SAHR
Reimagining Justice
Podcast
SAHR means the first light that breaks the dawn. It signals awakening and hope.
As a community, we have done a lot and our collective histories - both the setbacks and successes - carries with it, a wisdom that we must pass on forward.
Reimagining Justice
SAHR runs a video podcast titled Reimagining Justice, where advocates - be they authors, activists, or academics - can share stories at the frontlines of justice.
How do we advocate in times of war, battle with polarising ideas, collaborate with allies and drive change? How can we reimagine justice?
In our episodes we go into the lives and works of advocates and explore how they are carving their own pathways to justice. The episodes will be intersectional, interdisciplinary and inspiring! It will also memorialise the work we have done as advocates, and, shape the work that's to come.
Watch
Taking to Task: Institutional Sexual Harassment (Nadia Moynihan)
⚖️ Sexual Harassment is a serious form of gender-based discrimination. It can come in the form of uninvited and unwanted sexual remarks, bullying, stalking, and is more often about power than sexual interest.
⚖️ Workplace sexual harassment is particularly egregious as it forces victims to tolerate and accept abuse in order to make a living. 👩🏻💼 Nadia Moynihan, lawyer and expert on harassment, breaks down how to strategically take clients through the grievance process and safeguard their rights.
The Subversive Power of Literature (Azar Nafisi, best-selling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran and Read Dangerously)
Extremism come in various political packages and extremism in religious or secularist rule has more in common with each other than the common humanity of its people - because it thrives on the dehumanisation of the 'other' - be they women, ethnic minorities or political dissidents.
👥 📚 In these times, Azar Nafisi calls us to return to fiction and not surrender to the excitement of absolutist ideas.
🕊️ 💡Literature by its structure, Nafisi says, is democratic as its multi-vocal and even, "the villain has a voice". ✨ By its nature it is democratic. Reading literature is thus a resistance in itself.
What makes men evil? (James Dawes, author of Evil Men)
James Dawes, author of Evil Men, to dive into his firsthand interviews with the convicted war criminals from the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).
🪷 How did they bring themselves to commit atrocities? Why did they do what they did? Evil Men gets into the psyche of war criminals to under their psychological experience of being evil.
⚖️ For activists working with conflict, this podcast will shape how you choose to deal with and respond to war criminals, especially those who have come to power or have been reintegrated back into society.
Words as Influence & Activism (Pip Williams, Best-selling Author of The Dictionary of Lost Words, Reese Witherspoon bookclub pick)
📕 The Dictionary of Lost Words is about the words of women and the working class, which never made it into the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing. No one exactly knows how and why.
📘 In The Dictionary of Lost Words, we go into the world of English words, when the first edition of The Oxford Dictionary was compiled under the backdrop of the women's suffrage movement in England.
👩🏽🎤 As activists, we have invented new words such as genocide, we have given new meanings to words such as harassment, and we have claimed back words such as suffragette.
⚖️ The work of words ultimately is an act of influence - in each submission we write, in each position paper, declaration, in our articles, art and music - words is what we use to visibilise suffering, claim space, and posit new theories of how we can equalise our existence.
✨ We are having this conversation to get back in touch with our words, the words which have been discarded, the words which we must own and then - the words we are creating.✨
Access to justice for victims of Boko Haram in Nigeria (Zara Umar Yakub, Hadiza Abba)
Zara Umar Yakub is a practicing Nigerian barrister and women’s rights advocate. She is also the Vice Chairperson of the International Federation of Nigerian Lawyers at the Borno state branch in Nigeria. An expert on SGBV in conflict, Zara has handled many cases of survivors, especially at the peak of the insurgency when swatches of the northeastern region in Nigeria were occupied by these groups and the justice system collapsed due to the humanitarian crisis.
As the head of litigation, Zara gave free legal representation and advice to women and children affected by the conflict. She did this by successful rallying support of key actors, law enforcement, judges, government, and traditional structures.
Tune in to learn more about Boko Haram, how they used women to further their objectives, the roles women played in the war and the factors that predisposed them to violence.
Being a human rights defender in Aceh, Indonesia (Irna Susrianti, Kecia De Vries)
Irna is a 35-year-old human rights defender from Aceh province of Indonesia.
Aceh is a region still suffering from the legacy of the war with Indonesia and the 2004 tsunami, which left many people with disabilities.
Many differently-abled people experience sexual violence, and their protection is neither covered by the organisations dealing with women’s rights nor those handling concerns of differently-abled individuals. Additionally, disabled individuals who experienced sexual violence do not usually come from families who have the power to bring their issues forward.
Irna shares her work to bridge this gap by implementing a provincial action plan that centers the accessibility for differently-abled women within the legal framework. She is taking no this challenge because access to justice is a basic human right and should be guaranteed for all not just in letter, but also in spirit.
Suing the City of Buenos Aires for failing to prevent Sexual Harassment (Jimena Gibertoni)
Jimena Gibertoni, the co-founder of “Red de Abogadas Feministas” (Feminist Lawyers Network) or RAF is leading a novel precedent that will change accountability and responsibility of public institution to prevent, eradicate and punish sexual harassment in civil service.
She is taking a case against the City of Buenos Aires, for physical abuse and sexual harassment committed by a person in a position of authority, against women who were his subordinates. The perpetrator was convicted.
The state passed a protocol of action and took measures to strengthen support for survivors. Yet, Jimena pursued a case, stating justice was not reasonably satisfied.
Learn more about how she built a case from the ground up, how she engaged with key actors, and responded to the state’s claims.
When writing about Alice in Wonderland, Iranian-American author, Azar Nafisi, describes Alice being in a world "without passport or documentation" and where the "only requirement of entry into the wonderland was an open mind and a restless desire to know".
SAHR Justice Podcast is a convening for the open and restless.
Know someone for our podcast? Give us a shoutout. We are always looking for new voices.