[Onthebarricades] Anti-discrimination protests - religion, gender, sexuality

Mon Apr 14 17:36:53 PDT 2008

*  NEPAL:  Muslims stage general strike to protest mosque bombing
*  INDONESIA, PAKISTAN:  Muslims protest Islamophobic Dutch film
*  UK:  Jewish students boycott exam over Shakespeare racism
*  PAKISTAN:  Protest against church demolition
*  QATAR:  Protest at UK embassy over refusal of visa to Qaradawi
*  GERMANY:  Jews, Catholics oppose conversion comments
*  ITALY:  Women protest for abortion law
*  SOUTH AFRICA:  Women protest over attack on woman in miniskirt
*  INDIA:  Protest against sexual harassment at college
*  PAKISTAN:  Women's action group hold protest
*  TAIWAN:  Students protest alleged coercion in obtaining naked modelling 
agreements
*  CHIAPAS:  First Zapatista women's encuentro is voice of resistance
*  AUSTRALIA:  Hundreds protest Sydney gay-bashings
*  US:  Protest in Washington over homophobic remarks by Oklahoma senator

Publicly Archived at Global Resistance: 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/31/asia/AS-GEN-Nepal-Mosque-Bombed.php

Nepal Muslims call general strike to protest mosque bombing

The Associated Press
Published: March 31, 2008

KATMANDU, Nepal: A general strike called by Muslim groups to protest the 
weekend bombing of a mosque shut down parts of eastern Nepal on Monday, 
officials said.
Two people were killed and two more were seriously injured in the attack on 
the mosque in Biratnagar during evening prayers on Saturday.
The chief government administrator in the area, Madhav Regmi, said schools, 
markets and transportation were shut down in Biratnagar, about 400 
kilometers (250 miles) east of Katmandu, and surrounding areas.
The bombing was the first targeting a mosque in predominantly Hindu Nepal, 
where Muslims are a minority. No serious conflicts have occurred in the past 
between followers of the two religions.
Regmi said he met Monday with Muslim leaders who were concerned about the 
security situation and demanded that the government compensate the victims' 
families.
Police were still searching for the attackers and have not arrested any 
suspects, Regmi said.
A group calling itself the Nepal Defense Army claimed responsibility for the 
attack. It sent a statement to the independent Kantipur Television network 
saying it "would continue such attacks until Nepal is reinstated as a Hindu 
nation." Nepal was declared a secular state in 2006.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/31/asia/AS-GEN-Indonesia-Quran-Film.php

Indonesian Muslims protest film by Dutch lawmaker

The Associated Press
Published: March 31, 2008
JAKARTA, Indonesia: Hard-line Muslims called Monday for the death of a Dutch 
legislator for producing a film critical of their faith.
Scores of police stood guard as 40 demonstrators from the Islamic Defenders 
Front - a small group that has occasionally staged violent protests against 
Western targets - rallied outside the Dutch embassy in the Indonesian 
capital of Jakarta.
"Kill Geert Wilders," the filmmaker, read one banner held by protesters, who 
threw a few empty plastic bottles and a couple of eggs at the compound 
before dispersing.
A spokesman for the Islamic Defenders Front said he had yet to see the film, 
but nevertheless called on the government to sever all diplomatic links with 
the Netherlands over it.
"It is a great insult to all Muslims," Soleh Mahmud said. "The Dutch 
government must arrest him. Wilders must be killed because he has declared 
war on Muslims."
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, but hardline 
interpretations of the faith generally do not attract much support. The 
government condemned the film soon after its release last week.
Wilders' 17-minute film intersperse scenes of recent terror attacks with 
versus from the Quran, Islam's holy book, and speeches from Islamic 
extremists.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged protesters not be 
violent.
"I urge all the Indonesian people not to do anything untoward, like 
vandalism," he told reporters. "We have to show that Islam ... does not 
agree with violence."
Yudhoyono, who relies on Islamic parties for support in parliament, also 
urged Internet service providers to block Web sites showing the film, though 
it is unclear how effective that will be even if they agreed to do so.
Experts say a recent law banning pornographic Web sites in Indonesia will be 
very difficult to implement because of problems blocking sites from abroad.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jCBFcFjbyexWnWCJWd0SDqKFkFfgD8VMD4B81

Pakistanis Protest Dutch Film
Mar 28, 2008
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - Dozens of Islamists in Pakistan have staged a 
protest over an anti-Quran film made by a Dutch lawmaker.
The film sets verses of the Muslim holy book against a background of violent 
images from terror attacks.
Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilder made the film and released it on the Internet 
late Thursday. Some Dutch TV channels aired excerpts.
Pakistan's largest Muslim party, Jamaat-e-Islami, organized Friday's protest 
outside a mosque in Karachi.
Some protesters demanded Pakistan cut diplomatic relations with the 
Netherlands over the film.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/jewish-pupils-boycott-exam-in-shylock-protest-790021.html

Jewish pupils boycott exam in Shylock protest
By Richard Garner, Education Editor
Saturday, 1 March 2008
Teenagers at a Jewish comprehensive school have refused to sit a Shakespeare 
test because they believe the Bard is anti-Semitic.
Nine students at the single-sex Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School in 
Hackney, east London, took their stance as part of a protest against the 
portrayal of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.
As a result, they were stripped of their marks for the English national 
curriculum test for 14-year-olds - and their school plummeted from top of 
the league tables to 274th.
The girls, supported by their parents, refused to answer any questions on 
Shakespeare or even write their names on the top of the paper, even though 
the play they were studying was The Tempest - not The Merchant of Venice.
Rabbi Abraham Pinter, the school's principal, said: "They refused to sit the 
Shakespeare test because it was their perception that he was anti-Semitic.
"Many Jewish people would not listen to Wagner on the same grounds. I do not 
see an exact comparison and I don't share their view, but their decision is 
something I respect. I think Shakespeare was reflecting the ethos of the 
time in his portrayal of Shylock. If he was alive today, he would probably 
be going on anti-war marches."
Rabbi Pinter said there had been similar actions in the past but because 
previous protesters had signed their names on the paper, their marks for 
other sections of the exam had not been forfeited.
The Shakespeare test accounts for 18 per cent of the marks so, if a pupil 
scored highly in the other sections of the paper, they would still acheive 
the level five award, the standard expected of a 14-year-old in English.
Shakespeare is the only writer to be a compulsory part of the English 
secondary school curriculum.
However, Rabbi Pinter said: "I think it was a bit harsh to remove all their 
marks. Next year I will be recommending they put their name on the paper."
He said the school was not worried by its league table position, stating: 
"274th out of more than 3,000 is still good." He added that it was important 
for young people to be able to express their sincerely held views.
The portrayal of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice has always been seen as 
controversial - with many viewing it as anti-Semitic. Some, however, 
consider the play to be Shakespeare's plea for tolerance.
Some critics say the character of Shylock, the moneylender who demands a 
pound of flesh from a defaulting debtor, has helped fuel anti-Jewish feeling 
for centuries. Others say the character can be portrayed sympathetically, 
citing his "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" speech.
Simon Gibbons, of the National Association for the Teaching of English, 
said: "I do not believe The Merchant of Venice is anti-Semitic. But it is 
noble of the school to take the view that the individual pupils' views are 
more important than their league table position."
A spokesman for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the 
Government's exams watchdog, said that the rules stated quite clearly that 
any pupil who failed to write his or her name for any section of the tests 
would score nothing overall.
Rabbi Pinter said he felt he might have more difficulty with protests if The 
Merchant of Venice had been the chosen text. It is not on the published list 
of works to be studied over the next few years.
Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School, an Orthodox Jewish school with 249 
pupils, was a private school until two years ago, when it took advantage of 
new government legislation allowing independent schools to opt in to the 
state sector. It was launched as a state school with a high-profile visit 
from Tony Blair, then prime minister.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C01%5C22%5Cstory_22-1-2008_pg7_32

HLCP to protest against church demolition
Staff Report

LAHORE: The Human Liberation Commission of Pakistan (HLCP) announced on 
Monday to hold a protest procession on January 25 against the alleged 
demolition of the Church of Christ building, Garden Town, desecration of the 
Bible and the cross and unlawful occupation of the land.

Several non-governmental organisations' representatives, Christian former 
MPAs and MNAs and union council representatives participated in the meeting.

HLCP president Peter Gill said the organisation would announce a nationwide 
protest against the land grabbing in the January 25 protest, if the 
government did not take action against the culprits within 8 days.

Participants in the meeting said that protests would continue till the 
property was not returned to the Christians. They said a nationwide protest 
movement would be launched if the government failed in evicting the illegal 
occupants. "The Christian community will not hesitate to sacrifice lives for 
its rights until the culprits are taken to court," they said.

The participants said the church had been constructed in 1963 and since then 
had been used as a worship place. They alleged that a few months ago, Sheikh 
Hafeezullah, Haji Iqbal, Aqeel Ahmad, Arshad Manzoor and Mian Aslam Iqbal 
demolished the church building, desecrated the Holy Bible and the cross and 
illegally occupied the land.

They alleged that with the efforts of a committee, led by district council 
member Waqar Gill, the land was regained and was handed over to Mushtaq 
Shajeel Bhatti. They alleged that about two months ago, the church was again 
closed down and on enquiry Bhatti told them that the church service had been 
cancelled because a church secretariat and flats were being constructed. 
They alleged that Mushtaq had sold the church for Rs 70 million and had 
already received Rs 30 million in advance.

The participants alleged that consequently Bhatti had been dismissed from 
the church's organisation and a case was lodged against him and his 
accomplices Munir Masih Khokar, Wasim Javed and Rashid Joyea.

They appealed that a case under Section 295 A, B should be registered 
against those who illegally seized the church's property and also desecrated 
the Bible and the cross.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=89164

Protest targets UK's embassy in Qatar after London denies visa to cleric
By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Thursday, February 21, 2008
Supporters of a Qatar-based Muslim scholar, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, staged 
a sit-in outside the British Embassy in Doha on Wednesday to protest 
London's denial of a visa to the controversial cleric. "Mr Brown: Why are 
you rejecting tolerance and dialogue?" read one of the banners raised by the 
protesters.

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/107369.html

German Jews, Catholics protest 'conversion' prayer

Published: 03/05/2008
German Catholics and Jews are pushing the pope to withdraw his modified Good 
Friday Mass, which urges the conversion of Jews.
The General Rabbinical Council of Germany issued a statement Wednesday 
saying that the German-born Pope Benedict XVI's decision has damaged 
Jewish-Catholic relations in Germany. The council expressed hope for "a 
satisfactory solution in the near future," though observers admit the 
chances of influencing the pope are slim.

The statement followed an official protest on Feb. 29 of the 
Jewish-Christian Circle of the Central Committee of German Catholics, an 
independent group that includes rabbinical council president Rabbi Henry 
Brandt.

Separately, two prominent German Jews announced last week they would not 
attend Germany's annual Catholic convention in May. Rabbi Walter Homolka, 
the rector of the Abraham Geiger Reform rabbinical college in Potsdam, and 
Micha Brumlik, a professor at the University of Frankfurt, said they wanted 
to draw attention to the issue.

Other rabbis -- including Jonathan Magonet, the president of the Leo Baeck 
College in London -- reportedly were asked to replace them as speakers at 
the convention but refused.

"It is very rare for a pope, for an infallible person, to renounce a 
decision because he had a bad day," Homolka said in a telephone interview.
The protest has garnered attention in Rome. Homolka said Cardinal Waltar 
Kaspar, who heads the Vatican commission for religious relations with Jews, 
will address the issue publicly on Thursday, and again when Israeli rabbis 
visit Rome next week.

Chances of effecting change are slim, said Brandt, who will attend the 
Catholic convention. "One has to be a realist, but we have to work in that 
direction anyway."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10492649

Italian women protest in defence of abortion law (+video)
11:29AM Friday February 15, 2008

Photo / Reuters
Watch Video: Italian abortion protest
Groups of women staged protests to defend current legislation on abortion in 
towns and cities across Italy.
The confiscation of an aborted foetus by Italian police has rekindled a 
highly charged debate over abortion in Catholic Italy before April's snap 
elections. So has a centre-right candidate's call for a worldwide moratorium 
on abortion - a position supported by former prime minister Silvio 
Berlusconi.
Abortion on demand is legal until the end of the third month of pregnancy.
Aside from a 1981 referendum that upheld the status quo, until now there's 
been little sign in Italy of a public appetite for more restrictive abortion 
laws.
- Reuters

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7276654.stm

SA protest over miniskirt attack

Some of the protesters wore short skirts
Hundreds of South African women have marched to a Johannesburg taxi rank, 
where a woman was sexually assaulted for wearing a miniskirt.
Nwabisa Ngcukana, 25, returned to where she was allegedly attacked by a 
group of taxi-drivers and street hawkers, who said she was indecently 
dressed.
"I came here to show the guys that I'm not scared of them - to face my 
demons," she told the BBC.
The taxi drivers shouted insults at the women, some of whom wore miniskirts.
Some shouted that South African women were being given too many rights.
The leaders of the Noord Street taxi rank had to urge the drivers to show 
restraint.
Traditional
Police on horseback were on hand to keep the rival groups apart.
There were angry scenes on Friday at a similar march, when both women and 
taxi-drivers removed their clothes.

Nwabisa Ngcukana's skirt was torn during the attack. Pic: The Sowetan
The case has caused a huge row over women's rights and public decency.
Passers-by reportedly laughed and cheered when Ms Ngcukana was assaulted 
last month.
"What we want to highlight is that women have rights - they have the right 
to choose what to wear," said Nonhlanhla Mokeona from the People Opposing 
Women Abuse (Powa) organisation.
She urged men to take part in the protest, to show they supported women's 
rights.
During Friday's march, some of the women exposed their thighs and breasts - 
a traditional form of protest in Africa amongst those who consider 
themselves powerless.
A group of taxi-drivers called the protesters "prostitutes" and then some 
also pulled down their trousers to show their buttocks.
The authorities have appealed to the taxi-drivers' association to help find 
those who allegedly assaulted Ms Ngcukana and other women in recent weeks.
While some South Africans have said it is against local culture for women to 
wear miniskirts, the National House of Traditional Leaders last week said 
that women often wore short skirts in traditional ceremonies.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article3485961.ece

March 5, 2008
Marchers protest in miniskirts after woman 'punished' because of dress

Jonathan Clayton in Johannesburg
Hundreds of South African women took to the streets yesterday calling for an 
end to sexual harassment after a young woman was assaulted by taxi drivers 
for wearing a miniskirt.
The demonstrators marched to the Johannesburg taxi rank where the attack 
took place, demanding action from the Government and for taxi associations 
to punish those responsible for such acts. Minibus taxis are notorious for 
packing in as many passengers as possible and for their poor safety record. 
Women passengers are often exposed to taunts, jeers and drunken sexual 
advances.
In the latest incident Nwabisa Ngcukana, 25, who was travelling from her 
Soweto home to work, at a bar in the suburb of Sandton, was set upon by taxi 
operators. They stripped her and sexually assaulted her as "punishment" for 
being what they said was indecently dressed.
"I hated the taxis and comments and leers, but nothing too bad ever happened 
until this," she said. "I was getting off a taxi to change to another one 
when they started whistling, yelling and shouting . . . they started pulling 
at the dress and then it all began . . . There were dozens of them. I fought 
all the time but it quickly moved to another level."
Ms Ngcukana was paraded naked around the rank and while onlookers jeered, 
beer was poured over her. The incident has highlighted violence against 
women in South Africa, which has one of the highest incidents of rape in the 
world.
Redi Direko, a radio talk show host, led yesterday's march. Dressed in a 
miniskirt, orange strap-top and high-heel sandals, she said: "While I was 
growing up, this sort of thing was commonplace. It is time to end all this. 
Drivers need to be taught how to behave. There is no dress code for women 
who frequent the taxi rank and we say to the drivers, 'Mind your job'."
Nearly 23,000 women were raped in the six months to the end of September, 
according to official statistics. Women's rights groups say that only one in 
nine attacks is reported. Ms Ngcukana said: "I was traumatised but 
determined not to let it go."
Women activists blame senior African National Congress leaders for not 
helping to change the way women are treated. They point to the rape trial of 
Jacob Zuma, president of the ANC, who was acquitted in May 2006, but said in 
court that he knew from the way a woman sat if she wanted sex.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Delhi/Protest_in_Stephens_over_harassment/articleshow/2729648.cms

Protest in Stephen's over harassment
25 Jan 2008, 0343 hrs IST,Neha Pushkarna,TNN

NEW DELHI: The corridors of St Stephen's had been swept with hushed tones 
ever since the college started churning out controversies. However, those 
whispers found a pitch on Thursday when the members of Coalition for a Safe 
Campus staged a protest right inside the college in support of the ongoing 
inquiry in the sexual harassment case involving a teacher from the Sanskrit 
department.

The coalition, which is an umbrella organization of many smaller socially 
active groups like Progressive Student's Union, Stree Adhikar Sangathan and 
Campaign for Girl's Hostel on the campus, protested against the petition 
filed by the teacher of Sanskrit department facing inquiry for allegedly 
molesting a student from US. The teacher had moved the HC alleging that the 
College Complaints Committee was biased against him.

"This was the first-of-its kind protest on the premises of St Stephen's. 
According to ordinance XV D of the university, the functioning of a 
complaint's committee can be challenged either when it is formed or after it 
has completed the inquiry and submitted its report. He was probably trying 
to find an escape by filing a petition during the course of the inquiry," 
said a member of the coalition, who is also a student of the college.

The protest also aimed at preserving the internal structure of St Stephen's 
College where the management and the teachers have been rubbing against each 
other, said a protester. Incidentally, the teacher facing the inquiry is 
still taking classes and the coalition may demand that he step down till the 
inquiry report comes out. It also plans to sit in protest next week. "We 
will issue a memorandum and distribute pamphlets to make people aware of 
ordinance XV D. We want that inquiry in the case is concluded. We will meet 
the vice-chancellor and the OSD to ensure the protection of the members of 
the College Complaints Committee, which is the first elected committee in St 
Stephen's," said Amrapali, one of the organizers of the coalition and 
lecturer, department of English, Kirori Mal College.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C02%5C12%5Cstory_12-2-2008_pg7_34

WAF to mark Women's Day of Protest today
Staff Report

LAHORE: The Women's Action Forum (WAF) is observing today (Tuesday) as 
'Pakistan Women's Day of Protest' according to a press release issued by the 
WAF on Monday.

According to the press release, Tuesday (today) it would be 25 years since 
1983 that the women of Pakistan first came out into the streets of Lahore to 
challenge General Ziaul Haq's military regime. Since then, every year the 
WAF has commemorated February 12 to celebrate women's resistance against 
oppression in order to uphold the democratic rights of the people of 
Pakistan.

It was said that the WAF also supports the judges who refused to sign the 
Provisional Constitution Order 2007 agreement. It celebrates the lawyer's 
movement and honours all those who have joined them in the fight for 
democracy.

It expressed its outrage at the bomb blast in Charsadda where the Awami 
National Party (ANP) meeting was held. It grieved with the families of those 
who lost their lives to this inhumane and barbaric act while protesting 
against the government's inability to ensure the safety of its citizens in 
the home, the street, and at public meetings.

According to the press release, the WAF also rejected Scotland Yard's 
findings regarding the cause of Benazir Bhutto's death as the report was 
based on insufficient and incomplete data, and reiterated the demand for an 
independent United Nations Enquiry Commission investigation into the cause 
of her death.

It was also demanded that conditions should be created for a fair and free 
election and the arrest of Pakistan People's Party workers in different 
cities especially in the cities of Sindh and Southern Punjab was condemned.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2008/03/10/2003404837

Nursing students protest school policy
By Wang Yu-chun
STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Mar 10, 2008, Page 1
Nursing students have protested the policy of obtaining "body exposure 
agreements" from students, which allow teachers to ask them to strip for 
classroom demonstrations in all-female classes.
Students at the Chang Gung Institute of Technology's Chiayi branch said they 
were pressured to sign permission forms stating that they were willing to 
act as models for demonstrations of medical examinations. The demonstrations 
require the students to expose their upper torso.
The school responded to the complaints by saying the policy was not intended 
to demean students and the school would consider scrapping the practice.
Students said that they feared their grades would be affected if they did 
not sign the form. Some also felt that bonus points awarded to students who 
signed the form were inappropriate.
One student, "Lulu," said students were told that anyone who did not sign 
the form would need to discuss the matter with their teacher. This made 
students fearful of repercussions, she said.
Other students said they supported the policy. Nurses need to be familiar 
with anatomy, some said, and teachers allowed students to cover their 
breasts with tape.
The school said the form was meant to explain to students that their class 
would involve exposing certain parts of their bodies.
The demonstrations were done in closed classrooms to ensure privacy, with no 
cellphones allowed, it said.
Legal experts and the Ministry of Education said the school was in the wrong 
if it was compelling students to sign the forms. Ministry officials 
recommended that the school discontinue the policy.

http://www.wombles.org.uk/article2008011502.php

The First Zapatista Women's Encuentro: A Collective Voice of Resistance
North America | Gender | Zapatistas
from uppingtheanti, 26 January 2008:
Written by Cory Fisher-Hoffman, Tessa Landreau-Grasmuck, Kaya Weidman, and 
Mandy Skinner collectively, Thursday, 24 January 2008, Upside Down World.
Just after midnight on January 1st, was the 14th anniversary of the 
Zapatista uprising, and the caracol of La Garrucha was alive with 
celebration. From the top of a refurbished school bus we watched a mass of 
bodies dance to norteños below a vast sky littered with stars, and the 
occasional covering of fog that characterizes the mountains of the Mexican 
southeast.
This night marked the end of the third Encuentro [Gathering] of the 
Zapatistas with the People of the World, and the first Encuentro of 
Zapatista Women and the Women of the world. Why a women's encounter? 
"Because it was time," repeated the voices of the masked women speaking 
before a seated audience of women from Zapatista support bases across 
Chiapas, as well as from social movements in Mexico and the world.
>From December 28th 2007 to January 1st, women of the world were invited into 
the mountains and jungles of Chiapas which are home to the Zapatistas. This 
revolutionary indigenous movement erupted onto the international stage in an 
armed uprising on January 1st, 1994, with members calling out "!ya basta!" 
[enough already!] As the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 
implemented on that same New Years Day, continued to decimate impoverished, 
indigenous campesino communities in Mexico, the Zapatistas began to build 
autonomous structures in resistance to over 500 years of exploitation, 
marginalization, and genocide.
However, as we heard emphasized throughout the recent encuentro, "the 
struggle began before and continued after" that much referenced New Years 
Day. And, it is important to remember that the previous year, in 1993, 
clandestine Zapatista communities and their army, the Zapatista Army of 
National Liberation (EZLN) experienced an internal uprising of Zapatista 
women who implemented the Women's Revolutionary Law:
The Women's Revolutionary Law:
Women, regardless of their race, creed, skin color or political affiliation, 
have the right to participate in the revolutionary struggle, in the place 
and to the degree their willingness and ability permit.
Women have the right to work and receive a just pay for their labor.
Women have the right to decide the number of children they will bear and 
care for.
Women have the right to participate in community affairs and hold political 
office if they are elected freely and democratically.
Women and their children have the right to PRIMARY MEDICAL CARE in health 
and food issues.
Women have the right to education.
Women have the right to choose their spouses and not to be forced into 
marriage.
No woman may be hit or be physically abused, neither by relatives nor 
strangers. Rape assaults and actual rapes will be severely punished.
Women may hold leadership positions in the organization and hold military 
rankings in the Revolutionary Armed Forces.
Women have all the rights and obligations set by the revolutionary laws and 
obligations.
In La Garrucha, one of 5 autonomous political-cultural centers known as 
caracoles (snails) in Zapatista territory, we joined over 3,000 people to 
listen, observe, celebrate, and build stronger resistances with these 
rebellious Tzetzal, Tzotzil, Chol, and Tojolabal Zapatista women. Dressed in 
traditional colors, a line of some 200 Zapatista women filed in and out of 
the auditorium in a rainbow of resistance for each of the four daily plenary 
sessions.
Voices from different autonomous Zapatista regions offered a cascade of 
testimonies of their resistance. Representatives from the Juntas de Buen 
Gobierno [Good Government Councils], education and health promoters, 
comandantas [leaders] of the EZLN, and support bases young and old, told of 
how Zapatista communities, and women in particular, lived before the 
uprising, and how they live now, how they resist the violence of the mal 
gobierno [bad government], and what their rights and responsibilities are 
within their movement.
Women from throughout Mexico, the Americas, Europe and the world gathered 
inside the auditorium to bear witness to the testimonies of these women who 
are exploited three times over, "for being poor, for being indigenous, and 
for being women." The surrounding fields were full of tents; families opened 
their homes, their yards, and their kitchens to foreigners and to compañeras 
and families from other autonomous communities. Many slept under make-shift 
shelters at food stands, on the ground in the auditorium, in trucks and 
cars, or beneath the stars.
We arrived to the Encuentro with a caravan of some 150 people from Mexico 
City organized by Mujeres y La Sexta. Most of us, like many of the 
non-Zapatistas who participated in the Encuentro, are adherents to La Otra 
Campaña [the Other Campaign], or its international component, the Sexta 
International. With the release of the Sixth Declaration of the Lancandon 
Jungle in June of 2005, the Zapatistas initiated a national plan of 
struggle, which seeks to unite struggles "from the left and from below." A 
delegation of EZLN comandantes traveled across Mexico in 2006 in the first 
wave of this Other Campaign, with the intent to listen to the voices of 
those who struggle against capitalism and neoliberalism in all its forms, 
and to create new political spaces.
The days were filled with talk of the concrete measures Zapatista women and 
girls have taken to organize for self-determination, liberty, democracy and 
justice in their own communities. As the voices of the women rose up from 
behind their pasamontañas and paliacates (the ubiquitous ski masks and 
bandanas that have come to symbolize autonomous resistance in Chiapas), and 
began to echo each other, the significance of the testimonies became clearer 
to those of us from the outside. The voices being amplified were not 
individual voices, but reflections of a collective experience, a collective 
resistance. And while we national and international women listened, the 
lessons of the Other Campaign filtered through the plenaries like the 
fingers of sunlight sneaking through the wooden slats of the walls; in order 
to build a world in resistance, a world in which many worlds fit, we must 
listen and we must organize. As Comandanta Hortencia said, "To organize, we 
must identify why and for what."
Humbly, the Zapatista women apologized for their Spanish, which is not their 
mother tongue, and for their lack of education. "Before, we did not know how 
to read and write, and now we have learned, and send our daughters to learn 
too." The elder Zapatista women told of their experiences before the 1994 
uprising. It was a dark time, when women were sexually exploited by land 
owners, frequently mistreated by their husbands and silenced by their 
communities. They told of how they organized clandestinely before the 
uprising, wearing certain colored shirts or bracelets to notify each other 
about meetings, which would be held quietly in the night far into the 
jungle. Since then, there have been many advances in Zapatista communities, 
where alcohol and drugs are outlawed as measures to curb domestic violence, 
a demand made by the Zapatista women. Women continue to take more positions 
of representation and responsibility, as education and health promoters, in 
the Good Government Councils, as comandantas of the EZLN, and in artisan 
cooperatives.
The voices of Zapatista youth punctuated the plenaries with hope and 
solemnity. "Without the organization, I would not be alive," said Marina, a 
precocious and well spoken 8-year-old girl "I would've died of a curable 
disease." Her empowered articulation exemplified the fortitude and success 
of the autonomous schools, as well as the sense of mutual respect between 
the youth and elders of the Zapatista communities.
Despite the advances made this far, the compañeras know that there is still 
a long and difficult road ahead. In the past 6 months Zapatista communities 
have faced heightened military and paramilitary aggression. While the 
Encuentro went on, an isolated Zapatista community named Bolom Ajaw (located 
in a strategic tourist zone) experienced violence from neighboring 
paramilitary troops and is currently being threatened with displacement. 
During the informal conversations held around tables at meal times, people 
spoke of the recent shift in tactics of governmental repression. Rumors and 
propaganda incited by paramilitary provocations between Zapatista and 
non-Zapatista indigenous communities is creating violence and conflict that 
allows the paramilitary groups to appear blameless. National and 
international civil society whispered of the strategic retreat and 
preparation of the Zapatistas.
"I'm calm in my struggle," proclaims Elisa, echoing words heard again and 
again during the Encuentro; "There is no other path." And with that, the 
loudspeakers boomed again with the rolling upbeat music that punctuated 
every session, and the Zapatista women lined up to walk ceremoniously out of 
the auditorium. For those three days, men were given a decidedly secondary 
role, and the comandantas ran a tight ship in enforcing the rules posted on 
multiple signs throughout the gathering space: Men were not allowed to 
represent or translate, nor sit inside the auditorium. Instead they were 
offered the tasks of cooking, childcare, cleaning the latrines and hauling 
firewood.
For centuries, indigenous and poor women have carried the responsibility of 
these tasks. Their backs have held the weight of the survival of their 
families, communities, and cultures. Their resistance is inseparable from 
that of their communities, serving as an integral source of strength. The 
Zapatista women emphasize a dynamic relationship between derechos y deberes 
[rights and responsibilities]. As young women born to white feminists in the 
US, we joined many 2nd and 3rd wave feminists in the crowd who've been 
taught that women's liberation means equal rights, that it is a movement 
towards independence and self-determination. Our politics of feminism and 
solidarity are perhaps tested, seeing the women of this indigenous Zapatista 
movement declare their rights as integral to their collective 
responsibility, for the well-being of their community. Indigenous men, 
standing at the edges of the auditorium, shading their eyes from the sun 
nodded in agreement as the voices of the Zapatista women demanded the right 
to education, emphasizing the responsibility to become promoters of 
education. As their voices demanded the right to choose their own partners, 
they emphasized the responsibility of participating in family and community 
matters. By having a women's encuentro, they sought to have their voices 
heard and not spoken over or marginalized. But when questioned about whether 
this was the beginning of their own women's movement, and if they wanted to 
create more women-only spaces; they emphasized that the movement included 
their brothers, husbands, children, elders...everyone in the community. This 
appeared as something distinctly different from women's liberation; more 
like collective liberation. Or better yet, described as Zapatismo.
When asked what non-Zapatista communities could do to support their work, 
the Zapatista women replied "Organize yourselves." On the final day of the 
Encuentro, International women responded. Women from the La Otra Campaña, 
Via Campesina and student organicationss addressed the Zapatista women and 
the women of the world. Letters were read from political prisoners around 
the world. In the afternoon, Trinidad Ramirez took the stage holding her 
machete high, and spoke for the rebel farmworkers and political prisoners of 
Atenco. "We are not capable of abandoning our sisters," she told the crowd, 
teary eyed with her testimony of trauma and unbreakable resistance. As she 
turned and climbed down the stage to a chorus of "¡Viva¡" [Long Live!], rain 
suddenly began to pound on the tin roof. In sun and water, the struggling 
women of the world are suddenly reminded that we are all echoes of that 
which is alive and vibrant in the world. As the last plenary came to a 
close, a group of young Mexican students from the School of History and 
Anthropology offered to the seated Zapatistas a giant puppet called Emiliana 
Digna Ramona who had danced among the crowd the evenings before. "Though 
born in Mexico City, her heart is Zapatista, filled with the dreams of a 
better world."
>From the top of the bus on New Years Eve we watched this collective 
resistance, this collective survival, in all its celebration. When the New 
Year rolled in, it was met with silence, to honor the fallen martyrs of the 
Zapatista Army of National Liberation. The Comandancia climbed onto the 
stage, and the masses below took off their hats. Fog swept over the caracol 
as we sang the National Anthem and Zapatista Hymn, and embraced strangers 
and friends. The dancing picked up again and lasted all night. As the sun 
rose on another year of struggle, we carried with us the tiny piece of our 
responsibility to build a better world: to go home and organize.
Tessa Landreau-Grasmuck is a writer and activist from Philadelphia. She is 
currently working with a team to create a children's book about Mayan 
spirituality and struggle.
Cory Fischer-Hoffman is an organizer with the Student Farmworker
Alliance, she is currently working on her MA degree in Latin American
Studies at the University of Kansas.
Kaya Weidman is a farmer and activist from Upstate New York. She is 
currently working to connect the practical work of sustenance with the 
broader work of building solidarity within the movement towards collective 
liberation.
Mandy Skinner's main interests are in popular education, arts, and youth 
organizing. She has worked with the Beehive Collective and is on the board 
of ENGAGE, an organizing network linking students returning from 
grassroots/community-based study abroad programs.

http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?lanCode=1&artCode=5507

Sunday,  March 30,  2008

MEXICO Printer friendly version

Rebel women
John Ross.  Feb 21, 2008
Zapatista women celebrate their long road to empowerment
Dozens of Zapatista compañeras, many of them Tzeltal Maya from the Chiapas 
lowlands decked out in rainbow-hued ribbons and ruffles, their dark eyes 
framed by ski masks, emerged from the rustic auditorium to the applause of 
hundreds of international feminists gathered at the opening session of an 
all-women's "Encuentro," or meeting, hosted by the Zapatista Army of 
National Liberation (EZLN) late last year.

Last July, at the conclusion of a meeting with farmers from a dozen counties 
in the village with the haunting name of La Realidad - "The Reality" - a 
young rebel from that community, "Evarilda," apparently without clearing the 
invitation with the EZLN's General Command, called for the all-women 
encounter, explaining that men were invited to help with the logistics but 
would be asked to stay home and mind the children and the farm animals while 
the women plotted against capitalism.

True to Evarilda's word, at the Dec. 29-31 gathering which drew 300-500 
non-Mexican mostly women activists to this village, officially the 
autonomous municipality of Francisco Gómez, and which honored the memory of 
the late Comandanta Ramona, men took a decidedly secondary role.

Signs posted around the area called "Resistance Until the New Dawn," a sort 
of Zapatista cultural and political center, advised their male counterparts 
that they could not act as "spokespersons, translators or representatives in 
the plenary sessions."

Instead, their activities should be confined "to preparing and serving food, 
washing dishes, sweeping, cleaning out the latrines, fetching firewood, and 
minding the children."

A role change
Indeed, some young Zapatista men donned aprons imprinted with words like 
"tomato" and "EZLN" to work in the kitchens.

Meanwhile, older men sat quietly on wooden benches outside of the 
auditorium, sometimes signaling amongst themselves when a compañera made a 
strong point or smiling proudly after a daughter or wife or sister or mother 
spoke their histories to the assembly.

The role of women within the Zapatista structure has changed drastically 
since the rebellion's gestation.

When the founders of the EZLN, radicals from northern Mexican cities, first 
arrived in the Tzeltal-Tojolabal lowlands of southeastern Chiapas, women 
were kept monolingual by the husbands as a means of control, dedicated 
themselves to raising families and had little standing in the community.

Those from the outside offered independence and invited the young women to 
training camps in the mountain where they would learn to wield a weapon and 
a smattering of Spanish. They became part of the EZLN fighting force.

On Jan. 1, 1994, when the Zapatistas seized the cities of San Cristobal and 
Ocosingo and five other county seats, women comprised a third of the rebel 
army - women fighters were martyred in the bloody battle for Ocosingo.

Integrating women into the military structure proved easier than cultivating 
participation in the civil structure, which was rooted in the life of the 
villages.
Although women occupied five seats on the 19-member Clandestine 
Revolutionary Indigenous Committee, the EZLN's General Command, their 
numbers fell far shorter in 29 autonomous municipal councils and the five 
"Juntas de Buen Gobierno" ("Good Government Committees") which administrated 
Zapatista regional autonomy.

But as the Zapatista social infrastructure grew, women became health and 
education promoters and leaders in the commissions that planned these 
campaigns.

Women's liberation in Zapatista culture has been boosted by the rebels' 
prohibitions against the consumption of alcohol in their communities.

Whereas many inland Maya towns like San Juan Chamula are saturated in 
alcohol with soaring rates of spousal and child abuse, the Zapatista zone 
has the lowest abuse indicators in the state, according to numbers offered 
by the women's commission of the Chiapas state congress.

As a state, Chiapas has one of the highest numbers of feminicides in 
Mexico - 1,456 women were murdered here between 2000 and 2004.

The low incidence of violence against women in the zone of Zapatista 
influence is more remarkable because much of the lowland rebel territory 
straddles the Guatemalan border, a country where 500 women are murdered each 
year.

A story to tell
With the men tending the kids and cleaning latrines, the women told their 
stories in the assemblies.

Many of the younger compañeras like Evarilda had grown up in the rebellion - 
which is now in its 24th year - and spoke of learning to read and write in 
rebel schools and their work as social promoters or as teachers or as 
farmers and mothers.

Zapatista grandmothers told of the first years of the rebellion and veteran 
comandantas like Susana, who spoke movingly of her longtime compañera 
Ramona, "the smallest of the small," recalled how in the war, the men and 
the women learned to share housekeeping tasks like cooking and washing 
clothes.

"Many of the compañeros still do not want to understand our demands," 
Comandanta Sandra admonished, "but we cannot struggle against the bad 
government without them."

The Zapatista compañeras' struggle for inclusion and parity with their male 
counterparts grates against separatist politics that some militant 
first-world feminists who journeyed to the jungle espouse.

Lesbian couples and collectives seemed a substantial faction in the 
first-world feminist delegations.

Although no Zapatista women have publicly come out, the EZLN has been 
zealous in its inclusion of lesbians and gays and incorporated their 
struggles in the rainbow of marginalized constituents with whose cause they 
align themselves.

Among international delegations in attendance were women representatives 
from agrarian movements as far removed from Chiapas as Brazil and Senegal, 
organized by Via Campesina, an alliance that represents millions of poor 
farmers in the developing world.
Dozens of Zapatista compañeras, many of them Tzeltal Maya from the Chiapas 
lowlands decked out in rainbow-hued ribbons and ruffles, their dark eyes 
framed by ski masks, emerged from the rustic auditorium to the applause of 
hundreds of international feminists gathered at the opening session of an 
all-women's "Encuentro," or meeting, hosted by the Zapatista Army of 
National Liberation (EZLN) late last year.

Last July, at the conclusion of a meeting with farmers from a dozen counties 
in the village with the haunting name of La Realidad - "The Reality" - a 
young rebel from that community, "Evarilda," apparently without clearing the 
invitation with the EZLN's General Command, called for the all-women 
encounter, explaining that men were invited to help with the logistics but 
would be asked to stay home and mind the children and the farm animals while 
the women plotted against capitalism.

True to Evarilda's word, at the Dec. 29-31 gathering which drew 300-500 
non-Mexican mostly women activists to this village, officially the 
autonomous municipality of Francisco Gómez, and which honored the memory of 
the late Comandanta Ramona, men took a decidedly secondary role.

Signs posted around the area called "Resistance Until the New Dawn," a sort 
of Zapatista cultural and political center, advised their male counterparts 
that they could not act as "spokespersons, translators or representatives in 
the plenary sessions."

Instead, their activities should be confined "to preparing and serving food, 
washing dishes, sweeping, cleaning out the latrines, fetching firewood, and 
minding the children."