Accent of Women

On this week’s episode we listen to the story of Fayeza, a 21 year old woman born and living in Afghanistan. Fayeza comes from the Hazara ethnic group of Afghanistan. She was preparing for medical university when the Taliban came back to power and banned education for women. In this conversation we talk about her life journey, her insights into the political situation, and her aspirations.

Zena Cumpston is a Barkandji woman with Afghan, English and Irish heritage.Zena works as an artist, writer, consultant and curator. She is passionate about plants and seeks out projects that empower community and Country. Zena is a member of the Birrarung Council and the curator of First Nations Projects at InPLace Artist Residencies. In 2024 Zena co-wrote the Yuruwan ‘Growing on Country’ resource, a unique space to consider food sovereignty and cultural landscapes, fostering fertile conditions for social and environmental justice and change. She is the co-author of the highly popular book ‘Plants; past, present, future’ (First Knowledges series) and is a widely published essayist and regular public speaker.

Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte is in the custody of the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands after being arrested in Manila on Tuesday 11 March, on crimes against humanity charges linked to his deadly "war on drugs".Mr Duterte was detained by Philippine police and flown to The Hague in the Netherlands on an arrest warrant. Police say that during his arrest, Mr Duterte threatened officers, refused to be fingerprinted and his associates and family blocked his arrest for 12 hours.On Accent of Women today, we look at Duterte’s deadly war on drugs and what this arrest means, but in further news, the workers at the semiconductor manufacturer, Nexperia, had a victory last week as well, following 4 days of strike action. My guest today is Rochelle Porras from EILER – The Ecumenical Institute for Labour Education and Research

Ana Gamero, originally from Peru and now living in Australia for 17 years, made the bold transition from construction to welding while undertaking an Engineering Fabrication Apprenticeship. In this conversation, she shares her journey in the trades, the invaluable support from her colleagues, and the guidance of Courteney Munn, Project Manager at AMWU, who helped her navigate the challenges she faced. Through the union, Ana discovered a powerful sense of community and support.The song in the intro is Marinera Norteña - La Trujillana. The song at the end is La Flor de la Canela, by Chabuca Granda and interpreted by Eva Ayllon en vivo en Buenos Aires, Argentina. Both songs are gems of Peruvian musical heritage. Special thanks to Ana Gamero for the interview.This episode was presented by Ximena Jimenez and produced on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation, in what is now known as Melbourne. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging, and acknowledge their ongoing connection to land, waters, and culture.

This episode is dedicated to raising awareness around 'mental health' within South-Asian diaspora and communities. This episode features Ms Tania Biswas and has been presented by Dr Chris Mallika Bhadra on the lands of the Kulin Nation.

Racerage is a queer, Blak radical rapper; mixing dark electronic hip-hop with defiant punk energy. They collaborate with other BIPOC, queer and trans artists, to create political protest rap ... hip hop as truth telling. Racerage dropped their debut record Black Medusa in 2021; the soundtrack to a shared decolonised, queer, accessible future;On this episode of Accent of Women, we hear about their journey as a multiply marginalised artist in the local music industry, coming to culture, and their experiences with grassroots activism and harm reduction advocacy in Naarm-Melbourne.

Excerpts from 29 January Webinar, hosted by APAN: Beyond the Ceasefire: Next steps to liberation and justice- Pt 2On this week's show we play excerpts from the recording of a webinar hosted by the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network which takes a critical look at the ceasefire agreement and unpacks what it means for the movement for Palestinian justice. It contextualises the movement within the broader struggle for Palestinian rights, and discusses the reality of the ceasefire for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.The speakers featured on the podcast are:Dr Lana Tatour: a Palestinian woman whose family was displaced in the 1948 Nakba, and an academic on Settler colonialism, race, and decolonization in PalestineSamah Sabawi: a Gazan Palestinian author, playwright and scholarSongsMawtini -Mohammed YoussefMystic of the Middle East- Serge Quadrado

Excerpts from 29 January Webinar, hosted by APAN: Beyond the Ceasefire: Next steps to liberation and justice- Pt 1On this week's show we play excerpts from the recording of a webinar hosted by the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network which takes a critical look at the ceasefire agreement and unpacks what it means for the movement for Palestinian justice. It contextualises the movement within the broader struggle for Palestinian rights, and discusses the reality of the ceasefire for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.The speakers featured on the podcast are:Dr Lana Tatour: a Palestinian woman whose family was displaced in the 1948 Nakba, and an academic on Settler colonialism, race, and decolonization in PalestineSamah Sabawi: a Gazan Palestinian author, playwright and scholar

August 2024 was a tragic month for the South-Asian diaspora as a young female medical doctor was abused and consequently lost her life at RG Kar Hospital, Kolkata, India.This episode is dedicated to women and worker safety in our workplaces and in public premises.

Today’s story is about the intersection between music, sexyness and politics. We’ll talk about how it is living on a visa as a creative and how music can build up a sense of radical home.

Back in September 2023, I broadcast a three part series called Incarcerated Women and the California Bushfires.In the current bushfires raging across California, there are more than 900 incarcerated people among the more than 7,500 personnel, fighting those fires. I thought it was a great time to revisit this really important conversation.Today I am only going to replay Part 1, but you can go to our podcast page to listen back on the other two episodes.*********************************************This conversation between activist scholars Sarah Haley and Romarilyn Ralston takes as a point of departure the firefighting labor of people imprisoned in California’s women’s prisons. The discussion considers the specific contradictions of that forced labor and meanders to cover the carceral state’s relationship to disappearance, precarity, interiority, intimacy, possibility, performance, and violence.

Mithaka Country is 55,425 square kilometres of beautiful red sand dunes west of Windorah and east of Birdsville, in the heart of Queensland’s Channel Country. The three major rivers that feed Lake Eyre – Cooper Creek, Eyre Creek, and the Diamantina River.Today, my guest is Trudy Gorringe, a Mithaka woman, who I had the good fortune of meeting, while I was in Windorah travelling around. Trudy and I talked about a range of topics associated with native title and First Nation’s control of traditional lands. You’ll notice quite a bit of background wind and noise. That’s because we did this interview on the sprawling lands of the Mithaka Aboriginal Corporation.

Most supporters of Palestine tend to view the issue in nationalist terms, as a struggle with the Palestinians and the broader Arab world on one side, and the Israeli state and its western allies on the other. Yet any serious look at the situation today, or at the history of the 20th century for that matter, shows that the Arab states have done nothing to seriously challenge Zionism or its Western backers. On Accent of Women today, we conclude our broadcast of a talk by Socialist and activist, Bella Beiraghi that explores some of this history, and explains why Arab elites are not simply unreliable allies, but are actually complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.

This week's Accent of Women hands the airwaves over to women from diverse backgrounds living with disabilities. This week's special is produced by Marisa Sposaro - a woman with a vision impairment and who is a braille user.

Most supporters of Palestine tend to view the issue in nationalist terms, as a struggle with the Palestinians and the broader Arab world on one side, and the Israeli state and its western allies on the other. Yet any serious look at the situation today, or at the history of the 20th century for that matter, shows that the Arab states have done nothing to seriously challenge Zionism or its Western backers. On Accent of Women today, and concluding the week after next week, I broadcast a talk by Socialist and activist, Bella Beiraghi that explores some of this history, and explains why Arab elites are not simply unreliable allies, but are actually complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.

A former Bondi nanny and cleaner accused by Chile of being a torturer and kidnapper for Pinochet’s military dictatorship in the 1970s has launched a last-ditch legal appeal to avoid extradition. Adriana Rivas, 70, has been in prison in Australia since 2019, when she was arrested on an extradition request from Chile – seeking her for trial on seven counts of aggravated kidnapping relating to the disappearance, and presumed murder, of seven members of Chile’s communist party who disappeared in 1976.Today's guest is Pilar Aguielera, co-founder of the National Campaign for truth and justice in Chile.

Cynthia Honihui, Solomon Islands Lawyer and President for the Pacific Islands Fighting Climate Change, presented the 4th annual Talbot Oration on World Environment Day, 5 June at the Australia Institute. Here’s the talk where Cynthia discusses her participation in the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion Campaign for climate justice and human rights, and next steps for climate justice in the ICJ.

In recent years right-wing populists/extremists and right-wing Catholic as well as conservative actors have been building new alliances in several European countries around the notion of ‘gender-theory’ or ‘gender-ideology’. These groups construct ‘gender’ as a totalitarian ideology, which aims to create a new, ‘gender-less’ human, thereby attacking the institution of the family and European societies as a whole. This reading of ‘gender’, which has been developed by the Vatican from the 1990s onwards, is instrumental to forming coalitions across the right-wing political spectrum. Edma Ajonavic, Stefanie Mayer, and Birgit Sauer deliver a speech called, ‘Gender’ as Symbolic Glue for Right-Wing Actors in Europe’ at the 2nd International Marxist Feminist Conference in Vienna in 2016.

There are two significant anniversaries in the Middle Eastern/West Asian region of the world worth commemorating on Accent of Women. Two years on September 16, Jina Mahsa Amini was killed by the Morality Police in Iran, sparking the Woman Life Freedom movement there. A year earlier, in August 2021, the Taliban was ushered back into power as the whole world looked on, when the United States eventually withdrew its troops.So today’s guests are Frieda Afary, Iranian American feminist activist, and Sahar Saba, from the Revolutionary Association of the women of Afghanistan.

Prominent union leader, Chhim Sithar, who led a high-profile strike at a Phnom Penh hotel and casino called Naga World, was released from prison on Monday 19 September. She has promised to continue leading workers who are demanding better wages and working conditions. The dispute at the NagaWorld Hotel and Entertainment Complex, one of the world’s most profitable gambling centers, began in 2021 when the company laid off more than 1,300 employees, about half of them union members.The strike has drawn a violent crackdown from police and continues to this day. Cambodian authorities have claimed that the strike is illegal and the product of alleged foreign donations. But of course, the workers disagree.My guest today is Chhim Sithar, the President of the Khmer Employees of NagaWorld.