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Navigating Gender-Based Violence in Indonesia
By Dewi Aryanu, community organiser, IndonesiaĀ  Trigger Warning: Sexual harassment, sexual violence ā€œWhy did you take off your hijab? I sent you to live in a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) so that you know to…
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Facilitating Safe Spaces for Womxn in Indonesia
By Theresia Siti, community organiser, IndonesiaĀ  I joined FAMM Indonesia (Young Indonesian Women Activistsā€™ Forum) during their intergenerational meeting and Movement Building Institute (MBI) in 2010. Initially, I received an invitation from the director of…
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Learning from the Indigenous Womxn of Lou Bawe
ByĀ Yuliana, community organiser,Ā East Kalimantan, Indonesia When I decided to migrate from Sulawesi to East Kalimantan, the people around me said ā€œbe careful of the Dayaks, they like to cut off peopleā€™s heads.ā€ Their message stuck…
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The Search for Critical Friends
By Mufliha Wijayanti, lecturer at a State Islamic University in Indonesia ā€œThese ā€œgender ladiesā€ just add more work. Making regular planning is already a hassle, let alone having to use gender analysis, complicating things.ā€ “PSGA…
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The Change is Here: From Words to Voices, From Present to Future
By Vevi Alfi Maghfiroh, young journalist, Indonesia   I was born in Indamayuā€™s coastal region, and for me, my birthplace decides the kind of path that I have to walk on every single day. Since…
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Elections ā€“ An opportunity to demand?
By Wadzanayi Vere I cast my first vote at the age of 25! I remember feeling excited and overcome with a sense of power. I became conscious of the electoral process as a means of…
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International Womenā€™s Day in Mexico City: A mega-march against the patriarchy
By Laura Carlsen   The International Women’s Day march in Mexico City was one of the largest in the world in recent years. After receding during the pandemic, the traditional mobilisation returned in 2023 stronger…
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Women and the Migration Crisis
By Audrey Lopez Valdivia “Asylum was never meant to alleviate all problems ā€” even all serious problems ā€” that people face every day all over the world.ā€ This is what U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions…
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Carrying on Mariaā€™s Legacy
We chatted on Facebook the day before Maria Mustika died. We talked about the #DefendHer campaign of JASS (Just Associates), Global Fund for Women and MADRE. Maria volunteered to translate the #DefendHer messages into Indonesian…
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What Women Crossing the Line Means to Me
Four years ago, a young girl ā€“ Januba ā€“ from an impoverished family in a village in Tamilnadu, a province in the heart of southern India, finished middle school thanks to the determination and sacrifice…
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I Write (and Wear) What I Like
Sister ko mabva matakura masofa acho mukati rega ndifambe ndakasenga (Sister, your body looks like you carried the couch with you into town). Hure (prostitute) Eish mukoma vari kunakirwa kumba uku (Eish, your husband/boyfriend should…
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We or Them
We stand here right nowWe stand tall and proudWe stand on common ground Because we are not aloneBecause we are oneBecause we are home So don’t lay your head downNowBecause we must fight NowWe must…
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The Business of Beauty & Body Politics
Marita sits on a stool at her stall in an open market just outside Harare. She is counting brightly-coloured sweets and placing them carefully into a bag. Her neighbour on the right sells packets of…
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Putting Womenā€™s Agenda at the Core of Indonesiaā€™s Legislative Elections
I barely slept on the days following the elections. We in Forum Aktivis Perempuan Muda ā€“ Indonesia (FAMM-Indonesia) took part in various work related to the legislative elections of 9 April 2014 mainly to call…
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Reflections from an “African Youth”
Where to start? ā€¦ Over a week ago, I attended a dialogueā€”The Importance of Youth Leadership in Africa: A Discussion with Young African Leaders, hosted by Congresswoman Karen Bass. Catchy title, but I wish I…
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Trekking the Internet
The first time I got my hand on computer, I wasn’t scared at all. Maybe itā€™s because as a 16-year-old, I was anxious to try something new. My parents encouraged me into ā€œtechieā€ stuff because…
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Ending Rape in Cambodia
Why do men rape women? This is a simple question with a complex answer. My friends, relatives and colleagues ā€“ both men and women ā€“ often ask this question. Last year, Cambodians were put on…
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Jolism, Strike, Score!
The Strange Dynamics of Mixed Gender Spaces I am sitting in a room packed with excited leaders for a leadership forum organised by the Gugulethu Youth Development Forum.  Itā€™s blisteringly hot and it makes it…
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Thai Activists Stand for Womenā€™s Right to Make Choices
ā€œWe can make it happen. People need to break the culture of silence. Womenā€™s experiences on undergoing abortion are real and we only need to communicate these to the world. Art performances and film screenings…
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The Story behind the Vagina Warriors
Thereā€™s an act of defiance in going onstage… We are standing in the garden of Katswe Sistahoodā€™s office in Harare. It is 29Ā°C, the sun beats on our foreheads until weā€™re shiny with sweat and…
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Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder, But Who Is This Beholder?
I will never forget the day I decided to cut my hair. I remember taking my walk of courage to the beauty salon seven years ago. I walked in and the lady who usually braided…
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Young Women Size up CEDAW
The young women of Cambodia have come a long way. Almost four years after its groundbreaking formation, the JASS-inspired Cambodian Young Womenā€™s Empowerment Network (CYWEN) is living up to its name ā€“ empowering young women…
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What’s in a Partnership?
“You know how they say it takes a village to raise a child. Well it takes many people to build a movement.” At least that’s what we re-discovered over the three days JASS Southern Africa…
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CYWEN: Shaping the Feminist Movement in Cambodia
In June 2008, JASS widened its movement-building institute in Southeast Asia, in line with its multiregional capacity-building initiative.  This initiative, led by Indonesian activists Nani Zulminarni and Dina Lumbantobing, aimed at strengthening womenā€™s leaderships and…
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Young Zambian Women Tackle Patriarchy, Power & Sex
Patriarchy. Power. Sex. These are the concepts that young women in Zambia are grappling with at the Young Women’s Leadership Camp. Patriarchy ā€“ through institutions like the family, tradition and culture, education and the media ā€“ controls womenā€™s sexuality as…
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Young Timorese Women Clear Up Confusion around LGBTI
How does a woman have sex with another woman? Can a transgender person change both their internal and external sexual organs? Why would a gay person marry someone of the opposite sex and have children…
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CYWEN: Raising the Profile of Young Women in Cambodia
Iā€™m in Cambodia this week getting to know the women of the Cambodian Young Womenā€™s Empowerment Network (CYWEN) and their work around equipping young women with the confidence, information and skills needed to increase their…
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I am a Chameleon: Young Feminists in Zimbabwe Carve Out Space for Themselves
  Every woman is a chameleon. She changes her color to suit the situation; she adjusts and adapts to face the pressing challenges. She wears a different face but the essence of who she is…
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If this is not feminism, then what is?
Movement building in Rumphi, Tiwonge Gondweā€™s village (Tiwonge has been part of JASS movement building in Southern Africa from 2007) As Sindi and I drove to Tiwonge’s town in Rumphi, northern Malawi, the light was…
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Give Them Wings to Fly: Crossing the Line in Zambia
A dozen young women have converged on the Protea Hotel Cairo Road in Lusaka, as JASS (Just Associates) Southern Africa continues with the process of movement-building in Zambia. This part of the process is Leadership…
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Generational dynamics and debates at Beijing +15 Asia Pacific
The opening addresses of the Asia Pacific NGO Forum Beijing +15 emphasized the background of the conference and set the tone for the rest of the forum. The speakers recalled the previous AP NGO forum…
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Feminists in Resistance
It has been an intense couple of days since we arrived in Honduras on Sunday. When I catch the words ā€œIā€™m tiredā€ coming out of my mouth I stop myself because standing next to my…
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Young feminist at AWID
As I look forward to the opening of the AWID forum , I am quite excited about the work that the young feminist have planned for the conference.It pleases me to know that space has…
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