The 4th Asia Pacific Feminist Forum seeks to challenge the patriarchal systems that dominate the world today, writes SHOBHA SHUKLA
The 4th Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (APFF) is set to take place next month in Chiang Mai, Thailand, under the theme "Feminist world-building: Creative energies, collective journeys." This theme highlights the importance of uniting people of all genders who are dedicated to defending human rights and promoting gender equality. The forum aims to collectively resist the patriarchal, militarized, and greed-driven world we currently inhabit, envisioning instead a feminist world order.
What is a Feminist World Order?
A feminist world order envisions a different kind of development model, one rooted in sharing and caring rather than power and violence. Unlike the patriarchal systems that dominate today, where power is concentrated in the hands of a few through violence and exploitation, a feminist system emphasizes care, solidarity, and the equitable redistribution of power. This system aspires to be socially just and ecologically sustainable, ensuring justice and sustainability for everyone, everywhere. At its core, this vision is grounded in the principles of development justice.
Abia Akram, founder and CEO of the National Forum of Women with Disabilities in Pakistan, describes a feminist world as a place where women and all diverse genders can fully realize their strength and contribute meaningfully at the grassroots level. In her view, such a world would bring about systematic changes through transformative laws and legal practices that are aligned with human rights.
Migrant rights activist Eni Lestari, Chairperson of the International Migrants Alliance, shares her perspective on the feminist world order based on her decades of experience in feminist movements. She observes that neoliberal globalization has exacerbated structural exploitation, with each new crisis worsening poverty, displacement, and unemployment. Having migrated from Indonesia during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Eni highlights that migration has become an integral part of the economic development strategy for many capitalist countries, with nearly 300 million people now living as migrants worldwide.
Eni envisions a feminist world as one where economic and political environments treat everyone with fairness and equality, eliminating the need for migration or displacement as a means of survival. In such a world, women would lead and ensure that justice and equality are upheld for all members of society.
Feminist World: A Joyous and Inclusive World
Ivy Josiah, a women's rights activist and former President and Executive Director of Malaysia's Women's Aid Organisation, describes a feminist world as a joyous and inclusive one, where no one is left behind-not just as a tagline, but in reality. She believes that if feminists lead the world, it would be a peaceful one, as war is a choice, and so is peace. Feminist World: Anti-Capitalism
A feminist world would stand in stark opposition to capitalism, which prioritizes profit maximization for a tiny elite while subjecting the majority of people and the planet to unbridled exploitation. Ivy argues that a feminist world would not serve the interests of the wealthy few but would instead be characterized by equitable resource distribution.
Shrinking Spaces for Civil Society: Abia Akram raises concerns about the shrinking spaces for civil society organizations under the current political systems. She argues that creating an enabling environment where everyone has equal rights and opportunities is missing from the agendas of many countries. Budgetary allocations often fail to include a gender perspective, resulting in inadequate resources and opportunities for women and girls with disabilities, transgender individuals, and LGBTQIAP+ communities. Abia asserts that meaningful engagement and equitable representation from feminist movements are essential for ensuring justice for all.
The Present World Order:
The present world order, driven by patriarchy, fundamentalism, militarism, and corporate capitalism, stands as the anti-thesis of a feminist world order. This model has transferred wealth, power, and resources from the working people to the rich, and from developing countries to wealthy ones. The resulting financial, environmental, food, and energy crises have devastated the lives of women, particularly in the Global South.
Transformative Shifts of the Development Justice Model
The current world order urgently needs to be replaced with a development justice model that addresses the inequalities of wealth, power, and resources between countries, between rich and poor, and between men and women and gender-diverse communities. This model is grounded in five transformative shifts: redistributive justice, economic justice, social and gender justice, environmental justice, and accountability to the people.
The Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (APFF) plays a crucial role in advancing the vision of a feminist world order. Organized by the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), this tri-annual event brings together feminists and women's rights activists of all genders from across Asia and the Pacific.
(Shobha Shukla is the founding Managing Editor and Executive Director of CNS. Views are personal)
