Nafisa grew up in Queens NY, got some sort of degree in Ethnic Studies and Political Economy, worked in youth organizing/nonprofit, then moved to Kolkata for a fellowship. Somehow she ended up in Atlanta, getting a masters in development practice. i love the mundane. once in a while i get a kati roll from Sanjays and a diet coke from the bodega next door. “bodega” b/c i don’t know what to call them here. i actually get the diet coke every other day and the guy pulls out a cold one before i ask. i used to do this ritual at a shop a block away and now when I pass by, I lower my coke so they don’t label me traitor.
today was my first rally. my ngo is a part of maitree, the regional network of women’s autonomous movements. which sounds nice, i don’t know the extent of their politics really. all i know is i like mira-di who organizes Rapid Response Training or community prevention and response to incidents of rape, domestic abuse and cases of violence against women. they seem like a hip network of older ladies and they don’t seem to be state sponsored feminists so this is a little something something to get into.
the rally was in response to a recent case of a member of the women’s rights community torturing her domestic worker, who is also a child. <awkward sentence. there’re legal proceedings that have been making the news lately so today was an awarness ralley for domestic workers rights and demanding increased visibilty + stronger anti-child labor policies.
I was trying to explain a police state and the amount of permits and paperwork needed to get some breathing room from the NYPD. They were like, yeah, you just gotta be sweet and write a vauge letter to the police about women’s rights or something or the other and they’ll give you a platform. Heck yeaaa.
The format was pretty off putting. I walked over and it felt like a political party rally. Eh. My boss kicked ass though, and ripped up the stage when she got the mic. They were like, nafisa, want to sing or say something on behalf of justice for domestic workers? I was like, mm. nah. ah, some typical issues came up. like it was pretty foot-soldier-y. yikes. i’m going to be crucified for writing this blog.
oh also, we had to bounce mad early because of the the SUCI party, socialist unity center of india, who was totally encroaching on our space. the funny thing was, the call-back/chant we used to end the meeting was immideatly appropraited by party women on an adjacent stage. they took our mommentum like pros. ha. smart.
