Speakers: Thandi Matthews, Leonie Hopgood 
Special guest: Kavita Ramdas

In the first episode of our mini podcast series “Hear Her Roar” host and feminist foreign policy fellow Sabrine Dao leads a discussion on the understanding and limitations of the concept of feminist foreign policy from a Global South perspective. She is joined by two of her co-fellows, human rights attorney Thandi Matthews and German parliamentary advisor Leonie Hopgood. This episode’s special guest is the renowned gender equity and justice advocate Kavita Ramdas.

Kavita and Thandi call for a much broader and decolonized understanding of the concept of a “feminist foreign policy” that effectively ensures intersectional and equitable justice.The current world order led by the Global North has its roots in colonialism, white supremacy and the patriarchy, thus an informed struggle for a just world needs to take all of these underpinnings into account. An all encompassing feminist foreign policy should challenge existing power structures, and, as Leonie put it, be an invitation for the Global North to be held accountable and confront the ways these systems uphold inequality.

A Global North-South Dialogue on Feminist Foreign Policy

This piece is part of an ongoing project in partnership with the University of Virginia (UVA) in response to the white supremacist attacks on August 11th and 12th, 2017. For more information, check out our Transatlantic Partnership on Memory, Responsibility and Transformation: https://us.boell.org/transatlantic-partnership-memory-responsibility-and-transformation

Music For Podcasts by Lee Rosevere. (in order of appearance): “Looking Back,” “Let’s Start at the Beginning,” and “Night Caves.” CC BY 3.0 

Audio extracted from videos by Tim Dodson (https://twitter.com/Tim_Dodson)
Tweet on August 11, 2017: "White nationalist alt-right torchlit march going through UVA grounds: "you will not replace us""
Tweet on August 11, 2017: "They are moving towards the lawn"
Tweet on August 12, 2017: "Unlawful assembly declared "
Tweet on August 12, 2017: "Scene near Emancipation Park #Charlottesville"
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UVA Student Voices

Transatlantic Dialogue Intern Alexander Nasserjah discusses with Mena Ayazi about their experiences growing up as Afghan Americans. Afghanistan as a country has been at war for almost 50 years, resulting in a refugee population of around 2.5 million. Children of those refugees past and present often find it difficult to identify with their parent's homeland, while growing up in another part of the world. Alexander and Mena address their difficulties growing up as Afghans in America, along with their generation’s role in the future.

For full transcript, please visit our website.

Local Voices 2018: Interview with Mena Ayazi

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