{"id":21347,"date":"2019-06-18T16:06:39","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T14:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/feministeerium.ee\/?p=21347"},"modified":"2026-08-07T16:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:16:07","slug":"amina-cadell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/en\/amina-cadell\/","title":{"rendered":"Amina Cadelli: \u201cI grew up surrounded by women\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\">Amina Cadelli, aka Fl\u00e8che Love, 28, is a Swiss-Algerian musician and composer. After completing her studies in post-colonialism and gender in Geneva, she became the singer for electro-pop band Kadebostany. With her first solo album, she is defending a spiritual approach to feminism.<!--more--><\/p>\n<aside class=\"important-information\"> <strong>AMINA CADELLI\u2019S MILESTONES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1990: Born in Geneva with a Swiss father and an Algerian mother.<br \/>\n2009-2010: Trips to Southeast Asia and Central America.<br \/>\n2010-2013: Studies in ethnology and history of religions at the University of Neuchatel and Lausanne.<br \/>\n2018: Live performance in the UN Human Rights Hall for a TedX conference.<br \/>\n2019: Release of her first album, \u201c<em>NAGA part. 1<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HISTORY OF WOMEN\u2019S RIGHTS IN SWITZERLAND<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1896: First Swiss women\u2019s congress, leading to the creation of the Federation of Swiss Women\u2019s Associations three years later.<br \/>\n1971: Women are entitled to vote on a federal level.<br \/>\n1991: More than 500,000 women go on strike, 10 years after the vote of a constitutional law on gender equality to protest the lack of its enforcement.<br \/>\n2002: Abortion becomes legal.<br \/>\n2005: A 14-week long maternity leave is implemented.<\/p>\n<p><strong>STATISTICS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gender pay gap: 17 % (Eurostat, 2016)<br \/>\n32,5 % of parliamentarians are women (World Bank, 2018) <\/aside>\n<p><strong>How would you describe the early stages of your feminism?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At the age of 10, I was on my way to school and a man passing by in a car whistled at me. He was my father\u2019s age and I didn\u2019t understand what he saw, but I immediately understood that something had changed forever. I didn\u2019t have boobs, I looked like a child. So when this extremely violent event occurred, the boys at school were allowed to just go and play. I thought about what would happen if a mother was in the car and she whistled at a little boy. What would we think? I feel like that event transported me into some kind of vortex [<em>laughs<\/em>]. After that, I spent many years thinking that being a woman was something negative and didn\u2019t feel as though it had any benefits for me.<\/p>\n<p>I grew up surrounded by women. I\u2019m not one of those girls who don\u2019t have girlfriends but I felt competitive at times. All these values [like competition] you\u2019re taught in school, I had learned them well. Then, growing up, I felt more and more uneasy in my own skin and ended up thinking to myself: \u201cSomething needs to change in my perception of myself as a woman.\u201d That\u2019s when I started doing research on shamanism and shakti women [<em>Shaktism is an important branch of hinduism, dedicated to several female goddesses<\/em>]. Through Shaktism, I found out about red tent rituals, a global movement aimed at creating healing circles for women. Members consider, for example, that women are even more powerful when they have their periods. They call them \u2018menstrual moon\u2019 rituals. Reading up on women-friendly cultures helped me re-examine history and more importantly, re-examine how it\u2019s taught to us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>There are many women who say they\u2019ve never been confronted with violence and that being a woman has never been an obstacle for them. How would you suggest building solidarity and sisterhood with them?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>These are survival strategies. If you start asking yourself questions, you have to put everything into perspective: the narrative of your history, your family, your friends\u2026 you have to be ready to rebuilt it all. It\u2019s tough. I would suggest welcoming their point of view with benevolence. Remember Catherine Deneuve\u2019s backlash op-ed, written in response to France\u2019s #MeToo movement? [It\u2019s important to remember] that the women who signed the piece come from a different generation, they\u2019ve internalised the notion of submission that they were taught. What I feel for them is an immense sadness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What was it like growing up in Switzerland with a double nationality?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you see me on the street, you\u2019d never guess that I\u2019m half Algerian. But I still had to cope with endemic racism in school. The day after 9\/11, 10 kids who were my friends the previous day were waiting for me at school and said I was a terrorist. The school authorities didn\u2019t react. Years later when I read Hannah Arendt\u2019s <em>The Origins of Totalitarianism<\/em> and understood how you can become a scapegoat, I could relate. It had happened to me in just one day! Then, you build resistance. You\u2019re told you\u2019re not like the other but you don\u2019t really understand what the \u2018other\u2019 is. I only know Algerian culture through my mother and what she told me. I can\u2019t say I have strong ties with the country. That\u2019s why, as a university student, I read a lot about Islam and sufism during my ethnology courses. However, I don\u2019t consider myself a religious person but a spiritual one.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_21364\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21364\" class=\"size-large wp-image-21364\" src=\"https:\/\/feministeerium.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/11-1024x819.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"819\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/11-1024x819.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/11-600x480.jpg 600w, https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/11-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/11-768x614.jpg 768w, https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/11.jpg 2400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-21364\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a9 Nicolas Blandin<br \/>www.nicolasblandin.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>How would you describe your creative process?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I tend to be in control in my daily life, so I enjoy letting things flow in my creative process. Once I wrote three songs in one day. But I can also go two months without writing anything. I don\u2019t really find it appealing to set a daily routine as if this was just any old craft. It\u2019s dangerous to wait for new inspiration every day. I\u2019d rather think of it as something that passes through me. From time to time, I\u2019m a channel for words. Other times, I\u2019m just Amina and that\u2019s good too. Thinking of the artist as a channel, a mediator, is a humble way of approaching creation and it suits me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You write in French, English, Spanish\u2026 Why is that important for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The pitch of my voice changes from language to language, so that allows me to explore different personalities. But each language also strikes a different part of me: French is cerebral, English comes from the heart and Spanish, the belly. There\u2019s something schizophrenic yet controlled about this process.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What about your stage character? You once said that you liked it because you were neither pretty nor ugly, neither man nor woman. Can you tell me more about that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s nothing more frightening for me than to be stuck in one place. What I like is sailing from one spot to another, and the same goes for identity. Interestingly enough, people rarely ask about my looks. They have a tendency not to understand who I am, leaving a lot of room for art. It reminds me of the time I shave my head. I was 19 and it was liberating. Suddenly, I was invisible and I had to relearn everything. Of course, with all of these tattoos I\u2019m still Fl\u00e8che Love at the end of the day because I can\u2019t remove them, but that\u2019s OK too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Speaking of your tattoos, you say you\u2019re the first generation of women in your family to get them by choice, unlike your grandmother\u2019s generation who was forcefully tattooed upon marriage \u2013 even on their faces. How did the women in your family react when they saw your tattoos for the first time?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When I went to Algeria, I witnessed different reactions. Some women felt honoured while others were shocked, but mostly because it was the year I shaved my head. As for my mother, she got a small tattoo after I started doing mine. I think she gave up trying to convince me to stop doing what I wanted to do. I usually tell her: \u201cIt\u2019s your opinion, I respect it, but I\u2019m not going to take it into account.\u201d [<em>Laughs<\/em>] Also, I think she\u2019s happy that I no longer have harmful habits.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The invisibility of women in music isn\u2019t as obvious, as there seems to be a lot of female artists. What has your experience been?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In big festivals like Coachella, how many men are there for each Ariana Grande? If you take the men out of the picture, you\u2019ll find yourself with five artists left. When I was on tour last year, I almost never saw bands with female members, whether in Turkey, Greece or Ukraine. As for female technicians, they\u2019re even more rare. But if you look at the history of music, it makes sense. For a long time, women weren\u2019t allowed to play instruments. Violin was considered obscene, the drums were impossible because they made you sweat and the flute? Too much saliva. Women tend to play more melodic instruments, and those are the ones for which there are very few soloists.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You publicly acknowledged experiencing sexism and feeling invisible in your first band, Kadebostany. Many women responded with similar testimonies, telling you about their own difficult experience. How did you react to that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was aware that many women had experienced sexism, but I didn\u2019t think I would receive hundreds and hundreds of testimonies. Female chefs, women working in the gaming industry, you name it. Their stories went from anecdotal to actual rape. It was a lot to take in. That\u2019s why, with my sister, we wanted to launch an online platform in 2016 where women could share their stories. But we realised that in Switzerland, there was still a huge fear of the repercussions [of speaking up] so we dropped the idea.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_21367\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21367\" class=\"size-large wp-image-21367\" src=\"https:\/\/feministeerium.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/7-1024x819.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"819\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/7-1024x819.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/7-600x480.jpg 600w, https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/7-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/7-768x614.jpg 768w, https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/7.jpg 2400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-21367\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a9 Nicolas Blandin<br \/>www.nicolasblandin.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Speaking of Switzerland, what is it like for you being Swiss?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Generally speaking, when you meet people abroad and you tell them you\u2019re Swiss, you\u2019re not allowed to complain. Back home, well\u2026 it\u2019s a country that hasn\u2019t been through war, which means that women didn\u2019t have to fill in for men in public spaces. They stayed in their private spaces and that has its consequences. Women were only allowed to vote in 1971. That\u2019s scary.<\/p>\n<p>My impression is that Switzerland hasn\u2019t blown up yet, but there are definitely some underlying tensions. We know the names of perpetrators, we hear them. It\u2019s not my job to speak on behalf of [victims], so meanwhile I try to be supportive. But I know it\u2019s going to blow up at some point.<\/p>\n<p><strong>As a Swiss person living in Paris, do you feel European? What does Europe mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Switzerland is a bit of an enclave. Now that I live between Paris and Geneva, I see it as a mockup country. Everything looks fake. It\u2019s a fake country with fake people. It\u2019s very odd, I didn\u2019t used to see it that way. You see what\u2019s going on in Europe with the yellow vests or the #MeToo movement and meanwhile, Switzerland doesn\u2019t budge. Not having experienced war, ugly things were created so that the country could protect itself. I believe in energy, and the fact that this country keeps the money of the world\u2019s worst scum \u2013 like Mobutu \u2013 can be felt here. I think there should be a<em> Black Mirror<\/em> episode dedicated to Switzerland [<em>laughs<\/em>].<\/p>\n<p>You know, every year Switzerland or Japan is ranked first in the list of countries with the highest suicide rates among young people. The social pressure [here] is extremely high. In Switzerland, the ideal scenario is to make a lot of money without getting famous.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you had to suggest one legal reform that would change the lives of European women, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are so many issues I\u2019d like to work on. What jumps to mind is a proposal the Greens in Switzerland made about getting rid of street lighting to save money. No one thought about women\u2019s safety in public. I would say there are a lot of things to rethink in terms of urban planning; to question the public space and how it works. The fact that women don\u2019t feel welcome means that you can\u2019t really be yourself, and that changes everything. It has an impact on the way you behave at work, your ability to say no\u2026 so many things. In Canada for example, a friend told me that at night, buses stop anywhere on request so that women don\u2019t have to walk too far. Of course, if you can\u2019t go out as freely because of these [safety] issues, you\u2019re less likely to network and make new contacts. To me, this is key for society to become more egalitarian. So many things could trickle down from this.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20257\" src=\"https:\/\/feministeerium.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/piklik-logo-1024x161.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 585px) 100vw, 585px\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/piklik-logo-1024x161.jpg 1024w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/piklik-logo-300x47.jpg 300w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/piklik-logo-768x121.jpg 768w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/piklik-logo.jpg 1191w\" alt=\"\" width=\"585\" height=\"92\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>The interview was published in the framework of\u00a0<a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/sistersofeurope.com\/#about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Sisters of Europe<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><em>Sisters of Europe is an empowerment project to inspire and better connect women across Europe, through 17 inspiring stories, a series of events and a list of concrete proposals. Read the other interviews\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/feministeerium.ee\/en\/tag\/sistersofeurope\/\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amina Cadelli, aka Fl\u00e8che Love, 28, is a Swiss-Algerian musician and composer. After completing her studies in post-colonialism and gender in Geneva, she became the singer for electro-pop band Kadebostany. With her first solo album, she is defending a spiritual approach to feminism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[393],"tags":[825,758,824],"class_list":["post-21347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-algeria","tag-sistersofeurope","tag-switzerland"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21347"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44815,"href":"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21347\/revisions\/44815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}