘SEXUALITY.’ As she started to go deeper into the power dynamics and how women should embrace sexuality and the key and core aspects of all power and sexuality people could not help but agree.

I realised so many dynamics to Sexuality and how we have not used the power of our sexuality as women to free ourselves from the rule of Patriarchy. The professor spoke about the need for ‘transformative change’ and also how we should begin a process of unlearning and relearning as women.

She emphasised on how as women we need to unlearn all the aspects of our sexuality that has been socially and culturally constructed, all the perceptions and how they have been used to control us.

The process as she described is not an easy, it’s difficult and it has a lot of backlash as well. She emphasised the need for critical thinking and questioning what we know as the ‘truths’.

What was very interesting for me is the way she highlighted the different power dynamics, economic, race, class, gender, sex, social status and all and in the middle of them all the main core issues that’s present in all these spheres in Sexuality. More often than ever in life as women we never realise how ‘our bodies’ are the main source of power we have and yet we let patriarchy control, dominate and abuse us.

In unlearning the ‘truths’ we then realise that we have to question everything, why we as women are the ones who do all the work in the domestic arena and all this is done and there is no payment for that. She compared this to the public sphere dominated by men and how they are remunerated and use that to control the women. Why is it that when a woman is a single parent, has more than one sexual partner or has sex with other women or is a sex worker she is ‘LABELLED’ by society? Who determines these labels and according to whose yard stick are you judging or setting morals? Whose morals are these?

I was quickly reminded of how we, as a women’s movement, advocate on how we have to be ‘WOMEN CROSSING THE LINE’. Sylvia Tamale is one woman who has crossed many lines; hence she was voted the ‘worst woman’ of the year in a national paper in 2003 in Uganda. I feel , if crossing the line and challenging patriarchy makes us all ‘worst women’ then lets wear that label with pride as we strengthen the voice, visibility and collective power of women.
-Patience Mandishona-

Media Ignores Escalating Sexual Aggression Against Honduran Women Protesters

Escalating Sexual Aggression Against Feminist And Women Protesters Against Military Coup In Honduras Ignored By Global & National Media

By Margaret Thompson
FIRE – Feminist International Radio Endeavour/Radio Internacional Feminista

August 17, 2009 - Tegucigalpa, Honduras -- Global & national media are ignoring the growing intensity of sexual aggression and torture of women demonstrators in Honduras after the military coup d’etat & and violent repression, according to Honduran feminists and activists.

“The media (in Honduras) are manipulating our minds, because we see (in the streets) what is really happening” and they are not reporting the reality of the violent repression by the military and police, declared Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, the first lady of Honduras and wife of Pres. Zelaya, who spoke to a Forum by Feminists in Resistance of Honduras today. Most of the mainstream media are owned by supporters of the military coup, so their reports reflect efforts by the defacto regime to create an image of “normality,” that all is well, that there was in fact no military coup, they merely ousted an ex-president who violated the constitution, according to Castro de Zelaya.

The first lady spoke to an audience of about 120 mainly women, including an international delegation from Central America, Mexico, Canada, Spain and the United States participating in a Feminist Transgressional Watch . The group is visiting Honduras for Women’s Human Rights Week, and conducting a feminist observatory of violations of women’s human rights, and feminist strategies of resistance to the military coup.

As popular resistance to the military coup continues with massive daily street marches, military and police officials are becoming more aggressive with both female and male demonstrators, beating them with clubs, shooting into crowds with (rubber or real) bullets, conducting large scale arrests or detentions, torture, and assassinations, little of which is covered in many media reports, said Indira Mendoza of Catrachas. Mendoza has videotaped some of these incidents directly or has testimony of witnesses. Hospitals and clinics are filled with young people in particular, with broken arm or leg bones, head injuries, and (rubber) bullet wounds.

Women’s and human rights groups are receiving reports of escalating sexual aggression against women both in the demonstrations and in detentions, ranging from verbal obscenities and threats, to women being grabbed or beaten with batons on their buttocks, to torture and rape in detentions, noted Adela Coria of the Center for Women’s Studies (CEM). In today’s Forum in Tegucigalpa, Yadida Minero reported that she had just taken a young woman to a radio station to denounce her torture and rape with a rifle while in detention at a police station.

Likewise, in the United States, the diminishing number of media reports on Honduras reflect how Pres. Obama led by Secretary State Hillary Clinton is backing away from his originally strong condemnation of the coup which ousted the legally elected President Zelaya, according to Breny Mendoza, a Honduran living in the US, and professor at California State University in Northridge. The intensive US news coverage and outrage in the US mainstream media about the controversial presidential elections in Iran is a stark contrast to the minimal coverage of the military coup in Honduras which ousted a democratically elected president. And the front and center role of women including feminists in the massive demonstrations, and the increasingly aggressive reaction of military and police to the women are also absent in media reports.

Despite the growing sexual aggression against women in Honduras, they are not filing complaints with the police for a number of reasons. Sara Rosales, a human rights lawyer with CEM, noted that women are afraid to report any violence since it is the police and military who are in part responsible for the violent repression, and the women also figure that such efforts are futile, because nothing will come of it.

After years of national and global campaigns about domestic violence, complaints filed by women had been increasing in recent years, says Rosales, also a member of Feminists in Resistance in Honduras.
There were 12,000 complaints filed with police in Honduras denouncing violence against women in 2007, and 20,000 reports last year, noted Rosales. But since the coup there have been very few complaints filed, which clearly demonstrates the connection between domestic violence and violence against women in armed conflict, both of which have increased in recent weeks.

Also, feminists and women’s activists are very disheartened that the de facto coup government kicked out the Minister of Women under Pres. Zelaya, Selma Estrada de Uclés in late June with the coup, and installed María Martha Díaz, a member of the ultra conservative Catholic group Opus Dei. Díaz has refused to process any complaints filed regarding violations of women’s human rights since the coup.

When feminists rallied outside the Institute of Women (INAM) to protest the policies of Díaz as de facto minister, she called in the military, who beat the protesters with batons.

Women are well aware of the irony of this assault. Years of struggle by feminists and other women is now lost, said Rosales. “It all changed in one day,” noted Breny Mendoza, a professor at California State University in Northridge and originally from Honduras.

Honduran feminists and investigators have received a vast number of complaints about violations of women’s human rights by the current coup regime in the past six weeks, and have conducted interviews for testimonies of 18 women. As part of the feminist observatory, human rights lawyers and activists are working with Honduran feminists to prepare a report on these 18 cases, which were presented to the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights, which is also visiting Honduras during the week of August 17th.

In the meantime, women including Feminists in Resistance are continuing to be front and center in the marches. “No more coups (golpes), and no more golpes (beatings) of women!” shout the women as they take to the streets. “Quien somos? Somos Feministas en Resistencia!”

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US Secretary of States Hillary Clinton has refused to declare the siege a coup d’etat. Some say that this is because it would mean cutting all military and economic aid, beyond the small amount frozen in early July. And Clinton, along with US Sen. John McCain recently met with de facto coup Pres. Michelleti in Washington, who had come to meet with members of Congress as well to convince them that all is well in Honduras. Clinton is also on the board of the Millennium Development Corporation, which has continued to distribute millions of dollars to Honduras since the coup, according to Bill Conroy, as published in The Narcosphere on August 9, 2009.

Margie Thompson is a member of an international delegation that is in Honduras this week (August 17-21) conducting a local and virtual Observatorio de la Transgresión Feminista (Feminist Transformation Watch) to shed light on women's rights violations that are occurring under the de facto regime that overthrew the democratically elected president in a coup d'etat on June 28th. For more information visit http://www.justassociates.org/actions/honduras_action_coup.html.

Feminists in Resistance

It has been an intense couple of days since we arrived in Honduras on Sunday. When I catch the words “I’m tired” coming out of my mouth I stop myself because standing next to my feminist sisters from Honduras, I have nothing to complain about. These women have been marching every day, EVERY day, rain or shine, military or no military, sometimes with bruises from the march the day before. We joined the march today and there was so much energy, you would never know that they had been doing this for 52 days. One of the woman screamed “Estan cansadas!? (translation: are you tired!?) to which everyone responded with a resounding “NO”. Incredible…but not surprising given what has been happening in this country since their democratically elected president was forcibly removed from his post in a coup d’etat on June 28th.

Under the military coup, women’s rights have suffered a huge blow. Yesterday, during a forum organized by Honduran Feminists in Resistance at the nurses college (whose administrators, when they discovered the reason for the meeting, informed us that we can no longer hold events there because of the anti coup content), participants shared stories of physical and verbal intimidation and harassment by the military. Policemen have used their batons to strike women’s private parts (in some cases sticking them into their vaginas) and are using their words to make derogatory and sexual comments to women participating in marches. These accounts are appalling and clearly intended by the military to deter people from continuing to march or speak out against the coup but instead they are having the opposite effect – they are strengthening the solidarity and resilience of those in resistance. As the slogan goes, “Nos tienen miedo porque no tenemos miedo” (“They fear us because we are not afraid”). There is so much more to share but it will have to wait for tomorrow because the Feminists in Resistance are about to meet to plan and strategize for tomorrow’s march. Onward!

International Delegation Amplifies Honduran Women's Voices

TEGUCIGALPA – JASS (Just Associates) announced that an international delegation arrived in Honduras Monday for a week-long women’s rights watch. The delegation is conducting a local and virtual Observatorio (Feminist Transformation Watch) from August 17 to 21 to shed light on women's rights violations occurring under the de facto regime that overthrew the democratically elected president in a coup d'etat on June 28th.

The delegation comprises representatives of JASS, Honduran Feminists in Resistance, Las Petateras, Radio Feminista, Nobel Women’s Initiative, and the Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equality, and includes human rights activists, researchers, legal experts and journalists from Central America, Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The purpose of the mission is to gather information, to denounce the coup, and to increase awareness of the impact of the crisis from the perspective of women.

Honduran women continue at the frontlines of pro-democracy actions and resistance against the de facto regime that ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Women’s organizations are under surveillance and members’ lives continue to be threatened as they practise non-violent resistance to the repression and demand a return to the rule of law, an end to violence, and respect for human rights.

A central imperative for democracy is that the perspectives and voices of Honduran women must be included in the resolution to the current crisis in that country. Systematic violations of women’s rights can be traced back to the 1980s dictatorships, with the cycle of violence and oppression continuing today within a culture of impunity. In the current crisis of ruptured democracy, these systematic violations and abuses have increased. Without a commitment to breaking the impunity, there can be no sustainable democratic resolution in Honduras.

To document the human rights violations against Honduran women that have occurred since the coup on June 28th, the delegation is conducting interviews and collecting testimonials from Honduran women and organizations, and engaging in dialogue with feminists and other Honduran women about their strategies of resistance and their actions in response to the coup. This information will be disseminated through national, regional, and international media.

For more information visit http://www.justassociates.org/actions/honduras_action_coup.html.

Feminism

by Mia Nikasimo (c)

Feminism is an activism
In the service of equal
Rights for all women with
-out exception; all of us.
Congratulate yourself
When you hear echoes of
The gunshots pow, pow followed by a ring, ring,
Hits concrete or metal,
Setting my nerves on end.
Don’t call yourself a
Feminist.
You de-feminist yourself
Everytime you turn the
Vocal screw sreaming
With hatred because I
Became a woman,
A woman in a body of one’s own out of the 20s
Or the lonely wells of the
50s.
When Jen said she
Always thought of me as
Such you sizzled & hissed.
I saw how much burden
You carried, always trying
In complicity & truth at
The same time, yours.
In such a forced, false way
You held me as a friend.
Feminism isn’t intolerant
People are, people like
You who must protect
Other from as if I were a
Insipid Infestation or so?
All that is yours, all yours
Even when you echo the
Thoughts phobic in
others as favour.
Every opportunity your
Pounce oblivious again &
Again only you can’t
Recollect when tasked with what worse you did.
All I want is a body; mine
Governed here by me.
Don’t congratulate me then conflagrate and say
‘Always a friend then put
Me up for the hit.

Mia Nikasimo, a Nigerian poet and translesbian, is a guest writer for Black Looks, a blog authored and moderated by Sokari Ekine.