From women's rights to women's liberation

 Note: For some time, we have noted the dangers of a narrow human rights focus in viewing emancipation struggles of women in our countries and coined the term "rights-washing" to warn against the attempted cooptation of women's movements. This article seeks to deepen that debate.

By Colectivo Desde el Margen

In Latin America there are more women killed by femicide than in Afghanistan1. This statement scares us, but it allows us to think of femicide as a political, state and corporate act that threatens the life of our bodies, our peoples and our territories; that are occupied by the great empires, transnational companies, local governments and NGOs. 

 

Currently, we are experiencing a broad media campaign that portrays Afghan women as passive victims of the horror of the Taliban, in a society that is horrified by the photographs of women wearing burqas, and countless foundations that advocate for the formation of a democratic and secular government, where Afghan women enjoy the same rights as women in Western countries. 

 

This social panorama reduces all the struggles of the women of the Middle East to the implantation of a modern state and the accumulation of rights. From Abya Yala we question the idea that the struggle of women is limited to the dispute for rights within a patriarchal state. During our republican history we have experienced the promise of liberation through western citizenship, which offers us the full enjoyment of rights and equal opportunities. However, to this day, in most of the countries that make up our region, women do not have choice and control over our bodies, because abortion is criminalized; even in circumstances of sexual violence. 

 

We propose a critique of institutional feminism that falls into the state trap of rights. This framework  restricts the fight for women's liberation, because it is satisfied with small constitutional and judicial crumbs that the governments promise. We firmly believe in the need to debate in the streets about our rights, however, we know that this cannot be the main objective of the agenda of the women's movement. 

 

For this reason, we propose the need to build an anti-patriarchal project in which no empire, government, company or individual can violate our lives and our territories. This project is nourished by the permanent dialogue between the local struggles of different territories. From this anti-patriarchal project, arises the criticism of NGOs and other foundations dedicated to capturing Afghan women's figures and exposing them in international forums and conversations, turning them into simple passive objects in the midst of a dispute over Western ideas. Many of these organizations limit themselves to developing humanitarian assistance projects and pro-rights campaigns, without even listening to the realities and demands of the women in question. Furthermore, the paternalistic orientation of these organizations seeks to annul women's struggles politically, weaken us and make us doubt our political and revolutionary capacity.

 

We canot ally ourselves with Western and racist interpretations of what is happening in Afghanistan. The international press and analysts are scandalized byAfghan women's inability to access education; the next day, the Taliban announce that women will be able to study, as a strategy to achieve international approval. This is just a sample of how the pieces are played on the chessboard of power, where the nation-state manages the lives of women according to their interests. 

 

In our country, where women have had the right to study for more than 100 years, the classrooms of public schools and colleges continue to be overcrowded spaces of indoctrination, instead of spaces for play, reflection, dialogue and collective liberation. For these reasons, the Taliban's decision to restore women's right to education should not be cause for celebration, as it is only a move to maintain international alliances. 

 

1 https://www.milenio.com/politica/afganistan-cifra-mujeres-asesinadas-compara-mexico

Publicado originalmente en Desinformémonos. 6 septiembre 2021. https://desinformemonos.org/del-uso-de-los-derechos-de-las-mujeres-a-la-liberacion-de-las-mujeres/