Book for the Holidays: A New Perspective on the Role of Femininities in the Greek Revolution

In “The Peaceful Uprising of Female Sapiens,” Anna Karamanu offers an in-depth approach to the role of women in the national history of the last 200 years.

On the occasion of the completion of two hundred years since the Greek Revolution, the year that is coming to a close has been marked by a series of retrospectives, commemorative events, and tributes to the figures who influenced its outcome. However, if we look a little more closely, we will notice that the recognition of the female heroines – who fought from any position – is overlooked in the name of patriarchy, even when we talk about women like Manto Mavrogenous and Laskarina Bouboulina. Moving towards the present and stopping at the significant “revolutions” of the country, both socially and historically, their role becomes more and more visible, highlighting their major contributions to the formation of modern Greece, ensuring that almost in 2022, we will still be constantly talking about the need to break patriarchy.

In an effort to restore this injustice, Anna Karamanou, author and politician, embarks in her new book *”The Peaceful Uprising of Female Sapiens 1821-2021″* (published by Armos) on a thorough and insightful account of women’s participation in the movements that shaped the modern Greek state, as well as their own small revolutions for the progressive securing of rights and their journey towards the achievement of at least legal equality. From the 1821 Revolution to the radical *”Ladies’ Newspaper”*, from the feminism of the Interwar period to the newly arrived #MeToo movement in the country, the revolution proves to be a female affair, while simultaneously exploring how historical circumstances, great personalities, international ideological shifts, and geopolitical currents influenced their demands.

“The history of feminist struggles in Greece, spanning 200 whole years, was written by small groups of pioneering women, under conditions of harsh patriarchy. For this reason, this book is particularly aimed at women, especially the younger generation. It provides the key historical elements of the 200 years that are intertwined, either directly or indirectly, with the liberating process of women’s human rights and gender justice. It is important to understand how, within specific historical and political conditions, the struggles of a few brave, educated women shaped our lives. And most importantly, how this sacred legacy can be utilized,” writes Karamanu. In an era when women are once again forced to take up the ‘arms’ and rejoin the feminist struggles, with intersectionality now being at the heart of feminist critical thought.