Paulina de los Reyes, Chile/Sweden
Paulina is a professor of economic history at Stockholm University and chair of the Swedish Association for Gender Studies. Her main research areas are postcolonial feminism, critical race theory and working life studies. She has written extensively on processes of exclusion, precarization and discrimination in the labour market from a gender, race and class perspective and participate as an expert in several ndicimmissions of inquiry. She is currently engaged in research project on the Stockholm riots 2013 based on the testimonies of the residents of the suburbs. As a former political refugee from the Chilean dictatorship, she has an extensive experience of solidarity work and human rights activism being particularly engaged in the conditions of women in conflict situations. She has participated in several campaigns against the siege of Gaza, e.g. a petition claiming the investigation of Israel’s war crimes in the Hague tribunal that was sent to the Swedish government.
QUOTE: “After all years of illegal siege it is more important than ever to show our solidarity with the people in Gaza and to pressure for an end to the inhuman blockade that imposed so much suffering to the Palestinian people. As a scholar I know how vulnerable women are in such conditions. As an activist I have being inspired by the incredible capacity to resist of the Palestinian women. As a human being I cannot remain passive when the people of Gaza is being isolated, imprisoned and constantly exposed to the brutality of the illegal occupation of the state of Israel. I welcome this opportunity to promise the women in Gaza that we, the international solidarity movement, will stand by them so long as their resistance to the occupation continues. Also, I see this historical venture as a powerful message to the state of Israel; the women around the world will not forget their sisters in Gaza. The international community will remain mobilized until all the Palestinians can freely live in their own land. I’m convinced that WBG is writing herstory.”