Notices by Prof Nisreen Alwan (nisreen@mastodon.online)

I’m marking but not celebrating #InternationalWomensDay 
I won’t say happy IWD. How can it be with Palestinian women & girls being bombed, made homeless & literally starved with the blessing & silence of powerful people who pretend to be feminist. At least spare us the hypocrisy.
#Gaza
#ceasefirenow

Waking up every morning in a world where the powerful are so cruelly normalising the aggression on the powerless is such a heavy burden on the heart.

Look, at the end of the day it’s about always resisting the dehumanisation of the innocent, whether they’re Palestinian, Israeli, Iraqi, Syrian, Afghani, Iranian, Ukrainian, Russian, muslim, jewish, christian, atheist, disabled, ill, old, young etc etc etc.
It’s not complex. Don’t be convinced that it is.

I’ve lived the collective punishment of Iraqis for Saddam’s actions. I can’t stay silent on the collective punishment of any people for actions they had no control of. My conscience doesn’t allow me. And frankly you don’t necessarily need the lived experience to see that’s wrong.

You gotta understand that professional titles are vital to state for minoritised groups. Basically an ethnic minority woman feels she needs to state her title and/or qualifications to be taken as seriously as a white man. It’s not showing off. It’s a necessity for doing the work.
#science
#academia

You don’t have to do better than you did yesterday every single day. That’s too much pressure. Some days you can do better, some days you can do worse, other days you can do nothing. Worse & nothing are needed for better.

Contrary to common advice I talk about my negative #imposter thoughts. Because spelling them out loud:
1. makes them sound silly to you too
2. reduces the #shame element
3. allows trusted others you’re telling to give you positive feedback which we all need
4. normalises #vulnerability

I don’t think it’s good enough to talk about #inclusion. We need to talk about ANTI-EXCLUSION. Just like we need #antiracism. Because everyone is included by default. We all start being IN but some get unfairly kicked out. So the thing we need a counter-action for is #exclusion. 
So it’s #antiexclusion that we must work towards.

Using this platform made me realise how I came to accept exposure to cruelty & hostility as part of the deal of being able to talk to you. The clicks algorithm is not necessarily our connection master. How refreshing to be reminded of that.