Major political and social shifts are resulting in new forces and alliances that are visibly pushing back, stifling the possibilities of equal women’s rights and gender justice.
Gender justice
is under attack.
How can we counter
backlash together?
What is needed for women’s rights organisations and gender justice defenders to counter backlash and the subtle erosion of gender transformative discourse, policy, and practice?
India.Kenya.
Lebanon.Uganda.
Serbia.Turkey.
What's Happening?
Gender justice is increasingly contested the world over. Yet, equity across the genders is a critical foundation of human rights and sustainable development.
Backlash wages against the possibilities of transformative gender justice. To counter it, we must understand its diverse manifestations - from the subtle to the spectacular, the hidden to the explicit.
Solidarity, collaboration, and co-creation are the greatest tools in the box to mutually resist and counter coordinated and global attacks on gender and social justice.
Event: ‘Unsettling Apologies’ – seminar and book launch
Join Countering Backlash for a seminar co-hosted by the Participation, Inclusion and Social Change Cluster at the Institute of Development Studies with Melanie Judge (UCT) and Dee Smythe (UCT), the Editors of ‘Unsettling Apologies’, Priya Raghavan (IDS) and Mark Walter […]
Women, life, freedom: Women’s bodies at the centre of the Iran protests
Zan, Zidegi, Azadi (‘women, life, freedom’) is the central slogan of the ongoing women-led protests that have shaken Iran and captured the world’s attention. The slogan emerged from the Kurdish freedom movement and has been taken up by Iranian protestors. […]
Empty promises: Continuing the fight for trans rights in India
Despite a rich cultural tradition of gender-fluidity, the transgender community in India have been stigmatised as a ‘criminal tribe’ through a colonial-era law. The community has struggled for their rights over decades, and only after significant engagement with the judiciary […]