As we mark the 25th anniversary of the WLP gathering in Casablanca, we unite across borders, generations, and identities to confront deepening gender inequality, the climate crisis, shrinking civic space, and repressive law reforms—recognizing that only through intersectional solidarity and collective action can we secure a just, inclusive, and sustainable future for all women and marginalized communities worldwide!

Jacqueline Pitanguy

Jacqueline Pitanguy is a  Brazilian sociologist and political scientist. She studied at the Louvain University in Belgium , at the Catholic University of Chile and did her graduate studies at the Sao Paulo University

In 1986 she was nominated by the President of Brazil to a cabinet position as the President of the Women's Rights Council and she engaged in constitutional reform to assure women's rights.

In 1990 she founded Cepia Citizenship Studies Information Action and is its Executive Director

Cepia is a reference NGO on human rights and gender equality in Brazil.

Jacqueline is a member of the research group on Democracy , Human Rights and Memory of IEA , the Institute of High Studies Of Sao Paulo University.

She is a member of the Inter American Dialogue, of the National Commission on Population and Development of the Brazilian Government and a member of the editorial committee of the Health and Human Rights Review of Harvard University and of the Board of WLP, among others.

She publishes  frequently in Brazil and abroad.

She was awarded with the Rio Branco medal of the Ministry of Foreign Relations , with the title of Honorable Citizen of Rio de Janeiro and included in the list 1000 Women for the Peace Nobel Prize.

Jacqueline’s Speech during WLP meeting in Casablanca 2025

Good morning!

I am so happy to be here participating in a face to face TPC and seeing you again. Thank you to Allison, Leila and WLP staff for bringing us here to share, learn from each other and charge our batteries to keep on going in this difficult moment.And ADFM for receiving us.

I am also glad to be here with board members and our Chair Madhavi and Thoraya, emeritus board member I regret that Mahnaz was not able to be here with us to celebrate 25 years of WLP to celebrate her her leadership and also to celebrate the ongoing WLP presence as a key women’s rights organization . Long live WLP!

That said, I will turn to the topic of my presentation. Leila has proposed many important questions. I don't know if I can respond to any of them but I will share with you some of my thoughts on : Feminist Movements in the face of backlash. To address it I would like to  say a few words about the context in which feminism, as an agenda and a social movement, is immersed today. We live now in a Revolution that is changing the productive, commercial, financial systems, is changing the labor relations, a revolution that impacts health and education, transforms human relations, impacts politics. I am referring to the technological revolution especially in the areas of information, IT, and more recently artificial intelligence that we still do not know the extent of the role it will play in this revolution. Not to mention robotics and other results of the technology.

What is interesting is that side by side with this profound IT revolution, that we would characterize as modernity we are also living another phenomenon that goes in another direction, like a car driving backwards, which is the advancement of a conservative wave present in politics, in culture, in laws, in customs and values , in believes ,that brings backlashes in human rights, women's rights, gender, pluralism, diversity, science, environment.

Feminism is in this crossroad of those apparently contradictory movements. And this is a big challenge because the resources of IT are being used by the extreme right to introduce moral values and patriarchal patterns of behavior that have as one of their main target gender and women's human rights. We are not peripheral in this attack. We are at the center of it. Their agenda is to deconstruct what has been achieved and propose a return to hierarchical gender relations and the promotion of a role model domestic women , mother, wife, caretaker. Obedient to men.

I believe this is a global phenomenon, and its extension and impact changes according to leaders in power, political systems, cultural and religious characteristics of a given society. And if this wave becomes a tsunami or slows down and be contained depend s very much on our capacity to use the same tools to defend what we have conquered and to advance. On our capacity to strengthen our alliances among ourselves and with other civil society organizations whose agenda is also being affected, with government be it the justice system, legislators, branches of the executive, the mainstream press, among others.

From the USA, to countries in Europe, in Latin America, Asia, Africa, there is a formidable investment of the conservative extreme right to attack our conquests. The concept of gender is demonized and even banished in UN documents, in school curricula, in public policies.

Abortion is seen as a criminal , not a health issue. As a sin, even in

countries with secular governments. Obedience of women to men is

reclaimed and legitimized by sacred texts, challenging family law

reforms. These backlashes’ are frequently presented as the

salvation of women, even as a new humane feminism…..

It is remarkable how they are strategic and efficient in creating conspiratory theories and proposing a binary view of the world, on one side them, who represent the good, the protectors of the family, of the children, of private property, of the homeland and in our western societies, the protectors of the Christian occidental civilization against the others, among which feminism multilateralism, environmentalists , migrants other social movements such as LGBTQ etc. seen as dangerous, disruptive, destructive of the family, of the order. Even science and universities are part of this package.

This binary construction of the world operates in the hearts and minds of the population misleading the people including women to perceive feminism as disruptive of the social order, to see gender as destructive of the natural order of biological sex as the determinant of the social differences between men and women. This anti women rights perspective affects laws, public policies and funding. I believe that what is happening in the USA is a clear example of its consequences.

And of course the world is facing, as never, wars , conflicts and tensions with the invasion of Ukraine, the destruction of life in Gaza, conflicts in Africa. This conservative wave operates in a dystopian world which makes it even more powerful because they propose stability, security and order.

So what can we do?

First, keep our energy and our hope. And being here in this TPC helps us a lot. A positive mind set in the sense that our advocacy work, , our communication work, our researches, materials, manifests, marchs, all we have done and continue to do have played a major role and there are many many people who support us. Let's recognize our value and strength and power.

That is why we are at the center of this attack. Because we are powerful.

But this support that we have gained and still have is a territory in dispute and we have to fight to keep them on our side being them governmental sectors, funders, academics, women at large, men, youth , corporations, funders, politicians, the cultural sector, academics etc.

How?

Communication is key at this moment. To invest in IT, to develop our communication skills, to use the right language for different audiences. To adopt an intersectional and human rights perspective. Show that the world is better with tolerance, democracy, respect for diversity and equality. That the home is safer and the family happier if we struggle against domestic violence. That health improves with access to contraception, to safe abortion, to prenatal care. That women in the labor force contributes to economic growth, that women’s education is key to development.

One key strategy is to get out of our bubble, were we are safe and to reach the others, which change according to the context in which we operate and that gives us barriers

and opportunities, In Brazil for instance we believe that it is important to open a dialogue with religious evangelical women, to strengthen our advocacy with policy makers, legislators, the justice system , and to also invest in youth, to influence them with our values and principles, working in schools, in youth associations.

I have recently published a View Point on a Harvard review that I called Health and Human Rights territories in dispute that I have sent today to Allison and Leila and she could share with you because in fact the defenders of health as a human right are also under attack.And I propose a few ways to regain territory.

Build alliances, reclaim our victories showing that they have changed the status of women and girls, increasing their safety, their health, their education. That this is contributing to development, economic growth, to family relations that are not violent or oppressive, that we propose human security and tolerance. It is a hard task. But we are used to it.

So let's do it. Remembering the Greek myth of Pandora that opened the box with the evil but left hope inside.