Construction and collaboration in life-writing projects: Malala Yousafzai’s activist ‘I’

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 201-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Belén Martínez García

This article explores the storytelling practices employed in Malala Yousafzai’s life-writing texts as examples of collaboration in the co-construction of an activist agenda. It tracks the narrative ‘I’ and its movements in and out of the plural pronoun ‘we’ as it moves across communities and embraces the legacy of testimonial accounts by both former and contemporary human rights activists. In line with that tradition, it is necessary to include the stories of other victimized people in the life-writing text, so that the result advocates for change on a sociopolitical, not just individual, level. The fact that the texts are mediated by editors, translators, co-authors and collaborators every step of the way paves the collaborative path Global South young women activists traverse, a path fraught with potential pitfalls and ethical difficulties for them and for scholars alike.

Kudankulam ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 267-293
Author(s):  
Raminder Kaur

Digitalia or the significance of social media to everyday life and modern movements is no less significant to the case of Kudankulam. Chapter 9 therefore foregrounds digital activism by focusing on the content and reception of a public letter from British to Indian politicians on the Kudankulam issue. It was written collaboratively in May 2012 by diverse activists in Britain to highlight concerns about mandatory procedures and environmental, democratic, and human rights abuses against non-violent protestors. The letter’s reception evident in news readers’ commentaries point to another series of debates that highlight, on one end of the spectrum, colonial legacies, the stranglehold grip of nationalism and suspicions about the ‘foreign hand’; and on the other, the promise of transparency, accountability, and recompense. In its fallout, the potentials and hurdles in the way of forging a transnational anti-nuclear movement across the global south and north, the formerly colonized and colonizing, are highlighted.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burcu Togral Koca

Turkey has followed an “open door” policy towards refugees from Syria since the March 2011 outbreak of the devastating civil war in Syria. This “liberal” policy has been accompanied by a “humanitarian discourse” regarding the admission and accommodation of the refugees. In such a context, it is widely claimed that Turkey has not adopted a securitization strategy in its dealings with the refugees. However, this article argues that the stated “open door” approach and its limitations have gone largely unexamined. The assertion is, here, refugees fleeing Syria have been integrated into a security framework embedding exclusionary, militarized and technologized border practices. Drawing on the critical border studies, the article deconstructs these practices and the way they are violating the principle of non-refoulement in particular and human rights of refugees in general. 


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-37
Author(s):  
Liis Jõhvik

Abstract Initially produced in 1968 as a three-part TV miniseries, and restored and re-edited in 2008 as a feature-length film, Dark Windows (Pimedad aknad, Tõnis Kask, Estonia) explores interpersonal relations and everyday life in September 1944, during the last days of Estonia’s occupation by Nazi Germany. The story focuses on two young women and the struggles they face in making moral choices and falling in love with righteous men. The one who slips up and falls in love with a Nazi is condemned and made to feel responsible for the national decay. This article explores how the category of gender becomes a marker in the way the film reconstructs and reconstitutes the images of ‘us’ and ‘them’. The article also discusses the re-appropriation process and analyses how re-editing relates to remembering of not only the filmmaking process and the wartime occupation, but also the Estonian women and how the ones who ‘slipped up’ are later reintegrated into the national narrative. Ultimately, the article seeks to understand how this film from the Soviet era is remembered as it becomes a part of Estonian national filmography.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khushgeet Kaur

Although youth are often thought of as targets for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programmes, they are also active partners in creating a more sustainable world and effective ESD programmes. Today, more than ever, young women and men are change-makers, building new realities for themselves and their communities. All over the world, youth are driving social change and innovation, claiming respect for their fundamental human rights and freedoms, and seeking new opportunities to learn and work together for a better future. The education sector is generally seen as the most appropriate forum for involving children and youth in sustainable development, and initiatives to this end have been adopted in many countries. The present paper puts forth such initiatives, interventions and strategies that can be undertaken to engage youth in education for sustainable development at the global as well as the local level.


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