{"id":717,"date":"2017-06-23T11:52:09","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T08:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whrdmena.org\/?p=717"},"modified":"2023-07-27T00:00:44","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T21:00:44","slug":"visionary-creative-resistance-meet-women-challenging-extractivism-patriarchy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wh.whrdmena.org\/en\/2017\/06\/23\/visionary-creative-resistance-meet-women-challenging-extractivism-patriarchy\/","title":{"rendered":"“Visionary and creative resistance”: meet the women challenging extractivism \u2013 and patriarchy"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Visionary and creative resistance”: meet the women challenging extractivism \u2013 and patriarchy<\/h2>\n

\u201cWhat is the state? We are the state! The state is the state thanks to us\u201d\u00a0said Havva Ana (Mother \"\"Eve)<\/a>, a 63-year old woman who, in July 2015, joined a demonstration to block the demolition of ancient forests in Rize, Turkey.<\/p>\n

What\u00a0Havva Ana\u00a0meant was that the state depends on the people for its legitimacy \u2013 and that it must not prioritise short-term profit over their rights and wellbeing. The forests of \u00c7aml\u0131hem\u015fin have, for hundreds of years, provided livelihoods and ancestral connection in the Black Sea region.<\/p>\n

In the face of the destruction, she resisted bulldozers and security forces, forming a human chain with other protesters to block their advance. She confronted this violence with all she had: putting her body on the line. Police forcibly removed the protesters from the site, enabling the demolition to go ahead.<\/p>\n

Havva Ana is a part of a larger ecosystem of women on the frontline of struggles to defend land, territory and livelihoods from violent models of \u201cdevelopment\u201d based on extractivism and the unconstrained commodification of nature.<\/p>\n

This is dangerous work and human rights and environmental defenders have faced systematic attacks. Globally, economic and political elites are destroying the planet, violating international human rights standards and treaties to protect the rights of indigenous people.<\/p>\n

In 2015,\u00a0156 killings were recorded\u00a0by the Ung<\/a>; 45 were of defenders of environmental, land and indigenous rights. For that same year, the\u00a0NGO Global Witness<\/a>\u00a0documented\u00a0killings of 185 human rights defenders\u00a0across\u00a016 countries, with Brazil, the Philippines and Colombia in the lead and many of those killed indigenous activists.<\/p>\n

Berta C\u00e1ceres\u2019 assassination last year in her home in Honduras, following years of activism to\u00a0protect the Gualcarque River<\/a>\u00a0from the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, is emblematic of reprisals against women who resist environmental destruction and powerful interests.\u00a0Recent legal evidence<\/a>\u00a0indicates the Honduran government may have collaborated with US-trained paramilitary forces to murder her.<\/p>\n

Many other attacks and killings likely go unreported.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile,\u00a0new research<\/a>\u00a0from AWID and the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, based on consultations with women from Africa, Asia and Latin America, reveals clear gender-specific patterns of violence against women defending lands and communities \u2013 and looks at women’s strategies for action and resistance to extractive industries and corporate power.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they threaten me, they say that they will kill me, but before they kill me they will rape me. They don\u2019t say that to my male colleagues. These threats are very specific to indigenous women,\u201d said\u00a0Lolita Chavez, an indigenous woman human rights defender from Guatemala, in her testimony gathered as part of this research.<\/p>\n

Women experience additional gender-specific threats…<\/p>\n

Many human right defenders worldwide face criminalisation, stigmatisation, and violence \u2013 but women experience additional gender-specific threats.<\/p>\n

For instance, stigmatisation may involve sexually-degrading terms or question a woman as a good mother; the economic marginalisation of women can make it difficult to raise money for bail if arrested; private security, paramilitary and police officers protecting corporate interests have used rape, sexual violence, and intimidation against women human rights defenders.<\/p>\n

Importantly, women confronting extractive industries challenge not only corporate power, but also patriarchy \u2013 and they face repression on both fronts.<\/p>\n

Despite the violent treatment they too often face, women defenders of land, people and nature have been\u00a0visionary and creative. Critically, our research also highlights successful and inspiring work of women confronting extractive industries and corporate power.<\/p>\n

One such story is that of\u00a0Aleta Baun, an indigenous woman from Indonesia who travelled village to village to organise local opposition to marble mining.<\/p>\n

She faced arrests, beatings and death threats.\u00a0But, with courage and determination she reached hundreds of people and together with other women spent an entire year\u00a0occupying the entrance of a mining site, weaving traditional textiles.\u00a0In 2010, after a year of peaceful protest, public pressure forced the companies to abandon their operations. In 2013,\u00a0Baun won the Goldman Environmental Prize.<\/p>\n

Around the world, women are demanding an end to corporate power destroying the planet for short-term gain and greed, and bringing forward visions of development committed to people and nature instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Visionary and creative resistance”: meet the women challenging extractivism \u2013 and patriarchy \u201cWhat is the state? We are the state! The state is the state thanks to us\u201d\u00a0said Havva Ana (Mother Eve), a 63-year old woman who, in July 2015, joined a demonstration to block the demolition of ancient forests in Rize, Turkey. What\u00a0Havva Ana\u00a0meant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[420],"tags":[452],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knowledge-sharing","tag-knowledge-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wh.whrdmena.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wh.whrdmena.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wh.whrdmena.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wh.whrdmena.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wh.whrdmena.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wh.whrdmena.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6503,"href":"https:\/\/wh.whrdmena.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions\/6503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wh.whrdmena.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wh.whrdmena.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wh.whrdmena.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wh.whrdmena.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}