Feminism in pictures: illustrated stories of women's rights around the world
(not sure if one can see the images here, but they can be viewed at the link below. They are amazing)
Feminism in pictures: illustrated stories of women’s rights around the world
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Three female artists, from Kenya, Brazil and Turkey, describe how their creative vision helped them draw attention to the fight for equality
Caroline Kimeu, Constance Malleret and Zeynep Bilginsoy
Tue 5 Dec 2023 00.00 EST
Last modified on Tue 5 Dec 2023 05.45 EST
Kenya: ‘It’s a call to action, not a time to rest. We need to keep up the fight’
As a woman dressed in mid-thigh jean shorts hops on to a music-blaring, graffiti-covered bus in Nairobi city centre, the conductor gropes her and hollers: “You’re looking sexy, baby.” The woman calls him out angrily, and hopes other passengers will come to her defence, but she is met with disapproving looks instead. Some men on the bus tut loudly, muttering under their breaths that she invited the unwanted touching given how “inappropriately” she was dressed. Others act as if nothing happened, and a few seem amused. This scene, captured in the Kenyan illustrator Nancy “Chelwek” Cherwon’s graphic story, may be uncomfortably familiar to many Kenyan female commuters, including Chelwek herself, who has faced harassment while using public transport.
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An excerpt from Nancy “Chelwek” Cherwon’s novel, depicting a woman’s ordeal as she is groped by a conductor on a Nairobi bus, and the reaction of her fellow passengers. Photograph: Chelwek
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CK
Brazil: ‘We can’t talk about feminism without talking about race and class. In that sense, Sônia is a feminist icon’
Sônia Guajajara made history this year after being named Brazil’s first ever minister for Indigenous peoples by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The daughter of illiterate parents, Guajajara overcame socioeconomic, racial and gender barriers to rise to national and international prominence and represent historically marginalised Indigenous Brazilians at the highest levels of government. “Sônia Guajajara is someone I admire immensely,” says the illustrator Helô D’Angelo, who chose to celebrate the Indigenous activist and politician in her contribution to Feminism in Pictures. “One of the most important issues in feminism is intersectionality, particularly in countries like Brazil where the majority of the population is racialised, whether Black, Indigenous, or part of traditional [mixed-race] communities. We can’t talk about feminism without talking about these other issues, like race and class,” says the São Paulo-born artist. “In this sense, Sônia can be seen as a feminist icon.”
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Helô D’Angelo’s illustration of Sônia Guajajara, an inspirational Indigenous activist and politician Photograph: Helô D’Angelo
D’Angelo always knew she wanted to be an illustrator. She remembers drawing as a child with her father and devouring comic books from an early age. “I always loved reading the cartoons in the newspaper. I wouldn’t understand them but I loved them,” she says. But it wasn’t until she went to university that D’Angelo began engaging with issues such as gender inequality and women’s rights, and addressing these ideas in her illustrations.
Helô D’Angelo
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Turkey: ‘Violence against women is so widespread, we are all exposed to it’
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Selen Sarikaya Eren did not know much about the landmark Istanbul convention on preventing violence against women, until a presidential decree announced Turkey’s withdrawal in March 2021. The agreement, which Turkey signed a decade before, wasn’t in the news much until the controversial exit. The decision to pull out of the treaty was widely condemned by global human rights groups, and sparked protests across the country. As women gathered to protest, Sarikaya Eren, who lives in Italy, learned through online campaigns that the treaty was crucial for women in a country where femicide and domestic violence continue unabated. For her contribution to Feminism in Pictures, Sarikaya Eren initially planned to focus on femicide but realised that her illustrations could make the agreement more accessible to others.
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Page from a graphic work by Selen Sarikaya Eren, split into three parts. Top, an image of the Turkish parliament; middle, a women’s protest; bottom, three frames with feminist slogans, and a purple banner across it reading: Not giving up.
Selen Sarikaya Eren’s work depicting Turkey’s attitude to the Istanbul convention on preventing violence against women, and the feminist backlash against withdrawal. Photograph: Selen Sarikaya Eren
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Feminism in Pictures (https://www.boell.de/en/2023/11/06/feminism-pictures-global-feminist-pitch)is published by the Global Unit for Feminism and Gender Democracy, a division of the Heinrich Böll Foundation
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/dec/05/feminism-in-pictures-illustrated-stories-of-womens-rights-around-the-world