Opinion

It is true that a person has died and, according to custom, we should not speak ill of the dead. But I will take an unpopular stance to remind us of the misogynistic and sexist cultural devastation of the "Berlusconi era" which we are still immersed in until today.

In Algeria, hijab ceremonies are occurring more and more frequently in universities. These campaigns promise hell to “wanton women who excite men.”

While the Palestinian media sector may have filled gaps that existed before and created new sources of information, separate from the Israeli occupation’s media environment, it remains beset with huge challenges that Palestinians have yet to overcome.

I’m an Egyptian researcher in my thirties working with “The Sex Talk- بالعربي” (The Sex Talk-in Arabic) initiative. I’m passionate about architecture and feminism, and I practice resistance as an essential part of my daily life. I started thinking about how to define space after a colleague asked me the following question: “What are the spaces even available for feminists to participate in public space?” This made me think, what is intended by “public space” in women’s case?

I never thought that this day would come again—the day that exercising my profession as a journalist would become scary.

Today, as we mark World Press Freedom Day 2023, the director of Radio M is behind bars. I lost my job after the headquarters was sealed, but I am still convinced that even though the body may be imprisoned and the premises sealed, ideas and free speech cannot be imprisoned, no matter how frequent and sharpened the attempts.

Amina, a Syrian woman who used to live in Antakya, was rushing to get out of the house in a panic with her husband. They were running for their lives before the earthquake could claim them as victims. But the ceiling unfortunately collapsed on Amina’s head, and she lost her life on the spot… “It’s my fault, I pushed her back inside to bring her hijab, to cover her hair.”

While the tremors may not have been avoided, the same cannot be said of the destruction of thousands of buildings, and the deaths of tens of thousands of people. What became clear in the chaos that followed the initial shocks was the bewildering unpreparedness and little to no coordination of state actors… It might be hard to predict the political implications of the earthquakes’ outcome at this moment, but it is perhaps harder to fathom how a leader insisting on being the sole authority can remain unscathed from the responsibility that comes with being the ‘leader maximo’.

The so-called 'silent strike' was only possible thanks to the role of women. But it is a pity that, for decades now, in tributes and meetings, comrades and members of the Communist Party forget to recognize those women who guaranteed the necessary conditions that allowed a historical rebellion in Spain…

Many feminists insist on the importance of choosing our words to better take people’s feelings into account – and there is no harm in doing that. But what they fail to realize is that feminists who are against the hijab in all its forms – not just the compulsory – are themselves hijabi, or used to be. They fought their battles and received their share of patriarchal hatred.