A rebel with a feminist cause — Diana Russell
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Diana Russell: November 6 1938 — July 28 2020.
Recent years have seen an increase in protest, marches and public outcry about the scourge of violence against women. Social media groups are prolific and an abundance of non-profit organisations support victims, educate potential perpetrators and lobby for policy changes.
In the late 1980s in SA, the voices advocating the rights of women were few and far between and many were censured by the government. One prominent voice was that of Diana Russell, but decades before she embarked on activism against sexual violence, she demonstrated against the apartheid regime.
Her formal political initiation was as a member of the Liberal Party, founded by Alan Paton, which she joined in 1962 at the age of 23. Shortly after joining she was arrested while participating in a peaceful protest denouncing the banning of Peter Hjul, the Cape divisional chair of the Liberal Party. Later that year, with other disillusioned members of the Liberal Party, she joined the African Resistance Movement (ARM), an underground political organisation that questioned the viability of non-violent strategies. While Russell’s role in the resistance is not well recorded, she was instrumental in ensuring that the same fate did not befall the many women who played pivotal roles during the struggle.
In 1987 she set out to interview 50 women revolutionary activists. She travelled the length and breadth of SA, hyper vigilant that the Special Branch wouldn’t interfere in her interviews of many of the women who were either banned or under house arrest. She visited exiles in Zimbabwe and Zambia to complete her research, which culminated in the publication of Lives of Courage: Women for a New SA. Published by Harper Collins, the personal stories of these remarkable women, among them Gertrude Fester, Helen Joseph, Rhoda Kadalie, Rozena Maart and Winnie Mandela, gave a human face to the struggle.
While her work documenting the lives of SA activists was illuminating, it is the scope and volume of her research in violence against women that is breathtaking. In the same company as Catharine MacKinnon, Andrea Dworkin and Mary Daly, she has published 18 books, many of which have been translated. Her unpublished memoirs are contained in five manuscripts, one of which is aptly entitled Rebel with a Cause.
She organised the first feminist International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women in Brussels, Belgium, in 1976 at the opening of which Simone ...
Recent years have seen an increase in protest, marches and public outcry about the scourge of violence against women. Social media groups are prolific and an abundance of non-profit organisations support victims, educate potential perpetrators and lobby for policy changes.
In the late 1980s in SA, the voices advocating the rights of women were few and far between and many were censured by the government. One prominent voice was that of Diana Russell, but decades before she embarked on activism against sexual violence, she demonstrated against the apartheid regime.
Her formal political initiation was as a member of the Liberal Party, founded by Alan Paton, which she joined in 1962 at the age of 23. Shortly after joining she was arrested while participating in a peaceful protest denouncing the banning of Peter Hjul, the Cape divisional chair of the Liberal Party. Later that year, with other disillusioned members of the Liberal Party, she joined the African Resistance Movement (ARM), an underground political organisation that questioned the viability of non-violent strategies. While Russell’s role in the resistance is not well recorded, she was instrumental in ensuring that the same fate did not befall the many women who played pivotal roles during the struggle.
In 1987 she set out to interview 50 women revolutionary activists. She travelled the length and breadth of SA, hyper vigilant that the Special Branch wouldn’t interfere in her interviews of many of the women who were either banned or under house arrest. She visited exiles in Zimbabwe and Zambia to complete her research, which culminated in the publication of Lives of Courage: Women for a New SA. Published by Harper Collins, the personal stories of these remarkable women, among them Gertrude Fester, Helen Joseph, Rhoda Kadalie, Rozena Maart and Winnie Mandela, gave a human face to the struggle.
While her work documenting the lives of SA activists was illuminating, it is the scope and volume of her research in violence against women that is breathtaking. In the same company as Catharine MacKinnon, Andrea Dworkin and Mary Daly, she has published 18 books, many of which have been translated. Her unpublished memoirs are contained in five manuscripts, one of which is aptly entitled Rebel with a Cause.
She organised the first feminist International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women in Brussels, Belgium, in 1976 at the opening of which Simone ...
