A Recognised European Feminist Network to Stop the Anti-Gender Movement
Perspective
A 28 y.o. woman was stabbed to death
by her ex boyfriend, just in front of the police station, in Athens,
Greece. Even though she filed the complaint to the police office,
she also asked for an escort to her house, as she was afraid and
felt dangerous to walk the streets, knowing that her former
boyfriend has the tendency, lately, to loiter around her place.
Why
didn’t she benefit from a police escort? She was told that there
were no police cars available. Was it so? Could the officers find
any other solution to help this woman?
In the Athens case, we
can clearly see that the threat that the woman was experiencing, and
also the numerous shouts of help, were not taken seriously by the
officers. Therefore safety and protection of the citizens tends to
be the core goal of such an institution.
The anti-gender
movement starts from the grassroots, and crawls up to the
institutional level.
Feminist organizations are in need of emergency assistance for
advocates in danger, the capacity to quickly disseminate
information, can mean the difference between life and death and/or
the successful repelling of an attack on women's human rights. These
efforts are closely tied to suggesting to policymakers non-global
policies and holding them accountable to women around the world.
The
ability of feminist movements to connect with like-minded NGOs and
those who are looking for feminist organizations is important.
Sometimes it is simply a matter of finding organizations that are
doing similar work in neighboring countries.
There are multiple
EU level NGOs actively pursuing gender equality and advocating for
feminist policies, several of them involved in EU-funded
schemes/projects, but there is a need to further support networking
and collaboration among those, as well as organizations acting
intersectionality or/and lobbying for other underrepresented
groups.
The European case is particularly noteworthy,
with the establishment of the
European Commission Equality, Rights, and Values (CERV)
Programme
offers a glimpse of hope for European feminist civil society
organisations as it promises a budget of EUR 1.55 billion from 2021
to 2027 for civil 8 society organisations that work on citizen
engagement, equality, and the promotion of EU rights and values
(European Commission 2021).
The most surprising and
revolting fact is that there is never sufficient support for the
feminist and women oriented organisations, to cover the basic needs,
there is also an online world that is creating false allegations,
plans and agendas on the activists, on the values promoted and
disseminated information. Moreover, there are huge financial and
human resources involved in this propaganda.
Anti-gender actors operating in Europe
received a significant amount of funding, totaling over $707.2
million from 2009 to 2018. Over 60% of the funding for anti-gender
actors in Europe comes from within European countries.
Surprising,yes? But, makes total sense, as every country has a very
particular way of manipulation in media, television, social
oppression, etc.
