For too long, mainstream feminism has been shaped by Western narratives, often sidelining the struggles and voices of women in the Global South. This International Women’s Day, it is crucial to shift the focus toward decolonizing feminism—challenging Eurocentric frameworks and amplifying the diverse, intersectional fights for justice led by Indigenous, Black, Dalit, and other marginalized women. True feminism must recognize the deep connections between gender, colonial histories, and economic exploitation, ensuring that liberation is not defined by Western ideals but by the lived realities of women worldwide.
Feminism Beyond the Western Gaze
Feminism has long been a movement for gender equality. But whose feminism is being heard? Western feminism has dominated the conversation, often sidelining the struggles of women in the Global South. This International Women’s Day, the focus must be on decolonizing feminism. Women worldwide fight oppression in ways that differ from Western narratives. Their battles against patriarchy, economic exploitation, and colonial legacies deserve recognition.
Decolonizing feminism means shifting away from a one-size-fits-all model. It requires recognizing diverse histories and lived realities shaped by colonialism and imperialism. True feminism must acknowledge the interconnectedness of gender, race, class, and colonial power structures.
What Is Decolonizing Feminism?
Decolonizing feminism challenges Western, white-centric narratives that dominate feminist discourse. It recognizes and uplifts the movements of Indigenous, Black, Dalit, and Global South women. These women have fought patriarchy for generations but often face erasure and marginalization. Their struggles include land rights, labor justice, and resistance to colonial oppression. Decolonizing feminism ensures their voices and histories take center stage in the global feminist movement.
How Western Feminism Has Been Colonial
The White Savior Complex
Western discourse often frames women from the Global South as helpless victims. This perspective, promoted by Western NGOs and policymakers, ignores their agency and long histories of resistance.
Example: Afghan women have fought for their rights for decades. However, Western narratives portray them as passive figures needing Western intervention to gain freedom.
Imposing Western Gender Norms
Western feminism assumes that gender roles must fit a universal standard. It disregards societies that had diverse gender constructs before colonialism dismantled them.
Example: Indigenous and African societies had more fluid gender roles. European colonization imposed rigid, binary hierarchies that persist today.
Neoliberal Feminism and Individualism
Western feminism promotes empowerment through corporate success rather than systemic change. It often celebrates elite women while ignoring the economic realities of working-class women in the Global South.
Example: Western feminism highlights women breaking glass ceilings in boardrooms. However, it overlooks millions of women in sweatshops producing goods under exploitative conditions.
The NGO-Industrial Complex and Funding Bias
Western feminist organizations often control feminist agendas in the Global South through funding. They sideline grassroots movements that challenge neocolonial policies and state oppression.
Example: In Africa and South Asia, grassroots feminist groups struggle to get funding. Western donors prioritize gender issues that align with their own interests rather than local struggles for land and economic justice.
Feminist Movements Redefining Liberation
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Dalit Women Fight (India)
Dalit women face oppression due to caste and gender discrimination. Their activism challenges both patriarchy and the caste system, often ignored in mainstream feminist discourse.
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Indigenous Women’s Land Defense (Amazon, North America, Philippines)
For Indigenous women, feminism is also about land sovereignty and environmental justice. They lead movements against corporate land grabs and ecological destruction.
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Feministas del Abya Yala (Latin America)
This movement prioritizes ancestral knowledge and community resistance. They fight for reproductive justice, land rights, and against state violence targeting Indigenous and Afro-descendant women.
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African Feminist Forum
African feminists define their struggles beyond Western expectations. They focus on economic exploitation, state violence, and colonial legacies in governance.
The Silence of Western Feminism: A Palestinian Advocate Speaks
As Maria Fakhouri, an advocate for Palestine, powerfully states:
“When people speak of feminism on International Women’s Day, I must stop and ask: which nations does your internationalism include? Does it include the women of Palestine? If your feminism erases Palestinian women, your feminism is false; it is white supremacy masquerading around as women’s rights.”
“How can you speak of reproductive rights and ignore the ways that the settler-colony of Israel deprives Palestinian women of any semblance of reproductive justice? I think here, for example, of the recently freed Palestinian hostage Rula Hassanein, a Palestinian journalist from occupied Bethlehem. The Zionist occupation forces tore her away from her nine-month-old baby while she was still breastfeeding. They imprisoned her in torturous conditions for ten months on charges of ‘incitement on social media’—a common fraudulent charge brought against Palestinian women by the occupation to silence them & punish any dissent to their oppressors.”
The Struggles of Palestinian Women
Maria Fakhouri talked about the Struggles of Palestinian women, where she said;
“Where are these Western feminists who speak so proudly of women’s rights to bodily autonomy? Do they care about the right of Palestinian women to have bodily autonomy? And do they know about the thousands of Palestinian women whom Israel has imprisoned and tortured for decades? Do they care?”
“This past summer, I had the privilege of meeting a woman who had recently arrived as a refugee from Gaza to the settler-colony of Canada. Meeting her was a haunting experience. When I told her that I was also Palestinian (the grandchild of refugees from the 1948 Nakba), she looked up at me with relief. She took my hand in hers and began to speak to me with tears in her eyes of how vulnerable and sick she felt when she would get her period in the midst of genocide. With the Israeli occupation blocking out all aid, all access to basic hygienic essentials like water and soap, let alone menstrual pads, the weeks where she would get her period would feel humiliating. She would feel dirty, unable to clean herself. Open and vulnerable to infection.”
Western Feminism’s Double Standards
She stated further;
“Yet, the Western feminists remain silent until now. Even after the world witnessed Israel massacre Palestinian women masses for over 500 days. Where can such a dishonest feminism possibly lead? It certainly doesn’t promise me and my Palestinian sisters any semblance of freedom.”
“If your feminism cannot recognize and acknowledge Palestinian women’s oppression, it cannot be true feminism. If you are unwilling to name and confront their oppressor—which is the Israeli occupation of Palestine—you cannot be sincere in your words about women’s empowerment. For we cannot have any serious conversations about the oppression of Palestinian women if we are unable to name and condemn their oppressors.”
The Hypocrisy of Selective Feminism
Maria Fakhouri stated about the hypocrisy of selective feminism, saying;
“If your feminism refuses to name and condemn the Zionist occupation of Palestine, the truth of your feminism to me as a Palestinian woman is clear: what you seek is not women’s rights for all, but women’s rights for some. And a feminism such as this must be exposed and dismantled. That feminism is still colonized.”
Decolonizing feminism means dismantling these selective narratives and ensuring that no woman’s struggle is erased or depoliticized. This International Women’s Day, the feminist movement must break its silence and stand for true liberation—one that recognizes the struggles of all women, including those fighting settler-colonialism, imperialism, and systemic oppression.
Decolonizing Feminism: A Call for True Gender Justice
Emilie Palamy Pradichit, founder of Manushya Foundation, a women-led NGO, said:
“This International Women’s Day, we must confront a hard truth: mainstream feminism has long been dominated by Western narratives, erasing the voices, struggles, and victories of women from the Global South. It is time to decolonize feminism—to dismantle the structures that center privilege while marginalizing those at the front lines of resistance.”
“At Manushya Foundation, we fight for a feminism that is intersectional, inclusive, and rooted in the lived experiences of global majority people, Indigenous women, LGBTI communities, the working class, and all those resisting capitalist, patriarchal, and classist oppression. Our struggles are not secondary; they are the heart of the fight for gender justice.”
She further stated:
“Decolonizing feminism means recognizing that Western-led movements do not hold a monopoly on women’s rights. It means dismantling the class system that keeps the privileged in power while the most marginalized are forced to fight for survival. It means amplifying local movements, valuing traditional knowledge, and rejecting the savior complex that treats women from the Global South as victims rather than agents of change. Because feminism cannot be about the success of a privileged few while the rest remain trapped in cycles of poverty and exploitation. Our fight is not just about breaking glass ceilings—it’s about shattering the systems that build those ceilings in the first place.”
She continued,
“We will not be silenced. We will not be tokenized. This Women’s Day, let’s commit to a feminism that listens, learns, and uplifts—not one that dictates, exploits, or erases. Because our liberation is collective. None of us are free until all of us are free.”
“The future of feminism is decolonized, or it is nothing at all.”
How to Support De-colonial Feminism
- Listen to Non-Western Feminist Voices
Read, follow, and support thinkers and activists from the Global South. Some key scholars include Chandra Mohanty, Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyẽẹwùmí, Audre Lorde, Maria Lugones, and Aileen Moreton-Robinson.
- Challenge the White Savior Narrative
Before supporting a feminist cause, ask if it empowers women on their own terms. Avoid framing Global South women as helpless victims needing Western intervention.
- Rethink Empowerment Beyond Neoliberalism
Empowerment is not just about women entering corporate spaces. It must include dismantling systemic oppression in labor, land rights, and justice systems.
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Support Local, Grassroots Feminist Movements
Instead of donating to large Western NGOs, support local feminist organizations. They are more likely to address systemic injustices within their own communities.
- Hold Feminism Accountable
Feminism must be intersectional. Ask who is centered in feminist conversations and who is excluded.
Feminism Must Be Truly Inclusive
Decolonizing feminism is not about rejecting Western feminism. It is about expanding the movement to include diverse struggles. Global South feminists have been leading resistance for centuries. The world must listen and ensure their voices are not erased.
This International Women’s Day, let’s break the monopoly of Western feminism. Let’s amplify radical and intersectional feminist movements that are fighting for true liberation.
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