Accent of Women

Today's show is about about developments within the feminist movement in Algeria. The facilitator is Fatemeh Masjedi, an Iranian academic historian and activist based in Berlin. She is a former political prisoner in Iran because of her women’s rights activities.  And the person being interviewed is Selma Oumari. She’s an Algerian French member  of the New Anticapitalist in France.  She is  involve...

The situation in India is slowly developing into a state engineered pogrom against muslim people. This has been developing since the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Bill – now law – tying people’s citizenship to India, to their religion. Workers, students and other parts of civil society have been protesting since November last year in an effort to defeat the legislation. However, some of the...

International Women’s Day is just around the corner and to mark this important date we hear from past and present campaigners fighting for gender and racial equality. GuestsCamaigners Natasha and Aakansha from the anti-street harassment campaign -- it's not a compliment. Adjunct Professor and Historian, Dr Victoria Grieve - Williams. To learn more about the life of Roberta 'Bobbi' Sykes check out...

The economy in France has been crippled by a strike wave that has been ongoing since December 2019.  Initially in response to pension reforms by the Macron Government, the strike wave has affected broad sectors of the economy including postal services, airlines, manufacturing,  schools, hospitals just to name a few.  It’s even included the arts – with actors, writers and other artists participatin...

February 6th is the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation. To learn more about the practice I spoke to health professional Medina Idriess from the Family & Reproductive Rights Education Program.  In the second half of the show, Monica Majak and Adongwot Manyoul from the South Sudanese Mother's Coalition of Victoria discuss the challenges of resettlement.  

Donald Trump joined with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in the final weeks of January to publicly unveil what the US president described as his “vision for peace” in the Middle East. It was a farcical proposal, endorsing all of the policies of the Israeli right while guaranteeing rejection by the Palestinian people. To discuss these developments in the struggle for a...

This week we speak to writer and cultural producer Alia Gabres about her gorgeous children’s book, Haboba’s House. Haboba’s House tells the story of Iman - a young Eritrean girl staying at her Haboba’s (grandmother) House during the school holidays. It's the first book in Iman’s Really Really Big World! series. In this interview, Alia discusses the inspiration for Haboba’s House and explains why c...

January 26.  Australia Day.  It marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British Ships at Port Jackson and the start of genocide against the original owners of this land.  We should not celebrate Australia Day.  It's a day that has been sanctified and sanitised.  Instead, we should be protesting and fighting for land rights, sovereignty and self-determination for all Aborigi...

Across the Pacific and Torres Strait, rising seal levels are forcing many communities to seek a new home. And while climate change denialists bicker over the validity of the claims, people are being evacuated because their islands are uninhabitable. This week I chat to radio broadcaster Maureen Mopio about her documentary - No Land, No Livelihood, No Home. No Land, No Livelihood, No Home is a ten...

Today's show is about about developments within the feminist movement in Algeria. The facilitator is Fatemeh Masjedi, an Iranian academic historian and activist based in Berlin. She is a former political prisoner in Iran because of her women’s rights activities. And the person being interviewed is Selma Oumari. She’s an Algerian French member  of the New Anticapitalist in France.  She is  involved...

In under 24 hours, a number of academics, community activists, artists and writers will gather at the University of Melbourne for a three day forum called ‘Black-Palestinian Solidarity Conference’. To mark this historic event, I spoke to Irene Watson, a Professor of Law at the University of South Australia and Tasnim Sammak, a PHD candidate and an advocate for the rights of young people and women...

On today’s show we will broadcast just the first question of a panel discussion between women of colour involved in the Alliance of Middle Eastern and North African socialists. You’ll hear when the compare introduces the panel, that the whole discussion goes for about two hours, but of course we don’t have time for all of it on Accent of Women. We will post a link to the whole call on our facebook...

For the first time since the fascist military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, tanks rolled into downtown Santiago, Chile, this weekend, deployed against protesters demonstrating against a drastic fare hike of the Santiago metro, from the equivalent of USD $1.12 to $1.16.On Saturday, the right-wing government of billionaire Sebastián Piñera invoked the still-standing 1980 Constitution established...

This week we look at the circumstances that bring Tamil refugees to Australia and in the second half of the show, two of the founders of the online talk show ‘Set The Tone’ discuss their pilot episode. GuestsNiro Kandasamy is a Tamil studies researcher at the University of Melbourne. Yar Biar and Adier Maluk are young women from the African diaspora and members of the platform Set the Tone.

On today’s program we continue with the broadcast of Flesh, the law and black humanity, that Ayan started on the program last week.  Firstly, Flesh, the law and black humanity was an event hosted in Melbourne Victoria by the Feminist Book Collective, and particularly, by Nilmini Fernando, a Sri Lankan born woman living in Australia.  According to the event description, Flesh, the law and black hum...

This week we look at some of the issues affecting trans and gender diverse communities in Australia and play a snippet from the event ‘Flesh, the law, and black humanity’.GuestsAmao Leota Lu is a proud Samoan Fa'afafine and trans woman of color. She is an international speaker, performing artist, writer, activist and storyteller who infuses the intersectionality of gender, culture and life experie...

Massive civil society protests have continued in Hong Kong. Commencing on 9 June, we’ve seen millions of people march, originally against the introduction of the extradition bill, but now the movement has raised a number of demands including full suffrage for the people of Hong Kong. Accent of Women first covered this issue in June, and you can go back and listen to that podcast, which is posted t...

Creative producer Daisy Nduta talks about her exciting new show - Assimilate. Assimilate is showing at Darebin Arts as part of Melbourne Fringe 2019. Tickets can be purchased here. Assimilate was created and produced by Daisy Nduta and is performed by Naomi Sepiso, Tamara Bailey, Anyuop Dau, and Daisy Nduta.

Veteran broadcaster Namila Benson talks ghost-writing, community radio, and Jack Charles. Later in the show, cultural historian Samia Khatun discusses the inspiration for her book - Australianama. GuestsNamila Benson is a broadcaster, media trainer and national radio producer who works across multiple media platforms. She got her start in radio 26 years ago on 3CR. Most recently, she ghostwrote th...

August 30, 2019 commemorates 20 years since the East Timor referendum on independence. In 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor, beginning a brutal regime of occupation that would last until 1999. More than 200,000 East Timorese died and many more suffered during massacres, torture and starvation. Carla Chung is an organiser with the United Workers Union, she is East Timorese, and an East Timor indep...

Thirteen million people in Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir have spent the last three weeks under a regime of extraordinary repression and collective punishment at the hands of India’s Hindu supremacist BJP government. Freedom of speech and assembly have been abolished, with gatherings of more than four people outlawed. Critics who have denounced the repression to the media have been imprisoned...

What comes to mind when you hear the word love? Is it romantic relationships? Friendships? Self-love? Community? Arts and cultural curator Bigoa Choul joins us this week to make sense of a concept that is so polarizing. Today’s episode is inspired by an upcoming event called ‘Let's Talk Love’ hosted by Bigoa Chuol and featuring the contributors of 'Growing Up African in Australia'. The event is pa...

The face of the environmentalism movement in Australia is predominantly white. Why is this the case and how can the movement expand to include all voices? The Multicultural Greens Victoria hosted a panel that tackled those exact questions. We also spoke to Dr Mehreen Faruqi, Green's Senator for NSW, about islamophobia, decolonisation and why she continues to speak out against misogyny and racism. ...

The Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, recently announced plans to introduce an Indigenous voice to parliament. Some embraced the news as a positive step towards self-determination,  while others were more skeptical. On today's episode we ask Gunnai-Kurnai and Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpewhat she thinks about an Indigenous voice to parliament, and also get updates on Victoria’s exci...

NAIDOC week was 8 to 15 July. This week on Accent of Women, we bring you the voices of Aboriginal women in struggle. In the second part of the show, we play an exerpt from a public meeting held at Victoria’s Trades Hall. The public meeting was called Fighting for Black issues in a White Democracy. But first up on the show, the landmark announcement about the Stolen Wages settlement. A class action...