Tell us about the launch of One Billion Rising in the Houses of Parliament last Thursday.

“One of the exciting things is seeing a new generation of women, another new wave of feminism. It feels that this time we might achieve some goals that we haven’t achieved so far. As someone who has been active in the Women’s Rights movement since the 1970s it was wonderful to see a room full of young women, feminists, in their teens and twenties who want to see change. They are fighting against cruelty against women, inequalities, degradation. There are still things we need to sort. There were campaigners against FGM, for women in asylum, women in prison, campaigners to stop sexism. There was a 17 year old young woman who argued wonderfully for respect for girls. Girls as young as 12 are expected to act out sexually; it is so hard for girls who are often derogated; there is no mutuality in their relationships, no respect towards them. It can make their life wretched. Yvette Cooper MP spoke about crimes against women. Every week two women will die of the hands of their partners. She said that if two men a week would die in a football match the public would be up in arms.”

How have things changed since you started your work to further justice for women?

“When I started bringing those issues up judges thought I was a wild feminist, and other women thought I was rocking the boat. Often in male dominated spheres women need to adopt male perspective in order to survive and do well. That is why I am out there to help younger generations.  Feminists are accused of hating men and hating fun. One Billion Rising is a joyful day of events in which men will join in. We are asking what it is like living in a world in which women experience this level of violence. We know that in Syria there is so much trafficking, rape of girls; in other societies girl children are not as wanted, and their sexuality is removed through FGM”.

Baroness Kennedy has just come back from Iraq where she was on a human rights mission. She spent time in women’s’ prisons and talks about the double standards women face: “Many women are there for crimes against morality, such as walking with a married man, sex outside of marriage. Men are not charged with the same offences. In terms of the legal systems we know that those problems face women everywhere. The reason is that the legal system has been made by men. It is not surprising that a feminine perspective wasn’t in there. The reality of women’s life was not there. Gradually we see the system is starting to change”.

Baroness Kennedy has been working in the last 30 years within the legal system to advance justice for women, campaigning to amend laws, making additions to the law, and in the past 15 years as a Labour Peer she is taking part in making those legal reforms. “It is hard to reform a system which essentially is the problem. You don’t get change in the law without campaigning. History of social reform teaches us that people in power don’t give it away”.

So, then, what is the place of One Billion Rising in the context of feminism and justice for women?

“One Billion Rising is about men and women saying this isn’t good enough and we have had enough. When the demand is great enough issues of gender and justice will be on the G8, G22 agendas. We shouldn’t talk about equal pay in separation of discussion of violence, No woman should talk about equal pay without talking about her sisters who are suffering abuse. We should think about not living in a world in which women wake up being afraid of another beating. We should not be living in fear”.

Since you have arrived as Principal of Mansfield, you have inspired many of us to rethink our place within the feminist movement and to take a clearer stance on issues of gender and justice. What should the readers of the Cherwell and young women do to further the feminist cause?

 “They should not be afraid of the title feminist. No decent man should be fearful of a woman who sees herself as a feminist. Feminism is about demanding equality. One Billion Rising is about making voices heard and not suffering silently when women are marginalized or derogated and for women to encourage in each other a sense of our own value, that we have to love who we are and not try and be someone else. Once we know our self- worth we are not going to accept bad things done to us. That is why we must get out there and dance!”

Details about the One Billion Rising campaign can be found here

Yes

I had my video planned out days before I received my nomination. Three kinds of spirit, beer, protein powder and raw egg, with an extra hot bird’s-eye chilli to finish things off. I was finally chosen, little more than a week after the first ‘Neck and Nominates’ had begun to appear on my Facebook.

For the small number whose social networking pages have not been overrun by the ‘NekNominate’ phenomenon, I shall briefly explain. An individual posts a short video of themselves online, beginning by mentioning the name of the person who has nominated them. They then neck (at least) a pint containing some kind of alcohol, adding to their concoction whatever substances they feel sufficient to outdo and impress their friends. With this done, they name two more individuals, who have a time limit of 24 hours to post a similar video.

It was towards the end of January that the first of these posts began to hit the UK, which originated in Australia before going viral globally. In all honesty, I found the first few videos of my friends subjecting themselves to progressively dirtier pints pretty funny. The drinking itself constituted only a few seconds of these miniature productions by which, through the use of various scenarios, props, costumes, and even languages, I was usually kept entertained for several minutes.

Less than two weeks on, and my attitude has changed entirely. It was on the day that I was due to post my own video that the tide of public opinion began to turn irreversibly. Tragic as it was, there was a sense of predictability about the two deaths in Ireland last weekend, which have been linked to ‘NekNomination’. Videos of those declining to take up their nomination are now attracting more ‘likes’ than those in which the participants play by the rules.

OUSU President Tom Rutland recently said, “The Neknominate craze is foolish and dangerous. Downing a pint or more of spirits, as just one example of the videos I’ve seen, is extremely dangerous and has lead to serious harm.” Undeniably, part of what has made this latest fad so popular is the entertainment we derive from seeing others undergoing grotesque or dangerous challenges. In May 2011, an Australian man plunged to his death from a balcony whilst participating in another internet craze called ‘planking’. Once people have pushed these ‘games’ to the point where they become lethal, it is only a matter of time before their popularity dries up. It has far less to do with people suddenly realising the stupidity of their acts, and more to do with the fact that once such an extreme has been reached, there is very little anyone can do to provoke a significant reaction.

To the young Welsh man who posted a NekNominate in which he downed a pint of beer, bit the head off a dead bird, and finished off with a pint of vodka in which was floating a stubbed out cigarette, I say well done. If NekNominate is a game, then you’ve clearly won. Now, to everyone else still clogging up Facebook with videos doing the bare minimum requirement pint of Fosters, prolonging the demise of this craze, stop. There is nothing left to prove.

Louee Dessent-Jackson

No

NekNominate. Like the floods and Miley Cyrus, it must get successively worse if it is to survive in the public consciousness. The deaths linked to this online drinking challenge are undoubtedly tragic. However, banning these videos from Facebook would only enhance the trend’s appeal among younger people, especially teenagers.

NekNominate has dominated the media in recent weeks. When the craze came to prominence, the Daily Mail described it as “extreme, disgusting and outlandish” and the tragic deaths linked to NekNominate have intensified opposition to it.

But coverage has been both condemnatory and indulgent. On Tuesday, the Metro published an article about Aaron Johnson putting dead mice and grasshoppers in a blender and his claim that he “loved every minute of it”. The next day, the newspaper published pictures of Steph-Lou Jones, who walked into McDonalds in a Baywatch-style swimsuit before drinking a pint of beer. The phenomenon’s portrayal is simultaneously terrible and entertaining.

NekNominate is likely to disappear naturally and must be allowed to do so. The one-upmanship involved in making a cocktail more extreme than the last means that it will inevitably become too difficult or dangerous to keep the attention of the majority. Once everyone who was ever likely to down a pint of Frosty Jacks, Curaçao and dog-hair has done it once, the momentum will be lost.

What’s more, once the novelty has worn off, people will start to think of the long-term ramifications of NekNominate. Many are already concerned about appearing drunk in photos accessible by their employers or potential employers. Drinkaware research shows that 47% of 18-24 year olds admitted de-tagging themselves from drunk photos they didn’t want others to see. It’s only a matter of time before students realise the link between that video of them drinking their own urine and the rejection email from PwC.

It is important to remember that only the most bizarre cases have been reported in the media. For many, the craze is about drinking pints of lager or cider in imaginative locations. The videos depicting the type of grisly concoctions which have got the RSPCA concerned are not representative of the majority of participants.

Alcohol remains the only socially acceptable vice, so it is unsurprising when people search for novel ways to drink. Indeed, the drinking games which students have been playing for years often involve a greater quantity of alcohol than NekNomination. The problems associated with binge drinking extend far beyond this new online context which NekNominate has provided. Everyone is aware of the risks of alcohol. With drinking and “the internet” being the two mainstays of students’ existence, I’m surprised it has taken until 2014 for NekNominate to become a craze. If 2013 brought Man vs. Food, then 2014 was the year of Man vs. Drink. The only question is, what will 2015 have in store?

Will Railton

When revolution struck Iran in 1979, Prince Reza Pahlavi, then nineteen, saw himself exiled from his home country. His father had been overthrown and the Iranian state was to become an Islamic regime, under Ayatollah Khomeini, which would radically alter the society, culture, and way of life of an entire nation.

The trajectory of how Pahlavi eventually came to be one of the most prominent advocates of freedom and democracy in Iran from that point is not easy to plot. As a student at Williams College and the University of Southern California, as well as during his time in Cairo where his father died in 1980, Pahlavi soon developed strong views on the issues of human rights and democracy, for which he is now fights across the world.

Author of three books, including ‘Winds of Change’, and also spokesman for the Iran National Council for Free Election, Pahlavi now spends his time travelling in the hope of promoting a change of regime in his home country. He is also, under the Persian constitution of 1906, the current heir to the Persian throne.

As a reader of Edward Said’s ‘Reflections on Exile’, I asked Pahlavi how this condition of exilehas shaped the way he has led his life since the revolution.
“It’s a different kind of pain, where you know that you want to be back home but you are prohibited from being there. The life of an exile is not like that of one who decides freely to emigrate and go somewhere else. Ever since my father died in Cairo, Iran has been foremost in my mind, and I have now been, for practically 33 years and counting, in the struggle of the opposition and trying to change things, so it has been the story of my life so far.

“I don’t look at exile necessarily in a negative way, because a lot of what I’ve learnt – being exposed to democratic societies, seeing life from the prism of the average citizen in these countries, interacting with them, understanding their aspirations and pains – there is no way I could possibly have had the experience I have today, which has enriched me in so many ways, had I inherited my father’s position.”

Indeed, despite not having been in Iran for over three decades, Pahlavi claims to speak for the average citizen in Iran, a suggestion many people have found problematic.

“The fact that I’ve been away from my country has not meant that I’ve been detached from what’s happening there, because I’ve always had a strong [line of] communication. I’m in touch with Iranians at home, dissidents, their activities etcetera – the only difference is that I’m not physically there, but it’s not that I’m detached.”

During his talk at the Oxford Union, Pahlavi spoke a lot about the errors of the Iranian regime, the work which needs to be done, and how a change of regime in Iran must come from within, with strong support from the West. However, there is little reference to the Arab Spring, or the possibility of a similar movement taking place in Iran. The role that social media could play in such a takeover intrigues Pahlavi.

“The most utilised tool of defiance and organisation is social media. For instance, every year around this time the Islamic Regime has a whole week dedicated to celebrating the revolution. A month ago, in close collaboration with dissident groups we supported two campaigns that call for an end to capital punishment and the forceful imposition of the veil. This came from inside. I’d never have dreamed of doing the things that we are capable of doing now even 20 years ago. Social media has been a tremendous tool which has been helpful to many civilian and democratic movements across the world – at least as a tool it has been successful in Iran so far.”

Despite his calls for freedom and democracy in Iran, Pahlavi is often criticised for continuing to use the dynastic title which has helped him project his voice around the world. In justifying his use of the royal badge to further his country’s aims, he says, “I am my own man, with my own ideas, and I am the product of my own generation. In that sense I hope that people assess me not on the basis of my inheritance but on the basis of my platform.”

Much of Pahlavi’s rhetoric is overly optimistic, plagued by the cultural essentialisms which dominate the West’s attitudes to the Middle East. When asked about the West’s part in contributing to the situation in Iran, the exiled Prince comments,“There are many aspects that are attractive to the average Iranian when he looks at the West holistically. Values, freedoms that they can exercise, which they come and see for themselves. When they come to these countries they have no worries. People seek this culture – and in many ways they want to show, and in many ways they demonstrate – their appreciation and their respect for that.

“It’s much more than a cultural thing, it’s to do with values, it’s recognising the values which are inherent in free societies which is the attraction. Equality is equality.

“Iran is one of the very few countries in the Middle East which had many of these values before the revolution and lost them. There was a time, not long ago, when an Iranian woman could drive at 2 o’clock in the morning, totally alone in her car across an a entire desert and nobody would dare stop her or attack her or intimidate her.”

Pahlavi’s attitude seems too hopeful. Too confident in the existence of “universal” values, in the inherent benevolence of the west, in the possibility of a peaceful revolution. And yet, as an exile, and a high-profile victim of the revolution, this is inspiring. Perhaps the only thing which can drive forward a movement of national liberation is an unwavering sense of hope in the face of all adversity.