This year’s Feminist Forum will take place at “La Tricoterie” Rue Théodore Verhaegen 158, 1060 Bruxelles. The entire event will be streamed live on the internet here: Webstream
Register now! Online registration

PROGRAMME

Tuesday 1 March 2022

10:30-10:45 General Introduction: Martin Schirdewan, co-president of The Left, Die Linke, Germany

10:45-12:00 The Resistance of Women in Europe against Fascism, the Extreme Right and Reactionary Forces

• Introduction: Sandra Pereira, MEP Coordinator of the FEMM committee for The Left, PCP , Portugal
• Marília Villaverde Cabral Portuguese Antifascist Resistants (URAP)
• Françoise De Smedt, leader of the PTB group in Brussels Parliament, member of the women commission of PTB, Belgium
• Marta Lempart, co-founder of the movement Strajk Kobiet (Women’s Strike), Poland
• Cristina Simo, leader of the “Federacion Democratica Internacional de las Mujeres” (FDIM), Spain
• Conclusion: María Eugenia Palop Rodriguez, MEP for the Left group and vice-chair of the FEMM committee, Unidas Podemos, Spain

12:30-14:30 The Invisibility of Women in Medicine and our Right to Health

• Introduction: Sandra Pereira, MEP Coordinator of the FEMM committee for the LEFT group, PCP , Portugal
• Carme Valls i Llobet, Endocrinologist, Director of the Women, Health and Quality of Life Program at the Center for Analysis and Health Programs, Spain
• Maider Koro, executive member of the NGO “El Parto es Nuestro” and member of the European Network of Childbirth Associations, Spain
• Valerie Desplanches, President of the Foundation for Endometriosis Research and member of the NGO Endomind, France
• Ana Abel, gynaecologist, from the Women’s Democratic Movement, Portugal
• Elise Thiebaut, writer of “Ceci est mon sang, Petite histoire des règles, de celles qui les ont et de ceux qui les font”, France
• Conclusion: Idoia Villanueva, the Left MEP, Unidas Podemos, Spain

Women on sale – Commodification of Women and Sexual Exploitation

15:30-16:30 Surrogacy and the Commodification of Women’s Bodies:

• Introduction: María Eugenia Palop Rodriguez, MEP for the Left Group and vice-chair of the FEMM committee, Unidos Podemos, Spain
• Yagmur Uygarkizi, spokesperson, of the International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogacy (CIAMS)
• Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Swedish journalist, author and activist specialised notably on prostitution and surrogacy. She has written Being and Being Bought, Stolen Spring and On the Existence of Sex; and she received the 2020 Lenin Award (Sweden) for her critiques of capitalism.
• Sheludko Svetlana, Deputy Chairman of the All-Russian Public Movement “Nadezhda Rossii”, Russia

 17:30-19:30 Violence Against Women: Prostitution and Pornography

• Introduction: Elena Kountoura, the Left MEP, Syriza, Greece
• Lorraine Questiaux, lawyer of several victims of Porn Hub, France
• Monica Alario, doctor and researcher on Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, writer of the book Política sexual de la pornografía: Sexo, desigualdad, violencia, Spain
• Maria da Conceição Dias Mendes Araújo social worker in the NGO “O Ninho”, Private Institution of Social Solidarity, whose objective is the human and social promotion of women victims of prostitution, Portugal
• Jenny Westerstrand, President of the National Organisation for Women’s Shelters and Young Women’s Shelters (Roks), Sweden
• Melissa Farley, American clinical psychologist, researcher and feminist, who has conducted extensive work and research on pornography and prostitution.
• Conclusion: Malin Bjork, Left MEP, Swedish Left Party

Cultural evening: Female pleasure – How patriarchy wrecks our sexuality

19:30-22:00 Film and debate: Revenge porn and sex education.

Projection of the movie,  “Mise à nu” 2021 Directed by Didier Bivel, 1h30

Synopsis: Sophie gets the wrong target when she shoots the bookseller. A bookseller loved by the whole neighborhood? She accuses him of using their love nights as a weapon to destroy her by exposing her on the Internet as pornographic material. Her trial will bring to light the ordeal of an ordinary young woman victim of cybercrime, and the devastation on her children, her loved ones, even her job… But in the absence of evidence, will we believe her?

• Didier Bivel: director of the movie
• Kristen Ghodsee: American ethnographer and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, author of “Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism and other arguments for economic independence”.
• Bel Pozueta, sexologist and founder of Skolae program, Bask Country

Wednesday 2 March 2022
Resisting the Alliance of Patriarchy & Capitalism

14:00-16:00 Feminized Jobs and Female Precariousness, Including the Impact of Teleworking on Women

• Introduction: Sandra Pereira, MEP Coordinator of the FEMM committee for The Left, PCP, Portugal
• Nayla Glaise: President of the European trade-union Eurocadres, France
• Maria Vindevoghel, former cleaning worker at Sabena (airport), federal deputy of the PTB, Belgium
• Clara Lindblom, municipal opposition councillor of the city of Stockholm, LEFT Party, Sweden
• Conclusion: LEFT MEP Pernando Barrena, The Left MEP, Bildu, Basque Country

16:30-18:30 Feminist Alternatives to the Alliance of Patriarchy & Capitalism:

• Introduction: Sira Rego, vice-president of the LEFT, Izquierda Unida, Spain
• Rita Segato, Argentine-Brazilian academic, anthropologist researcher notably on gender violence in Latin America
• Helene Bidard, vice Mayor of Paris in charge of gender equality, youth and popular education, PCF, France
• Elin Peterson, researcher at the Department of Social Work at the University of Stockholm on “a caring state? Welfare state retrenchment, the effects on women, and feminist responses in Sweden”
• Oihana Etxebarrieta, Member of the Basque Parliament and feminist activist
• Arelys Santana Bello, president of the Commission for Attention to Children, Youth and Equal Rights for Women of the Cuban Parliament
• Valeria Denise Vilaseca Chumacero, Embassador of the Plurinational State of Bolivia

Cultural evening

18:30-19:30: Female Resistance across the World:

• Shagofah Ghafori, Political exile from Afghanistan, women’s rights researcher and advocate
• Arelys Santana Bello, president of the Commission for Attention to Children, Youth and Equal Rights for Women of the Cuban Parliament.
• Eunice Lipinge, vice president of the FDIM for Africa, Swapo Party, Namibia
• Conclusion of the forum: Manon Aubry, Co-President of The Left, LFI, France

20:00-22:00 Concert:
Manou Gallo: the queen of Afro Groove. Bass player, percussionist with highly energetic afro music from fusion & funk to blues, Ivory Coast Republic.