#6 NAMIBIA
In Namibia the abortion law is very strictly regulated – but last year in July a young, committed movement of activists started a petition that caused quite a stir. In our new episode we talk to one of them: Ndiilokelwa Nthengwe, a Namibian activist who has been at the forefront of the #ShutItAllDown Movement and the equal rights protests in Windhoek. She is also the co-founder of the Voices and Choices for Rights Coalition which started the petition to legalise abortion in Namibia. Also with us is multimedia journalist Lisa Ossenbrink, based in Windhoek. She reports on people, power and populism from Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa and has been published by Al Jazeera English, VICE World News and Deutsche Welle, among others. She is also a member of the network DEINE KORRESPONDENTIN.
#4 Poland
This episode is about abortion rights and political protest in Poland. The idea for this podcast series came about under the impression of the strong protests in Poland in autumn 2021 against the tightening of the already restrictive legislation on abortion. Only since 1993 abortion is mostly ban and this happened during the change of social system, which promised more liberal rights and gave the hope of freedom.
Now in 2020/21 the amount of protesting women (but also men) in autumn was very impressive. We want to know: how did they manage to mobilize so many people? We talk to Karolina Micula, a musican, performer and activist, who chooses many different forms of protesting (and is pictured on the front page of the podcasts’ website). Our second guest is Terry Reintke, member of the European Parliament for the Green Group since 2014 and currently also its Vice President. She demands that the EU intervenes in Polish breaches of fundamental rights and supports the Polish activists by saying „Your struggle is our struggle.“
#1: Ireland
2018 passierte in Irland Erstaunliches. Im stark katholisch geprägten Land das Verbot von Schwangerschaftsabbrüchen per Referendum gekippt und ist seitdem bis zur 12. Schwangerschaftswoche legal. Wir sprechen mit der Autorin und Journalistin Una Mullally, die mit Repeal the 8th Anthology eine Sammlung von Schriften, Gedichten und Fotografien herausgegeben hat, die die Wucht der Kampagne für reproduktive Rechte im Land im Jahr 2018 einfangen. Sie ist Kolumnistin für The Irisch Times. Ebenfalls aus Irland, in Kinsale, ist die deutsche Auslandskorrespondentin und Journalistin Mareike Graepel vom Netzwerk DEINE KORRESPONDENTIN. „Sobald man das Schweigen bricht, bricht man auf eine Art auch mit dem Stigma, und sobald man das Stigma bricht, bricht man auch mit der Scham.“ Una Mullally