Front Line Defenders has learned with great sadness of the death of human rights defender Rafiq Hajat, who passed on 13 September 2021 of a heart attack. Despite the personal risks, Rafiq Hajat dedicated 20 years of his life to peacefully defending human rights in Malawi.

Some years ago I was introduced to the text “Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to 3rd World Women Writers”¹ by Glória Anzaldua. In it, she encourages women's writing. The Chicana, feminist and lesbian scholar on cultural theory calls on women from the so-called ‘third world’ to write. She recognizes writing as a form of creation. Of survival.

On 10 September 2020, Yury Korzun, a miner from Belarusian city of Salihorsk chained himself to a piece of equipment 300 meters below the surface. Belarusians commented it happened because “another person has handcuffed himself to the presidential chair”.

In mid-February 2020, as the coronavirus outbreak led to cities and counties across China imposing strict lockdown, a mother surnamed Wang and her two young children, with luggage in tow, walked for almost five hours in an attempt to return to their hometown in a neighbouring county after she was beaten by her abusive ex-husband.