Reykjavík Grapevine - 27.09.2019, Blaðsíða 13

immigrant populations who were
victims of violent crimes. “I volunteer
as a peer counselor at W.O.M.E.N. in
Iceland,” Randi said of her own contri-
bution to the #MeToo movement. “As a
lawyer or a peer counsellor, you never
know what story is going to come in.
But I'm always humble when some-
body does come in and share with me
because usually this is not someone I
know.”
At the #MeToo conference, the
work of W.O.M.E.N. was presented by
founding member Tatjana Latinovi!.
She is also the Chair of the Icelandic
Women’s Rights Association. Since
its inception in 2003, W.O.M.E.N. has
provided women of foreign origin with
support ranging from financial advice
to harassment issues.
50 years
“Women have been saying ‘me too’ for
a very long time,” Angela Davis began
her keynote address. “But it was not
until two years ago that these issues
started to be taken seriously within
the mainstream.”
“When we began to forcefully speak
out against the physical and sexual
abuse of women, we did not know
that it would be 50 years before this
ideological structure against gender
violence would begin to yield material
results,” she said, outlining the larger
history leading up to the #MeToo
movement. “50 years of anti-rape
hotlines, 50 years of battered women’s
shelters, 50 years of activist commit-
ment, protests, marches, demonstra-
tions. Solidarity and struggle does
eventually yield change. The #MeToo
movement is a stunning example.”
Angela noted especially the contri-
bution of Icelandic women to struc-
tural changes started in the 20th
century. “We’re here in Iceland, Iceland
which has a long history of taking the
lead in struggles for women’s equal-
ity. When the majority of women here
went out on strike, they were demon-
strating to the world that movements
could initiate processes of structural
transformation.”
Laws don’t work
Angela’s keynote subsequently
addressed the problematics attached to
individuated legal strategies. “Gender
violence is the most pandemic form
of violence in the world. We’re rarely
called upon to reflect on the structural
and institutional underpinnings of
these violences. Remaining at the level
of the individual will condemn us to
endless repetition of the same puni-
tive solutions. Punitive approaches
will not solve the structural problem.”
Angela concluded her address with
a complex message of hope, a powerful
way to direct the conference’s consid-
eration of gender violence and sexual
harassment. “I do wonder whether we
can eradicate it,” she said, “but I do
believe.”
Everything is all wrong
A rousing address by Danish human
rights activist Emma Holten provided
the first bolstering moment of the
conference. After a personal expe-
rience with revenge porn, Emma
became a significant voice on social
media in the Nordic #MeToo move-
ment. While discussions throughout
the conference focused on structural
and systematic changes needed, the
personal realities of survivors had a
felt presence.
“Ministers, I want to address you,”
said Emma. “Ask yourself whether you
are an hysteric. The hysteric says, if
we were living in a well-functioning
society, this would not happen. Ever.
To the hysteric, the violation and the
harassment is proof, is a symbol of the
fact that the society is not functioning.
What patriarchy does is that anyone
who challenges the idea that society is
functioning in the right way is imme-
diately termed an irrational person.
The only way the marginalized person
can succeed is to fastly hold on to the
idea that everything is alright.”
#Me2
This inaugural conference covered
perpetrator accountability, disabled
women and #MeToo, sexual harass-
ment at work and in higher educa-
tion, consent, care, and the backlash
against #MeToo. Moving forward for
the Nordic countries means ending
sexual harassment as necessary for
gender equality. This is the focus for
the Nordic co-operation Programme
on Gender Equality 2019-2022.
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13 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 17— 2019
Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir addresses the crowd