Feminist Schools in Southeast Asia Blatant disregard for the rule of law, pervasive culture of impunity, and intensified political repression and conservative fundamentalism are constricting democratic spaces across Southeast Asia (SEA), particularly in Philippines and Indonesia. The harsh socio-political landscape breeds more violent and discriminatory spaces for women. For example, Indonesia is still battling with discriminatory national and local bylaws while the Philippines is still suffering from state-sponsored misogynistic violence. All these normalize violence against women and girls, and particularly those women facing marginalization, such as: Lesbians, Bisexual and Transgender (LBTQ) women, women living with disabilities, indigenous women, victims of (sexual) violence and exploitation women.
It is time to create a counterculture to the rising authoritarianism, misogyny, and sexism towards combatting the normalization and high incidence of violence and discrimination against women and girls, particularly those from marginalizedcommunities and/or sectors. To stimulate this, Women#s Legal and Human Rights Bureau - WLB (in the Philippines) and Kalyanamitra (in Indonesia) are implementing a project to teach feminism in SEA using a participatory approach.

This project entitled #Feminist School for Women and Young Women Activists in Indonesia and the Philippines: Towards developing Transformative and Sustainable Leadership Among Marginalised Groups of Womenin Southeast Asia# aims to empower a new generation of (marginalised) women/young women to become activists and leaders committed to work for social change, equality, and the protection of women and girls through women#s movement building. Towards this end, feminist leadership modules are developed specifically for Indonesia and Philippines, and later on for SEA in general, taking into consideration the distinct contexts of the two countries as well as their similarities especially for marginalized women. Workshop discussions for the development of modules will involve marginalized women communities, and veteran activists and younger feminists to promote intergenerational learning. The modules will be written in local language so communities and even young women can replicate someof the sessions in the training especially those on women#s human rights and discrimination, protection, and intersectionality. Such modules are put practice through the establishment of feminist schools in the Philippines and Indonesia respectively. Finally, Regional Feminist Camp (with participationof women from Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos) will be organized in the last phase of the project to fortify solidarity among women and ensure sustainability of women#s movement in SEA.

Through these activities, young women activists will be trained to apply critical-thinking and feminist lens on issues relating to gender issues, sexuality, feminist leadership, and human rights, particularly on issues of accessibility of services and resources for marginalized women. These young women are expected to carry their learnings and feminist perspectives in their chosen field of work, to influence others in creating safe spaces for women/young women; thereby, ensuring that women#s issues will not be left behind by the bigger social movements.