Author Archives

Global consultant in Gender, Human Rights and Development.

• On a Friend’s Departure by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on August 2, 2018 • ( 10 )

  

  On June 25th, I received the news that my friend Zubeida Shaikh had passed away in South Africa. This took me by surprise. The last time Zubeida and I exchanged communication, she was as always, strong, determined and full of life,… Read More ›

• Some Thoughts from Experience by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on July 19, 2018 • ( 11 )

  

  I am a woman, a feminist, a Muslim. These three things are me, they are things that I have become, in that order. One is born with feminine sex, but it is only a biological determinism. I was born female… Read More ›

• God, Gender Violence and The Male Ego by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on June 21, 2018 • ( 6 )

  

  We live in a world in which women are the preferred target of different types of violence: physical, sexual, psychological, economic, symbolic and structural, among others. A type of violence we are not talking so much about is spiritual violence…. Read More ›

• The Wings of the Butterfly by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on June 5, 2018 • ( 11 )

  

    Shhhhh… good women are quiet. My mother was a beautiful woman, she never complained. Denial is a silent violence that aims to make invisible a trauma maybe evident or not, to make it acceptable as normal and allow the… Read More ›

• Religious Practice and Epistemic Justice by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on May 30, 2018 • ( 8 )

  

  One of the topics that has captured my deep interest during the last year is Epistemic Justice – and its absence, epistemic injustice – a concept which I reflect on often, since it has become a backbone idea in the approach… Read More ›

• If this be Madness … by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on May 11, 2018 • ( 32 )

  

  Shamima Shaikh (1960 – 1998) was South Africa’s best-known Muslim women’s rights activist. She was also a brave anti-Apartheid activist, notable Islamic feminist, community worker, journalist and devoted mother who died, 37 years old, from breast cancer. After the Holy… Read More ›

• Muslim Men and Toxic Masculinity by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on April 19, 2018 • ( 21 )

  

  Excuse me, but I thought you should know your misogyny is showing. I have read with deep interest the article written by Ayesha Fakie and Khadija Bawa entitled: Dear Indian Muslim Men: We Need To Talk published by Huffington Post South… Read More ›

• Feminazi as Archetype by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on March 21, 2018 • ( 7 )

  

    Feminazi is an image and narrative created by patriarchy to control the liberation and recognition of women as autonomous political subjects, and to serve as a warning to thwart these processes. It is a label used for male supremacy… Read More ›

• Why Are You So Angry? by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on March 9, 2018 • ( 6 )

  

  Please be warned, this post details violence against women. A new March 8. Another year protesting Another evening taking the streets of our cities around the world In Rome, in Lima and Santander A new slogan, a new banner, for… Read More ›

• Remembering Aasiya Zubair by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on February 15, 2018 • ( 10 )

  

  Aasiya Zubair Hassan was an architect and business woman of Pakistani origin, resident in the United States, motivated to contribute to the end of cultural stereotypes about Muslims and to a better coexistence in post-9-11 American society. For this reason,… Read More ›

• The Feminist-O-Meter by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on January 31, 2018 • ( 11 )

  

    Have you heard about, applied or received the Feminist-O-Meter lately? The Feminist-O-Meter is a tool that often appears in feminisms and women rights activisms, fostering power struggles, cliques, jealousies and -if that is not enough – encouraging the reproduction… Read More ›

• 30 Years of Activism by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on January 6, 2018 • ( 13 )

  

  My first memory as an activist is of attending my first political public meeting to listen leaders of the resistance talking against the  Dictatorship, marching holding a sign that read “Democracy Now,” and taking my first dose of tear gas. It was… Read More ›

• Kintsugi for the Soul – Part II – by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on December 1, 2017 • ( 7 )

  

  Continued from Part 1. How do you start to put the pieces together? For me, it was imperative to keep a space to express emotions without self-censorship or self-prejudice, to identify exactly what was hurting me. It was not the… Read More ›

• Kintsugi for the Soul – Part I – by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on November 16, 2017 • ( 28 )

  

  Kintsugi is a Japanese art technique that consists of repairing broken porcelain or pottery with resin varnish dusted or mixed with gold, silver or platinum powder. It is the art of fixing what has been broken with a precious metal… Read More ›

• Rape Culture and Muslims by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on October 26, 2017 • ( 19 )

  

  There is no doubt that Rape Culture is installed within religions and Islam is not an exception. Lately, “honorable Islamic scholar,” Nouman Ali Khan (NAK) was exposed as sexual predator, causing a battle in social media. NAK is only one more… Read More ›

• Women and the Ethics of Conflict by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on September 28, 2017 • ( 5 )

  

  Some time ago, trans-activist F.  was the target of bullying and harassment via social networks that lasted months and included defamation on Twitter and Facebook, articles in feminist blogs and web sites, and letters to women’s organizations and public institutions… Read More ›

• Who Does Islamic(s) Feminism(s) Belong To? by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on September 21, 2017 • ( 5 )

  

  Who does Islamic(s) feminism(s) belong to? The answer to this question seems obvious: Islamic feminism belongs to all Muslim women who wish to adhere to it, and feminism is for everybody, as bell hooks said. In reality however, it is not… Read More ›

• Talking Gender and Islam at the Grassroots by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on August 17, 2017 • ( 3 )

  

  In my current trajectory linked to community development —  via both activism and my professional field —  I’ve learned that popular education is a very useful practice and methodology to decentralize all types of knowledge. Since I embraced Islam, part… Read More ›

• Rape, Community and Healing by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on July 20, 2017 • ( 9 )

  

  During my last months in Cape Town I have been facilitating a series of workshops on Rape, Gender Justice and Culture of Consent. I am blissful for the opportunity to teach and learn with a group of people with whom… Read More ›

• Rhetoric of a Talking Body by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on June 15, 2017 • ( 5 )

  

    I have been thinking lately in the female body: object of foreign narratives and appropriations to their geography Who decides what is right to say about a woman’s body? The correct answer is the most logical: The same woman… Read More ›

• Recalling the Courage of Shamima Shaikh by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on May 27, 2017 • ( 1 )

  

  Shamima Shaikh’s name may be unfamiliar for you and many who are not deeply informed about Islam and gender issues in South Africa or who tend to identify Muslim women and/or activism for women’s rights in Islam with the Arab region. Why… Read More ›

• Patriarchy is Killing Us by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on April 20, 2017 • ( 4 )

  

  And not softly.. More than 2000 died by feminicide … More than 700 disappeared in Argentina … And more in Latin America and the world. A few days ago they found Micaela dead. Her family, friends and my fellow activists… Read More ›

• Deadly in Love: No Flowers, Dignity and Rights by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on February 16, 2017 • ( 12 )

  

  Vanessa Vazquez Laba, a scholar feminist and researcher in gender studies in Argentina, with whom I share a first name, activism, and intellectual interests, hits me on Valentine’s Day with the following message: There have been 57 femicides in the… Read More ›

• Women Made of Fire by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on February 1, 2017 • ( 13 )

  

   This was going to be a post about my new life in South Africa; to say what it means for me the return to this country full of wonderful things to do, after an intense and grievous experience in 2015… Read More ›

• Women, Theology and Identity as Believer by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on November 17, 2016 • ( 3 )

  

  Like all my reflections, this is not intended to be conclusive, but rather, to share some impressions about theology and the way in which women are created or given an identity as believers. In the androcentric and misogynist narratives of… Read More ›

• Why Is The Abuser Still Among Us? by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on October 20, 2016 • ( 10 )

  

  They say that men cannot control themselves. So, when they see a woman, the body overcomes the mind. If you have to rape, you rape. I have heard it many times, the same argument to justify cheating. “I am a… Read More ›

• Religion, Dissent and Decolonial Approach in Latin America by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente and Juan F. Caraballo Resto

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on October 3, 2016 • ( 12 )

  

  Talking of decoloniality in religion and theology is today a fashionable stance that has been adopted even by the academic and political mainstream. As Latin Americans, decolonial perspectives affect us firsthandedly. For the last 500 years, our continent has nurtured… Read More ›

• Latin Identities and Muslim Malinches by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente and Sumayah Soler

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on September 15, 2016 • ( 14 )

  

  The myth says that Malinche, an Aztec princess, betrayed her people, her culture and faith, for the love and the desire to be loved and accepted by the foreign Spanish conquer, colonialist and exploiter. Her name, said with contempt, is… Read More ›

• Progressive Islam: A Critical View from Latin Muslim Feminists by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente & Eren Cervantes-Altamirano

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on September 2, 2016 • ( 11 )

  

  Progressive Islam(s) in the West, particularly in Canada and the US, have been defined as movements that primarily encompass Islamic feminism(s), LGBTQI affirming movements, anti-Conservative theologies, feminist theologies, women-centered liturgies, etc. From within this umbrella, we have seen calls to… Read More ›

• Gender Jihad and Epistemic Justice by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

  By Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente on August 17, 2016 • ( 15 )

  

  In previous articles I have developed my personal perspective on Islamic feminism as a third narrative pathway that responds to the two traditional hegemonic discourses that exist on Muslim women, which I call “idealization of inequality” and “demonization of Islam… Read More ›