Women, Resistance and the State
Victoria Collins, Ph.D.

Historically women have been an important force in resisting and organizing against the state for social change. From the feminist movement in the United States (Belknap, 2007; Buzawa, Buzwa Stark, 2011; Renzetti, 2013), to their active involvement in contemporary political revolutions (Care International, 2013; Oriola, 2012; Vogel, Porter Kebbell, 2014), to Afghani female poets who risk death to rebel through artistic expression (Griswold, 2012; Synovitz, 2004), women have long fought for political, social and legislative changeoften in ways that have gone unrecognized. This resistance has taken many different forms including formal and informal acts of dissent at the individual, local, state and even international levels (Rothe, 2009a). For example, immediately following the 2010 uprising in Egypt’s Tahrir Square the rate of gender-based violence increased at a rapid rate. Despite this, women were actively involved in the uprisings in very public and visible ways. Consider that the first person to be arrested in Tahrir Square was female activist Israa Abdel Fattah.Another female activist Tawakkul Karman, was awarded the 2012 Noble Peace Prize for her role in shaping the uprising in Yemen. In many countries women have historically fought against state violence, something that is still evident in contemporary examples such as Egypt’s Arab Spring uprising where women resisted state oppression despite being systematically targeted for violence (not only from the state but from their fellow protestors). More plainly stated women showed up despitefacing strong social pressure to “stay home” (Care International, 2013).

Drawing on several examples this chapter examines the role of women as parties to, and organizers of, social movements and individual resistors of state violence. This includes addressing the specific and generalized social costs and rewards of women’s engagement in such movements as well as drawing attention to gender-based victimization patterns as a platform for increased scrutiny of state power structures. First consider what is meant by resisting state crime.

Resisting state crime

As noted by Friedrichs (2009) to resist means to “withstand, strive against, or oppose…prevent, hinder, or stand against” (p.7) which conveys reactionary and preventative behaviors. Resistance therefore, can include both active and passive behaviors ranging from the very passive to the actively engaged. Resistance may take many different forms some of which include speaking out against something, encouraging non-cooperation, organizing, protesting, sabotaging, fighting and actively supporting a cause. It is important to acknowledge the range of behaviors that represent resistance especially to the point of including non-cooperation as not supporting or volunteering to participate in a particular cause or action. These behaviors can be an expression of non-complicity in state criminal behavior. In its ultimate form non-cooperation, may take the form of suicide where the individual may take their own life to evade being complicit in state-perpetrated harms or to avoid being a victim of state crime (Friedrichs, 2009).

Resistance to different types of social behavior is not a new phenomenonand there exist considerable criminological inquiry that tackles this issue in varying ways (Becker, 1963; Cohen, 1972; Miller, 1958; Wolfgang Ferracuti, 1967). Although not always explicitly framed as research on resistance much of this research centers on effecting social, political and legislative change and includes discussions of social movements (Belknap, 2007; Buzawa, Buzawa Stark, 2011), the criminalization and offending behaviors of counter/sub-cultures that develop in opposition to the “mainstream” (Becker, 1963; Miller, 1958; Wolfgang Ferracuti, 1967), the power structures that systematically oppress, abuse and disenfranchise populations leading to social action (Cheliotis, 2012; Stanbridge Kenney, 2009), as well as the means in which resistance is expressed – i.e. through art, graffiti, language, music, as well as through active and passive resistance (Ferrell, 1993; Kauzlarich, 2013; Tunnell Hamm, 2009; Van Der Merwe, 2014). In 2009, the journal of Social Justice published a special edition on resistance to state crime (Friedrichs, 2009; Iadicola, 2009; Kramer, 2009; Ross, 2009, 2009b; White, 2009). Likewise, in 2013 Stanley and McCulloch published a book titled State Crime and Resistance, whichcontains numerous case examples of resistance to state-perpetrated harms (Friedrichs, 2013; Green Ward, 2013; Kramer, 2013; Nadarajah Sentas, 2013). Still, despite the continued engagement of women as resistors to state violence, particular focus on them as a group is notably absent from the literature on state crime and resistance.

Women and resistance to state violence and oppression: From then to now

Consider that in the United States the women’s suffrage movement that began a few decades after the American Civil war was a movement occupied largely by women who organized to change the status quo for women. Battling against the culturally prescribed “cult of true womanhood” (the idea that a true woman was submissive, pious, and best suited to work within the home), reformists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Charlotte Perkins Gilam (Hine Thompson, 1997) led efforts to improve the rights of women. Although these women fought for a multitude of women’s rights, after meeting serious legal resistance the focus narrowed to securing the right to vote. Although the right to vote was not granted until almost one hundred years later, derailed in part by the civil rights movement’s central focus on racial inequality, it was the endured efforts of women that led to the ratifying of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution (Cott, 1987). This was not unique to the United States as similar movements took place in much of Europe (Cott, 1987; Rupp Taylor, 1999), nor is the involvement of women only apparent in movements that centered on advancing rights that pertained only to women. Consider for example the individual actions of some women who have brought attention to issues that impacted large groups of people, both men and women.

There are many examples throughout history of women resisting state violence through active resistance. Some examples are so celebrated that they are held up as representative of a particular time era and as symbols of entire movements that led to structural change. Such examples include Rosa Parks’ refusal to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery Alabama, the publication of The History of Mary Prince (1831)an autobiography exposing the brutal realities of the enslavement of a black woman in Britain where resistance was essential to ensure survival, the vocal advocacy of recent Noble prize winner Malala Yousafzi who at aged 14 years was shot in the head by the Taliban for publically advocating for the right of girls to attend school (BBC News, 2010), the Russian punk rock music group Pussy Riot who were arrested and prosecuted for religious hatred for performing a “punk prayer” criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Christ the Savior Church in Moscow (Steinholt, 2012), and everyday women who engage in self-protective measures in efforts to reduce the risk of gender-based violence perpetrated by men.

Resistance also takes the form of feminist critique of current social institutions that promote the needs and wants of men over those of women. Examples would include scrutiny of legal protections, access to education, family composition and the division of labor (Belknap, 2007; Renzetti, 2013). What becomes apparent is that there are countless examples of resistance of women to the threat of state-sanctioned violence perpetrated against them by men, and women collectively and individually have organized to bring about social change. Historically and as noted in some of the examples listed above, women have not only participated in direct active resistance by physically risking their lives and well-being to protest state violence, but they also have exposed the brutalities of certain realities (often their realities) through public expression of individual and shared experiences with past victimization.

Voices and vehicles for change – female victimization as a platform for change

There are many examples of past-victimization being used as a vehicle to institute social and political change (the experiences of Malala and Mary Prince being two of them). This resistance takes many forms from writing books, protesting, marching, sit-ins, educating, suicide (Ekine,2008;Johansson-Nogues, 2013; Theobald, 2012), online forums, self-protection measures and engaging in civil litigation (see for example Tracey Thurman v. The City of Torrington Police Department 1985 that held reform domestic violence legislation in the United States). One such example is the recently formed HarassMap online forum that evolved largely in response to sexual assault and harassment that occurs in public spaces in Egypt. The forum utilizes modern technology to provide a vehicle for women to report their sexual harassment experiences in real time. HarassMap is a volunteer-run organization that was established with the goal of bringing an end to sexual assault and harassment in Egypt as well as the social attitudes that lead to its acceptance (Harassmap, 2014). This is achieved through the integration of social media, research, communication and mass media campaigns in the effort to mobilize people on the ground. What is unique to this effort is the ability of victims or witnesses to anonymously upload a description of their victimization and the perpetrator, and to pinpoint the exact location of their attack. This information is plotted on a map which it is then made available to the public and other users either online or through a mobile phone app. The harassment is not only geographically mapped, but it is categorized by type – i.e. ogling, facial expressions, catcalls, comments, stalking or following, sexual invites, unwanted attention, sexual photos, online, phone calls, touching, indecent exposure, threat, sexual assault, rape and mob attacks (HarassMap, 2014). Within each categorization of violence, victims and witnesses include a description of the events that transpired. For example under the category ‘sexual invites’ someone reported the following “The guy got out of his car in broad daylight and pulled down his pants” (Anonymous, 2013a). Another event reported under the category of ‘touching’ reads “A group of men grabbed me, touched me everywhere (over my clothes and under my shirt), pulled at my clothes trying to get them off and attempted to separate me from my companion”(Anonymous,2013b).The young woman was able to get away by hitting one of her attackers causing him to scream loudly. This attracted the attention of four nearby men who helped her escape her attackers. HarassMap brings public attention to the issue by allowing for reporting in real time, it also undermine stereo-types of victims and perpetrators, as well as illustrates the prevalence of harassment. This effort has also led to anger and action in the larger community inspiring people to speak out and act against sexual harassment. Of note, HarassMap is only one of many online programs that provides a forum for victims of sexual violence to fight back against their victimization and to call attention to the pervasive nature of gender-based violence (for example see Circle 6, and Hollaback).

Here the experiences of many women come together to create a stronger voice for change. When knowledge about something is not widely disseminated and therefore not acknowledged or known, little attention is paid to the state and the current representation or misrepresentation of the state of quo. Without this, state rhetoric and the official understandings of ‘how things are’ continues to persist unchallenged (Stanley, 2012). By sharing experiences publically there is a collective challenge to the hegemonic narrative of the state. As argued by Foucault (1981) “discourse can be both an instrument and an effect of power, but also a hindrance, a stumbling block, a point of resistance and a starting point for an opposing strategy” (p.101). In Egypt the accounts of women and girls about street harassment disseminated through HarassMap, have challenged the official state narrative creating dissonance and mobilizing others for change. Although these types of actions start with personal experiences that risk exposing women to further harm, they also provide a vehicle for collective action and community interconnectedness. Through these types of actions women are able to simultaneously experience validation and reclaim their agency in fighting for a societal shift in cultural attitudes towards women and girls.

Another vehicle for counter narratives is artistic expression (Kauzlarich, 2013). Whether it is through music, poetry, story-telling, painting, dance, or fashion, artistic expression contains within it political ideologies that can, and have been used to resist state-perpetrated violence (Bennett & Peterson, 2004; Finley, 2002; Martinez, 1997; Shirli, 2005; Roberts Moore, 2009). For example, Kauzlarich (2013) examines the role of music construction as a tool of collective resistance to state crime, war and human rights abuses. In examining Western liberal punk music he makes several observations that both acknowledge the limitations of music as a sole instrument for social change, especially as it is a very emotional and personal form of resistance and the role it can play as a form of communication within the context of protest. There is also a noticeable recorded history of enslaved peoples using song and verse, as well as story-telling to preserve histories and resist state violence (Aptheker, 1969; Roberts, 1972; Sullivan, 2001). African slaves achieved this by using music and the rhythmic beats of drums that contained within it hidden messages and instructions for action. As noted by Sullivan (2001) “Using drums to spread messages in a rhythmiclanguage undeciphered by Whites, slaves could orchestraterevolts on land and on slave ships as well” (p.21). Another example, more specific to women and the focus of the following section is the aforementioned writing groups of the women of Afghanistan, specifically their use of poetry to express resistance.

The women poets of Afghanistan: Resisting in ways that are prohibited

My pains grow as my life dwindles,

I will die with a heart full of hope (Muska, in Griswold, 2012)

The above lines are from a Pashtun folk poem recited by a young woman named Meena in a small town called Gereshka not far from Kabul, Afghanistan. Meena writes poetry to express how she feels about things that have happened to her. Having lost her fiancé to an exploding landmine Meena is faced with the prospect of having to marry one of her brothers, a tradition that is common in her society. Expressing her objections to her pending marriage is not something Meena can do openly for if she did she would risk being beaten or killed. The poetry serves as a vehicle to give Meena voice and a means to express her hurt, disappointment, anger and resistance to what is happening to her.

In Afghanistan women often belong to clandestine literary groups where they meet under the pretense of sewing to write poetry (Griswold, 2012). The most known of these groups is the Golden Needle in the Herat region of Afghanistan. This group formed in 1996 when the region was under Taliban rule and there were strict prohibitions on reading and writing especially for women. In defiance of the Taliban members of this group met regularly to read, write and hear lectures from professors of literature from Herat University. If the religious police approached their meeting place children playing outside would notify the women of their presence allowing them to quickly hide their books, pens and papers, and replace them with their sewing needles (Synovitz, 2004). As noted by Sunday Times correspondent Christina Lamb in an interview with Synovitz (2004),

Instead of learning to sew, they would actually be talking about Shakespeare and James Joyce, Dostoyevsky and their own writing. It was a tremendous risk they were taking. If they had been caught, they would have been, at the very least, imprisoned and tortured. Maybe hanged.

Pashtun poetry is a long recognized form of rebellion for the women of Afghanistan that despite being faced with extreme conditions of state endorsed structural inequality reject perceptions of themselves as being defeated or submissive (Griswold, 2012). Traditionally, means of cultural engagement have been severely restricted by Taliban rule, yet poetry is one of the few permissible types of radio programs that provide access to the world outside of Afghanistan. Nonetheless, there is still considerable stigma associated with being a female poet and women are often labelled prostitutes if they publically sing or recount their poems.

The poems themselves often take the form of landays: a twenty-two syllable, two line poem that is spoken or sung. They are known for being witty and poignant and for conveying messages that appeal to collective experiences of love, war, grief, separation, homeland and even drones (bipilot or remote tayara) (Poetry Magazine, 2013). The landays also evolve and are remixed to reflect more contemporary concerns of the time. Thought to have originated from the Bronze-Age where Indo-Aryan caravans arrived in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, these poems have endured and have been morphed and reinvented to fit the time period (Griswold, 2014). Many poems address the oppressive nature of the Taliban regime and after the 2002 United States occupation express concern over returning to a similar regime: