Beyond Equality: Feminisms Reclaiming Life

Iranian feminist revolutionaries, Latin American “mulherismo”, Kurdish “women’s liberation” movements, and similar feminist approaches do not – as liberal and predominantly Western feminist agendas do – restrict themselves to demands for equal shares in the eroding paradigm of the current toxic way of life. Instead, they understand patriarchy to be intersectionally intertwined with extractivism, state violence, and capitalism. For those struggles, mostly originating in the South, feminism is more than a quest for equality or individual empowerment – it is a political project that aims at social justice and structural transformation: decolonization and planetary care work, political sovereignty, socialization of social reproduction, and revolutionary democratization of the everyday.

The gathering assembles prominent feminist movements, researchers, and cultural workers – Latin American collectives, Kurdish, Iranian, and North African liberation movements, as well as queer and trans-feminist positions – through a collective curatorial process.

Discursive engagements, assemblies, (online) talks, and workshops will focus on war, border politics and revolutions, decolonial ecofeminism and the political economy of “race”, feminist abolitionism, anti-fascism, gender violence, hetero-cis normativity, and investigative journalism. Following the slogan of the Kurdish liberation movement, we want to give expression to the struggles that reclaim life: “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî.”

Programme:

DAY 1 / Friday 30.6

18:30–19:00 / HAU1
Opening / Articulations
Guests: Erica Malunguinho, Anielle Franco
Hosts/Moderation: curatorial collective
Languages: Brazilian Portuguese and English with English and Brazilian Portuguese simultaneous translation

After a short introduction into the questions of the gathering on the revolutionary democratization of the everyday, by the
curatorial collective, Erica Malunguinho and Anielle Franco will give the opening speeches of the event. Erica Malunguinho is a Brazilian politician and the first transgender person to be elected to a Brazilian state parliament. Anielle Franco, is the Minister of Racial Equality in the second cabinet of Lula da Silva. After the murder of her sister, Marielle Franco, Anielle became the director of the Marielle Franco Institute.

19:00–20:30 / HAU1
Conversation: “Transnational feminisms: the desire to change everything”
Guests: Verónica Gago, Parvin Ardalan, Dilar Dirik, Erica Malunguinho / Host/Moderation: Elif Sarican
Languages: Brazilian Portuguese and English with English and Brazilian Portuguese simultaneous translation

From the Kurdish “World Women's Democratic Confederalism”, to the mobilizing power of the Women's Strike in Argentina, the experiences of Transfeminism occupying parlimentary positions in Brazil and the feminist lead revolution in Iran: these movements challenge oppressive systems with the desire to change everything. The debate aims at sharing and learning from each other's experiences as well as pointing out common grounds and differences, in order to reshape transnational feminist strategies for changing the very fabric of our world.

21:30–23:00 / HAU1
“Roda de Conversas” WORLD KAFFE – meet and greet
Guests: TranStyX: Tunisian Queer Art Project, curatorial team, speakers and all organizations
Host/Moderation: curatorial collective
Languages: various languages with consecutive translation

On various roundtables installed on the stage of HAU1, intimate occasions for discussion among the speakers and the visitors of the gathering will be created: to enable personal encounters and deeper exchange and networking, based on different inputs from the curatorial collective, on the main questions of the gathering, like: de- and anticolonial feminist struggle, planetary care work, socialization of social reproduction, gender violence or transfeminism.

DAY 2 / Saturday 1.7.

10:00–11:00 / HAU1
Conversation: “From Abya Yala to Kurdistan challenging the complicity of liberal feminism: sovereignty of the everyday”
Guests: Lorena Cabnal, Dilar Dirik, Maria Do Mar Castro Varela / Host/Moderation: Margarita Tsomou
Languages: Spanish and English with Spanish and English simultaneous translation

Farfrom demanding an “equal share”in today’s toxic capitalist violence, concepts of communitarian feminism – from Abya Yala to Kurdistan – re-invent ways of dealing with the reproduction of life: communal care for bodies, for children, the elderly and planetary forces, the creation of sustainable urban and rural communities and demands ofthe socialization of reproductive labor, are discussed as ways for food-, water- and land sovereignty, as well as for political sovereignty.

11:30–13:00 / HAU1+HAU3
Workshops / Getting to know & self-presentation of collectives
Limited capacities / Registration requested via tickets@hebbel-am-ufer.de
Meeting point for all workshop participants: HAU3 (Tempelhofer Ufer 10, 10963 Berlin)

*IWS – International Women* Space
Host/Moderation: Denise Garcia Bergt
Languages: English

Whatis the value of documenting ourselves in our own words? This question will be discussed, while sharing the experiences of documentation by the International Women Space (IWS): In 2021, despite the Pandemic, we met and interviewed women, who spoke about migration, asylum and post-war divided Germany – the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), colonialism, racism and European borders. This became the series “Kämpferinnen” we will share some of these videos and discuss the potential of self-documentation. IWS was founded by and for women in 2012 during the occupations by refugees of Oranienplatz and the Gerhart Hauptmann School in Berlin Kreuzberg. IWS has published books, produced dozens of podcasts and videos.

*Cenî & Jineolojî
Host/Moderation: collective moderation
Languages: Kurdish, German, English

As the resounding slogan “Jin Jiyan Azadî” echoes around the world, we, will discuss the rich history and political significance of this inspiring chant, in the joint workshop of CENÎ – Kurdish Women’s Office for Peace and Jineolojî. We will introduce Jineolojî,the Kurdish science of women, as well as its role in shaping the past, present and future of this slogan, delving into the courageous struggle that has brought it to fruition. The knowledge of women*, between the construction of women’s democratic confederalism and ecological self-government, is central to Kurdish life. In discussion we will demonstrate how the production of women's liberationist knowledge propel us towards the international quest for World Women's Democratic confederalism.

* S.U.S.I – Interkulturelles Frauenzentrum Berlin & Quilomboalle / Roda de Conversa: From Quilombolism to Black Feminism – Intersectionalities among us
Host/Moderation: Jamile da Silva e Silva, Sandra Bello
Languages: German and Portuguese

How to articulate unity in our struggle as black women in the context of diasporic, migratory and fleeing context within the colonial epicenter? Dialogues on generational griotage (griotagem geracional), autonomy, institutionalities, feminism and Quilombolismo.

*Feminists 4 jina: A life of hope and despair: local struggles and internationalist feminism
Host/ Moderation: collective moderation
Language: English

In the light of the recent feminist revolutionary movement in Iran,feminists4jina, a network offeminist activists and collectives in different cities outside Iran, will put into discussion the potential and challenges of connecting local activism with internationalist feminist struggles.

*Casa Kuà Decolonizing and re-imagining our bodies – a sharing circle
Host/Moderation: Tzoa
Language: English

Together we will create a collective space of sharing stories, exploring strategies, rethink and reinvent our own narratives. A narrative that gives us the inspiration and strength for our daily struggles and fights. Through those struggles on so many layers, it's easy to lose the connection to ourselves and our bodies. This is a space where we can (re connectto our body and (re)imagine our relationship to it. This workshop is only open for all trans and queer BIPOC/
racialized people.

14:30–16:00 / HAU1
Dialogue: “Against Capitalism and its Extractivisms: From Body-Territory to Feminismos Comunitários and Agroecologia in Latin America”
Guests: Lorena Cabnal, Carmen Cariño, Miriam Nobre, Louise Wagner / Host/Moderation: Barbara Marcel,
Camila Nobrega
Languages: Spanish and English with Spanish and English simultaneous translation

The primitive accumulation of capitalismwas only possible due to the exploitation of the colonial project of Eurocentric growth, combined with the intersection of extraction of (un)paid labor from feminized bodies. How can knowledges such as Agroecology, ecofeminisms,territorial communitarian feminism, Indigenous and Afrolatinoamerican feminisms, and struggles linked to peasant, worker, non-cis-heteropatriarchal movements confront the existing monocultural worlds? The debate will address pluriversal paths of possible connections between feminist struggles and the rightto territories and livelihoods from non-dominant perspectives of buen vivir.

16:00–18:00 / HAU1+HAU3
Workshops
Limited capacity / Registration requested via tickets@hebbel-am-ufer.de
Meeting point for all workshop participants: HAU3 (Tempelhofer Ufer 10, 10963 Berlin)

*Planetarian feminisms: reframing ecofeminism for anti-extractivist politics
Host: Margarita Tsomou / With: Dalia Gebrial, Carmen Cariño, Miriam Nobre, Nazan Üstündağ
Languages: Spanish and English

Feminist ecologists know that gender and ecology are connected: not only because the feminized are more affected by climate catastrophes and are at the forefront of movements against land grabbing. But because there is a structural link between social reproduction and our relationship to nature: in colonial-capitalist patriarchy gender and nature relations serve the exploitation of both, (feminized) reproductive as well as planetary regenerative labor, as “free resources”. In the workshop, we discuss this classical argument of ecofeminism against the background of anti-extractivist transnational feminist movements and develop itfurther: what are toady’s entanglements of colonial mechanisms with extractivist exploitation and the crisis of (feminized) social reproduction?

*Understanding & Resisting the Many Faces of War, in Defence of Life
Host: Elif Sarican / With: İida Käyhkö, Dilar Dirik
Language: English

Structures of war and militarism pervade every aspect of society. From patriarchal violence in the home,to military and policing technologies on the streets,to propaganda in the media: in this workshop we will dissectthe impacts of war and militarism, it's gendered aspects and the role of women*, between peacemaking and armed struggle. Unmasking themultilayered systemof warthat oils the capitalistmachinemust be a priority for a feminist defense of life.

*Feminisms and Revolutions in the Middle East
Host: Firoozeh Farvadin / Mit: Soma Rostampour, Himmat
Zoubi, Nesrine Jelalia, Sara Abbas, kurdische Frauenbewegung
Language: English

The Middle East has experienced revolutionary movements in the last decade in which feminists played an active and strategic role. The workshop aims to facilitate the exchange of common and different feminist strategies and forms of mobilization during the revolutionary processes in the region.

*Femicide and Gendered Violence: Feminist Counter-Strategies
Host: Bahar Oghalai, Margarita Tsomou / With: Feminist
Autonomous Center for Research (Greece) (Myrto Tsilimpounidi & Anna Carastathis), Christina Clemm, Fatemeh Karimi, Veronica Gago
Language: English, French

Beyond the individualist conception of victimhood, Ni UnaMenos and feminist movements all around the world articulate that femicide and gendered violence are not accidents of misbehavior – but inherent aspects of patriarchal and capitalist structures that (re-)produce their dominance. To discuss the resistance to femicide and gendered violence from a transnational perspective, we draw on collective concepts as well as legal strategies in different contexts, such as Iranian, German or Greek.

*Transnational Feminist and Queer Solidarities – Continued
Host/facilitators: Agata Lisiak, Aysuda Kölemen, Galina Yarmanova
Languages: English

What does it mean to be in solidarity with another's struggle? How do we amplify others' voices without falling into the trap of speaking for them? What does it mean to offer solidarity from a distance, besides shaping public conversation and organizing in one's current locale? This conversation-centered workshop is part of a series of ongoing exchanges organized by the multi-sited initiative “Transnational Feminism, Solidarity, and Social Justice project”.

19:00–21:00 / HAU1
Assembly: “No ‘equal share’ – Beyond Equality: What kind of feminisms do we need?”
Guests: all participants, speakers and organizations of the gathering / Host/Moderation: curatorial collective
Languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese

In the last decade feminism and diversity seem to have become popular concepts: in marketing, liberal rhetorics but also in governance and foreign policies, demands for “equality between the genders” seem to be established. But demands for an “equal share” in the modernist-progressive paradigm, seem outdated in the collapsing capitalist (eco)system. In the assembly concluding the day, we will bring together the content discussed in the workshops and discuss contradictions of liberal (Western) feminisms. In doing so, we will bring together the elements of feminisms whose transformative, political projects address colonial and social dispossession, patriarchal violence, and the ongoing ecocide.

DAY 3 / Sunday 2.7.

11:00–12:30 / HAU1
Conversation: “Breaking Barriers: On Queer and Gender Dissidence beyond borders”
Guests: Rub(en) Solís Mecalco, Maria Galindo, Zethu Matebeni / Host/Moderation: Camila Nobrega
Languages: Spanish and English with Spanish and English simultaneous translation

In most parts of the world queer and sex-gender dissidences are still marginalized or prosecuted; at the same time queerness tends to be instrumentalized rhetorically in diversity mainstreaming policies or even foreign politics. The panel focuses on diverse concepts of gender dissidences in different transnational contexts – indigenous, decolonial and other – to question the binary concepts of gender and sexualities as well as their appropriations of neoliberal queer feminisms.

12:45–14:15 / HAU1+HAU3
Workshops
Limited capacity / Registration requested via tickets@hebbel-am-ufer.de
Meeting point for all workshop participants: HAU3 (Tempelhofer Ufer 10, 10963 Berlin)

*The Political Economy of race and reproduction
Hosts: Bafta Sarbo, Bahar Oghalai / With: Miriam Nobre, Iida Käyhkö, Dalia Gebrial, Luci Cavallero
Languages: English, Spanish

Feminist and antiracist movements have always been dealing with questions of class and capitalism at their core. Within the last years many concepts have emerged that address the conceptualization of the relationship between race, gender, and class. In this workshop we will discuss the question of how systems of racism, patriarchy and capitalism interconnect and how social movements address this interconnectedness.

*Feminism Unchained: Embracing Abolition and Challenging Carceral Feminism
Host: Elif Sarican / With: Becka Hudson, Nazan Üstündağ
Language: English

Join us for a workshop to explore feminism beyond the confines of the liberal carceral paradigm, that demands more policing and juridical state punishment to confront gendered violence. Because sexual assaults are connected to other forms of structural (state) violence, like racial profiling, police violence, border regimes, wars or economic dispossession. What would a feminist abolitionist position look like? We will explore the potential of abolitionist feminism in transforming society and examine the interconnections between gender liberation, the critic of police violence and militarism.

*Alternative Feminist Investigation Media Strategies
Host: Camila Nobrega
With: Barbara Marcel, Andrea Dip, Kurdish women’s newspaper, JIN TV, Lara Bitar
Language: English

Traditional media systems are terrains rooted in cis-hetero patriarchal perspectives of narrating the world. Nevertheless,
feminist collective and intersectional perspectives are building new autonomous arrangements of storytelling, investigative journalism, and community-based documentation. This workshop will give the floor to people and collectives who will share their strategies, struggles and paths to build new meanings of journalism from different local and crossborder contexts.

*Emotions in Movements
Host: medico International e.V. / With: Verónica Gago, Kate Sheese and Débora Medeiros
Language: English

Whatrole play affects and emotions in mass mobilization? Under which conditions does their politicization become emancipatory, and under what conditions are they authoritarian? Mass protests ignite with affective impulses: The shared experience of violence and oppression becomes a key promoter for emancipatory movements when suffering and fear are turning into rage. Organizing rage over structural violence repeatedly finds expression in queer-feminist and decolonial mass protests on the one hand. On the other hand, emotions are regressively transformed into resentment and hatred against marginalized groups under right-wing populists and authoritarianism. This workshop aims to understand the role of emotions in mass mobilization from a feminist-activist and socio-psychological perspective.

*Feminized labor at the intersection of class, migration and the state of late hyper-capitalism
Host/Moderation: Margarita Tsomou / Guests: Delal Atmaca, Liad Hussein Kantorowicz, Maternal Fantasies
Languages: English/German

Feminized labor is systematically undervalued, underpaid and often not even seen as labor: this applies to all the spheres of social reproduction labor that was assigned to the feminized as their “natural obligation” to do so. Parting from (migrant) domestic work, the medical care sector, sex work and maternal labor, we will discuss the conditions of feminized labor in current capitalism and ideas for a socialization of care work.

15:30–17:30 / HAU1
Conversation: “Feminists against Neoliberal Authoritarianism: How to fight back gendered violence?” (co-organized by IRGAC-RLS)
Guests: Evren Savci, Anielle Franco, Luci Cavallero, Ewa Majewska / Host/Moderation: Firoozeh Farvardin
Languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, English

Anti-feminist politics have become the cornerstone of current neoliberal authoritarian regimes across the globe. Neoliberalism, though in differentfashions, has gone hand in hand with the rise of authoritarian rule, far-right movements and religious conservatism, e.g. in Turkey, Argentina, Brazil or Poland. In these contexts the conjunction between neoliberalism and authoritarianism has intensified gender violence in various forms, for example as anti-abortion laws, anti-trans politics, state femicide or gendered impoverishment. The debate discusses the key strategies of each contextforresisting various forms of exploitation of our bodies and of the extraction of vitalresources. How do we reclaim life, despite increased neoliberal repressions?

18:00–20:00 / HAU1
Conversation: “Feminism and the New Right: Resisting “divide and rule” – on the continuities of antiracism and feminism in migrant struggles in Europe
Guests: Simone Dede Ayivi, Encarnación GutiérrezRodríguez, Sabine Hark, Jamille da Silva /
Host/Moderation: Bafta Sarbo
Languages: English and German with English and German simultaneous translation

Anti-migration rhetoric fueled by a renewed nationalism has been a defining issue for the new right in Germany. Within the past decade rightwingmovements raised concern forwomen’s safety as a key argument againstmigrants coming to Germany. These movements have been directly or indirectly supported by a conservative branch of feminism that positions migrant men as a threatto German and migrant women. How can feminist and antiracist movements resist this divide and rule?

Short biographies of all participants can be found on
www.hebbel-am-ufer.de/en/hau-publication-series/festival-magazine-protagonistas/biografien

Funded by: Allianz Foundation. In cooperation with: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (RLS Programs: International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies (IRGAC); Dialogue Program Feminismos Internacionalistas), medico international e.V. “Beyond Equality: Feminisms Reclaiming Life. An Internationalist Gathering” is part of the HAU festival “¡PROTAGONISTAS! Resistance Feminisms Revolution”