{"id":10705,"date":"2025-02-17T14:54:40","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T14:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=10705"},"modified":"2025-02-17T14:54:41","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T14:54:41","slug":"hard-won-freedoms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=10705","title":{"rendered":"Hard-won Freedoms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Caroline Coon\/Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The photographs say it all; there is the US Vice-President in Munich, a bland-looking white man, seated around a large wooden table with an indeterminate number of bland-looking white men, rudely, noisily and commandingly dismantling the rule-based order I grew up with.  If the proverbial visiting Martian had just landed and entered the room, it would have been forgiven for assuming that this was representative of earthlings.  No doubt if a woman had appeared at that point our Martian visitor would have scratched its head \u2013 if it had one \u2013 and wondered how this new creature fitted into the hierarchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Damesnet wishes to inform the Martian that the people around the table are doing their level best to keep this other creature in an inferior position.  In 2016 I went to an exhibition at the V&A entitled: You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970<\/em>. As a child of that era I found it fascinating, but there was one exhibit that stamped itself onto my consciousness. It was one of those neat little bits of tech where as you get close to it the person starts talking or an image starts moving.  The person featured was Caroline Coon, the artist known for her paintings, her feminist political activism, her writing and photography and who has campaigned for women’s rights since the 1960s.  In the exhibition she was a \u2018talking head\u2019 and one thing she \u2018said\u2019 made a huge impact: \u2018These hard-won freedoms could be taken away from us at a moment\u2019s notice\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These words have been ringing in my head recently; I\u2019ve just read a report published by ODI Global<\/a> entitled: How women\u2019s movements lead demands for democracy in the face of backlash and politicised religion<\/em>. You can read the full report here<\/a>: but if you don\u2019t have time you might find some of the key findings of interest:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democracy and civic space<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Feminists continue to advocate for meaningful democratic reforms with the implicit understanding that these are essential to advancing their claims, even if not all activists are at the forefront of political reform movements. Open civic space, as a key feature of democratic reform, emerges as critical for women\u2019s activism to survive and succeed. The risks to activists are heightened where civic space is almost completely closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Transnational civic space and support from diaspora activists enables women\u2019s voices to be heard despite domestic constraints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicised religion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Feminists rely heavily on secular institutions, such as secular legal and constitutional frameworks, to advance their claims and resist the rising influence of politicised religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Political secularism has faded from the forefront of feminist activism in many countries due to heightened risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Religious forces opposed to gender equality in laws and policies are not new, but strategizing to counter them is proving more challenging than ever before, due to new influences (such as Evangelical Christianity and Hindutva), the hardening of politicised religious authority, the long legacy of Islamisation and deepening risks of open deliberation in civic spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 To enable feminists to challenge backlash to gender equality, it is essential to maintain open civic spaces with reduced influence of politicised religion inhibiting women\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenges to women\u2019s rights are mounting. I\u2019m trying to stay alert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘These hard-won freedoms could be taken away from us at a moment\u2019s notice\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,309,355,59],"tags":[76,93,35,82],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10705"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10722,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10705\/revisions\/10722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}