Generation Equality Voices: Realizing women’s rights for an equal future

Women Included’s initiative was selected to participate in the Generaltion Egalité Voices festival organized by UN Women France.

Our project

Other voices are surfacing to uphold women’s rights and the right to live on the planet without fear. “Nous habitons tout.e.s la terre.”
A transnational feminist approach transforms a world of borders and checkpoints into a world of alliances and cooperation.

Why is a transnational feminist alliance important? Such a link makes people locked in enmity buttressed by economic politics to see beyond separation and otherness.
We use writing, art, photography, and poetry to capture the subtle nuances in women’s experiences of exploitation and deprivation of rights. We believe that images and words intersect and highlight the invisible and misheard or unheard. Photographs of women taken by our photographer delve into the hidden and capture the often hard to perceive notions in women’s speech and silence. Poetry and text written by poets and writers in our organization make visible the subtleties in the interactions between dominant and colonized groups, and stoke cultural memories so we can make sense of our present.

Our initiative

Presentation of our transnational vision of feminism, combining a fifty-page book, an artistic photographic project by Stephanie Lotz, and the theatrical performance “Mots Écrits”, conceived and directed by Sophie Bourel.

The Book

Our book is conceived as a transnational patchwork of experiences, struggles and analyses dealing with violence against women, including feminicide. The aim of our book is to make visible the invisible violence against women. The representation of human beings is synonymous with visibility and therefore with the opportunity to be heard and seen. It is about giving the person or group an identity or a face. If a human being is not recognised by society, that person is an object and can be killed. As Hannah Arendt points out, when people are objectified, they can be eliminated. Conscience or ethical responsibility is therefore eliminated.

The series of photographs “I see, even if I don’t want“

Black&white portraits of the face mixed with the hands, of women of all ages from all origins.

Behind one face, a whole world. In front of the eyes, worlds and their realities. Ignorance would be more comfortable, but definitely, the perception of the senses prevents us from indulging in it. Consciousness invites itself. Is it possible to hide it, to evade it? Only partly, because even if I don’t want to, I see.

The performance “Mots Ecrits“

In June 2018, the National Archives opened a major archival collection on the history and lives of women. The collection includes documents on violence against women from women’s organizations and associations. This is how the performance project Mots Écrits was born.

Under the direction of Sophie Bourel, company La Minutieuse, Mots Écrits tackles feminicides and articulates elements revealing the inaudible voices that receive violence. Sophie Bourel argues that it is time to face the reality of feminicide in France and elsewhere. For Mots Écrits, Sophie Bourel gathers a corpus of archives on feminicides and creates a performance based on these written words. With a wide variety of documents, what she calls “material”, she is able to bring words to life to bring reading to life fully and independently.

Webinars calendar from June 25 to July 17

June 25 : “Revealing women’s lives and words across boundaries”
Introduction to the book on feminicide. Excerpt and visuals. Brigitte Marti, Pramila Venkateswaran, Fatma Ramdani

June 26: § “Precious lives of native american women and girls”
Opening paragraph. Brigitte Marti, Laureen Tsosie-Rusek

July 2: § “Trafficking in Women & Girls roots in gender based violence”
Paragraphs read aloud with images from countries referenced in read aloud (Tunisia and Ghana) – Racha Haffar & Mona Ayoub

July 10: Art to fight violence against women
Theater, photography, voice and visuals – Elaine Molinaro, Sophie Bourel, Brigitte Marti

July 17: Violence against Intersex and trans populations
Domestic violence: transnational and intersectional perspective of feminicide. Resistance. – Cynthya BrianKate, Brigitte Marti, Pramila Venkateswaran