Civil Resistance vs ISIS

Author(s): Maria Stephan

In: Journal of Resistance Studies, Vol 1, No 2, 2015, pp. 127-147

Stephan, co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works, examines the new threat posed by ISIS and its ambition to create an Islamic caliphate based on an extreme and violent interpretation of Islam.  She suggests how civil resistance can help to contain ISIS and undermine its appeal and ability to recruit.

Support for Nonviolent Fighters Key to Ending War

Author(s): Maria Stephan

In: Waging Nonviolence, 2017

Urges external support for groups trying to help people devastated by war and also to create the organizational basis for a better future. Stephan notes the role of women-led 'peace circles' publicizing atrocities, promoting education and psychiatric help for refugee children, and planning for the future.

See also: Al Shami, Leila, 'Syria: Women Continue Resistance against Fascism, Imperialism and Patriarchy', Open Democracy, 5 January 2017.

Describes a young woman taking risks to communicate with the outside world before the fall of Aleppo, and then discusses the wider role of women in the opposition.

There are also a number of documentary films on aspects of resistance and constructive action inside Syria:

'"Islamic State's" Most Wanted', BBC World Service, July 2016 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03qzk9g)

An account of citizen journalists in Raqaa (capital of the IS Syrian caliphate) taking appalling risks (and sometime suffering death and attacks on their families) to send online reports to the outside world.  Hussam Eesa, who managed to escape Raqaa when he knew arrest was imminent in 2014, is interviewed for the programme.

'Syria's Disappeared: The Case against Assad', Channel 4, March 2017 (https://www.channel4.com/news/syrias-disappeared)

Reveals how prisoners in one of Assad's prisons smuggled out lists of names of those detained.  They were written in blood on scraps of material, which any prisoner who was released could take out with him. The story is told by Mansour al-Omari, a human rights activist jailed in February 2012, who eventually managed to attain asylum in Sweden.

'The White Helmets', Netflix documentary, February 2017 (upon subscription)

A film about the White Helmets (Syrian Civil Defence), who had been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and its 3,000 members across Syria. The documentary received an Oscar nomination and fueled controversy.

'The Daughters of Egypt are a Red Line

Author(s): Mariam Kirollos

In: Sur, Vol 13, No 24, 2016, pp. 137-153

This paper identifies the impact of rampant sexual harassment on Egypt’s legal culture. As it had been vaguely defined in Egyptian laws and largely condoned by the society and justice system, sexual harassment increased over the years in both the frequency and in the intensity of its violence. As a result, legal initiatives and grassroots movements arose attempting to criminalise sexual harassment and end its social acceptability. With the fall of Mubarak, the human rights movements optimistically continued to call for an anti-sexual harassment law, but due to the continuing political turmoil, the struggle was more arduous than expected. Three years after the uprising, sexual harassment was finally criminalised and efforts to change public attitudes towards it continue, but the will of the state to enforce the law, beyond statements and promises, is yet to be proven.

The role of online and social media in combating sexual harassment in Egypt

Author(s): Mariam Saleh

Vol Master of Arts, American University , Cairo, 2018, pp. 153

In Egypt, research shows that a large number of women have been harassed at least once in their lifetime. The Egyptian Government, international organizations and non-governmental organizations have been working for several years to combat sexual harassment. With the widespread use of online and social media in Egypt, thse have become an effective and easily accessible means of conveying combating sexual harassment. The study is based on the Social Ecological Model, and seeks to identify how online and social media could be used to combat harassment through social change, social mobilization, and advocacy. The study is based on a case study of HarassMap – an Egyptian NGO working on combating sexual harassment through online and social media. Findings of the study show that online and social media could be used following a social change and social mobilization approach to: (1) encourage sexual harassment survivors to respond to harassment through changing beliefs, increasing self-efficacy, and changing behavior through social prompting; (2) encourage bystander intervention through changing beliefs, increasing bystander-efficacy, and changing behavior through social prompting; (3) change society’s attitudes and beliefs when assigning responsibility and attribution of sexual harassment and increase the society’s collective-efficacy to fight acceptability of harassment; (4) argue for organizational change to have sexual harassment-free workplaces/educational institutions through targeting the organization and its surrounding environment; and (5) campaign for more stringent sexual harassment law/law enforcement.

The *Black Lives Matter Movement in Brazil and the Organizations at the Forefront

Author(s): Sofia Munoz, and Marian Hernandez Pinto

In: Latina Republic, 2020

The authors provide a detailed account of the developing protests after Joao Pedro Matos Pinto, a fourteen year-old Black teenager, was shot 72 times by a police officer whilst playing in his cousin's backyard.  The article also examines the organizational initiatives that support victims of state violence.

See also: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/black-lives-matter-battle-cry-against-brazils-extermination-policy/

This May 2019 Open Democracy article explains the political context of President Jair Bolsonaro's security policy in Rio de Janeiro, especially in the favelas, where 25 per cent of the Black deaths were due to the security forces.

Available online at:

https://latinarepublic.com/2020/06/16/the-blacklivesmatter-movement-in-brazil-and-the-organizations-at-the-forefront/

Liberating abortion pills in legally restricted settings

in Henne, Kathryn and Rita Shah (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Public Criminologies

Author(s): Mariana Prandini

Taylor & Francis, New York and London, 2020, pp. 11

Mariana Prandini examines how Brazilian feminists mobilized against the criminalization of abortion in August 2018, when people from different countries in Latin America gathered for a week for the Festival for Women’s Lives. Brazilian, Uruguayan and Argentinian activists exchanged information about their own struggles for abortion rights. Prandini also analyses the criminalization of the abortion pill and its effect on abortion activism in Brazil.

American court opens historic hearing into Venezuela rape and torture case

Author(s): Mariana Zuñiga

In: The Guardian, 2018

This article describes the case of Linda Loaiza López Soto, who was kindapped and repeatedly raped and tortured by her abductor for months in 2001, when she was 18 years old, after over 16 years of struggling for justice and exhausting all avenues in Venezuela. Her case was heard by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. It was the first case related to gender-based violence in Venezuela to be judged by the court. On November 16, 2018, in a decision with potential implications for survivors around the world, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the State of Venezuela is responsible for the torture and sexual slavery of a young woman, who had spent half her life fighting for justice.

See also https://womensenews.org/2018/11/after-17-years-venezuelan-survivor-finally-wins-justice/

For more legal details on the case see https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/wps/2019/12/05/gender-based-violence-as-torture-the-case-of-linda-loaiza-lopez-soto/

Available online at:

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/feb/06/us-human-rights-court-landmark-hearing-venezuela-rape-torture-case-linda-loaiza

We Cry Together

Author(s): Marianna Pope-Weidemann

In: Red Pepper, 2018, pp. 31-32

Article on grass roots women's organisation Sikhale Sonke demanding prosecutions and compensation for 2012 shooting of workers during the strike. The women had campaigned  for five years against Lonmin and the government, as well as confronting deep seated discrimination against women in their society. War on Want has backed the women as part of a renewed campaign in the UK to offer solidarity. 

Sikhale  Sonke is also the subject of a documentary film 'Strike a Rock', from the 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, that focuses on the struggle and friendship two women following the 2012 Marikana Massacre where 37 striking miners were killed by police.

The Catholics of Ulster: A History

Author(s): Marianne Elliott

Allen Lane and The Penguin Press, London, 2000, pp. 642

A major study looking at the history of Catholics in Ulster from the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169 to the signing of the Belfast agreement in 1998. The author, who defines herself an ’Ulster Catholic’, takes a fresh look at the attitudes, assumption and convictions of the Catholic community, and at some of the causes of sectarian division. She notes that there has been a return of self-confidence among Ulster Catholics since the signing of the GFA and that the overwhelming majority of them support the constitutional arrangement based on majority consent.

Northern Ireland’s Troubles: The Human Costs

Author(s): Marie Therese Fay, Mike Morrissey, and Marie Smith

Virginia and Pluto Press, London and Stirling, 1999, pp. 229

Part I of this book sets out the context of the conflict in Northern Ireland, including a chronology of key events from the opening of the first Parliament there in 1921 to the Provisionl IRA ceasefire in September 1998, considers political, social and economic facets of the conflict, and reviews the principal interpretations of its causes. Part II examines the effects of the violence on individuals and groups and argues the need to address them if there is to be peace in the longer term.

The Bulgarian Winter of Protests

Author(s): Mariya Ivancheva

In: OpenDemocracy, 2013

Article explaining the economic, social and political context of the protests that forced Boyko Borissov to resign at the end of February 2013, and the immediate repercussions. Ivancheva is highly critical of 'monopolies in the hands of private companies' within a context of no state regulation, and notes problems in electoral law making it hard for smaller parties to contest elections.

Available online at:

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/bulgarian-winter-of-protests/

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