Global Authoritarianism, Women's Rights and the Power of Feminist Organizing
(link to the video at the end of the article)
Global Authoritarianism, Women’s Rights and the Power of Feminist Organizing
5/15/2023 by Ms. Editors
The United States was officially designated a backsliding democracy in late 2021—a full six months before the fall of Roe v. Wade. At the time, journalists warned that such a descent is precisely when “curbs on women’s rights tend to accelerate.” But can a country that has never truly addressed women’s equality ever be a thriving democracy? And are democracies that have abysmal records on gender equity destined to falter? Explore “Women’s Rights and Backsliding Democracies“—a multimedia project comprised of essays, video and podcast programming, presented by Ms., NYU Law’s Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Network and Rewire News Group.
Melissa Murray, Yifat Susskind, Christine Ryan, Alejandra Cárdenas, Negina Khalili, Meg Satterthwaite and Jennifer Weiss-Wolf at the “Women’s Rights and Backsliding Democracies” Symposium. (Brooke Slezak / NYU Law)
This is an excerpted transcript from a panel discussion that took place on April 14, 2023, in New York City at the NYU School of Law symposium, “Women’s Rights and Backsliding Democracies.” On that date, the state of play for abortion, in particular, was chaotic; multiple rulings were being issued in real-time on mifepristone. So, too, were state legislatures roiling with controversy, from Tennessee to Florida to Texas. The panel was moderated by Meg Satterthwaite, NYU Law professor and faculty director of the Robert L. Bernstein Institute for Human Rights. She also currently serves as U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers. Panelists who participated in this discussion include:
Alejandra Cárdenas: senior director of legal strategies, innovation and research at the Center for Reproductive Rights
Negina Khalili: visiting professor, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. She is the former chief prosecutor of elimination of violence and harassment against women in the attorney general’s office in the Republic of Afghanistan; and is a former professor of law at Rana University in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Christine Ryan: legal director of the Global Justice Center
Yifat Susskind: executive director of MADRE
The full discussion can be heard on our corresponding video link (below)
Meg Satterthwaite: For the purpose of this discussion, we’re using the terms ‘democratic backsliding’ and ‘autocratization,’ which invoke a continuum. It is important to think about that big picture, from democracy over to authoritarianism. Many organizations that rate and use indicators and quantitative data to determine the state of democracy have said that we’re in a global decline. By 2022, 58 percent of all countries had experienced a decline in checks on government power and two-thirds saw regression of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Change happens over time, though. It is not an on-off switch. So conversations like this are crucial. Democracy and autocracy emerge out of trends, and they can be identified, named and changed. What might begin with leaders who lack commitment to the democratic process, who disrespect fundamental minority rights, and who demonize their political opponents, may end with frank authoritarianism or fascism.
With those terms, we made a political strategy, or a toolset, or a political regime that prefers ultra-nationalism over individual freedom, that constructs external and internal enemies that it demonizes, and that divides the polity in order to gain power and hold onto power. Other key elements include morally rationalized violence, the shunning of personal freedom and individual dignity, embracing structures of oppression, and glorifying heterosexual patriarchal families. This includes limiting the roles of women, especially limiting their public role and defining their private roles.
. . . . . .
Now of course we face elimination and banning of education, work, and freedom. But one thing that we see now, even with all of the challenges of a totalitarian government and of the Taliban dictatorship, is that the people on the frontlines of this fight are the women of Afghanistan. It is incredible that they are coming into the streets to fight for fundamental freedoms. I think this is a big lesson for all of us, even for those in the United States and others in the international community, to see these women now. This is the new civil society.
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https://msmagazine.com/2023/05/15/global-womens-rights-feminism/