Feminist Worldbuilding: Creative Energies, Collective Journeys – OpEd

…This is the theme of the 4th Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (APFF) to be held next month in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. This theme is a call to channel the energies of people of all genders working to defend human rights and gender equality to collectively resist the patriarchal, militarized, greed-driven world we live in, and to envision a feminist world order.

What is a feminist world order?

A feminist system means a different kind of development model that is based on sharing and caring. Unlike current patriarchal systems that use power and violence against most other people to empower a few, feminism uses care and solidarity to share and redistribute power. A feminist system is one that is socially just and ecologically sustainable for everyone – everywhere, and it is rooted in development justice.

For Abia Akram, Founder and CEO of the National Forum of Women with Disabilities in Pakistan, “a feminist world is a place where women and all genders can feel empowered and engage meaningfully at the local level to bring about systemic change, where we can see the engagement of the feminist approach through transformative laws and legal practices shaped by a human rights perspective.”

Eni Lestari, a migrant rights activist and president of the International Migrants Alliance, shares her personal experience: “I have been involved in women’s migration and feminist movements for more than two decades. I have seen how neoliberal globalization has intensified structural exploitation and how each new crisis brings more poverty, displacement and unemployment. I moved as a migrant from my country Indonesia because of the Asian financial crisis in 1997. At the time, my colleagues and I thought that this displacement would be a temporary phenomenon. But unfortunately, since then more and more people have been forced to become displaced, because migration has become part of the economic development project of many capitalist countries. Today, the number of migrants is almost 300 million, which is equal to the entire population of my country.”

“In a feminist world, there would be an economic and political environment in every country where everyone is treated fairly and equally and where no one needs to migrate or be displaced to survive. A feminist world is a world where women lead, facilitate and ensure that everyone in society is treated with fairness and equality,” Eni Lestari added.

The feminist world is a joyful world

For Ivy Josiah, a women’s rights activist and former chair and director of the Malaysian Women’s Aid Organisation, a feminist world is a joyful world for everyone, where no one is left behind (and not just as a slogan).

“If feminists run the world and we adopt feminist policies, I truly believe that there will be a peaceful world. War is a choice, and so is peace. Feminist policies and action plans would be inclusive – there will be consent from the people. Women (and other gender diverse people) as feminists know that, because we have been discriminated against ourselves. So we understand what it is like to be left behind. So, because of that personal political experience, we will bring inclusivity when we run the world. When we run the world, I know that it will be a more joyful and inclusive world and I hope that comes true soon,” she said.

And as Ivy rightly points out: “Men and other people from gender diverse communities can be feminists too!” In fact, anyone can be a feminist, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation or identity (as long as they strongly believe in development justice). Feminism is about having a different ideology (development justice) based on solidarity and care.”

A feminist world will be anti-capitalist

Maximizing profits for a small number of people is the driving force behind capitalism, while it forces the vast majority of the population (and our planet) into unbridled exploitation and violations of human rights and the environment.

“Therefore, a feminist world will be anti-capitalist. It will not only benefit the few rich people, but it will be distributed fairly. The current neoliberal policies thrive on the exploitation of poor people. This shameless exploitation of people – robbing people of their land, of their resources – will be stopped if feminists run the world,” says Ivy.

Shrinking space for civil society

Another area of ​​deep concern for Abia is that current political systems are shrinking the space for civil society organisations. Creating an enabling environment where everyone has equal rights and opportunities is missing from countries’ agendas. Their budgetary allocations are not justifiable because they do not include the gender perspective in a way that women and girls with disabilities, transgender and LGBTQIAP+ communities are all given resources and opportunities with equality and in a rights-based manner. This is only possible if we have a seat at the table and share the space in high-level forums. There needs to be meaningful involvement and equal representation of feminist movements.”

The current world order is the opposite of a feminist world order

The current world order is the antithesis of a feminist world order. Today’s so-called development model is driven by patriarchy, fundamentalism, militarism and corporate capitalism. Such a world order has channeled wealth, power and resources from working people to the rich, and from developing countries to rich countries. It has resulted in financial, environmental, food and energy crises that continue to devastate the lives of women, especially in the Global South.

Eni laments that, “Many promises have been made in the past for the well-being of people. But in the end, we are witnessing catastrophic poverty, climate crisis, large-scale displacement of people and human rights violations. So all this beautiful language of development becomes meaningless. What is promoted as development today is only for the very small global elite and makes the rest of us poorer every day. It makes countries more dependent on foreign investment and loans. Suddenly we are trapped in the vicious circle of debt. This is not what people want. We can no longer close our eyes and pretend that the world is ‘okay’. No, we are not ‘okay’.”

Five Transformative Shifts in the Development Justice Model

Yes, the current world order urgently needs to be replaced by the model of development justice that addresses the inequalities of wealth, power and resources between countries, between rich and poor, and between men and women and gender diverse communities. A model that puts people before profit.

This development justice model is based on five transformative shifts: redistributive justice, economic justice, social and gender justice, environmental justice, and accountability to people. This is a future that the vast majority of people want: global equality, ecological sustainability, social justice, enjoyment of human rights and dignity for all. Moreover, it is the only model that can also save our planet.

And that is why forums like the Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (APFF) are crucial. Organized by APWLD (Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development), this triennial event brings together feminists and women’s rights activists of all genders from across Asia and the Pacific to celebrate feminist achievements and strengthen solidarity and collective resolutions for structural change. The 4th APFF will be held in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand.

APFF 4 will not only be a celebratory space, but also a fiercely political space for strategizing, knowledge sharing, and feminist mobilization and advocacy to create a roadmap for a feminist world order. If there is to be a feminist world, that future is now.