Stigma

There were two incidents that disturbed me during the first months of 2012. These are two cases where women ended up being treated as low-leveled citizens or disease-baring witches, showing me how society and media will never  free themselves from patriarchism and women stigmatization. 

Athens
The greek police had the nerve to actually upload photos and personal data of HIV-positive sex workers in its website. NGOs and hundreds of netizens, condemned through social media, the ones responsible for this campaign, as well as mainstream media for their biased coverage.                                                                                      It all started when, on April 26, the authorities decided to perform controls on illegal brothels in the center of Athens, resulting to the arrest of a 22-year-old, Russian sex worker who was HIV-positive, didn't hold a permission and consequently she didn't take any necessary health tests.. On April 29, the Greek authorities, by the prosecutors orders, published personal data and a photograph of the prostitute on its official website, claiming that this exposure "aims to secure the social community". According to Kathimerini newspaper, almost a 1000 of her clients rushed to call the AIDS hotline and ΚΕEL (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention).
In the following days, KEEL engaged itself in performing health controls to illegal sex workers and brothels in the center of Athens, detecting eleven more women that were infected by the AIDS virus. The authorities uploaded once again the personal data and photos of those women, while the prosecutor pressed charges for an attempt of intentional physical damage. Finally, it was decided that they would be kept in detention, as well as 5 more HIV-positive sex workers that were spotted later.

Reactions
Hundreds of Greeks condemned the act of publishing personal data of sex workers, as an inhuman mistake of former Minister of Citizen's Protection, Mr Cryssochoides, as well as former Health Minister, Mr Loverdos, indicating that this action falls into the category of a tremendous violation of human rights. Former Greek Health Minister had caused reactions, when last December, he proposed the deportation of foreign sex workers with HIV, declaring that "the disease is transmitted from the illegal immigrant to the greek client, and consequently to the greek family".                       The thing is that because of  the way the media and our politicians are terrorizing citizens overusing the dark cloud of the financial crisis and stigmatizing any marginalized group that suits them, people start seeing public enemies everywhere.  No one really sat down and try to consider that the ones to blame are the clients of those prostitutes, themselves. The typical machos that pay to have sex without condoms (they actually ask for this conditions) and then they go back to their homes and transmit the disease to their wives. Those are the real public enemies.              This is why statements like the one above, about those foreign women, victims of trafficking, being characterized as disease bombs from the health minister himself,  can be seen as extremely dangerous.                                                                          Most of all, the Greek police and the ministry of Health violated fundamental human rights such as human dignity and medical confidentiality
Dozens of voices were united through the internet, calling for the immediate arrest of the people truly responsible, the clients of those women, as well as their pimps and all those human trafficking circuits that have strong presence in Greece, even with state and police tolerance.

Yemen
The second incident has to do with women harassment in Yemen. My amazing friend, Ghaida’a is a women’s rights activist and a campaigner against sexual harassment in Yemen. I had the privilege of meeting her at the University of Warsaw and from then on we became close friends. One day she approached me rather upset and she informed me about a horrific case (I will be quoting from a beautiful piece she wrote in http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/ghaidaa-al-absi/street-sexual-harassment-breaking-silence-in-yemen):                                                                                         “The daily newspaper, Alhayat (well-know in the Middle East) contacted me in February 2012 through a journalist asking me questions about the Safe Streets campaign in order to write a report about sexual harassment in Yemen. On the campaign Facebook page we had given some statistics, based on a report resulting from a regional conference organized by the National Center for Women's Rights and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on sexual harassment across 16 Arab countries, including Yemen. The conference reportsaid that 90% of Yemeni women face street sexual harassment.                                                                                      This information, already posted on many international and local websites, was quoted by the journalist in his report for the Alhayat Daily newspaper. The title of the articlewas "90% of Yemeni women are victims of sexual harassment, and the Internet is their haven.”                                                                                                         Three months on from the publication of this article, in May this year, Alhayat newspaper deleted the statistics from the online version of the article and apologized in their newspaper and on Twitter, claiming that the figure 90% was over exaggerated.                                                                                                               They published this apology after a few men on Twitter asked the newspaper to delete the statistics, claiming that they were wrong and that they implied that all Yemeni men were harassers. The article’s new title reads “Victims of Harassment and the Internet is their Heaven". So the newspaper not only deleted the statistics, but also the word "women". We hoped that the newspaper had based this decision on subsequent research or investigations, something to prove that the statistic was not true or that fewer than 90% of Yemeni women face sexual harassment daily. Yet there was no such survey. This was a big shock for us. How could this very well-known Middle Eastern newspaper be swayed so easily by this small group of men on Twitter? How could they delete such important information about women’s suffering on the streets of Yemen?                                                                                                                      Many people tried to communicate with the newspaper, to tell them that this kind of behavior is not professional. We even sent the journalist and the newspaper a report, "Baseline Study on Fighting Streets Harassment against Women in Yemen" which was conducted by the Athar Foundation for Development, and funded by the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). This report says that 98.9% of Yemeni women are facing streets sexual harassment in the capital. The newspaper is yet to respond.”

Those two incidents, even though completely different, they share some common elements. First and most important, when some male twitter users or clients are disappointed, they have a bigger influence on media and on our society. They become more efficient as far as misleading public opinion, organizing contemporary witch hunts and stigmatizing women.   

By Maria Sidiropoulou

NASAWIYA: Feminists made in Lebanon

“Our main goal is to make women more active and aware of their legal, social and political rights…”

I just enjoy so much talking to young people who are so passionate about activism and human rights. When it comes to women rights activists, or feminists, or however you want to label them, my interest instantly grows to the extent of actually admiring their unbelievable guts. When those activists are from Lebanon then I gotta talk to them!                                                                                                                             


 My Yemeni friend Ghaidaa who is also a campaigner about women harassment in Yemen (a piece about that coming soon) told me about the Nasawiya movement in Lebanon. As described in their website, Nasawiya is a group of young feminists who are working together to recreate a world free from sexism, and all other forms of exploitations and discriminations that collaborate with it: classism, heterosexism, racism, capitalism, etc. Being aware of the fact that feminism is a multidimensional movement, the Nasawiyas insist on approaching matters from a progressive grassroots feminist perspective. The members of this collective are quite serious about defining themselves, “We are feminists, yes, but there is no one definition of what feminism means, so we sometimes refer to it as “feminisms” in the plural. This is part of the reason why we wanted to come together and create this space: so we could debate how we, as women and feminists, identify ourselves and our concerns. Because when we come together, we find out that we sometimes have contradictory views about what constitutes sexism, what we should do to end it, and how we should do it. This diversity, however, is not a liability at all; we strongly believe that it enriches our community.” A lot of brains are always better than one, right? And those activists surely know how to use them.

I spoke with two of them, Yara Chehayed and Rita Chemaly.  

Yara is an active Nasawiya who informed me about how life is for a woman in Lebanon, “There is no law for sexual harassment, no law protecting women from domestic violence, no law concerning marital rape. Most of the times, men that do such a thing, end up unpunished. Marital rape in Lebanon doesn’t even exist as a notion. Women don’t have the right to transfer their nationality to their children. All in all, it is still a sectarian system.” 

Rita who is an active blogger, researcher and campaigner for women rights issues adds, “Women cannot give social security to their husband (just in the case the husband is 60 years old and sick). We can add the problem of a women not being able to open a bank account for her children too. Let’s not mention the maternity leave.”

According to them, the situation of women in Tunisia or in Egypt, even in an Islamic context can be better than in Lebanon. “We have a fake freedom. You may have the right to wear a short skirt here, or to party and drink, but that doesn’t mean you have freedom. One woman dies from domestic violence per month in Lebanon.”

But let’s get one thing at a time…Yara, what about Nasawiya? How did those women join together?
Nasawiya was founded two years ago 2009, by a bunch of activists, women and men. They managed to build together some core values and created a movement. We would meet at a coffee shop or in some NGO, because we didn’t have our own space. Now we are 230 women.

We managed to grow through organizing events, parties, lectures and lots of activities and projects. So people got interested.

How do you work?
Yara: Nasawiya is a collective. There is no hierarchy. We have one coordinator for every initiative.
Everyone has the right to start up a new initiative, as long as it has a strong feminist perspective and corresponds to our core values. We deal with many issues such as sexual harassment in Lebanon. We have been working on it for a year now. We even created a video animation on YouTube called “The adventures of Salwa”. There is the anti racism movement, that report cases of racism, especially the ones concerning domestic workers.
As I read on one of these reports, apart from those domestic workers being abused, there is the added brutality of the agencies that provide them with their jobs, “The agency system in Lebanon has always been corrupt and seriously lacking in regulation and transparency. The authoritarian and violent behavior of many of those operating placement agencies has been known and accepted for years. We know that recalcitrant workers can be returned to the agency for “corrective punishment” if the employers are unable or unwilling to do it themselves. And the financial exploitation of domestic workers by the agents, who take the first three months of their salaries, is scandalous and should be stopped, because it amounts to human trafficking”
…also we try working on a political level to change the Lebanese mentality, because racism has become an increasingly normalized and familiar practice of our society.
We have also an international initiative that works on gender and technology. We organize two “geek camps”, for teenage girls in order to help them develop their technological competencies. We want to help them realize that they are not here only to be nurses or teachers, but also computer scientists. Another initiative is our feminist magazine “Sawt al Niswa” where we can write and document the feminist movements in the Arab world.

What about official or governmental organizations? Do they give a helping hand once in a while?
Yara: We don’t deal with governmental organizations. We only collaborate with NGOs and individual calls. We share contacts and support individual initiatives. We don’t deal with the government. We deal with people.

How is it for a feminist organization to exist within such a patriarchic society as Lebanon…How is it for you, for your families?
Yara: Some families are very supportive. Some others aren’t. There are 6000 women organizations in Lebanon, but the government thinks we aren’t making any change so there isn’t a lot of opposition.
However, we do face a lot of trouble with ultra religious people. For example we were supporting the enactment of  a law for preventing domestic violence. They eventually managed to become an obstacle to our cause. There is still no law for domestic violence. During those five years we were lobbying, we were working hard to push this law to the government. But our rights contradicted religious standards.

Target group
Yara: We are not focusing exclusively on women from urban areas. We organize seminars and workshops in villages and towns about sexual harassment, the rape law, technology. There is not much difference between rural areas and urban areas as far as their reaction is concerned. We don’t consider women from rural areas underdeveloped. Women are women everywhere. We face the same difficulties in the city as well as in the village, but generally we adapt according to the area.


Do you accept women who are traditional or more conservative or wear hijab?Yara: I think as a feminist I can’t say I accept or I don’t accept something or somebody. Being a feminist is about freedom of choice. It is their choices to wear hijab, mine is not to wear it. It is their choice to do abortion, my choice isn’t. As long as you don’t put any obstacles in other people’s choices…


Do women who are members of parliament, or are politically involved, even if few, have a significant impact on Lebanese women? Do you see any changes because of women being more active politically?Rita: The number of women in politics in Lebanon has lessened: we don’t have any women in our current government, and in our parliament we have now 4 women;
The problem, in my opinion, is that the political sphere remains patriarchal and feudal. It is very difficult for women who are not of a political family background (a brother, husband or a father in politics) to enter the sphere.
Yara: Basically the percentage of women MPs in the parliament is 2.3%. Unfortunately, they aren’t representing women, at all and they’re not doing much for improving women’s lives in Lebanon. They are part of the system. We do care, though, about having more women in the parliament, even if they have no feminist agenda at all.


Are there any movements from the government’s side to promote projects so that Lebanese women citizens can become more politically active. If not, what is the role of the official- and unofficial-women's rights groups and organizations? The National Commission for Lebanese Women ( NCLW), the official body formed in 1998 by the 720 law and directly affiliated to the presidency of the council of ministers, is following up the national campaign to support women in decision making and in peace building; this campaign has been launched on the 8 of March 2012 by the First Lady in Lebanon.
The role of official organizations, such as NCLW is consultative, coordinative and executive, do not hesitate to check the website for more info ( www.nclw.org.lb) the English part is available; as for NGOs, there are many working in Lebanon. Some created coalitions and networks to be more efficient and active while lobbying for certain causes.


What is a feminist from your perspective…Is there a difference in the feminist ideology between Europe and the Arab world?Yara: The context differs. For example, in the Arab world we have to work in a postcolonial context, tradition and religion are protagonists. We are not secular and we have major issues to solve: our land, our identity, our law.
Feminism has a genderless sense, women and men are equal. That is the main goal after all, to view people as genderless entities, with no boxes, no stereotypes.




Info: www.nasawiya.org

Maria Sidiropoulou

Sarah and Ghaidaa: Two Yemeni girls in Poland, sharing their thoughts on the revolution

“I really want to return to Yemen, because, let’s face it, no matter how bad your country is, it is still your country. It’s like your family. They can suck big time but you still love them”, that is what Sarah, a 25-year-old student from Yemen, declared, in a dormitory somewhere in Warsaw.     

                                                                                                                

She and her friend Ghaidaa are two Yemeni girls studying in Poland. They have both earned a scholarship by the Erasmus program, for their bachelor and postgraduate studies. Sarah is a beautiful English student wearing a hijab full of flowers, and Ghaidaa is a charming women’s rights activist who absolutely adores her husband…                                                          

When one runs into two Muslim girls in Europe, away from their land that has been tormented by a 33 year old unjust regime and a conservative society, one has lots of questions to ask. Both girls have participated in the demonstrations against Ali Abdullah Saleh. They have tons of experience, and plenty of things to share about the revolution that has been going on for a year now, in Change Square.

During the Revolution

“I felt normal more than ever in these protests. It was a whole new world for me.” Sarah told me looking as if she was living it all over again. “I told my mom that I had to go, or I would be depressed for the rest of my life.  A week before, my brother’s friend was killed there. It was very important for me, because he was like my brother. It was a great loss for me.” And she went to be a part of the revolution.

Everything took her by surprise “I always wanted to know what is going on. When I finally went there, I witnessed something new. It was like a small community inside a bigger one. People were cooperating; they were taking care of themselves and each other. They were acting in solidarity. They had a temporary construction that they used as a hospital; they had organized workshops, even courses for little children. It was a well-managed community. Everything we want our country to be. I felt completely free. I didn’t have to worry about people harassing me, I was walking and no one would look at me or offend me in any way. Inside this community men were different than in our everyday lives. They were more understanding, more respectful, and they would listen to us.”

Ghaidaa was also there several times. “It was really crowded at the Change square. But no one would harass you. I thought that things had really changed. However, outside the Change Square, everything stayed the same.” As if the square had a hypnotic effect on the protestors. “The thing is that the regime itself has been hiring people to enter the peaceful protests and harass women. They would create a fuss so that the revolution would be undermined by violent incidents.”

Has the revolution died?

 “I cannot say that the revolution is still going on” Ghaidaa says “The only things that are left are the political parties and the clashes. For me, though, the revolution has died in Yemen. And in spite of the women’s participation and the women’s movement we still cannot enjoy our rights freely…”

Women’s role in Yemeni society and the revolution

If we follow the events of the revolution from the beginning, we will notice that women activists and citizens had the leading role. For Ghaidaa it came as a surprise, “They are participating and contributing a lot in this. I didn’t expect that. I was afraid that all the protestors were going to be men. Strangely enough, there were times that women outnumbered men during some marches.”                   

A woman having such a strong presence in the country’s political and social rise is not a common sight. Yemen is a strictly conservative society, as Ghaidaa describes it. “Women’s rights aren’t protected and fully guaranteed. In the Yemeni law there are a significant number of provisions against Yemeni women. For example, if I want to get my passport, I am not allowed to apply for it by myself. I have to be accompanied by my husband or some other male family member, even if that relative is younger than me. Women are treated as children. It’s as if they aren’t responsible for their behavior. They should be always in search of male guidance and support.” 

The regime was getting really scared by women’s rising influence on the revolution so they would do anything to stop it. “In the beginning of the revolution Saleh said in one of his speeches that women are mixing with men at the Change square, living together in tents, and that’s “haram”. It is forbidden by Islam. Obviously, he used religion as a weapon” Ghaidaa claims. Unfortunately, the Islamic party and the conservative society were very keen on believing what he was implying. Therefore, the regime decided to build a barrier in the middle of the square to divide women and men protestors…

Wearing a hijab…

Sarah is wearing her colorful hijab and seems really happy. Ghaidaa, on the other hand says that even though she doesn’t wear it in Warsaw, in Yemen she would have to, “if not there would be some serious reactions. There are some women who don’t wear it. They are almost 20 in Yemen and really brave. However they rarely walk. They prefer cars. I knew one of them, who once stopped at the red light and someone spit on her and threw water on her.”    

                                                                                                                         

 But are all men like that in Yemen?                                                                             

“There are three types of men in my country. The ones that consider unacceptable for a woman to not wear a hijab. The ones that don’t accept women that don’t wear hijab, however they acknowledge the fact that it is their right- and only god can punish them. And the ones that are completely against the hijab. Fortunately, there is a significant number of Yemeni men that respect women’s rights.”     

As the Islamic parties are getting stronger and stronger, with the elections on the 21^st of February closer than ever, women’s status is getting weaker and weaker. “I am afraid we will lose the little we have gained so far” Ghaidaa says.  

A large number of women have died during clashes. “When women were dying, the Yemeni media wouldn’t mention their names, as opposed to men’s names and deeds that were praised. After a while women’s names started popping up.” Like the one of Tawakul Karman, a Yemeni activist that received the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leyman Gbowee, both from Liberia. She has generated worldwide attention to Yemen’s authoritarian regime. “ That woman was into politics even before the revolution, she was one of the ones that started it all. I’m not really supporting her because she is with the Al Islah party (Islah means reform) but it is quite radical” Sarah confesses.   This popular sentiment could have put Tawakul Karman at odds with demonstrators. While she’s been a leader of the youth movement since the start of the revolution, Karman is also a leading member in the Islah party, the country’s main Islamist opposition party.

The political maneuverings

“Even elections, were a way for the regime to manipulate us” both Sarah and Ghaidaa agree on that.                                                                                                                                                          The elections are a condition of a power transfer deal that Saleh signed in November, and Yemeni officials have called them a critical milestone in progress toward ending the crisis. However the ruling party and the opposition agreed to nominate only one candidate, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is currently the vice president. Some independent candidates are also expected to run. Hadi assumed some executive duties after the signing of the power-transfer deal in November, but Saleh retains most of his powers, officials say.                                                                                             According to Ghaidaa, the situation in Yemen is very unique. “We are surrounded by Gulf countries, who share common interests with the Americans. Therefore, both are trying to intervene in the Yemeni situation. You can see in the map that Yemen is the only Republican country and it is circled by monarchies. It suits everyone perfectly for the regime to remain the same. If the Yemeni people succeed in gaining their rights, then the people in the other Gulf countries will imitate it, they will be inspired by it.”    

Saleh recently agreed to step down as president in exchange for immunity. Demonstrators argue that’s not enough, because Saleh’ s officials – including his son and other family members – remain in power.

What are you fighting for?

Sarah looks at me firmly and says “We are starting from scratch. We want food. The regime is depriving us of our basic necessities, like food, gas and electricity in order to put pressure on us. There were times when streets in Sana were empty, because all cars were waiting in line at the gas stations. My brother was sleeping, eating inside the car. We were waiting for days to get gas. Food prices have risen 100%. We have electricity for a couple of hours each day.”

Why Poland?

“I went away because I was trying to get a better education. We don’t have high leveled education in Yemen. Actually we have no education in Yemen.” Sarah tells me with a bitter smile. “Our universities are good but not as good as here. Teachers don’t get paid well, so they don’t really do their best. We have no facilities, no equipment.”

What is the reaction of Poles towards you?

“Oh look there’s an Arab terrorist! It is clearly all about stereotypes. Actually sometimes it feels good. People are scared of you and you feel you are powerful. Just joking!”  laughed Sarah. “I really like Polish people. They are constantly trying to learn. In some ways they are like Yemeni people, because they are now beginning to open up to this whole European idea. When I’m with the hijab they will be staring. Then I would look at them, and they would turn around, feeling embarrassed- especially older people. Younger people are more tolerant, and older people are just so curious. They stare because I am different, that does not necessarily mean that they are judging me.”

When referring to her studies in Warsaw, Ghaidaa has one thing to add, “I am studying political sciences, and most of the times, during classes, I find myself constantly trying to defend Middle Eastern countries”

Their future in Yemen

“I really want to be useful to Yemen” Sarah says, “For now, though, everything is uncertain. Even if everything continues to function as always -my friends studying at the university, having exams-  everybody knows that the regime is just trying to show that everything is normal, like nothing has happened. You can’t just go to the University with the fear of the regime bombing you anytime, which they will do. Last time I visited my university before I came here to Warsaw, it was a mess. You would find a tank inside the University.

Ghaidaa also believes that going back wouldn’t be easy, “I really want to go back to Yemen. All my dreams, everything I want to do is in Yemen. But the situation is really difficult. We have no electricity and gas. You can never know what is going to happen next. You cannot make plans for the future. You wake up one morning and there are clashes at the streets. But, let’s imagine I finally return… If so, I would like to create an organization about empowering women. It has already started as an initiative. This project is about empowering women and New Media. Through this program we have trained 200 women in New Media technology. My husband helps tremendously and he has been really supportive. I am really lucky to have such a man. He is a Yemeni and he has really modern views. Currently, we are running another campaign about sexual harassment on the streets of Yemen. Because of my husband’s and my team’s support, I am running the campaign from Poland. We both feel satisfied, because this campaign has generated talks to this serious issue.”

“33 years of corruption cannot be solved in one year.  It takes time. We just have to have patience because things are already changing .Warsaw was reborn from its ashes, and that also took time.” Sarah concludes with a smile full of promise for a better future for Yemen.

Links to Ghaidaa’s campaigning

http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/?s=yemen

https://www.facebook.com/SafeStreets

 By Maria Sidiropoulou