Generation Equality Voices: For Women’s Rights and an egalitarian future

The Women Included project has been selected to participate in the Generation Equality Voices festival organised by UN Women France.

The objectives of our initiative

Our initiative has multiple objectives while following one primary axis of linking justice, societal equality and environment equality into a system of equally weighted rights. Because of who we are at Women Included, we perceive the multiple intersections between all forms of violence whether based on gender violence or violence against the Earth.

Our initiative seeks to:

• Weave the threads of knowledge necessary to raise consciousness about and nourish actions working for equality, societal justice and environmental justice.
• Refocus the links between the Earth and the protection of life at the center of reflections on gender equality. We want to amplify the voices of everyone working in the field to take action in support of equality and the sustainability of life on the Earth with a concern for justice for all of life.

The significance of our initiative

The intersection between ecologic regeneration, through agroforestry projects to recover biodiversity, and societal regeneration, through a culture of diversity and of equality, opens the possibility of approaches that get to the roots of violence against womxn, female identified individuals and the Earth. These approaches are pertinent for the elaboration of inclusive and diverse actions in order to disqualify the monoculture of the patriarchy. 

When we discuss natural resources, we talk about either protecting them or extracting them. This way of discussing natural resources exposes a narrow vision of the true Earth Mother because it reduces resources considered “natural” to something to be furnished without recognizing the enormous richness and gift of the Earth. 

The potency of the patriarchy must be recognized as something that detaches and separates us from an understanding of the interconnectivity of all systems. This detachment produces violence at every level of the construction of society. We must also recognize discrimination and violence against various groups of human beings as part of the ignorance toward the principle of life on an Earth as planet and Mother. All levels of vulnerability coalesce together. The actions that we are putting in place seek to reconstruct the disappearing links between all living things. We know that regeneration requires rebuilding biodiversity in both a practical and figurative sense. To be connected is an action for justice and for climate justice in particular.

Description of the activities of our initiative

Our event will be organized in accordance with health and safety guidelines as both a live and virtual event. It will include a presentation of the different approaches and actions to address societal challenges such as the systems of domination and oppression of living things including people and the Earth. Our objective will include the production of a collective document of ideas and actions coming out of the exchange with the participants in support of regeneration.

• Observations and challenges that are motivating our actions
• Intersectional violence: patriarchal domination and violence against the earth and against institutionally vulnerable groups: the struggle of: Dalit women (Untouchables) in India for preservation of the land, Indigenous women and women of color in the United States for justice.
• People marginalized by Lebanese society (the LGBTQ+ community, refugees, migrants, women) and targeted by current patriarchal politics including exile, modern slavery, human trafficking and discrimination. 
• The control of biotechnology on agriculture and health. The power relationship between multinational corporations (pharmaceuticals, financial institutions, agro-industrials, seed production industrials,) women and marginalized and rural populations in a globalized and ailing world. 

• The deliberate and directed loss of biodiversity. 
• The role of digitalization and big data in the control and elimination of living things.

Our approach and actions

Reconnection with our environment as a means of healing for all, starting with our planet. 

The knowledge of indigenous people, the interconnection with our “native side,” and caring for the root system. Roots form plants and the soil for fertile ground. These are essential concepts to increase equality in harmony with the Earth. 

Agroforestry and permaculture: a different approach founded on harmony and diversity. 

Theater and artistic creation as a means of expression and healing against micro-aggressions, gender violence and violence against the Earth. 

The exchanges with the participants will be crucial to formulate our concluding document. 

We will leverage the work already being undertaken by WI in the Lebanese mountain range of Koura and the European Mont Blanc mountain range as well as an alternate concept of intersectional regeneration: Earth, Society, Human and Environmental Biodiversity. 

Question: how to inspire consciousness with confidence?