Women's resistance

Dossier Women's rights: not one step back 1 article

• Women's resistance

Coinciding with the fourth wave of feminism, far-right parties have gained strength around the world, forcing women to build strategies of disobedience. From Africa to the Americas, and also in Europe, where hate speech and anti-women's rights rhetoric grows with each election, partly thanks to the power of social media.

United States

A proudly sexist government in the US.

He Donald Trump's return to the White House It gives wings to all reactionary and proudly sexist movements. Before the Republican took office and began to deploy his ultra-right agenda, many influencers reactionaries already felt supported by their victory at the polls. Influencers like the white supremacist Nick Fuentes They celebrated Trump's victory with the slogan "Your body, my decision". A version of the feminist slogan "My body, my choice", which has been so often heard at the pro-abortion demonstrations in the United States. In response, there was an attempt to replicate the South Korean 4B movement, but so far it hasn't caught on.

Feminists are no exception to the paralysis and discouragement in the face of the avalanche that has been Trump's first month and a half in officeOne of the main targets of the Republican's ultra-right agenda is gender and equality policies. Trump has put an end to the equality policies within the administration And some private companies have followed suit for fear of being targeted by the tycoon's wrath. He has also demonized trans women and banned them from women's sports. The tycoon has signed two more orders that equally affect Trans women and men: excluded from the military By considering them mentally ill, he once again pathologizes them and forces them to return to using their assigned gender at birth on legal documents.

The anti-abortion movement and ultra-conservative Christians also feel strengthened by Trump and hope to further advance their agenda. Abortion rights remain repealed, and many conservative states are already taking action to try to attack alternative methods, such as sending abortion pills. This is one of the few resources left for many women when abortion has been completely banned in their state and they cannot move to another for economic reasons. Meanwhile, since abortion rights were repealed in 2022, infant mortality has only increased.

Argentina

Milei's chainsaw against women

The Ni Una Menos movement revolutionized the Argentine society with its massive protest against femicides Following the murder of a pregnant 14-year-old girl, Chiara Páez, who was brutally beaten by her 17-year-old boyfriend when she told him she didn't want an abortion, hundreds of thousands of women took to the streets of Buenos Aires on June 3, 2015, and have done so every year around that date to demand an end to gender-based violence. The protest led to the creation of a registry of femicides, a judicial body for gender violence, and a Ministry of Women. Later, the global March 8 movement, spurred by Me Too, renewed the strength of Argentine feminism, united in the cry Not one less.

The chainsaw and the hatred of women

But last year, the annual June 3rd march of Argentine women turned into a demonstration against Javier Milei, whom they accuse of promoting "denial of gender violence, hatred of women, and gender dissidents." Milei's chainsaw It began by eliminating the Ministry of Women, dismantled all its policies, and then dismantled the programs and public policies that had been created to assist victims of gender-based violence and LGBTI groups. It has also announced that it will eliminate the term femicideSocial cuts and their impact on the poorest sectors of society also have a special impact on women, which is why the Ni Una Menos (Not One Less) movement and its marches From 3-J, 8-M and 25-N are now an anti-Milei struggle.

Afghanistan and Iran

Forced to demonstrate within four walls

The image is a recurring one. A small group of women gather in an unidentified house and film themselves with a camera while holding signs claiming their right to education, work, and freedom. In short, to a dignified life. They all wear tunics and hijabs, and cover their faces with masks. Sometimes they even wear sunglasses to ensure no one recognizes them. Once the images are filmed, they share them on social media or send them to the media.

This is the way Afghan women protest today. It is the only way left to them, after the Taliban regime has violently repressed any attempt at street demonstrations and arrested prominent activists. One of the last was Julia Parsi, who was imprisoned for almost three months and lost the hearing in one ear from the beatings she received.

Purple Saturdays Movement, the Purple Saturdays movement, the Independent Coalition of Afghanistan Women's Protest Movements, and the Window of Hope Women's Movement are some of the groups they organize. These are entirely symbolic and minority demonstrations, but they are the way Afghan women remind the world that they remain ostracized. They have been like this for more than three and a half years, the same time that the Taliban have been returning to power.

Outside of high schools and universities

This past year, moreover, fundamentalists have hammered home the point and tightened restrictions against women. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where women cannot attend secondary or university education. They cannot work in skilled trades, play sports, frequent hairdressers or beauty salons, or stroll in seemingly banal places like public parks. They cannot travel or use public transportation unless accompanied by a male member of the family. And, since this year, they cannot make their voices heard in public. For all these reasons, the simple act of going out, studying, or earning money is now an act of resistance. The Catalan association Bridges for Peace is one of those that promotes the opening of clandestine schools.

In the neighboring country, Iran, appearing in public without a veil on one's head remains the main act of women's protest against the ayatollahs' regime. Last Thursday, the Iranian judiciary announced a lawsuit against the organizers of the National Architecture and Interior Design Awards ceremony, which took place last year and in which several participants attended without hijabs. The images went viral on social media. In fact, this has been a staple in recent months: well-known women attending high-profile public events without veils.

South Korea

South Korean women who don't want to know anything about men

In one of the most patriarchal societies in the world, women have had enough, and they've done so in a radical way. It's the 4B women's movement in South Korea. The B is the English sound of the word by which in Korean means no. These women say No to four things: no to marriage, no to motherhood, no to romantic relationships with any man, and no to sex. They simply don't want to have anything to do with men. This movement, which advocates celibacy, is already beginning to gain followers in other countries like the United States, where it has spread as a response to the regression of women's rights that is taking place there. But the extremist option adopted by South Korean 4B women stems above all from their rejection, they say, of being "baby machines."

"We are not baby-making machines"

South Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world. And the minister who tried to boost birth rates between 2017 and 2018, Chung Hyun-back, concluded that the main culprit behind this figure is the country's "patriarchal culture." South Korean women who have children are forced to leave their jobs, out of habit, but sometimes literally. Young South Korean women also face one of the highest gender pay gaps in the world (the country is number 105 out of 146 countries), and they see how the traditional role of women still dominates the social conversation. The 4B movement, which emerged from the protest movement that erupted in 2016 following the murder of a woman in a Seoul train station restroom, is rebelling against all of this.

Dossier Women's rights: not one step back 1 article

• Women's resistance