International Women's Month 2023 - Celebrating Sisterhood

I learned recently from a woman from Ukraine now living here in Canada that Spring in her culture begins on March 1. In preparation people make beautiful red and white decorations for the trees. They hang these inside as they prepare, and then on the first day of Spring they adorn the trees, and sing to them. I learned that all the girls are given names at birth from nature, and that boys are given names of strengths of character to grow into. Throughout March Spring is celebrated and these traditions held as precious, kept safe in the library of what has long been held sacred, this library we share from our knowledge of the past, carrying earth-loving traditions, traditions that also respect and honour women. 

Those of us documenting are exploring the origins of traditions intentionally kept secret from us. Speaking about these times, carrying these hidden stories forward into the present brings ridicule and punishment, but this critical information continues to be celebrated. We find joy in the discovery of women’s work that has intentionally been kept unknown. We repeat this information, kept alive by our herstorians who have documented and passed on these hidden stories. We share them so that they become known and remembered. We step past the erasure and denigration and find ways to preserve this information, challenging those who silence women, challenging those who attack us for bringing forward these times and communities in which women throughout centuries were and are respected leaders. 

To bring this hidden herstory forward is considered blasphemy, make believe. We are accused of being prejudiced, narrow, selfish. Even the word herstory is mocked. We are punished for exploring or speaking openly about the oppression of women, and for continuing to tell the stories we have learned, held safe in our global library. Young women are told not to be seen with us, not to trust us, that we are prejudiced and dangerous, disrespectful of tradition, out of touch with the times. Despite this, we have a worldwide circle of women now able to meet with each other, hold these stories safe and known and continue to work together. 

Women are described as not to be trusted because of the knowledge we have, considered outdated, fictional and dangerous. Not trusted because we care about our Mother Earth. We continue to document the silencing, inspired by each other’s work and grateful to be working together. We know that speaking openly is essential, that moving forward together in peace and respect for each other is essential. If we are demonized or discounted, slurred as being old-fashioned, our work as feminist activists slandered or destroyed, young women advised to avoid us, to consider us enemies, this is not the way forward together. 

I heard recently from a gentle man from Iran now living here in Canada that this Spring Festival is being celebrated all month, a Kurdish tradition that Persian people cherish.

I think of the Kurdish women documented in film so recently defending their community and their community land. I think of all of the young Iranian women, poisoned in their classrooms, and that this has been happening for months. I think of the women in Afghanistan locked indoors and that this has gone on for years. I think of the girls being forced with FGM, of the treatment of old women, of all the ongoing beatings and rapes. I challenge the silence of the world’s governments, sending young people to war with guns and tanks in this downward spiral of poison, torture and murder. We are still in the grip of patriarchal control, with punishment for women who disobey in any way, with laws that dictate what a woman is to do, our words silenced, labeled enemy, with generations still being taught that men are meant to always to be in control. This despite more than 50 years of the Women’s Movement and the Environmental Movement being promised change.

We are in a psychological war, a horror of twisted thinking. We are working against its intentional flood of ever increasing poverty, disease and violence. We continue to face this global economy in which laws and social expectations dictate that women and girls be held captive and forced to work for free for the freedom to stay alive, under threat of rape and murder. We are working against governments controlled by billionaires while people have no food or home, experiencing the utter destruction of our Earth. We have witnessed generations of no progress from governments, been handed more lies, more war, continuing generations of violence, of poverty, of women and girls held captive in forced silence.

In March, as trees are honoured in Ukraine and Iran dating back through time, where Spring is celebrated for a month, many of us gather now to honour our ancestresses, and I remember my foremothers from Europe, so recently in time forced into silence, forced into wearing scold’s bridles, metal helmets with nails under their tongues, nine million of my ancestresses tortured, burned at the stake on public fires, punishment for dancing this same dance of Spring together under the trees, now celebrating that these traditions are still alive, celebrating that we have each other, finding our pasts in each others stories.

No matter what we face, now we celebrate together globally. Thanks to Mildred, young girls in Cameroon have knowledge of their bodies and pads for when they menstruate. Thanks to Linda, widows have a collective detergent production business and can sew products for money, in these government money systems built on women working for free. Thanks to Betty, children are in school, not farming. Thanks to Maria, there are healing circles in House of Hope and Healing. Thanks to Nisreen, we know of women’s actions being controlled in Libya, and of women gathering with demands for change. Thanks to Sally, there is a women’s peace group in Cameroon, thanks to Neema, the Mama Shujaa Centre holds gatherings for women in the DRC where women run in joy to be with each other under the tent. Thanks to Jefiter and Grace in Nigeria women are gaining digital skills. Thanks to Laurinda in Mozambique children know their rights and young women claim the right not to marry early. Thanks to Jesusina in Nigeria girls are being mentored and women in prison not forgotten. Thanks to Busayo and Caroline new generations of girls are growing into confident women who know how the world could be, and are already in this growing circle. Thanks to so many, girls who have been trafficked are found.

As wars escalate, as violence continues in countries, in workplaces, in schools, in streets, in homes, we have each other now. As wars continue to escalate, as women and girls are still forced indoors, forced to marry, forced to work for free, forced to undergo FGM, as school girls are poisoned in Ukraine, as women in Afghanistan are imprisoned in their homes, as old women are banished to witches huts, and as the same message is taught generation to generation that men are meant to be in control, we continue here together, unapologetic in our intent to find each other and work together, a global council of women leading this global community of gentle people, fixing what has been broken, celebrating that now we are able to work together.