The Hypocrisy of International Women's Day

A few weeks ago, I was talking with a good friend of mine when the conversation turned to International Women’s Day. I asked her whether she was looking forward to it to which she dismissively said, ‘Yeah, but for us, every day is international women’s day.’ I replied, “Yes, but this is the one time of the year where everyone else pays attention.’ This was an offhand conversation. I did not expect it to come to frame my experiences of the day this year.

I lost count of the number of times people wished me International Women’s Day on Thursday. A fair few of them were feminist activists but this also included many who seem to count winding a feminist up as one of their more enjoyable pastimes. Even those who I have not seen for months sent me text messages and emails. My email inbox was filled with different newsletters or emails from organisations wishing me a happy International Women's Day telling me what they stood for and how this was important for women, how absolutely central to their work women’s rights was and in what ways they were going to celebrate this day. There have been so many events planned that my head is spinning from finishing the merry-go-round that is the days around 8^th March.

Whenever 8^th March comes around, the vibe reminds me of independence days. In so many ways, 8^th March is an independence day for women. It’s a chance to reflect, think and write about what we have achieved so far, feeling proud of the activism that brought that to pass (even if it is not your own), taking stock of how far we have to come and how far there is left to go. The anniversaries of the anniversary (100 years of international women’s day, 60 years of Indian independence, 55 years of Ghanaian independence and thus the start of decolonisation in sub Saharan Africa) take on special significance and become key moments in and of their own right.

All of this is good, right? So why have I spent the last few days feeling so annoyed?

My reaction is to blatant cynicism and hypocrisy I have experienced. Plenty of people do precious little for women most of the time, focusing their attention on issues that disproportionately affect men, organising events where just white middle class men are able to speak and not seeing the ways women are differently affected by the same issues nor the issues of particular concern to women. Then, all of a sudden in March, they realise that now is their opportunity to prove their feminist credentials. They organise an event, write an article or otherwise speak out on women’s rights. The amount of attention around international women’s day almost crowds out the work of year long feminist activists. Of all the events organised, count the number that have been organised by activists. Why would you organise an event this week, knowing the number of organisations and institutions with much bigger marketing budgets that will ‘have it covered’? Of the media coverage received in the past week, how many activists have written articles or otherwise been profiled? And how much of all of this has focused on black, lesbian or bisexual, trans, disabled and/ or working class women?

This all matters, and it matters because of the attitudes of the people who come to ‘own’ IWD. This becomes clear when you consider their actions the rest of the year and exactly how they choose to mark the day.

In the week beforehand, I heard about some plans. A European embassy in an African country invites women’s rights activists to a reception with the injunction that the dress code is ‘smart and feminine.’ A school in Beijing provides a free photo-shoot for its female members of staff, complete with hairstyling and makeup. There are events up and down the UK offering massages and a chance to buy jewellery. The website www.internationalwomensday.com is run by Aurora Ventures, a private investment firm. International Women’s Day is not for activists anymore. It seems to have largely become depoliticised, an alternate Mothering Sunday or Valentine’s Day, stripped of its call for fundamental, radical and transformative social change.

On 7^th March, I attended an event on the perspectives of women in LGBT campaigning. Afterwards, I congratulated one of the men in the organisation: ‘This was a great event, well done; just make sure that all the events you do from now on have at least 50% women on the panels,’ only to be told that this was impossible as it ‘would be too difficult.’

Thursday morning, David Cameron announced the criminalisation of stalking and the piloting of ‘Clare’s Law’, declaring ‘ending violence against women and girls is a priority for this government.’ He ends by saying ‘So International Women's Day is vital as it forces people across the planet to focus on issues like this. But we have got to make sure that action to stamp out violence against women continues every day - and that's what this government is determined to do.’ Given the brunt of the government’s economic policy is falling on women and the impact of cuts to services (31% in the current financial year) and legal aid, how seriously can anyone believe David Cameron or anyone in his coalition government cares genuinely about stopping violence against women?

The South Bank Centre’s Women of the World festival is perhaps the main women focused event happening in London the weekend after International Women’s Day. I have heard mainly positive feedback and I do get the impression that Jude Kelly, its artistic director, is a committed feminist who has fought hard to be able to put on the festival at all. When I return on Sunday night, I sit down with their April programme and google the names of those taking part in events. I count the numbers of women and men: 49 women and 153 men. Fifty-two women are missing and 52 men have taken their place.

I suppose, in the grand scheme of things, a 32% representation of women is not so bad. It is usually much less. A few months ago, Kira Cochrane found that 22% of newspaper articles are written by women, 28% of Question Time contributors are women and 16% of Today Show reporters and guests are women. Given the abysmal statistics elsewhere, must we be content with figures like 32% when women make up over 50% of the population?

We are meant to be grateful for the small crumbs that are offered in March. These are expected to suffice to sustain us for the rest of the year. I do not believe any of these people or institutions actually care about women beyond our use as a PR opportunity. This ethos is simply not followed through the rest of the year. It should be obvious that the awareness, discussion and celebration need to continue past early March. You need to pay attention to women 365 days a year and not just on the one day which has our name on it. After all, women’s rights are for life, not just for International Women’s Day.

by Kali Mandodari

Let us talk about racism when discussing identity, belonging and multiculturalism

I read the speech of David Cameron, Prime Minister, to the Munich Security Conference with more than a little anger at the partial nature of his analysis.

He was talking about Muslim young men turning to extremism and violence because they did not feel British, and this is all he had to say about racism:

‘So, when a white person holds objectionable views, racist views for instance, we rightly condemn them.’

That is it. Not mentioning impacts of racism on feelings of identity and belonging not only shows a complete lack of understanding, but decontextualises the situation and denies the reality of the power dynamics at play.

‘…we have allowed the weakening of our collective identity. Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and apart from the mainstream. We’ve failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong. We’ve even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run completely counter to our values…. instead of encouraging people to live apart, we need a clear sense of shared national identity that is open to everyone.

If this analysis is correct, I should be among the immigrants to the UK most likely to feel British. I moved here when I was five. I have never lived in areas with big Asian communities. We have always been one of very few black families in the area so I have never experienced these ‘segregated communities.’ So why did it take me until I held a British passport, age 18, to even start feeling English? Why did I, at the age of seven, automatically support the football team playing against England even though I had no idea which country it was?

The reasons, as for many black immigrants and communities, is not due to the ‘failures of multiculturalism’ or 'living in separate communities.' Rather, the cause is years of racism, everything ranging from the direct attacks to the daily grind of living in a country that has policies, institutions and discourse that do not take you into account,

We lived in Oldham when we first moved here in the late 80s/ early 90s. Believe me, learning to read ‘Paki go home’ and getting beaten up regularly because I was a ‘Paki’ was not a fun induction for a five year old Indian girl to the ‘British way of life.’ While at university, I had stones thrown at me on the street in Nottingham because 'your people bombed the Twin Towers.’ My Asian male friends were asked to leave a pub in Leeds because they were making others feel uncomfortable. Obviously a group of Asian men together are terrorists plotting to blow up the country. Last year, I had a skinhead spit at me on a Sunday afternoon while I was waiting for the bus at Finsbury Park tube station in north London. I had told him to stop harassing an Asian couple, quite newly arrived in the UK. Apparently 'their lot' had not only stolen his mates' jobs, but also beaten them up. Luckily the bus came before he hit me but nobody waiting at the bus stop did anything to stop him in the meanwhile. I was told afterwards that perhaps I should not have intervened because it was not safe. However, I can handle this more than the couple that was getting harassed in the first place, having experienced similar things ever since I can remember. I wonder if David Cameron has ever felt as ashamed of the United Kingdom and ‘being British’ as I did then? It is not surprising that I felt closer to this woman and man who had spent just arrived in this country than the British people waiting at the bus stop who, like me, had grown up here.

I know I am not the only black person who has had such experiences.

Saturday morning (perhaps just before Cameron delivered his speech?), I passed a group of men walking down the road singing/ chanting. I first thought it was a protest that I’d missed out on finding out about. They joined their mates outside a pub. I noticed the England flags and actually thought of going to check out the England match that had somehow slipped under my radar. That’s when I noticed the men wearing the EDL jumpers. I later found out that they were on their way to the demonstrations in Luton.

I do not think David Cameron will ever know how I felt at that moment; an instinctive physical and visceral reaction. It was broad daylight, there were plenty of people around but I was still scared. Why did he not talk about the fact that I, in the country in which I was brought up in, did not feel safe walking the streets of London this weekend? What sense of belonging are we supposed to feel?

I know I am not the only black person who feels this way when they walk past EDL or BNP supporters.

What and whom was he trying to signal, knowing the EDL were marching the same day? He says it was an unfortunate coincidence, but this is the effect it had:

Some of crowd were jubilant, saying that Cameron "had come round to our way of thinking". Paul Bradburn, 35, from Stockport, said Cameron was "coming out against extremism". He added: "The timing of his speech is quite weird as it comes on the day of one of the biggest EDL demos we've ever seen. If he wants to start sticking up for us, that's great."

Coalition approval ratings are down, but is going for the BNP/ UKIP vote really the way forward?

I know the EDL are not reflective of the majority of Britons. However, I can say the same to David Cameron. He talks about Islamic extremism. Why is he not talking about the racism on the streets, in our schools (it would be good to learn about slavery, the British empire and colonialism by the way), in our policies, in our institutions and perpetrated by individuals?

They point to grievances about Western foreign policy and say, ‘Stop riding roughshod over Muslim countries and the terrorism will end.’ But there are many people, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, who are angry about Western foreign policy, but who don’t resort to acts of terrorism. They also point to the profusion of unelected leaders across the Middle East and say, ‘Stop propping these people up and you will stop creating the conditions for extremism to flourish.’ But this raises the question: if it’s the lack of democracy that is the problem, why are there so many extremists in free and open societies?...These are just contributory factors.

Really? The UK has invaded Afghanistan and Iraq in the last 10 years, propped up Middle Eastern governments and dictators for their own ends for decades and that’s not to mention Britain’s historic and continuing role in Palestine and Kashmir. Surely anger and despair over foreign policy decisions is more than just a contributing factor here. Don’t take this from me. Michael Scheuer, the CIA analyst who led the CIA’s hunt for Osama bin Laden has said attacks are motivated precisely because of foreign policies: ‘They hate us for what we do, not who we are.’ I don’t particularly trust CIA analysis, but I assumed it carried some weight with David Cameron.

…we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and apart from the mainstream…

Integration into society works both ways. I’m guessing by speaking against these segregated communities, the Tory government is going to get rid of faith schools, free schools and even private schools as well? I cannot think of a way to divide people faster than have children spend hours every day in the company of others just like them. How well are government ministers integrated into ‘mainstream’ British society? What is the mainstream anyway? This kind of language assumes a model of the white person, with anything outside it as deviant and ‘other.’ How many close black friends do people in the government have? I am guessing David Cameron does not have many friends in his inner circle from outside a narrow white, upper (middle) class background. I do not consider that to be mainstream either.

The failure, for instance, of some to confront the horrors of forced marriage, the practice where some young girls are bullied and sometimes taken abroad to marry someone when they don’t want to, is a case in point… do they believe in universal human rights – including for women and people of other faiths?

Can everyone please stop using the rhetoric of fighting for women’s rights to justify any of this? Quite frankly, I have had enough of white people and black men talk over the heads of black women about black women, about our bodies, our experiences and our realities, using gender equality and culture/ tradition arguments to justify their racism, imperialism and sexism. The continuing occupation of Afghanistan is now justified in the name of the liberation of women. As Kandiyoti argues, ‘the challenge to platforms for gender equality comes not just from actors with fundamentalist agendas, but from a conjuncture where women’s rights have been opportunistically intrumentalised to serve geopolitical goals, and neo-liberal policies have severed social justice from gender equality concerns.’

Implicit in all this is a positioning of ‘liberated’ white women against the oppressed black women that smacks of orientalism. Of course, neither characterisation is true. Black men are not savages, black women are not victims and white people, including the government, are not saviours for black women. Yes, ‘the horrors of forced marriage‘ are very real, but violence against women is not limited to black communities. Let us not forget only 6 percent of reported rapes end in a successful prosecution and that 2009 showed a dramatic increase in the numbers of women killed by violent partners in the UK. This includes all women. White women are not living in some feminist fantasy utopia of equality and opportunity and black women are not all oppressed.

I do not trust that Cameon has the best interests of black women truly at heart, I really don't. He may say he does, he may even think he does, but he really does not. If he really cares about black women, he would talk with us and listen to us seriously when we identify what we need.

The reason why some people living in this country do not feel British is not solely because of the nature of the communities in which they live but rather also the nature of mainstream British society and UK government policies. It would have been much more honest of Cameron to acknowledge there continues to be problems with racism, systemic, institutionalised and individualised, in this country. By not mentioning the role entrenched racism plays in all of this, he just ignored our lived reality and experiences. David Cameron needs to stop perpetuating a white-centric view of race relations and have a long hard look at himself, as well as at British society, institutions and policies.

Frankly, I’m just bored by this whole debate. The speech showed a lack of new analysis and seemed aimed at bolstering the popularity of the Tory led government. It seems David Cameron has missed it but we have been having this same debate about multiculturalism since 2004. There is nothing new in his speech, just as there is nothing new in what I have written here. Why do we have to keep saying the same things over and over again? Can we move forward please to the proper debate that is needed?