Editorial Board: Barbara Bedeschi-Lewando, Heather Tribe, Nashie Shamoon, & Heather Devere.
The 2022 Issue of Women Talking Politics is out now. Click here to read it!
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangatanga maha, tēnā koutou katoa
This issue of Women Talking Politics offers innovative features which present a unique space for debates around topics at the intersection of feminism and human rights because it includes a wider range of voices and formats than those usually accommodated in academic journals. We publish articles and commentaries from several disciplines in a variety of voices – articles engaging gender and its interaction with race, culture, class, nation, violence, and/or sexuality. We have lively, provocative poems that will hopefully prompt intense debate. The pandemic has made it apparent that collaboration does not require in-person contact, possibly making it more feasible to network and start new collaborations. We completed the whole journal based in four separate locations, sometimes across continents.
We want to highlight and celebrate this special contribution and we hope you find this work as cutting-edge and thought-provoking as we do.
Women Talking Politics is an online, open-access, peer-reviewed feminist journal that provides a forum for scholars, activists, and students to explore the relationships among theories of gender and women’s rights and various forms of organizing and critical practice. Our intention is to empower and boost the visibility of the research, early-career researchers, and women’s rights activists. We share relevant writings, with a vision to build bridges and improve connections between individuals and research entities within Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world.
One of the most disturbing recent developments is the rise of open misogyny and gender-based violence worldwide, and this is reflected in the number of submissions we received that address the violent patriarchy. The cover page, photos and a poem are the work of the Latin Feminist Collective based in Aotearoa New Zealand in remembrance of Juliana Herrera, a Colombian woman violently killed by a convicted rapist in our so-called peaceful country. Negar Partow also brings to the attention of the government and New Zealanders the protests here by Iranian women concerning the death in custody in Iran of Mahsa Amini for daring to show more hair under her veil than the government permits. Hafiza Yazdani’s personal commentary on the treatment of women in her home country of Afghanistan by the Taliban, and Elle Dibrova’s article on violence against the LGBT community in Russia provide more evidence of continued and continuous gender-based violence.
Georgie Silk’s poems, threaded through this issue also deal with gender diversity, feminism and women’s support for each other.
More crises in our world are represented in the articles on climate change and the pandemic with insights from Tara Brabazon who provides a feminist analysis of silence, ignorance and post- pandemic resistance in her article, calling for ‘alternative ideas, trajectories and histories’ to be recovered from ‘this pancaked patriarchy’. Heather Tribe’s article is on how issues related to food security and infant feeding impact on women in particular. Another issue exacerbated by the pandemic is access to medicines. Zohreen Ali analyses this as a human right (right to health and right to life) under the various UN conventions in her article.
Peace scholars consider activism and decolonisation as part of the change needed for a more socially just world. Monica Carrer’s commentary looks at gender, the everyday and activism from her research background in studying resistance to conflict in India, and an article on decolonising the field of peace and conflict studies from a gender perspective is provided by Heather Devere, Katerina Standish and Kelli Te Maihāroa.
While there is fear, disappointment, disgust and horror raised by the political writers in this issue, there is hope, strength, clarity and courage interwoven. These are stories that need to continue to be told, these are voices that need to be heard, and these are insights that are needed for our world.
As editors we thank the contributors for these wonderful examples of what gender-based analyses can reveal. We thank the previous editors of Women Talking Politics, in particular Lara Greaves and Jennifer Curtin who guided this publication through the demanding years of the pandemic, and handed over the reins to us this year. We thank the New Zealand Political Studies Association/Te Kāhui Tātai Tōrangapū o Aotearoa for continuing to support this publication, and in particular Richard Shaw the Tumuaki/President and Shirin Brown, Māngai Wahine/Women’s Representative.
We call upon you the readers to help maintain this mahi by responding with commentary, your own research and studies, mentoring students, to keep visible, heard, respected and acknowledged those who might otherwise not appear to be concerned about and impacted by political issues in Aotearoa and internationally.
