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||  || I N T E R N A T I O N A L E N C O U N T E R S A N D W O M E N ’ S E M P O W E R M E N T U N D E R D I C T A T O R S H I P A N D R E D E M O C R A T I Z A T I O N [W]e feminists have found that traditional political practice, however women are involved, is segregationist and subordinating in all sociopolitical sectors,whether the women are shantytown dwellers, peasants, employees, or professionals. Julieta Kirkwood,Chilean feminist, I O , Joan Jara, widow of singer-songwriterVictor Jara, who had been tortured and killed by the military, toured the United States with her young children and the folk band Inti-Illimani.All had been exiled from Chile. Now they used music to tell of the political violence that continued to shatter their home country. Inti-Illimani summed up its message for a NewYork audience with the song “Zamba de los humildes” (Song of the poor): “If we must wait for hope, we will wait for it singing.”₁ In the same year, Joan Jara spoke atAmerican University inWashington, D.C., and granted interviews to newspapers to remind U.S.citizens that“my children and I represent many voices— the voices of widows and orphans in Chile who are silenced by the military junta. In their name, I demand that torture in Chile shall cease . . . that the political prisoners shall be freed ...and that this military junta,murderers of their own countrymen, shall be isolated and overthrown, so that democracy and fundamental human rights may be restored in Chile.”²These prominent exiles, along with at least two hundred thousand other Chileans, were forced to leave their homeland after the coup.This tragedy produced unexpected consequences;||  || it introduced many exiles to international solidarity campaigns in defense of human rights as well as to dynamic feminist movements.These feminist movements specifically confronted gender-based human rights violations. Feminist historianAlicia Frohmann was actively involved in Chilean women’s mobilization.Her work stresses the important role women’s international connections played during the dictatorship.She points out that“the women’s movement of the s and s was an international movement, and whatever happened concerning women, both in the industrialized and the developing countries, influenced debates and initiatives elsewhere.”³Women’s initiatives and concerns worldwide found increased legitimacy through the United Nations Decade forWomen (–).Quests for women’s rights and gender equity also gained strength through new networks women built in the Americas and in Europe.Thus Chilean women participated in two parallel,yet independent, sets of international meetings that strengthened their ties to feminism.The first were meetings held under the auspices of the United Nations.The second were regional Encuentros Feministas (Feminist Encounters), dedicated speci- fically to uniting women throughout LatinAmerica and the Caribbean.Frohmann remembered the s as the most“heroic”period of the women’s movement, marked by women’s contribution to the end of dictatorship in Chile.⁴ But a new political climate under redemocratization,combined with a changed dynamic of women’s movements, also posed new obstacles to gender equity in the s.₅ The history of feminist mobilization in Chile is linked to international human rights and feminist movements,and different women used those ties to buttress their demands for rights in the aftermath of the UN InternationalWomen’sYear in .Exiles and international travelers became active agents in the construction of a human rights agenda and demanded gender equity at home. Neither the processes of “translating” their concerns abroad, nor their attempts to “import” foreign feminist insights upon their return were free of tensions. Nonetheless,the specific consequences that Chilean women’s international contacts produced can be traced.A fresh global paradigm of women’s rights allowed feminists worldwide to increase their political weight at the nation-state level. It also framed the trajectory of women’s mobilization in Chile.Initially,Chilean women built collective solidarity through consciousness-raising groups that identi fied and analyzed patterns of gender-based discrimination. Next, women’s groups used these findings to prioritize political agendas and collaborate with international agencies, including the United Nations, to employ international standards of women’s rights at home.₆As some women concentrated on specific International Encounters and Women’s Empowerment||  || [3.138.174.95] Project MUSE (2024-04...

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