Jan. 12th: “Shut Down Colonial Feminism” Action in NYC with Palestinian Feminist Collective

Text on a red and black keffiyeh background that reads "Tomorrow we're shutting down colonial feminism with the PFC. Jan 12, 2pm EST, NYC 3rd AVe X E 48th St".

Manhattan, Friday, January 12th, 2024: Join us and the Palestinian Feminist Collective for a Day of Action in Manhattan at 2pm.

Location: 3rd Avenue and East 48th Street.

The action is part of PFC’s campaign to Shut Down Colonial Feminism which seeks to disrupt Zionist propaganda and its weaponization of the language of “women’s rights” to justify and conceal the genocide and systematic sexual torture Palestinians endure at the hands of Israeli Occupation Forces.

We want to make clear that Palestine is a feminist issue and that Zionism and genocide denialism have no place in truly decolonial and intersectional feminist movements.

The action will begin at 2PM, at the intersection of 3rd Ave and East 48th street, at Kristen Gillibrand’s office, who has weaponized colonial feminist rhetoric to distort the truth, spread racist and dehumanizing narratives about Palestinians to justify genocide and conceal the Istraeli occupation’s long history and current enactment of sexual torture of Palestinian men, women, and children, particularly political prisoners and captives.

Learn more about Palestinian Feminist Collective’s campaign “Shut Down Colonial Feminism” here.

U.S. Feminist Organizations Call for Permanent Ceasefire Now and a Free Palestine

Genocide has resumed. Today over 50 U.S. feminist organizations call for a permanent #CeasefireNow, to End the Siege on Gaza, and for a Free Palestine. We stand resolute in our demands and declare loudly #PalestineisaFeministStruggle.

Read and share our statement here:

bit.ly/palestinefeministstruggle

Raha joins the call for permanent ceasefire, with over 50 organizations, including Palestinian Feminist Collective, Black Feminist Future , Adalah Justice Project and  many more.

Over 15,000+ Palestinians have been killed and we as feminist organizations of conscience cannot and will not remain silent. We answer the call of Palestinian women, trans, and queer people who have called on feminists globally to recognize and uplift Palestine as a feminist struggle. As U.S. feminist, gender justice, and queer justice organizations, we refuse to allow genocide in our name. The United States government’s role in this crisis is undeniable. Its funding, political support, and military presence on the ground in Palestine makes it directly culpable in this genocide.

Our work as feminists organizing against violence is often challenging, but it is essential, especially now. We refuse to accept a world defined by destruction, dispossession, and death. Our voices are needed now more than ever.

At the forefront of this struggle are decolonial feminists and feminists of the Global South, guiding us with visions of love and transformative change. Decolonization is an act of love, a radical reimagining of a world built on dignity, rights, and freedom for all. In the memory of our feminist forebears and with clear vision toward the future, we say:

Stop the Genocide— We demand #CeasefireNOW.

Read and share our statement ➡️

bit.ly/palestinefeministstruggle

 

Today and Every Day In Solidarity with the Palestinian People

The Raha Iranian Feminist Collective stands today and every day in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for self-determination and freedom from Israel’s regime of apartheid and military occupation. Just as we stand against all forms of colonialism, we unequivocally stand against Israeli colonial domination and recognize the right of colonized people to active resistance.

We support the tearing down of walls and reclaiming of land by Palestinians, and we mourn the past and present loss of life. At this moment, we must center who is ultimately accountable – the Israeli state that has subjected Palestinians to occupation, ethnic cleansing, and daily forms of terror, and the U.S. government that has provided billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid regime. We oppose the Zionist project in its entirety–any government that only grants full rights to members of a certain religion or race can never be just.

As diasporic feminists, we believe women’s liberation is inseparable from the fight against coloniality and state repression in all its forms. We long for a future of peace and freedom across the region. Peace can only come through demilitarization, decarceration, and mutual thriving. We insist that solidarity among grassroots freedom movements, from Palestine to Iran, is the only alternative to the cynical geopolitical rivalries and interventions of militarized nation states and empires.

Free Palestine!!! End the occupation!!!

 

Liberation Comes From Below

No More War 2020
Raha Iranian Feminist Collective

We have had enough of war. This week, this year, our whole lives, we’ve known fear, exile, separation, bomb shelters, trauma, surveillance, anger, and hopelessness at endless war. We know the immediate and generational impacts of militarism and state repression. 

We’ve also known resilience and community, as we gather together in each other’s homes, strategizing about how to oppose war, children asleep on beds piled with coats as we pick over fruits and politics. Here, in our diasporic feminist community, we know the value of life and of each other. 

We shudder at the nationalisms that strengthen as war approaches. We strongly oppose the recent assassination of Qasem Soleimani by the Trump administration as part of an alarming and intensifying push to war, as well as subsequent airstrikes by the Iranian government on Iraqi bases. Rather than rallying behind any government, we reject all foreign interventions in Iran, Iraq, Syria and around the world that create death and misery. 

We align ourselves in solidarity with people in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and across the world working for — and imagining — truly democratic futures. 

Just in the last two months there have been mass, people-led movements in the streets of both Iraq and Iran. In Iraq, tens of thousands of people faced state repression as they demanded an end to Iranian and U.S. control over their government and the chance to remake their society from the bottom up. In Iran, protests erupted in response to gasoline price hikes, which crystallized anger at the massive inequality produced by a combination of U.S. sanctions and domestic policies of privatization and austerity. The Iranian government violently suppressed these popular protests in a few short days. 

This latest U.S. attack on Soleimani risks sidelining mass movements in Iraq, threatening an all-out proxy war between the U.S. and Iran. In Iran, people went from grieving the murdered protesters to confronting the possibility of U.S. bombs targeting cultural sites. The assassination of Soleimani is already leading to further militarization and securitization of Iraqi and Iranian societies — making it much harder for popular democratic movements to grow and sustain themselves.

We strongly oppose the use of economic sanctions on Iran which have deteriorated the living conditions of Iranians by dramatically increasing the cost of food and other necessities, blocking access to life-saving medications, contributing to pollution through reversion to local oil refineries, and providing cover for increased state repression. We understand sanctions as economic warfare that sets the stage for military warfare. We will not forget the Iraqi lives that were lost to U.S. sanctions and how those sanctions paved the way for the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. 

As feminists, we understand that patriarchy and militarism go hand in hand. Any attempt to justify war in the name of liberating women or LGBTQ people is an attack on the very possibility of gender, sexual, and reproductive justice. 

We call on all people to oppose sanctions and wars, including proxy wars and the “war on terror.” 

  • We call on all people to act in solidarity with grassroots movements for democracy everywhere. 
  • We believe our solidarity and activism must start by challenging institutions that perpetuate violence while claiming to act in our name and spending our tax dollars. In the U.S., we must oppose all forms of militarism, including arms sales, here and everywhere. 
  • We must resist surveillance and the militarization of police, borders, and prisons, which target Black and brown communities in the name of “counter-terrorism” and “public safety.”

State powers want us to imagine that war happens in contained, tactical ways, that peace is the justification that always lives in a future far out of our reach.  

Imagine with us instead. Imagine we dissolve these bans, borders, bombs, armies, and prisons. Instead of missiles, grenades, and bombs, the skies should be clear for birds, sunshine, and clean air. The earth needs to be free to grow gardens of vegetables and flowers. Imagine all the foreign powers go home, sanctions are lifted, resources flourish, and activists from Tehran to Baghdad to Washington, DC to Damascus are free to organize on our own terms for a society that recognizes and respects life, history, and possibility.

About Raha

We are a feminist collective of Iranians and Iranian-Americans in New York City. Raha is open to people of all genders committed to working as a collective combating patriarchy both in our work and in our process. We work to raise awareness about movements for justice in Iran and the U.S. through internal education, creative messaging, solidarity actions and public education.

Understanding that patriarchy and militarism go hand in hand, we seek to challenge the different ways they operate in both the U.S. and Iran. We see this work as inextricably linked to a diverse range of grassroots movements for economic, racial, reproductive, gender and sexual justice with which we seek to build alliances. We stand against the criminalizing, profiling, and discriminating of Iranians and all immigrant communities and communities of color. 

We believe that all genuine liberation comes from below. 

https://www.rahafeministcollective.org/

 

No War 2020Illustration by Monica Trinidad