Reversing the power structure

Published in werk, bauen + wohnen

08.03.2022

Reversing the power structure

Published in werk, bauen + wohnen

08.03.2022

08.03.2022

Purple combat statement at the Faculty of Architecture of the UNAM © Laure Nashed

1. The main entrance of FA UNAM is covered with posters and graffiti, 2. The activist group of female students called M.O.F.A., 3. M.O.F.A. calls on women to testify and de-normalise , 4. Opening of the exhibition “¡Juntas! Manifestaciones Feministas y la Apropiación del Espacio Público.”, 5. The exhibition shows how women occupy urban space during demonstrations, 6. Seventy five percent of the spaces in the FA are renamed after Mexican women. © Laure Nashed

It is a jumble: posters in all formats and graffiti in purple letters dominate the main entrance of the Faculty of Architecture (FA) at the Mexican university UNAM. The anger is obvious: «If they touch one, we all react», «The FA doesn’t care about me, my girlfriends take care of me» or «together, free and without fear» are some of the combat messages.

 

Banal yet reasonable demands

The atmosphere at the faculty remains tensed following a five-month strike from March to September 2021. The strike was initiated by the «Mujeres Organizadas de la Facultad de Arquitectura» (M.O.F.A.), an activist group of female students. Since their formation in 2018, they have managed to turn the power structures at the architecture faculty in Mexico City upside down. The claims of the MOFA thereby are banal yet reasonable: safe and equal learning spaces as well as no violence against women. Opinions are divided on what these spaces of learning should look like and where the violence begins which ultimately led to the strike in 2021. Social media is the powerful weapon of the women students.

 

MOFA was founded after the most serious act of violence, a double femicide: In March 2018, a student and a teacher, mother and daughter, of the Faculty of Architecture were assassinated in their home. Mexico is the fourth most dangerous country for women in the world, with an average of ten femicides per day. At the time, the female students of the FA were deeply disappointed by the statement from the university administration, which, by default, expressed regret for the women’s deaths. The students demanded that the communiqué be rewritten to clearly state that these were feminicides and that the faculty strongly condemned violence against women and demanded a full investigation.

 

«Women don’t know anything about construction»

The students of the MOFA emphasise: Violence against women does not start with physical violence, but significantly before and includes the choice of words. On Instagram they publish accusations by students and name the alleged perpetrators: a professor is said to have invited a female student to his home several times; another professor recommended to a female student during her final exam to work as a dancer and not as an architect in order to successfully entertain men; several professors of building engineering are accused of having proclaimed that women do not know anything about construction and that the course is therefore geared towards men.

 

The publications on Instagram without transparency and verifiability may seem problematic. But unfortunately, the MOFA and the official accusations by female students, some of which are severe, were only taken seriously after these publications. Normalisation, loyalty among professors, university politics and the protection of reputation took precedence over the protection of women for decades. Swiss architects are likely to recall the case when an ETH architecture professor was accused of sexual harassment by several women over a period of years. In January 2019, the ETH announced that the professor had been cleared of the allegations. Also here, many – especially those affected – felt abandoned by the university in Zurich.

 

It is uncomfortable

In Mexico, the always hooded and anonymous members of MOFA, encouraged by the #MeToo campaign, decided that they had to take women’s safety at the Faculty of Architecture of UNAM and their right to equality into their own hands. After a three-day strike in 2020 and the five-month strike in 2021, they have achieved the following: An offer of psychological support for students who have been victims of gender-based violence; the introduction of the compulsory subject «Gender Perspective in Professional Education», which also explains the different gradations of violence; a few voluntary public apologies from professors; a more transparent reporting procedure for victims; and the renaming of 75% of the spaces within the Faculty of Architecture after Mexican women who are or have been involved in the fields of architecture, urban planning or landscape design. UNAM also provided space for an exhibition organised by MOFA, which opened on 25 February 2022. It shows feminist demonstrations and the accompanying female appropriation of public space in Mexico.

 

The loud outcry of MOFA is uncomfortable, also for many women. But it is apparently necessary to change a macho culture and to fight gender injustice. MOFA uses social media to take away women’s helplessness, to educate and to gain respect. They have achieved that nobody wants to mess with MOFA.