#postcolonialfeminism

[projectfgm]

A commentator demonstrates the exact issue postcolonial feminism tries to tackle, the lack of understanding for cultural differences and feminisms’ place within those differences.

[projectfgm]

Barani Maung Maung was born and raised in Myanmar, has lived in Singapore, and currently studies in the United States. In this talk, she explores tensions between different understandings of feminism in relation to her and her family's lived experience, and why listening to silenced narratives is an important tool to critically thinking about empowerment.

[globalizinggendersexuality]

Defining Postcolonial Feminism

“Postcolonial feminism is a form of feminism that developed as a response to the fact that feminism seemed to focus solely on the experiences of women in Western cultures. Postcolonial feminism seeks to account for the way that racism and the long-lasting political, economic, and cultural effects of colonialism affect non-white, non-Western women in the postcolonial world.”-from Wikipedia

[brownpaperjournal-blog]

"Feminism has the potential to be greatly emancipatory by adopting an anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-transphobic and anti-Islamophobic rhetoric, instead of often actively being racist, homophobic, transphobic and Islamophobic. By clearly delineating the boundaries of what is “good” and “bad” feminism, Femen is using colonial feminist rhetoric that defines Arab women as oppressed by culture and religion, while no mention is made of capitalism, racism, or global imperialism. It is actively promoting the idea that Muslim women are suffering from “false consciousness” because they cannot see (while Femen can see) that the veil and religion are intrinsically harmful to all women.

Yet again, the lives of Muslim women are to be judged by European feminists, who yet again have decided that Islam – and the veil – are key components of patriarchy. Where do women who disagree with this fit? Where is the space for a plurality of voices? And the most important question of all: can feminism survive unless it sheds its Eurocentric bias and starts accepting that the experiences of all women should be seen as legitimate?"

-Sara M. Salem, 'Femen's Neocolonial Feminism: When Nudity Becomes a Uniform'

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/femens-neocolonial-feminism-when-nudity-becomes-uniform