Resisting the Feminist Threat: Antifeminist Politics in Post-Sandinista Nicaragua

The Challenge of Inclusive Identities and Solidarities: Discourses on Gender and Sexuality in the Nicaraguan Women's Movement and the Legacy of Sandinismo

“…What motivated me originally to do this analysis was an effort to understand changes in the Nicaraguan women's and feminist movement's strength and visibility in the last two decades. I saw how after a relatively short but intense period of flourishing in the early 1990s—including the emergence of alternative, experimental, radical spaces that engaged in personal politics—the women's movement started to lose mobilising capacity from the second half of the 1990s onwards, in particular around sexual rights and abortion rights (Criquillion, ; Kampwirth, ; , Montenegro, ; Dixon, ; Heumann, ).…”

“…Without a doubt, from the second half of the 1990s onwards the women's movement has faced increasing external challenges related to the growing power of the ‘pro‐life’ movement and the deteriorating relationship with the Sandinista party that left it with virtually no significant political ally (Kampwirth, , , ; Heumann, ). In addition, many authors have noted the ambivalent impact of international cooperation that, on the one hand, facilitated resources and opportunities but, on the other, also compromised the agenda of the women's movement and led to a process of institutionalisation and professionalisation, that some activists and scholars see as the cause of the de‐radicalisation (Criquillion, ; Alvarez, ; Alvarez et al, ; Dixon, ).…”

“…Many people have looked at how the Sandinistas have affected the development of feminism over time: as a revolutionary movement in the 1960s and 1970s, as a state party in the 1980s, as an opposition party in the 1990s, and from 2006 onwards again as a state party with an openly anti‐feminist agenda (Molyneux, , ; Jaquette, , ; Chinchilla, , ; Randall, , , ; Sternbach et al, ; Murguialday and Vazquez, 1994; Kampwirth, , , , , , ; Montenegro, ; Thayer, ; Luciak, ; Ewig, ; Alvarez et al, ; Dixon, ; Montenegro et al, ; Disney, ; Heumann, ; Lacombe, ).…”

Epistemic Engineering and the Lucha for Sexual Rights in Postrevolutionary Nicaragua

“…Even as contemporary activists engage with politically liberal notions of sexual subjectivity and human rights, they draw from a national political history based upon communitarian ideals and a hybrid approach to social justice. While the Sandinista's engagement with sexual rights was not ideal, the end of the revolutionary regime ushered in a tide of conservative social policies as well as further neoliberal economic reforms (Babb ; Dye and Close ; Kampwirth ). With the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in 1990, many members and loyalists of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) were freed from their party obligations and became dedicated to feminist and human rights projects, often through the auspices of civil society organizations and NGOs.…”

SPECTACLES OF SEXUALITY: Televisionary Activism in Nicaragua

“…Women's rights activists were also moved to march in the streets, proclaiming that “all little girls that become pregnant have been raped—she has a right to a therapeutic abortion” (Vigíl 2006). Despite her age and the danger to her physical and psychological well‐being, the Catholic Church hierarchy in Nicaragua insisted she carry the pregnancy to term; other conservative forces in Nicaragua also weighed in, and some were accused of “kidnapping” the girl to prevent her from undergoing the abortion (Kampwirth 2006:74). The case became an international controversy, taken up by pro‐choice advocates, including the (Nicaraguan) Network of Women against Violence, and antiabortion proponents, including the president of the republic and the Catholic Church hierarchy.…”