WUNRN
AWID - Association for Women's
Rights in Development
Young Feminist Activism in Brazil
18/09/2008
AWID
interviews Ana Adeve about being a young feminist activist in Brazil.
By Rochelle
Jones - AWID
AWID: On a
personal level, can you tell us how you became involved in feminism and what it
means to you?
Ana Adeve
(AA): I began when I was fifteen years old participating in a student union in
my school. I took part in a group about Marxism and I was invited by a friend
to make a feminism course for young women. The organization was not
specifically for young people but we tried to form a group of young women.
Since my first contact with feminism I have liked it. The main leaders of the
student movement were all men and women were always at the back. My first book
on feminism was ‘The Second Sex’ and it changed my concept of the world and
life.
Feminism is
my life. Feminism is a possibility of change - to create new relationships
between women and men. Moreover, feminism questions patriarchy and misogyny and
the structure of society. I started when the military occupied political spaces
and it was understood that men were more valued than women. The possibility of
thinking to transform society by means of feminism always made me move forward
in the struggle. Feminism is the emancipation of women and men in search of a
new possibility for social structure.
AWID: What
kind of activities are you involved with at present?
AA:
Presently I am involved with the following organizations:
-- Youth
Feministas of Sao Paulo - feminist collective;
-- I was one of the co-founders of the Brazilian Coordination of Young
Feminists and facilitator of the national network;
-- I am president of the Association Frida Kahlo – a joint organization that
integrates various youth movements around the feminist struggle;
-- I am part of the team coordinating the REDLAC - Latin American Network of
Youth Rights for Sexual and Reproductive Rights;
AWID: Is
there an ideology behind young feminist movements in Latin America?
AA: Youth
have always been present in the feminist movement. Many young women fought for
the creation of a feminist design and freedom. However, the term "young
feminist” was something that did not exist before. In a statement from the 8th
Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Encounter in 1999 – held in the Dominican
Republic - some thoughts emerged on political identity from the experiences of
different generations. These ideas are present to date in the politics of young
feminists:
Feminism is
defined by its praxis and power;
Meanwhile,
the statement says that they recognise the struggles of previous generations.
But that the current generation lives in a different world marked by
globalisation, neoliberalism, technological advances and New Technologies and
that within feminist struggles feminists should incorporate these aspects from
the experience of young women.
While we
began building Latin American feminism, Brazilian youth also formed groups to
discuss feminism from a generational perspective. The idea was to build groups
that were spaces for the exchange of experiences and expertise on feminist
theories and practices.
It is
important to note that both in Brazil as in Latin America in the decades of the
80s and 90s there was a transformation in the way of action and organisation of
the feminist movement and in the socio-cultural and political arenas of Latin
America. Many experiences of young women’s groups occurred in that period of
the 90s within NGOs, universities, the cultural scene, political parties, etc. But
only at the beginning of 2000 did the young feminist identity begin to be
defined as practical activism.
Also in that
period, several groups of freelance young feminists appeared throughout the
country, such as: in Sao Paulo (the Young Feminist of Sao Paulo), Minas Gerais
(Active Black Women and Youth Replacing Idea), Pernambuco (Feminist Collective
for Youth of Pernambuco), Paraiba (Youth Feminists of Paraiba), and Ceara (the
Feminist Collective for Youth Ceara).
However,
groups of young feminists that formed in 2000 were not just meetings or
exchanges between young women. They had demands and claims too. Young women
discussed feminism through their experiences from the aspect of constructing an
independent political identity. They started to question the role they occupied
in the feminist movement and the importance of autonomy and intellectual
independence. Young women began to promote actions, seminars, meetings,
activities and to produce knowledge.
The group
Youth Feministas of Sao Paulo was founded in 2003 from the need of some young
women who met at the Union of Women of Sao Paulo. The intention was to create a
collective self that reflected the specificities and demands of young people.
This work has contributed to the emergence of other groups of young feminists
in Brazil. The key discussions are focused on the idea of a visible young
feminist identity in the Brazilian political landscape and also in the spaces
of the feminist movement.
The first
steps were to build feminist thoughts, actions and methodologies of work for
young women. In the beginning, inclusion in the feminist movement was so
difficult. The fact that young activists nominated themselves as feminists was
somewhat controversial. The discussions of the groups of young feminists are not
based on equality feminism, nor are they based on the idea that there is a
universal woman who represents all women. It is believed, in contrast, that in
each season, group and space we must reshape the idea of women - and our
diversity enriches practice and policy. It is important for us to reflect on
the variety and difference of feminists and their projects of social
transformation because diversity allows you to specify the struggles and create
alliances between different groups.
AWID: Young
feminism in Latin America is clearly strong and active. Why do you think this
is so and how has it been achieved? Can you give us some examples of successful
young feminist organising?
AA: I
believe that young feminism in Latin America is strong because we work with
diversity and question the very logic of hierarchy that has developed within
the feminist movement. We work with the idea that all young women and men are
subjects of rights and authors of their own ideas.
Diversity
enriches feminism, so to speak in terms of youth it is important to include
feminism and their projects of social transformation. But there must be a
frank, open and respectful inter-identity dialogue. For young feminists, such a
dialogue presumes that we leave that place behind that only speaks of equals
and only exists if built between equals and does not dialogue with other
identities or with those who have questions. We leave the field of feminist
absolute truths to build new knowledge and new feminist relationships.
We of Youth
Feministas of Sao Paulo believe that the feminism of young women in Latin
America is strong because it proposes to work with the following ideas:
Promote
inter-generational dialogue and discussion;
The groups
we consider to exemplify this strength include:
AWID: What
are the realities for young women in Latin America - and the needs of young
feminist movements?
AA: This is
a complex question and to respond. I believe we can focus in two ways:
1) What is
the context of young women in the region of Latin America
2) What are the needs of the movement of young feminists
In relation
to the context, I believe we can emphasize that many young women suffer
violations of their human rights. In many countries, abortion is considered a
crime and this directly affects young women. The advance of fundamentalisms are
visible in many parts of our region. An example of this is: In Brazil there are
more than 42 proposals processed in parliament on the issue of abortion, of
those, 31 proposals suggest the inclusion of abortion as a crime. The current
law in Brazil guarantees abortion in cases of rape and danger of life for
pregnant women, however, several proposals that are today in the national
congress want to ban abortion even in those cases.
Today, we
know that in Brazil it is mostly poor, black, young women who die as a result
of unsafe abortions. Thus, the fundamentalist wave that has hit the country and
consequently Latin America is a setback for all young women in that region.
Beyond this
point, we must highlight the issue of violence against women, especially sexual
violence that affects us directly. There are other questions such as access to
employment, education, the fight for a life without violence, etc.
In relation
to the needs of the movement of young feminists. We can say that the main
issues are: how to intervene in areas of policy making; how to obtain financial
resources for projects such as enabling youth and to implement interventions.
Moreover we
have a need to redesign the spaces of the movement away from being "adult
centred". It is important for young feminists to build dialogue with
different movements, with an emphasis on rapprochement with the youth movement.
To conclude
I believe that the assertion of the young feminist identity was associated with
the empowerment process of the youth movement. In the 90s and 2000, there was a
concomitant emergence of groups of young feminists, and the emergence of youth
groups that discussed public policy of / for / with youth. That makes much
difference to the organisation and mobilisation of young feminists.
So talking
about public policies from / to youth is to think such policies are so complex
– they build the basis of new parameters, which involves a reconfiguration of
roles of state and society. What it is all about - feminism and young feminists
– is that young women are in the arena of public policy for youth with tariffs
still little discussed in this space, such as health and sexuality, gender
inequality, and sexual and reproductive rights, which are interrelated with the
feminist movement, black, human rights and sexual and reproductive rights
movements. They bring to that arena positions on the subject of young feminism
and bring themes dear to feminism. For us the path we take is based on the
intersection of feminism and youth as a march of social transformation.
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