Blog van Saskia Wieringa

Justification for mass murder? Anwar Congo in The Act of Killing and the trial of Eichmann.

In my present post-Aletta period I return to a topic that has haunted me for over 30 years – the genocide in Indonesia in 1965-7 in which between 1 and 3 million people were murdered. How is it possible that the murderers still walk Indonesian soil as free men, and that the lies the army propagated at the time are still largely believed? Two recent films made a deep impact on me. In her film on the philosopher Hannah Arendt, Margarethe von Trotta focuses on the trial of Nazi-mass murderer Eichmann in Jerusalem, in 1961.

Post-Aletta blues 4 The artsy cookbook

At my farewell reception from Aletta I received an artsy cookbook. On the right page works of art, paintings, installations which on close inspection might have a relation with food, and on the left page recipes with fancy names.
For the last 30 years I had hardly opened a cookbook. My repertoire consisted of soups, stews, salads, steaks and baked fish. This served me well and my guests did not complain. Though they dined with much greater enthusiasm after Nur had joined me in Holland and spicy Indonesian dishes graced our table.

Post-Aletta blues 3 Care of the self

On April 1 2012 my term as director of Aletta institute for women’s history ended. I have been the first and only director of the institute under that name, for the Amsterdam women’s archive-cum-library changed from IIAV to Aletta in 2009. The merger with E-Quality that took effect during the Summer of 2012 necessitates another name change. During my 7 years as director I had another job as an academic, occupying the first chair on women’s same-sex relations crossculturally, at the University of Amsterdam.

Post-Aletta Blues 2: The Indonesian genocide

The first time that the black shroud of horrific historical memories enfolded me was in 1986, in the library of Cornell University. Fore many weeks I had been patiently reading the Communist newspaper from its early days in the beginning of the 1950s till the last day it appeared, just before the clumsy putsch of some leftist officers who abducted and killed the corrupt army’s top brass on the early morning of October 1, 1965.

Post-Aletta Blues 1: Rachel’s pie.

Several times in my life I felt history close down on me like a black shroud. This happened last month in Budapest. Before the opening of a feminist conference in that city I walk around its Jewish quarter. It is an eerie, almost deserted, dilapidated neighbourhood which once must have been teeming with life, kosher restaurants and coffee houses, workshops, ateliers and thousands of people going around their daily lives.

Valentijnsdag 2012

Om 7 uur werd ik gewekt met het nieuws dat er op grote schaal bossen bloemen waren gestolen van kwekers in het Westland. Valentijnslovers die hun geliefden met gestolen tulpen verblijden? En dat terwijl die kwekers toch al in de moeilijkheden zitten nu politieke onverlaten hun Poolse werknemers dreigen te deporteren.

De avond daarvoor had ik op een bijeenkomst van Women Inc een toepasselijk Valentijnscadeau voor mijn eigen geliefde gekocht. Dat zat zo.

Islamic boarding school for FTM transgenders in Indonesia

Indonesia has a history of gender and sexual diversity. But hardliner Muslim groups increasingly dominate public space and have already executed several attacks on transgenders, gay men and lesbian women. So how do Muslim transgenders negotiate a space for themselves? There is little tolerance for transgenders in mosques – a strictly binary order is upheld. People must choose whether they sit with the men or with the women.

Het lesbische nichtje van Den Doolaard

Ergens midden jaren negentig van de vorige eeuw werd ik bevangen door een zeldzame aanval van familiezin. Zou ik eens contact met een familielid opnemen? Met wie dan? Mijn grootvader van moederskant (Spoelstra) had een verre neef die reizen maakte en daar aanstekelijk over schreef. Deze Cornelis, of Bob Spoelstra, alias Den Doolaard, was het zwarte schaap van de familie. Niet alleen schreef hij voor die tijd zeer seksueel expliciete romans (zijn roman Wampie is door generaties schoolkinderen stukgelezen) maar ook was hij politiek zeer uitgesproken: anti-fascist, atoompacifist.

Academic opening Aletta

On 17 November the academic opening of Aletta was held, with a seminar on the work of Rosi Braidotti, distinguished professor in the humanities at Utrecht University. The venue was the bright yellow auditorium in our new location, Vijzelstraat 20. Discussants were Lisa Baraitser from London and Iris van der Tuin, also from Utrecht University. The auditorium was packed with a mostly young public, eager to hear these three icons of European women’s studies.

In Memoriam Saskia Poldervaart

Donderdag 17 november overleed wetenschapper en activiste Saskia Poldervaart. Ze was strijdbaar tot op het eind en jarenlang een belangrijke schakel in feministisch Nederland.
Twee weken geleden was ze nog aanwezig bij de tweejaarlijkse uitreiking van de naar haar genoemde ‘Saskia Poldervaart Prijs’.
We herdenken haar als een vrouw met een groot hart, integer, altijd strijdend voor feministische idealen.

U bent hier