WUNRN
International Museum of Women
August Focus: How Do Women Bring
About Democracy?
NICARAGUA
- WOMEN & DEMOCRACY - RADIO & INTERNET
Observatorios
de Transgresión Feminista in Nicaragua
Democracy
relies on the participation of all people, not just those vested with formal
political power. When a group of women in Nicaragua felt their voices weren't
being heard, they took to airwaves and the internet in Observatorios de Transgresion
Feminista.
Just Associates
Malena de Montis (left) and her MAM
colleagues give testimony of the November 5, 2006 elections in Nicaragua via
Radio Petatera.
Observatorios
On the
morning of November 5, 2006-- election day--women across Nicaragua sat down in
front of sets of microphones in makeshift radio stations. The observatorio was
about to begin. In a live broadcast and webcast throughout the day and into the
evening, they would speak to each other--and via the internet--the world.
As they
gathered in the public plazas and polling stations of the capital city of
Managua and smaller townships, women collectively voiced a radical, new vision
for their country. They bore witness to their experiences of repressive laws
and their efforts to monitor the integrity of putting forth candidates, voting
and ballot counting during elections. They spoke about a healthy environment,
social benefits for everyone and the eradication of poverty. In doing so, they
"transgressed" a 20-year-long status quo of pragmatism in politics in
which citizens allowed to have a voice only asked for incremental change.
Their voices
were carried in Spanish and English via radio and internet by the Costa
Rica-based Radio Internacional Feminista (FIRE) and its initiative, Radio
Petatera. The name "petatera" refers to the petate, or Mesoamerican
sleeping mat woven of plant fibers. In invoking the woven petate, the women equated
their intertwined efforts as weaving a fabric of their own voices - and social
justice - in Nicaragua.
A
Turning Point
Shut out of
political participation for nearly two decades, November 5, 2006 represented a
moment of political crisis for Nicaraguan women. Women's rights had been
eroding in Nicaragua due to persistent economic insecurity, political
corruption, authoritarian rule and the transformation of the once-progressive
Sandanistas into a conservative movement, led by Daniel Ortega.
The last
straw: a 2005 ban on therapeutic abortion, making it illegal to terminate a
pregnancy even when the mother's life is in danger. This ban reversed a
protective law that had been in place for more than 100 years.
The Nobel
Women's Initiative, an organization of six Nobel women laureates working
together for peace, called the ban an "11th hour political maneuver,"
arguing that "women's rights have been cyclically traded for electoral
grandstanding and partisan gain."
Giving
Testimony
The idea for
an Observatorio
is rooted in Latin American political culture and history, a tradition whereby
people speak of their experiences and their visions for change. Testimonies
themselves are a vehicle of political participation. Solidarity and change can
come about after people have had a chance to speak--and be heard.
Observatorios reinforce women's
local action by mobilizing regional solidarity and media attention around
pivotal events. The 2006 Observatorio
in Nicaragua was the first. Since then there have been two more: women
mobilizing against state repression in Oaxaca, Mexico in April of 2007 and
women mobilizing against the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in
Costa Rica in September of 2007. The
Observatorio has become an established and effective form of
political response.
When a
crisis occurs on a local level, the call for solidarity is put out through the
communications network and people and resources are mobilized. Radio and
internet technologies allow testimony-givers to transcend the boundaries of
geography and engage non-locals as virtual observers, building solidarity and
increasing the scope and numbers of those who bear witness.
Radio and,
more recently, internet-based technologies, allow observations to be broadcast
throughout the country in real-time, giving an amplifying platform to voices
that are traditionally silenced in the political process. In Nicaragua, the
observatorio resurrected a time in the country's history--the Sandanista
Revolution of the 1970s --when women were active and sometimes militant
commandantas in shaping political agendas and fighting for change.
New
Alliance, New Possibilities
The November
2006 elections were the first in ten years in which opposing political parties
were recognized and allowed to put forth candidates. An autonomous feminist
movement (MAM) had been building and forming for more than a decade and had
recently allied with, Movimiento Revolucionario Sandinista (MRS), a leftist
alternative to the increasingly conservative Sandanistas. The MRS was fielding
numerous candidates in this election, including some women who also affiliated
with MAM.
According to Malena de Montis, a leader in MAM, "For the first time in our
country, women have established a new way of doing politics. Women are
participating more, and a new force of young women is emerging. This is a very
important. An outstanding moment in our history is taking place."
In spite of
the women's efforts, the 2006 elections were not free and fair. To date, one
and a half years after elections took place, the final official outcomes have
not been released; only the results from 92% of total votes. Daniel Ortega
remains in power and the ban on therapeutic abortion stills stands.
Municipal
elections will take place in Nicaragua in November of 2008. Women are both
hopeful and skeptical that these elections will reverse political trends that
have slowly and systemically eroded human rights.
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