The School of Holding On to Hope

 

The latest summer edition of Vice Versa magazine focuses on the impact of 17 partnerships within the Power of Voices framework of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Our Voices, Our Futures consortium (OVOF) – with CREA as the lead organization, IM-Defensoras as a strategic partner, and which includes APC, UHAI-EASHRI, and WO=MEN – is prominently featured. The article "The School of HoldingOn to Hope" interweaves the stories of three very different yet equally impressive activists for women's, LGBTQI+, and land rights. 

"My silence has not protected me. Your silence will not protect you," as said by Audre Lorde. This message remains crucial for transgender people and queer Muslims in India and Bangladesh, women’s rights defenders in Mexico and Sudan, and the LGBTQI+ community in Uganda, who are silenced because of their identity, work, or activism. 

In Marlies Pilon’s text, all these examples of human rights activists are highlighted. For instance, Sudanese Fahima Hashim discusses the closure of her women's center, while Mexican González Díaz talks about the physical and digital harassment she faces while advocating for the land rights of the indigenous people in Chihuahua. Amina from Uganda, a black queer woman, still has to hide her identity when in her home country. 

Pilon explains how Hashim, Díaz, and Amina might not seem to have much in common at first glance, but all three face insecure lives because "the ruling power or social norms use violence and exclusion against them. It is a patriarchal, heteronormative order that places man above nature, man above woman, straight above queer, white above black, rich above poor, rational above emotional, and mind above body." 

OVOF is about increasing opportunities for structurally excluded communities in the Global South to be heard. Decolonial intersectional feminism, where the most structurally marginalized women themselves decide where the money goes and what needs to be done, is the guiding principle.