March: A new awakening; regarding gender & politics; for Marielle Franco!

Hello readers of FES Connect!

With vigils and protests, Brazil bid farewell to black lesbian activist and politician Marielle Franco, assassinated at the age of 38 on the streets of Rio in March a week after the world celebrated International Women’s Day.

Reports from the scene describe that four out of the nine bullets fired at Franco hit her in the head, evidence of the intent and brutality of the act by those who wanted to silence her: a woman, black, lesbian, human rights defender, city councilperson and next-generation politician from Rio’s favelas.

We dedicate this issue to Franco and all the others murdered in acts of political and gender violence, who pushed for new ways of regarding and defining women and politics in their lifetimes, but also after their deaths, as we remember them.

In 2018, as many countries mark a hundred years of women’s suffrage, the different threads that tie Franco’s life together and those she represented—women, black, poor—remind us of the intersection where we must pin progressive political action for gender justice and equality.

For our March issue we mark the political struggle of women with emphasis on inclusion driven by intersectional feminism, and bring discussions, news and updates from the world of FES and partners talking about ways to politicize gender debates and incite new forms of political action beyond suffrage. 

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Your FES Connect Editorial Team