Experts are raising the alarm that movements advocating for women’s rights in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, are facing a ‘rising onslaught’ of repression. The warning and call for progressive movements to build solidarities and overcome differences to help protect gains made in gender equality is published today in a new report from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS).
The report outlines that feminists and queer movements have for decades made progress towards gender equality but now they face an unprecedent convergence of right-wing and nationalist groups, religious groups, conservative organisations, and men’s online communities such as ‘incels’ attacking gender equality activists and the legislation they have fought for.
Anti-feminist agendas
These interconnected movements against gender equality and women’s rights around the world receive three times more funding than feminist and queer movements (US$3.7 billion for the former compared to US$1.2 billion) (Global Philanthropy Project 2020). This funding is directed at a growing network of thinktanks and organisations, all promoting anti-feminist agendas.
Attacks on women advocating for women’s rights have been particularly acute in recent years, including:
- In Pakistan, participants of the Aurat March, which first took place in Karachi in 2018 to mark International Women’s Day, faced widespread backlash in the form of online death and rape threats, stones and batons being hurled at them, legal cases filed against them, the invocation of blasphemy laws. A counter-protest by a right-wing religious group even called for the beheading of the marchers.
- In Bangladesh, those advocating for women’s rights, face online abuse on Facebook, mocking and trivialising them and their families, and attacking them by critiquing/ morally policing their choice of attire and personal freedoms.
- In India, members of organisations working to prevent violence against women face various kinds of backlash such as threats from family members for working on women’s rights, caste discrimination, and face verbal and physical abuse and sexual violence within their own communities aimed at preventing women’s actions against discrimination.
- In India, alongside closing civic space and a crackdown on political dissent, a curtailed funding landscape, with restrictions on foreign funding, is severely impacting women’s rights organising.
Sohela Nazneen, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies and co-author of the report, said:
“We are concerned to see a rise in violence against women both within and in public spaces in South Asia. Some of the legal gains and economic and social rights made by the transgender community may be under threat. We fear that the recent election of Donald Trump and the rise of conservative populist forces in South Asia may embolden a further push back against women’s rights and gender equality agendas in the region.
Those of us who believe in gender equality have to come together, and work to resist this pushback at this critical juncture, to ensure a gender just future.”
Beyond South Asia, women and LGBTQI+ rights are under threat globally, with many examples of progress on gender equality being undermined, including in the US, Uganda, Brazil, India and Afghanistan.
Building solidarities
The report highlights the contrast between well-funded movements against gender equality and the significant tensions within feminist movements. It therefore argues that there is an urgent need to overcome these tensions and build solidarities for gender justice.
It suggests ways for building solidarities for gender equality, which include embracing diverse and marginalised perspectives; increasing appreciation for how gender intersects with other issues; building digital spaces of resistance; decolonising accepted ways of knowing, and in all cases, centring care and mutual understanding.
