Who‘s coming to FiLIA?

[lanadelgrey]

I‘m starting to get excited.
Are there plans for a MN meetup?

@RobinEllacotStrike
Palestine was not part of her agreed speech.
It was a deeply divisive thing to do and has harmed the Filia brand.

And yes I was at the disco.

I agree with you.

But can you agree she was not speaking at FiLiA in support of Hamas as many are falsely claiming saying she did including on this thread. She was saying she KNOWS they are EVIL, not "I won't hear a bad word against them".

We are seeing things being twisted & distorted in front of our eyes.

as I understand it a yellow ribbon means "come home safely" so it is very apt.

Only male hostages were returned in this last lot - the women have all been murdered.

She should not have mentioned Hamas (who treat women abysmally) in any way on the plenary of a Women's conference.

I have watched the video (as I missed her talk)
She put the whole event on edge which will damage 2026 ticket sales significantly
until the Trustees of the Charity clarify their strategy going forward.

To add to Tinsel's very fair reply, this really doesn't make sense. Tinsel doesn't gatekeep access to the media, other TWs can and do speak to the media.

As good as she is, and I think she is, she's very much not the domineering behemoth you seem to think she is.

And, of course TWs are rarely in the media, many don't want their lives made public, and many have children who cannot consent to having their stories told, and deserve privacy.

@RobinEllacotStrike
Filia was not the place, this was not the moment.

As for her condemnation of Hamas, it is quickly glossed over and far from clear: I read it initially as being ironic because of the very nasty rant against Israel that follows. After watching the video, I concede I had misread her intention.

Yet, critical of Hamas or not, while peace treaties were actually being signed, she still cannot bring herself to have a word or a thought for the women victims of October 7th attacks or the Jewish women in the room or to think about peace or reconciliation.

Why is that?

Rahila Gupta's speech was a disgrace, it showed a lack of judgement and maturity. She could have brought people together by merely drawing attention to the millions of women suffering from wars and persecution around the world and asked for a minutes silence. But no Palestine is the only conflict on the planet and let's all chant.
I'm sickened.

I am not here to defend Gupta - I most likely do not agree with her on this issue and I agree it was not the place for that speech.

But it is important to correct the lies/misrepresentations that are unhelpful and inflammatory and are being used to create more problems that there needs to be.

No.
The women and children were released many months ago.
Hamas are awful
but THAT is a conspiracy theory.

Women are simply discussing what is being reported. Correcting wrong interpretations is one thing framing that as women deliberately 'twisting and distorting' it is extremely unfair and frankly feeds into my distrust

Plenty of women weren't there. However, in light of their treatment of Tinsel (where we have a first hand account on this thread) and their removal of artwork because it had KJK in it, which is nasty however you look at it (the woman whose artwork was removed has written about it on the Virago Women's website which I've read), plus other women at the conference waving Palestinian flags and chanting pro-Palestinian messages loudly, the hijab stall, and the reports of unequal bannings, plus a report of a Jewish woman being spat at, it's not surprising that women aren't willing to uncritically accept whatever anyone says when there are conflicting accounts.

Personally, I think once the Palestine issue came up what was needed WAS an unequivocal condemnation, by Filia, of the specific, horrific torture of Israeli women and girls by Hamas. Because it's some of the most horrific violence against women I've ever seen.

<sigh> there was no hijab stall

Personally, I think once the Palestine issue came up what was needed WAS an unequivocal condemnation, by Filia, of the specific, horrific torture of Israeli women and girls by Hamas. Because it's some of the most horrific violence against women I've ever seen.

Agreed, and if that had happened perhaps the drama at the disco wouldn't have happened, or at least would have been considered, risk-assessed and mitigations put in place after such an inflammatory start to the weekend.

This is the best explanation I have read of why Rahilia's speech was wrong. It is a Twitter thread written by a woman named Bea Jaspert

This is where you’re wrong RahiliaG.

The issue that is dividing feminists is not “Palestine”.

The issue is - that one side casts Oct 7 as “resistance”, and condemnation of Hamas/support of Israeli victims as “weaponisation” - whilst the other side thinks refusal to condemn rape/male violence against Israeli women = a) racist and b) the antithesis of feminism.

Somehow, your “conscience” allowed you to talk without mentioning the unspeakable suffering of your sisters and their children in Israel - without mentioning, let alone condemning, Oct7: the Hamas massacre, atrocities, kidnappings. A shocking betrayal of feminist principles.

You “will take no lectures about the evil of Hamas”. Yet you lecture about the “evil of Israel”. In this way you excuse the former while you damn the latter. The epitome of division.

You think tit-for-tat “from the river to the sea” will heal division? “Netanyahu said it so we’ll say it back”? Such skilled negotiation. I despair.

Israeli/Palestinian women’s collective, Woman Wage Peace had the right idea.

They fought for healing and an end to the conflict in both Israel and Gaza. They were at Filia some years back. One of their founders Vivian Silver was burnt alive on Oct7. Honour her memory.

If you don’t speak for ALL women who are victims and survivors of this conflict, you speak for none. Bias, onesideness, withholding of compassion from victims & survivors on the “other side” - such contempt for human suffering brings no peace, just inflames and antagonises.

The only hope is peace for Palestine AND for Israel, through a negotiated settlement based on recognition of shared humanity.

Yes: free, free Palestine. And free Israel too. Free these sibling states from the endless cycle of hatred, violence, and conflict.

Stand for peace between Israel and Palestine. Or step away please. You are only making things worse.

"Women are simply discussing what is being reported. Correcting wrong interpretations is one thing framing that as women deliberately 'twisting and distorting' it is extremely unfair and frankly feeds into my distrust."

You have been repeating lies & distorting the truth, possibly innocently, but others are doing this disingenously.

I'm asking when there is an inflammatory situation its probably worth taking a moment to pause before sharing & fact check before adding fuel to the fire by spreading distortions & untruths.

I point out where you have gone wrong, & you move on without acknowledging the harm YOU are doing by repeating falsehoods that is stirring things up really unhelpfully. This is unfair and fosters distrust.

"it's not surprising that women aren't willing to uncritically accept whatever anyone says when there are conflicting accounts."

I agree we should not uncritically accept anything - in this particulary instance you could have taken a moment to read Guptas speech which is publically available and read what she said instead of contributing to the misreporting. You may well find plenty to criticise without misrepresenting her as a Hamas supporter, but you will be looking at & critising her actual speech.

https://x.com/SalagreNuriaEnS/status/1976926709044986257?t=1IP6o7uqOFCNSgchM0Wesw&s=19

https://x.com/UltraUna986/status/1977128748417008086?t=1IP6o7uqOFCNSgchM0Wesw&s=19

Some of the most virulent anti semitic propaganda I've seen at a public gathering.

https://x.com/hogotheforsaken/status/1977387820512682362?t=1IP6o7uqOFCNSgchM0Wesw&s=19

I don't believe I've repeated falsehoods or lies, I've repeated what I've heard and I've stated that is what I've done. I don't trust your posts. You come across as condescending. Who are you to say this to me 'I point out where you have gone wrong' - I have no reason to assume you are speaking the truth any more than other women you claim are lying. In fact much less.

In contrast, when Tinsel calls women out (such as for platforming men like Hayton) she does it in a positive way. You should learn from her approach if you want to convince women.

All you've convinced me of is that supporters of Filia aren't very nice. I don't really see why I should accept your account of things more so than other women who say something else.

This seems more convincing evidence of the hijab stall than the assertion of someone that it wasn't there.

https://x.com/BevJacksonAuth/status/1977367806514434329

I find it hard to consider Bev Jackson 'inflammatory'

please don't accept my account of things, but perhaps take your own advice and
don't "uncritically accept whatever anyone says when there are conflicting accounts."

I've now read Gupta's speech. In my opinion it's antisemitic and unfeminist. It's specifically ONLY talking about the impact of the war on Palestinian women and children, not Israeli women and children - the omission is glaring. No mention of violence against Jewish women and states that there is a genocide, which is disputed, and critises Israel but not Hamas. It is very one-sided and brings what is essentially an irrelevant politcial dispute into the conference.

If I was a Jewish woman at that conference I would find that very upsetting I think, given the level of violence on Oct 7th and afterwards against the female hostages. Plus the recent terrorist attack against a synagogue in the UK.

I was wrong about the hajib stall - I never saw that one. My bad.

I did see many calling the Women in Hebron stall a "hajib" stall which it isn't - it sells embroidered cushions & other crafts created by women.

Whatever my feelings about the hajib, I choose not to police what other women wear. Men do enough of that.

The speech talks about 'our Palestinian sisters'. No mention of Jewish sisters though, or their unspeakable suffering on October 7th.

It’s unbelievable that people (who should know better, being feminists and all) still fail to understand the huge risks involved in the work Tinsel does. ‘Difficult to deal with’ = She has very strong principles & boundaries, and has not compromised on those for anyone. Not for a platform, not for publicity, not for any reason whatsoever. Because she fully appreciates & understands the importance of the safeguarding required to do what she does. And that’s why many women trust her implicitly.

I think Filia would do well to learn from her strong principles & boundaries. They could have done with someone like her to deal with the clusterfuck at the weekend. They should have given her the respect she’s earned through her hard work. What they did was poor form & and indication of poor leadership & even poorer decision making by those with that responsibility.

For me, I think I’d say well done, tinsel, for sticking to your principles & boundaries, even if it does place you, in the ‘difficult women’ box, for some. I’d far rather be in that box with you!

Members of TWV have been explicitly pro Hamas and were on panels at Filia.

Out of everything that went on, this is the most serious issue for me and the issue that Filia really need to address. How did women who explicitly support a proscribed terrorist organisation end up being platformed at the event.

Well said. Agree 100%