Self care and collective care as a radical practice

Aizat

What did I learn at BFI? It I want to share an example that taught me transformational I remember very well. Once processes and radical self care we were having an online call for oneself and others. with my colleagues, and an to accept them or give them space to exist. We do not know what non-violent communication is. Our anger, disagreement, rage can be beautiful too. It is the path that led us to feminism and to the betterment of humanity. argument started among the And it is politically important to participants. I was neutral in learn how to treat yourself well this situation, but I couldn’t take in order to treat others well in it anymore and told them to get turn. Society very rarely allows lost. I regretted it right away, us to talk about our emotions, because I hadn’t practiced such our feelings and experiences, an attitude at work before and and we are filled with these thought that I would be fired. things every single second of But in response, I received a our lives. But this is a long procaring letter from the team, cess that never ends. which recommended that I rest. We often regard conflicts as how to express my gratitude. something bad, something that We are used to being punished should lead to some kind of for uncomfortable behavior disaster. People don’t want to and emotions. BFI never fired speak of, discuss or remember anyone and never punished conflicts. We do not know how anyone. I was shocked and did not know

AND IT IS POLITICALLY IMPORTANT TO LEARN HOW TO TREAT YOURSELF WELL IN ORDER TO TREAT OTHERS WELL IN TURN.

Saadat

There were times in the collective that your activism wouldn’t necessarily guarantee protection in your activities. The activist’s work is a conscious and deliberate construction of her life in her own way, consisting of resistance to the patriarchal requirements for women. Attacks and threats against activists and human rights defenders occur regularly. Sometimes they are large in scale and impact. In my case, this took the form of a direct attack on myself and my colleagues on March 8th by an aggressive mob. I did not want to stop even though my life was under threat. I had nothing to lose but my freedom. My desire to be part of the feminist movement and support other women was only strengthened.