{"id":9067,"date":"2018-02-13T16:30:22","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T14:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=9067"},"modified":"2018-02-13T16:34:26","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T14:34:26","slug":"divisive-populists-are-a-main-obstacle-to-womens-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2018\/02\/divisive-populists-are-a-main-obstacle-to-womens-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Divisive populists are a \u201cmain obstacle\u201d to women\u2019s rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opendemocracy.net\/5050\/moana-genevey\/divisive-populists-obstacle-womens-rights\">Open democracy<\/a>\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0\u201cWhat populists are really afraid of is pluralism\u201d says FEMEN activist Inna Shevchenko, who argues that democracy and feminism are interlinked.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-13-at-15.23.16.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9068\" src=\"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-13-at-15.23.16.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"462\" height=\"311\" srcset=\"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-13-at-15.23.16.png 462w, https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-13-at-15.23.16-300x202.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWhen you fight for women\u2019s rights, and when you advocate for women\u2019s rights, you necessarily, immediately, advocate for democracy,\u201d says FEMEN activist Inna Shevchenko.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Democracy, she argues, \u201cis not only about counting silent hands\u201d \u2013 it is about pluralism, and allowing the confrontation of different opinions. \u201cIt\u2019s about hearing many, many voices and, of course, necessarily, hearing women\u2019s voices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Shevchenko spoke to us on the sidelines of last year\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coe.int\/en\/web\/world-forum-democracy\/\">World Forum for Democracy<\/a>\u00a0in Strasbourg. The theme for the November 2017 event was: \u2018\u2018Is Populism a Problem?\u201d The prominent feminist from Ukraine had a clear answer: populists are \u201cone of the main obstacles for progress of women\u2019s rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"main\" class=\"column grid-12\">\n<div id=\"main-content\" class=\"column grid-8 alpha omega\">\n<div id=\"fp-fp\" class=\"grid-6 alpha omega\">\n<div class=\"grid-8 alpha\">\n<div id=\"node-115768\" class=\"node-list-0 column \">\n<div class=\"grid-8 alpha omega article-content\">\n<div id=\"contentgrid\" class=\"content entry-content grid-6\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fopendemocracy5050%2Fvideos%2F1778779018820896%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=450\" width=\"450\" height=\"280\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe>Populists aim to divide society and \u201ccreate clashes between groups\u201d by reducing people \u201cto only one identity,\u201d she said. They also manipulate societies, Shevchenko argued, by playing on individuals\u2019 fear and insecurity. But, she insisted: \u201cwe don\u2019t need more fear and more insecurity, we had it enough as women, we don\u2019t need it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWhat we need is actually answers to our fears,\u201d she added. \u201cNow is the time, this time of disruption, is actually a time to come together. Populists aim to divide us but it\u2019s a time when we have to aim for unity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">So how can women fight back? \u201cI think that it\u2019s women\u2019s turn to speak out, it\u2019s women\u2019s turn to occupy public space, to make women\u2019s voices heard,\u201d Shevchenko said. \u201cIt\u2019s been for too long that we were silenced, we were pushed in the corner, we were not visible. It\u2019s our turn and we have to take this space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">And this is already happening: women around the world are shining light and breaking silence on taboos and issues that have been \u201cignored for too long,\u201d she said. \u201cFor me, as a fellow woman, this is something that makes me feel even stronger and more powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWe see solidarity, with all the differences we have&#8230;the diversity of women all over the world. But today we hear these voices of women in which we can actually recognise each other. We can relate to the stories that we hear, we can relate to the complaints that we hear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWe have to show solidarity to one another and we have to continue making our own proper voices also heard. Because what populists are really afraid of is pluralism. And women\u2019s voices, when they join public debate, they necessarily push for more pluralism.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWhat populists are really afraid of is pluralism\u201d says FEMEN activist Inna Shevchenko, who argues that democracy and feminism are interlinked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":9068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,85,88,17,49,10],"tags":[161,845,784],"class_list":["post-9067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editor-selection","category-human-rights","category-slider","category-women","category-womens-rights","category-world","tag-democracy","tag-femen","tag-women-activists","country-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9067"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9071,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9067\/revisions\/9071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}