Decades later, still angry
I was 14 when I announced that I was a feminist, deciding that I would dedicate my life to ending violence against women. Well… if I had asked 14-year old me where we’d be in 34 years, I would not have imagined this. Here I am, over 30 years later, still angry about the same things — and still fighting the same things.
Why do I still have to argue that women’s rights are essential?
I ask myself this several times a day. And I say this at every opportunity. For instance, last week, in a conversation with Karma Ekmekji on her podcast Diplowomen. Karma is a mediation expert, focused specifically on the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda.
What is that, I hear you say?
Well, the so-called Women, Peace, and Security Agenda is an urgent reminder that women are essential to every aspect of peace and security. In fact, there is NO peace and NO security without women. To me, this is a no-brainer, but we’ve been talking about it for 22 years. I’m not sure we’ve been doing it for 22 years — but we’re trying!
So, the #Diplowomen Podcast is part of the Women Peace and Security Initiative at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs in partnership with the UN Women Regional Office for Arab States. The initiative is called “Democratizing the WPS Agenda” — meaning, making this conversation less elitist and more accessible to the general public. In short: making it meaningful and real.
The full conversation can be found here. Below are some highlights of my conversation with Karma.
Where I want to start is how you got into all of this. What inspired you to become a champion, a fighter, an activist — an expert on women’s rights issues?
Being born into a female body is enough of a start. As a girl, you realize that the world just doesn’t see you as equal. You’re reminded so often in your childhood, in your adolescence, as a teenager, and as a young woman, that the world doesn’t look at you the same. I caught on to those messages from the very beginning. I was born into this because I internalized so much of that inequality and inherent injustice.
So that was really the start for me, the sense that I knew that the world saw me as less-than because I was born female. And the sense that I had to do something to correct it. I was an angry little kid — which probably doesn’t come as a surprise!
I didn’t know, I didn’t have the language for it, I didn’t understand what was happening or why I felt the way I did until I was in high school. But I was still quite young — I was 14 and I was in a class in the U.S called Comparative Women’s History. I said well, I’m a woman, and I’d like to learn about my history. But what happened was I learned not the history of women overall, but about the history of violence against women — because our story is so much one of violence and exploitation and abuse. I just couldn’t. It set off a bomb in my stomach, and my life has never been the same. So now, over 30 years later, I’m still angry about the same things and still fighting the same things.
We’re gonna talk some more about the anger and how you channeled it into some of the amazing work that you do. We know what the trigger was, but what were your entry points? People want to know how they can get into this field, make a difference. What door did you open? Did you barge in?!
People ask me that a lot as well. Back then it wasn’t as formalized as it is now. There weren’t any training programs, mentorship, and so on, so I had to make it up as I went along. In high school, I started writing papers and doing research and investigating on my own, and everything I did in the classroom, I overlaid a feminist framework onto it. So whatever I studied — English, history, whatever — I’d look at it through the lens of women. So I was already teaching myself how to understand a feminist perspective. When I was old enough, I started to volunteer. I found organizations like the National Organization for Women and others in the US. I was really active in the pro-choice movement at that time in the States. And, you see where that’s gotten us today!
All of that to say, I started to volunteer. So, I’ve built up an understanding of what “doing feminism” looks like while I was also cultivating my understanding of “being feminist.” The next step was overseas — fellowships, internships, any overseas opportunities. One thing led to another and I pushed my way through the door — and eventually kicked down the door. There wasn’t really anybody to show me how to do it. So I made it up. My time in the field was where I learned absolutely everything — that was my classroom. One lesson from all of this was that I should not only leave the door open, but I should reach my hands back and pull in as many as I could. So, that’s what I do.
Now it’s easier to get in and get the training needed. The sector is more formalized — there are systems, trainings, online courses, graduate programs. Back in the “old days,” there was no field of study for doing this kind of work — working on women’s rights, working on women, peace, and security. You just threw yourself into a job and figured it out.
Formalizing the sector is a very good thing. We have standards, guidelines, clear protocols, clarity — and we are building more. There are more people who are interested, a shared commitment, a common language. All of that stuff is important, but there’s also a risk when you reduce things to an acronym. Women, peace, and security for instance. This is not just a tick box, a to-do list, a UN campaign, just another thing that old men in the field can roll their eyes back and go “Oh boy, there she goes!” No, this is a no-brainer.
The fact that we actually have to say women, peace, and security to me is ironic and comical. It makes no sense because there is no peace and no security without women. So these acronyms — for critical things like Women, Peace, and Security or for gender-based violence — they undermine the power and purpose and essence of what we’re trying to do. Say the whole thing — so we’re reminded of what it means, and what we’re supposed to be going.
There’s always a debate around all of that. Had there been no agenda or acronym, a lot of people out there wouldn’t have even thought about this. I see your point about how it has to be a no-brainer — there’s no peace and security without women, but it’s fascinating to see how many people didn’t think about this, it didn’t even click for probably more than half of the population.
It doesn’t — it still doesn’t.
It’s unbelievable how often I have to explain why women are essential — essential to every aspect of our lives. How do I even have to have this argument with people? I think that’s what baffles me now that I’m old and crusty, I just don’t understand why I keep having to have the same conversation. That we have to constantly justify our existence and our space over and over again. Even now, in the face of setbacks.
If you asked 14-year-old Lina where we would be in 30+ years, I would not have imagined here. I was sitting there, this angry kid, reading Handmaid’s Tale thinking wow, that’s crazy. That’s never gonna happen.
