BANGKOK, THAILAND – That minority sectors even within already ‘minoritized’ communities should never be forgotten is something that “we should always, always remember,” said Aaron Bonete, associate editor of Outrage Magazine (the only LGBTQIA publication in the Philippines) and concurrent project officer of Bahaghari Center for SOGIE Research and Advocacy, Inc. (Bahaghari Center).
Bonete spoke during the #SayEnoughAsia Campaign Skillshop helmed by OXFAM as part of ENOUGH, a global campaign launched in 2016 to end violence against women and girls by changing “widely accepted and harmful social norms that too often justify violence against women and girls to ones that promote gender equality and non-violence.”
With feminism, for instance, Bonete said that “often neglected are the intersections of identities – e.g. a woman who is experiencing violence may also be a lesbian, or be an Indigenous Person, or be a person with disability, or be someone living with HIV, or be a sex worker, and so on. Identities do not exist in a vacuum; and yet the specific identities demand very particular responses, and so not seeing these layers of identities is detrimental to all developmental efforts.”
According to Gopika Bashi, Asia Campaigner of the ENOUGH campaign, there is a need to “put our politics into practice – as INGOs we need amplify and support feminist movements, not just through resourcing, but also through facilitating the sharing of knowledge and skills with activists and campaigners at the frontlines.”
The campaign, therefore, wants to “provide a safe and brave space for feminist activists and campaigners in Asia who are campaigning against gender-based violence in their own countries, to come together, learn and share.”
Asia is, of course, of particular interest to ENOUGH campaign.
According to the ENOUGH campaign, in Asia in particular, the “growing violence and impunity by the States, fueled by identity-based politics, are exacerbating social exclusion and gender inequality, eroding women’s rights in many Asian countries.” Add to this “religious extremism and authoritarianism (that) are growing in the region.” As a result, “we see human rights under attack, increasing threats of violence against women, and a constriction of the space for civil society, both local and international, to operate.”
It doesn’t help that “at the heart of this structural impunity around VAWG/GBV lies an ‘acceptability’, which is rooted in strongly held patriarchal norms by both state and non-state actors, that continue to justify this violence in all its forms. For decades, women’s rights and feminist movements have continuously worked at multiple levels to challenge this acceptability through using multiple innovative strategies.”
And here, Bonete stressed the need for “inclusive approaches.”
Bonete added “the seeming neglect to include men in discussions of feminism,” he said, adding that “women empowerment won’t happen if the approach is ‘men vs women’.”
With Bonete during the #SayEnoughAsia Campaign Skillshop was transgender woman Ms Disney Aguila, president of Pinoy Deaf Rainbow and concurrent project coordinator for PWD Affairs of Bahaghari Center. Like Bonete, Aguila emphasized that “the oft-repeated saying that ‘none of us is free until all of us is free’ remains valid. We have to be inclusive, otherwise, efforts won’t succeed but will only advance those who are not necessarily in need of them most.”
