Bringing Recognition to Women’s Activism in Cuba
One of the essential goals of underground feminism (as I imagine it) is to recognize the activism of women around the world that may be overlooked by the feminist community. As part of this section, I want to recognize the work of “Las Damas en Blanco.” These communities of Cuban women are challenging the arrests of peaceful protesters in the spring of 2003. The now political prisoners were protesting the repressive search and seizer of computers, faxes, typewriters, and other media tools in an attempt to control dissidence from independent media. These confiscations were accompanied with the arrest of seventy human rights activists, journalists, librarians, and union workers.
The problems started when local journalists attempted to publish an independent (no government affiliated) magazine titled “La Revista de Cuba.” These journalists, according to Las Damas, were arrested for protecting their rights (and that of the Cuban nation) for freedom of expression. However, the current dictatorship is claiming that these activists were arrested for being a danger to Cuban independence by working with Northern American “imperialists.” Las Damas also argue that the courts, as an extension of the regimes repressive rule, have given all of the involved political prisoners unfair trials.
Las Damas then are a community of women activists (many are family members of the seventy political prisoners) that are peacefully protesting and asking the international community to help them in their efforts to grant fair trials and treatment to the men and women that were wrongly imprisoned for defending their basic human rights. These women continue to be active and offer continual updates on their website. While they have received some of the international recognition they hoped for, they have not received nearly enough support for their attempts. These women are in continual danger from the current Cuban government. They have been attacked multiple times during their peaceful protests yet they continue to protest and work to support the political prisoners.
If we understand freedom from oppression as one of the major goals of feminism, then as a feminist community we need to recognize the labor of these women to protect themselves, their families, their communities, and the civil liberties of their nation. Las Damas en Blanco are asking for help from the international community. As a feminist community, do we merely turn a blind eye to them because their activism is not overtly connected to the feminist label? My hope with this post is not only to spread the word to readers of this blog, but that each of you will spread the word as well so that we may show our support as a community and see what we can to help their fight to defend their rights as women in Cuba.
On their main website, supports of Las Damas offer various ways to support their efforts. For more information, please visit their website: http://www.damasdeblanco.com/ (while the website is in Spanish, it can be translated using the google search engine). To see some of the actions taken aganist Las Damas de Blaco view the following you tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3RwuN3VENA&feature=related
