by Nikoletta
I consider myself to be a passionate and enthusiastic queer feminist who believes in justice and equality for all. I studied Law with a focus on Human Rights and Gender. I am a native Greek speaker and when I was young I realised that I speak a language that does not give me the opportunity to meet and have conversations with people from all around the world, therefore, I started learning French at the age of 5. Then I continued with English, Spanish, Portuguese and German. Thanks to all these languages, I am now able to work on international law and gender and access diverse sources of information from several countries.
I remember very vividly the day of my PhD defence at the Law Faculty, where a male professor asked me why I elaborated on feminism and queer feminism since women’s rights are considered to be recognised in our days. I also recall that we were in a room full of portraits of important men who have played a significant role in the development of the University. I have to say that an environment full of men’s portraits made me feel uncomfortable considering the topic of my thesis, which was about intersex people’s rights. I answered him, ‘I don’t think that women’s rights are recognised nowadays, we are in a room full of men’s portraits’.
Being a woman in modern Greece
Coming from a highly conservative country, I have experienced sexism just for being a woman. I am in my 30s and people always tend to ask me why I work a lot and when I will have a family because in Greek society, the female mandate is to become wives and mothers. I am used to these kinds of comments, I admit that I live in a patriarchal society that is very slowly changing. I will often answer back to all these persons but not in an aggressive way. I just try to help them understand that women are meant to be everything they can be. The thing that concerns me is when women leave their studies and careers behind because they are forced by society to have a husband and a family. I think that women should start supporting women more on these matters and explain to them that they can have multiple ‘missions’ or ‘roles’ in this world.
‘If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain’
My aim in life is to contribute to the fight for inclusive justice and gender equality. Despite the struggles, daily life incidents motivate me: just a day in the life of a Greek woman or a Greek non-binary person is enough to realise that there is a lot of work to be done to achieve equality for all.
An organisation that I admire is Intersex Greece. Intersex is an umbrella term for innate natural diversities in sex traits or reproductive anatomy and the lived experience of the socio-cultural consequences of being born with a body that does not fit within the normative definitions of ‘male’ and ‘female’ bodies. Intersex children’s healthy bodies are often pathologised and illegaly altered through surgeries due to social norms, ignorance, shame and stigma. Intersex Greece is the only intersex-led organisation in the country that works for the promotion and recognition of intersex rights in Greece and abroad.
I had never imagined that I would be involved in such a powerful project until when in 2019 I was contacted by the mother of an intersex child who had found out that I was conducting my PhD on intersex rights. Since then, I have witnessed the organisation grow as well as intersex persons’ motivation and struggle for equality. As an ally and intersex expert, I admire how determined intersex people are (as well as their families) to defend their rights in such a patriarchal society or, maybe, such a patriarchal world. Intersex people are leading and will keep on leading the way towards equality for all.
About the Author
Nikoletta is a Principal Researcher on Inclusive Justice at Includovate. She is a legal expert in human rights law and gender issues. Her PhD was conducted at the Law Faculty of Aristotle University and was co-supervised by a member of the Law Faculty of Uppsala University. Her doctoral thesis introduced the first legal global comparative study on intersex rights and is published as a book by Springer under the title ‘Intersex Rights. Living between sexes’. She has worked for international and EU institutions including the EU delegation to the UN in New York. She is an ally-member of Intersex Greece.
Includovate is a feminist research incubator that “walks the talk”. Includovate is an Australian social enterprise consisting of a consulting firm and research incubator that designs solutions for gender equality and social inclusion. Its mission is to incubate transformative and inclusive solutions for measuring, studying, and changing discriminatory norms that lead to poverty, inequality, and injustice. To know more about us at Includovate, follow our social media: @includovate, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram.