Curated by FG Contributor Samiha Hossain
Photo: Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images
Activists in Croatia are seeking changes in the law to strengthen abortion rights and curb the rights of “kneelers” – ultra-conservative men who pray in city squares against divorce and abortion – to hold their protests in public. Earlier this week, the Association Autonomous Women’s House Zagreb (AZKZ), a women’s advocacy body in Croatia, urged the Croatian state to support women and proposed changes to the criminal code improving women’s right to voluntarily terminate pregnancies and limiting the rights of men to pray in public against abortion.
It is about applying and protecting the principles that the state accepted when it ratified the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and when it accepted the European acquis [the common body of EU legislation]. -Neva Tolle, advisor to AZKZ
Tolle said that so-called “kneelers” are creating a platform for the tolerance of violence and inequality of women and so invite society to discriminate against women. This initiative, which arose in ultra-conservative Catholic circles, gathers men who kneel and pray for “manliness” in city squares on the first Saturday of the month. Tolle urged quick reaction from the state. It is clear, she added, that the “kneelers” are connected to the harassment of women in front of hospitals who are exercising their legal right to an abortion, disrespecting the basic principles of equality according to which women should decide for themselves about all aspects of their lives, especially about their own bodies. AZKZ sent the proposed law changes to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior on Thursday.
AZKZ lawyer Sanja Bezbradica Jelavic clarified that they propose adding a new article to the criminal code which would criminalise “violation of a woman’s right to voluntary termination of pregnancy,” following the example of other countries, such as Spain and Germany. They also seek amendments to the Law on Public Assembly, providing a legal basis for state interference in the freedom of peaceful assembly. This would prohibit even peaceful gatherings and protests near hospitals that disturb the peace of patients.
Regardless of who is in power … these are topics that … have to do with gender-based violence and the prevention of violence against women. -Sanja Bezbradica Jelavic
Abby Stein and Lily Greenberg Call
It was Stein’s second White House invite, and she says she was surprised to receive it given how many other outspoken queer and Jewish activists calling for a ceasefire had not been invited back to the White House. Stein counts herself proudly among that group. For Greenberg Call, whom Stein brought as her plus one for the evening celebration, it was her first return to the White House campus after becoming the first and only Jewish appointee in the Biden administration to publicly resign in protest over the president’s Gaza policy.
The pair chanted their support for a permanent ceasefire, an end to arming Israel, and asserted that there can be no pride in genocide. They said that Abby was grabbed almost immediately and aggressively by a uniformed Secret Service officer. A White House staffer angrily informed them that they were formally disinvited from the event. They were then escorted out and forbidden from returning to White House property that day.
What is lost when queer people turn away from the history of pride’s roots in protest and collective liberation for a pinkwashed, corporate ‘love is love’ celebration at the White House amidst a genocide? Queer people in Palestine are being killed every day with American-made bombs in a war supported by American policymakers..We cannot continue to be complicit in the pinkwashing of Israeli war crimes and the dehumanization of Palestinian people. -Abby Stein and Lily Greenberg Call
Last week, Brenda Biya, the 26-year-old daughter of Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, declared she is a lesbian on social media. LGBTQ activists see her declaration as an opportunity to push for greater rights in a country where same-sex relations are outlawed.
Biya shared pictures on social media of herself kissing her girlfriend and expressing her wish for them to live in harmony as a couple. She said LGBTQ people in Cameroon should be spared violence and brutality. In a video released earlier this week, Biya said LGBTQ people have been calling to tell her that as President Biya’s daughter, she stands a chance of moving Cameroon toward abolishing laws that criminalize same-sex relations. She said she wants to give hope and love to the many people in Cameroon who suffer simply because of who they are.
Biya’s post has received a lot of homophobic backlash as well as many condemning her actions for going against the church. Bandy Kiki, an LGBT activist, however, believes that churches should allow LGBTI people to enjoy their lives without religious obstacles.
There are some laws in the Bible which should absolutely not be accepted today – for example capital punishment, slavery etc., and I think the Catholic Church is realizing that because in recent times we have seen some changes. We recently heard the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, allowing priests to bless same-sex relationships. -Bandy Kiki
The Cameroon Association for the Criminalization of Same Sex Marriages said it had filed a complaint against Biya for promoting an illegal activity in the central African country. Officials of Cameroon’s Ministry of Justice say they have received and will examine the complaint.
Cameroonian law prohibits sexual relations with a person of the same sex and imposes a penalty of between six months to five years imprisonment on people found guilty. Rights groups say that Cameroon’s police target public gatherings of LGBTQ people, and thugs regularly beat people suspected to be same-sex couples. They say that about 16 people are currently in prison for alleged consensual same-sex conduct or gender nonconformity.
Photo: Nayla Azmi. Photo by Danielle Khan Da Silva
The Batak people are Indigenous to the island of Sumatra, the third-largest, western-most island of Indonesia, and many of their legends involve ancestors who formed friendships with tigers that became part of the family. The Leuser ecosystem is the only place in the world where tigers, elephants, orangutans and rhinos coexist in the wild. The women’s job is to help the Gunung Leuser national park rangers protect 100 hectares of buffer zone territory between the national park’s Bahorok V district and privately owned land. With many unfenced borders and a shortage of rangers, it is not difficult for poachers or palm oil companies to encroach on national park land.
“Nuraga Bhumi” means “souls dedicated to the Earth” in Sanskrit, which Azmi chose in response to what she sees as a twofold problem in local conservation efforts: a gender imbalance and a lack of Indigenous people. She says local conservation efforts run by men, most of whom are not Indigenous to the territory, are a problem “because [they] come with a certain way of thinking.”
For one, [men] aren’t connected to the community. So many of the conservation-related ‘community development’ programmes frame Indigenous people as threats to the forest, who need to be educated or relocated. This mindset devalues the relationship Indigenous people have always cultivated with the forest. -Nayla Azmi
While the Nuraga Bhumi team have a deep spiritual connection to their environment through their Batak heritage, they have to undergo practical training to learn how to conduct patrols effectively. They must learn how to use GPS, camera traps and drones to track and monitor wildlife, to identify and dismantle poachers’ traps, and to report their findings to the park authorities. In addition to their patrol duties, the team of women host a weekly conservation education class for about 75 local children and youths. Nuraga Bhumi patrol members Wulan Dari, 21, and Selvy Atika, 23, were among Azmi’s first teenage students. Dari is a black belt in taekwondo and shares her self-defence training with the other women in case they come into conflict with poachers.
Gabriella Ghermandi is an Ethiopian-Italian author, singer, producer and ethno-musicologist and her new album is called Maqeda – the Amharic name for the Queen of Sheba, a hugely important figure in Ethiopian history. Every song is an homage to female figures, communities, rituals and musical styles.
Ghermandi recalls with laughter the annoyance she felt about the so-called Ethiopian Spice Girls – charity-backed pop group Yegna that hoped to change narratives and empower girls and women through music. The all-female group sparked controversy in the UK because it was partly funded by British aid and some say it was a waste of taxpayers’ money. But for Ghermandi, assumptions that Ethiopian women had to be taught by outsiders was the issue.
I was like, what? They want to teach us how to empower women? Ethiopia? With all its epics of women? -Gabriella Ghermandi
Although Ghermandi had no formal music training, a thorough immersion in Ethiopian musical styles came from the many wedding and church ceremonies that were part of family life. This latest album draws on childhood visits to Ethiopia’s remote communities as well as meticulous research as an adult. Ghermandi says she started with the community she grew up with – the Dorze people originally from the southern highlands of Ethiopia, whose women head villages and sing in powerful polyphonic choirs.
Ghermandi worked with an Ethiopian female poet to create Set Nat (She is a Female), to counter a common saying in Ethiopia that when a woman achieves something it is because she is as brave as a man.
I hate this saying, because it used to tell me that it’s not enough to be a woman. And I want to say to the world that being a woman is more than enough! -Gabriella Ghermandi
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Samiha Hossain (she/her) is an aspiring urban planner studying at Toronto Metropolitan University. Throughout the years, she has worked in nonprofits with survivors of sexual violence and youth. Samiha firmly believes in the power of connecting with people and listening to their stories to create solidarity and heal as a community. She loves learning about the diverse forms of feminist resistance around the world.
