Tomorrow's Joy of Resistance program will feature Part 2 of the joy of Resistance interview with Reem Alsalem, the current "U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, its Causes and Consequences." 

Ms. Alsalem investigates and reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council on global issues of violence against women and girls -- after doing extensive research including callouts for public input. She is an expert in Human Rights law and uses that framework to come to her conclusions. Her statements are widely followed and she often advises governments on how to improve their policies. Violence against women and girls is at epidemic proportions worldwide with one in 3 women experiencing it.

Reem Ansalem's conclusions are often controversial. For instance, she is concerned that she cannot get accurate statistics on who is perpetrating violence against women, now that male-bodied people (men) can claim female identities and then are officially listed as women--and sees it as a danger to women's rights that the word "woman" is now considered devoid of material reality and is disappearing in official discourse. She states that "it is not uncommon for there to be clashes between different rights-holders" and urges more open debate on issues of sex, gender and gender identity.

She has also done extensive work on violence women experience who work in the global sex trade--as well as taken on the Israeli government by arguing that femicide is an official policy in Gaza. As a result of all of these and other controversial positions she has taken, there have been campaigns from many quarters to get her fired from her position at the U.N.

However, she also has many supporters, who are grateful to her for her courage in questioning much current 'received wisdom' and consider hers a necessary voice for women.

You can hear her in her own words, interviewed by Fran Luck, on Thursday, February 5 at 11:00 AM Eastern time on WBAI at 99.5 FM if you are in the tri-state area--or you can stream the show at wbai.org or hear it later at wbai.org/archive (scroll down to Joy of Resistance). You can contact Joy of Resistance jor@wbai.org

Hope you can give a listen--and tell others about this important interview.

Reem Alsalem website:

https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-violence-against-women