Is it alright to be called a 'Colored Woman'?

The British Minister for Works and Pensions, Amber Rudd, used the term 'coloured woman' this week. She was, paradoxically, drawing attention to the way a fellow MP, Diane Abbott, has suffered racism for being a Black woman when she used the term 'coloured woman'.

But it came across like a double negative own goal instead. Quite understandably, Amber Rudd has come in for criticism. It is indeed an outdated and offensive phrase notably because it is historically linked to slavery and apartheid. Episodes in history that were based on outright racism.

Yet, the word 'coloured' trips off the tongues of White people rather too easily in this day and age. Even after the efforts of people of colour to speak up about racism it still feels like a head and brick wall situation. With Amber Rudd it was a case of White woman from the sisterhood tries to speak up on behalf of a woman of colour but ends up botching it all due to her ignorance of the sensitivities of race.

Feminism cannot be a collective if it doesn't recognise all our intersectionalities. Otherwise it becomes a battle within rather than a battle for feminism.

Asian feminism is a badass vehicle

Asian feminism is a badass force to be reckoned with as it grows to embrace so much more than the traditional fights.

While once it embraced women's rights to simply speak up about what they thought would make their lives better, autonomy in other words, Asian feminism now is a broad church. A quick scan of Asian activists on social media sites like Instagram demonstrate fights against colourism, Chinese 'slit eyes' stereotyping, impressions of women from the Asian continent being 'tight' and 'tiny' and 'doll like' and, even, encompassing racism against Black women.

How far we have come. When I was growing up Indian women were cautioned against 'speaking up' and this was often meant in the literal sense. Speaking loudly was seen as a sign of a maverick woman. A loose cannon female would never find a man to marry her and this was considered to be the ultimate in the land of shamedom. 'Shame' and being Indian were firm friends. 'Shame' was a useful patriarchal tool used to keep us low down in the pecking order of social hierarchies.

What better way to fight the stigma of shame which places our so called 'foibles' in the private sphere than to go public with what makes us feminists.

When Asian women of all nationalities speak up our stories combine to create a rich and varied tapestry of our feminisms. We intersect at various points and the unifying factor is our fight for equality.

Each and every one of us who believes in Asian feminism ought to tell and keep retelling our story. A combined effort will be one of our greatest achievements in making breakthroughs.

The curry vote which went wrong

An Asian man, Oli Khan who is secretary general of the Bangladesh Caterers Association, has written in The Guardian about his regret over his ‘leave’ vote and the fact that he influenced 150,000 members and 12,000 restaurants to vote leave. In effect, he feels that he was put up as an Asian poster boy by Tory Brexiters.

There are two parts to his regret. Firstly, that he allowed himself to be used by Priti Patel and Boris Johnson to spread their “lies”; and secondly, that he used his influence to enable a large number of ‘leave’ votes.

Being Asian and a curry lover you would think that I would feel sorry for him but I don’t. Those from immigrant communities who vote or advocate for narrow interests always draw my ire.

Even if Oli Khan had voted ‘remain’ for similar narrow interests I would feel the same (but, inherently, the ‘remain’ vote was for a more inclusive society).

The basis of his voting intention was to exclude others. Pure and simple. From a business point of view he states that Asian restaurants are struggling to bring in qualified chefs from abroad. He was promised looser immigration laws to rectify the recruitment problem which involved paying lower wages.

Somewhere in there he forgot about the other staff equation in the Asian restaurant trade – EU workers. I myself frequent an Indian restaurant in Central London which employs Eastern European workers. It doesn’t take a numpty to recognise that businesses have to rely on a myriad of nationalities to keep their concerns going.

Immigrants forgetting about the greater good of other immigrants is a common affliction. Oli Khan, in his defence, isn’t the only one.

According to psychology professor Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton based at Berkeley in America who studies stereotypes and inter-group relations, newcomers who arrive in the midst of a stable population that’s already worked out who gets what will have the most “ common human reaction” which is to hog resources and not to share.

Unfortunately it doesn’t take a PhD qualification to work out that if you vote against your interest you will bear an end negative result. Oli Khan forgot to define his own interest in a broader sense in the first place and now testifies to the rise in racism post Brexit, which I have blogged abouttoo. He talks about an ‘inward looking nationalism’. Somebody ought to tell him that nationalism is inherently an inward looking concept.

As a quick fire solution to the problem of chef recruitment in the UK Asian restaurant business why not consider employing women? There are millions of Asian women in the UK who cook delicious curries at home but it’s still a male dominated industry.

Conflating one’s racial identity with business interests and bundling it up with politics is a recipe for disaster.

The memories of what you left behind

I left my Asian home country 38 years ago but, still, I can see and hear the images and sounds of what I had. It happens most often in my half-awake, half-asleep state. In the early hours of the morning my mind is transported back. I am no longer living in a white man's country. My skin colour doesn't count.

Last night I heard my father coming home from work. His children, my siblings and I, ran  to greet him. Despite the cold chill of the winter's night I felt the warmth of my home country. My mother and sibling's voices filtered through my ears and brain. My heart leapt at the familiarity of hearing us all talk about our day at school and asking my parents about theirs.

I may have moved thousands of miles away, formed new roots, created new alliances and forged new bonds and loyalties but one's beginnings will always remain in one's heart and mind and soul.

The Catholic Church and the Indian nuns of the #metoo movement

Does the Catholic Church have a strange predilection for sex related misdemeanours and scandals? If not why does it remain silent apart from occasional apologetic proclamations from the Pope? If it does want to be on the right side of religious justice then the time for speaking up is running short in a case in India involving 5 nuns and rape allegations at the ‘Missionaries of Jesus’ Convent in Kerala, India.

A Mother Superior at the Convent made a police report in June 2018 alleging that Bishop Franco Mulakkal, Bishop of Jalandhar, raped her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. The Bishop was arrested, three months later, in September and granted bail. He is awaiting trial. 

Franco Mulakkal is the first bishop in Indian Catholic history to be arrested over accusations of rape. Some accolade!

Five nuns who supported the alleged victim’s testimony staged a sit-in in protest at the police delay in taking action. As a result, these nuns now claim that they are being ‘punished’ for their actions. They have been asked to leave and have been assigned to other Convents but are resisting orders to do so. They are accusing the church of “taking vengeance for their public protests”.

On 3 January, Superior General Regina Kadamthottu of the Missionaries of Jesus Order wrote to one of the sisters, “You have chosen in your own individual capacity to support and pursue the legal battle in Crime no 746/2018 in Kuravilaangad police station. Our congregation does not want to make any sort of intervention in the due process of law and you shall be free to carry on the judicial process as and when required. You are urged not to make your legal obligation an alibi to compromise our affirmed religious vows and principles of community life,”.

Another nun was accused by the order of acting “against the principles of religious life” because she published poems, bought a car and took part in a protest against the alleged rapist, Franco Mulakkal, actions termed as ‘grave violations’. She was issued a notice to explain her behaviour at a hearing scheduled for 9 January but refused to appear, saying that she was busy.

In further twists, a key witnesses in the case, Father Kattuthara, was found dead in Jalandhar under mysterious circumstances in November. The Convenor of ‘Save Our Sisters’, the movement supporting the protesting nuns, has been removed from his post.

The Catholic Church has always been accused of taking the path of least resistance and it is beyond my understanding as a practising Christian Feminist as to why it hasn’t intervened in this case.

When a Nun is accused of a deeper religious violation for buying a car and writing poetry over protesting against the heinous crime of rape then there really is something gravely wrong with the way the Catholic Church views women, whistleblowing and gender justice.

In the meantime the Church Patriarchy continues to be supported to demand subservience and silence from the women while protecting the men. In a resolute fight back these nuns are showing that the #metoo movement is prepared to smash any cultural or religious barrier.

The patriarchy may seek ways to assert itself by relying on traditional structures of organised and respectable power, like religion, but feminists are prepared to meet them anywhere.