Thread by @TerezaHendl

Last year, I wrote a text on transnational feminist solidarity, asking questions of the Western and Global South feminists who signed 'anti-war' manifestos, which did not support Ukrainian self-defence against a Russian military invasion

The questions 🧵
#InternationalWomensDay

The various feminist anti-war manifestos written last year all appeared to be well-meant and yet, while presented as solidarity with Ukrainians, most were not authored with Ukrainian feminists and centred around their agency and demands. Hence the questions...

Can a feminist manifesto responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine be even considered feminist when it dismisses the voices, agency and demands of the women whose lives are concerned?

How feminist is a manifesto which poses foreign demands regarding a war of aggression, which represent the very opposite of what many feminists from the affected and oppressed society have asked for?

Can a manifesto be feminist when its demands undermine the safety and survival of the women and fellow people directly impacted by the violence the manifesto claims to be alarmed about?

If one interrogated such manifesto from an anticolonial feminist perspective, what kind of power dynamic would one identify within it? Have the authors and signatories of the ‘anti-war’ manifestos conducted such analysis?

The double standard is striking: the idea, in particular, that a woman has the right to (self)defence against gendered violence and rape is one of the cornerstones of feminism. So is the insistence that a woman should not surrender to an abuser and accept a life...

...in subjugation and torment by him. And yet, this is exactly what ‘feminist anti-war’ manifestos more and less implicitly propose to Ukrainian women on a social level, under a military occupation.

In these manifestos, feminists typically located safely far away from the impact of Russian imperial and colonial violence perpetuate the fiction that ‘peaceful’ life under a military occupation is better for Other Women than their armed liberation.

Is it that foreign feminists did not realise that should Ukrainians stop fighting, they will be further occupied and genocided by Russia? Is it because they haven’t familiarised themselves with Ukrainian perspectives and empirical evidence on the ground?

Or is it because they imagined that life under Russia cannot be ‘that bad,’ i.e. they have disregarded Ukrainian scholarship and the scholarship and testimonies of fellow (post)occupied and (post)colonised societies...

...on the destruction and gendered oppression that Russian imperial and colonial violence have entailed?

Or perhaps because some of the feminists do not perceive Ukrainian women as deserving of the same standards of living, self-determination and freedom from oppression that they have demanded for themselves and their peers?

Now as much as then, I believe that it is crucial for international feminists to take a hard look at what has led them to disregard and speak over Ukrainian feminists and present this as feminist solidarity. These are the difficult inquiries that are needed if feminism is to be..

a struggle against sexist oppression and indeed a genuine transnational movement for the liberation of women and fellow people oppressed on gender grounds. Imperialism and colonialism are gender oppressive and any feminism that fails to challenge them isn't anti-oppressive enough

Which, of course, applies in all directions. All of us need to do this work, including feminists from Europe's East.

For many of us from societies affected by Russian imperialism or colonialism, it was very alienating to see 'feminist' manifestos that not only came so short of countering the sexist oppression in a war of conquest but were even oppressive towards affected women via 'feminism'

It was also hard to see such manifestos, given that among the signatories were feminists whose work on gender, racial & social justice many of us used to value and learn from. Today I hope that these feminists have taken the time to reconsider and begun the work to become allies.

But most importantly, I am grateful for the transnational solidarity I have found when reading, meeting and speaking with feminist thinkers and doers from Europe's East and Central Asia. This sisterhood has been the ultimate source of strength, inspiration, support and community.

So here is a shout out to those I've learnt from and whose voices and wisdom were crucial when I was trying to envision what transnational feminist solidarity in response to (not only) Russian imperialism and colonialism could be: Madina Tlostanova @YPYurchenko @BotakozKassymb1

@OBurlyuk @Marusiasays @MarynaShevtsova @levbekk @OKhromeychuk @ADoolotkeldieva and many more. Thank you for your voices, your work - and friendship, those of you I know in person - have meant a lot. Please keep writing and I hope that we will all meet in better times ✊ ❤️‍🔥

...and for those who might be interested to read the text on transnational feminist solidarity, it was published in a special issue of Gender Studies, alongside texts by many fellow feminist thinkers whose work warrants to be read kcgs.net.ua/gurnal/26/

And for all those who want to support Ukrainian feminists and their demands, here is their feminist manifesto commons.com.ua/en/right-resis…