[Slokais]

Magdalena Bisalas
(1878-1970)

Women have been historically left out of the public and civil life in Slokais, in fact a 1980 survey asked citizens to name five women. The most common choice was the Virgin Mary or Bundai Maria, the second most common response was Magdalena Bisalas. Born in a Meszito household on a small farm in modern-day South Princeton, Bisalas grew up in a time of political change. In her teenage years, Bisalas was an active supporter of the Slokasian-independence movement. She was an avid reader and writer, publishing several opinion articles to the local Garden Country Gazette, under the name Marco Bisalas. Her family was liberally minded for the time, allowing Magdalena to complete her education and attend vocational school in the nearby city of Beaufort.

While in Beaufort, Magdalena wrote for the Beaufort Daily, this time under her own name as a woman journalist and commentator. This drew a response from many, with some criticizing her for prioritizing working over taking over as head of a household. In 1899, Bisalas became known nationwide when a response to a letter regarding his position as a writer was published by several larger outlets. “Why must the woman be limited to either her work or her home? If she can achieve both, and seeks to better her country, let her do so”. Women’s rights has been an issue in the years after independence as old colonial law which limited women from owning property was seen as a relic which had to be wiped away. In 1903, Bisalas was elected to the Princeton Territorial Legislature, becoming the first woman elected to a local legislature at any level. This was despite the fact, she was unable to vote until a year prior, as the territory became only the second to allow women to vote or hold office.

Magdalena Bisalas was criticized by tabloids for leaving her then husband to serve in the Legislature. In response she brought her husband with her to Beaufort. Stating, in a 1904 speech “Those who doubt my husband’s ability to take care of himself, he is staying just across the street in a hotel”. In 1905, Bisalas was invited to speak at the Left Party Conference, an annual gathering of what was a dominant political force. Henry Banks was a personal fan of her work, as she kept up her writing this time as a regular guest columnist in the New Liverpool Daily. In her speech, Bisalas called for full voting rights to women, as part of a wider plan of supporting the working class and organized labor. “Despite what many have said, women are working outside the home. In the mills, factories they are in similar unity of labor with man. Women therefore deserve the same right to let their choice be known at the ballot box.” In 1908, Bisalas was re-elected despite having recently giving birth. At the time, a woman giving birth was seen as the end of any sort of career. Yet, she continued and travelled with her newborn daughter Althea to New Liverpool several times to advocate for the passage of the Voting Act. In 1910, Bisalas was invited to the official signing of the act by President Henry Banks.

Bisalas didn’t stop her activism, she became a leading advocate for social security and education. She wrote several essays during the 1910s and 20s, supporting continued equality for women in society. Additionally, she rejected the Kerlian state in 1929 stating “What of my two sons? Replacing a system of oppression with another is not progress, even if the new overlords are of my sex”. In the 1940s, Bisala's own daughter and granddaughter actually immigrated to Kerille along with many of her contemporaries in the feminist movement. Rising political tensions and the power of the National Reform Party was enough reason for many women to seek refuge in a new country. Bisalas remained and continued to publish works on both women’s rights and labor rights until 1954 when she was arrested for violating local ordinances. Despite being a local case, Bisalas was made a nationally known figure by the National Reformist media who described her as “an old witch”. She was eventually sent to Raminha Island, a small island located off the coast of Wojiang Bay Province, where prisoners worked in yam harvesting, with food rationing being dependent on the amount of yams collected. While imprisoned from 1955 to 1964, Bisalas organized an alternative system of yam collecting where prisoners worked together to collect and rations were shared. Finally in 1964, despite being 80 years old, Bisalas helped organize the island’s liberation with the Federation Army on the mainland. When the troops came and the prisoners were freed, Bisalas agreed to remain stating, “This island has been home to so much cruelty, I must remain to write a new history”. Until the end of her life in 1970, Magdalena Bislas protected and documented the island’s ancient structures in her final work “The Whispers of Raminha Island”.

In 1973, Magdalena Bislas was granted the posthumous status of Hero of the Federation due to her efforts in the Great War. This led to renewed interest in her life and policy and the creation of several programs for women named in her honor such as Magdalena Bislas Global Women’s Fund which supports women in developing countries and fights for better wages as well as maternity leave. In 2002, a statue of Bisalas was built in New Liverpool across from Government Hill, its designer states it represents her and all female politicians' desires to shake up the political landscape. Raminha Island is now a protected area with a cemetery of those who died in the prison as well as restored indigenous sites only open to members of Kamin’ohya and rarely to the general public due to their religious significance.