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AWID’s "Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalims" initiative  is pleased to announce the launch of the first French and Spanish editions of their newsletter “Facing Fundamentalisms”.

English: http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Activists-Reflect-On-The-Rights-Implications-Of-India-s-New-Government.html?soid=1102000932593&aid=XlwHeJOE6z0

 

The bi-monthly newsletters include updates, analyses, and resources from around the world relating to religious fundamentalisms.

 

You can now receive AWID's Resisting & Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms Newsletters in SPANISH AND FRENCH. To sign up please email us at cf@awid.org

  

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

June / July 2014

 

SPOTLIGHT

 Activists Reflect On The Rights Implications Of India's New Government

Women activists during the Indian elections 2014

 

IN THIS ISSUE

Activists Reflect On The Rights Implications Of India's New Government

Resources And Analysis

Armenia's Far-Right Pitting "The Family" Against Fundamental Rights

 

 

 

Spotlight

 

Activists Reflect On The Rights Implications Of India's New Government 

 

Dear friends,

 

Over half a billion people voted in India's general election in April and May 2014.  For many the result was no surprise; having won 282 of 543 seats, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) now holds power in the world's largest democracy.  The election, which was marked by a surge in women voters, and young women in particular, was attributed to women's concerns about education, employment opportunities, and the rising tide of sexual and other forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG). Unlike past elections, all major national parties included discussions about the increasing VAWG and the persistent gender disparities in their manifestos. 

 

The Indian National Congress, which led the alliance that ruled India for the past ten years, suffered its worst defeat in history, receiving less than 20% of the popular vote.  Despite holding itself up as the champion of secularism, Congress was unable to overcome widespread public perception of the party as being ineffective in controlling inflation and rebooting a stagnant economy, and failing to adequately address corruption, terrorism, and crimes against women.  

 

 Continue reading here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resources And Analysis

 

AWID's Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms Program Launches Spanish And French Newsletters

We are pleased to announce the launch of our first French and Spanish editions of our newsletter "Facing Fundamentalisms". To view the recent editions or subscribe please visit Enfrentando Fundamentalismos, Affronter Les Fondamentalismes. Read more here.

 

Egypt: Keeping Women Out - Sexual Violence Against Women In The Public Sphere Report

Sexual harassment and assault is a long-standing and systemic problem in Egypt presenting major obstacles to women's participation in public life. Successive Egyptian governments have failed to address violence against women, with serious implications for women's participation in the political transition of their country. Read more here.

 

Nigeria: Attacks And Abductions Have Become A Way Of Life

The abduction of hundreds of school girls from their school hostel in Chibok, Borno in north-eastern Nigeria is not an isolated incident, but rather has become a way of life for communities in three north-eastern states in Nigeria. Read more here.

 

Uganda: Anti-Homosexuality Act's Heavy Toll

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people in Uganda have reported a surge in human rights violations since the  passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act on December 20, 2013. Read more here.

 

USA: Obama's Evangelical Gravy Train

Despite the president's promise to cut funding to discredited HIV and pregnancy prevention programs, taxpayer dollars are still bankrolling anti-gay, anti-choice conservative religious groups. Read more here.

 

Global: Karima Bennoune - When People Of Muslim Heritage Challenge Fundamentalism

In this TED Talk, Karima Bennoune shares four powerful stories of real people fighting against fundamentalism in their own communities - refusing to allow the faith they love to become a tool for crime, attacks and murder. These personal stories humanize one of the most overlooked human-rights struggles in the world. Read more here.

 

Global: The Persecution Of Witches, 21st-Century Style

Most people believe that the persecution of "witches" reached its height in the early 1690s with the trials in Salem, Mass., but it is a grim paradox of 21st-century life that violence against people accused of sorcery is very much still with us. Far from fading away, thanks to digital interconnectedness and economic development, witch hunting has become a growing, global problem. Read more here.

 

 

More resources & analysis

 

 

 

A Reader Writes

 

Armenia's Far-Right Pitting "The Family" Against Fundamental Rights

 

 

In this section, we invite readers of Facing Fundamentalisms to share a brief summary of recent events relating to religion, tradition, culture and rights-based organizing in your contexts.

 

Thank you to 

Anna Nikoghosyan, Executive Director of Society Without Violence (SWV), an organization working on women's rights and gender equality in Armenia, for collaborating on this issue's A Reader Writes.

 

Women's and human rights organizations in Armenia are increasingly becoming targets of attacks by neo-nationalist extremist groups claiming that rights groups are advancing 'anti-family' and anti-Armenian agendas and are a  threat to the nation. In order to spread hate against women's human rights organizations and activists, these groups manipulate the meaning of "gender equality", associating it with 'homosexual propaganda', paedophilia and incest. Women's human rights defenders (WHRDs) are called "traitors to the nation", "destroyers of families", "a threat to Armenian values" and promoters of sexual abuse of children. 

 

Last April, an attack took place at a closed roundtable event where SWV planned to officially present our research and recommendations on integrating a gender component into the social science curriculum in schools. Even though it was not a public event, registration was required, and only specific media were invited, somehow around 20 neo-nationalist extremists arrived at the meeting venue with "No to anti-family propaganda" and "Homo-fascism will not pass" placards. 

 

Continue reading here

 

AWID PUBLICATIONS ON RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISMS

 

AWID's talking points on 

Religion, Culture And Tradition: Strengthening Efforts To Eradicate Violence Against Women, created for advocates working in regional and international policy spaces, is now available in Spanish. 

 

The following AWID publications are also available on-line:

 

Not As Simple As ABC: Christian Fundamentalisms And HIV And AIDS Responses In Africa

 

Towards A Future Without Fundamentalisms 

(also available in Spanish and French) 

 

 Feminists On The Frontline case studies anthology and Key Learnings preface 

(also available in Spanish and French)

 

See publications page here 

 

 

 

ABOUT FACING FUNDAMENTALISMS

 

Facing Fundamentalisms is a newsletter produced by AWID's Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms initiative. We hope you find the newsletter useful and interesting. Please keep forwarding it to your contacts so that we can share the analysis and experiences of women's rights activists resisting fundamentalisms as widely as possible. 

 

Visit the AWID website to sign up or look at back-issues, or write to us to subscribe or unsubscribe. And of course, please contact us at cf@awid.org if you have feedback to share or a suggestion for an initiative to highlight in an upcoming newsletter. 

 

You can now receive our newsletters in SPANISH AND FRENCH. To sign up please email us at cf@awid.org