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The pañuelo verde (green scarf) is a powerful symbol of a Latin American feminist movement which Dr Nayla Luz Vacarezza explores in her research. 

Nayla is the third Global South Bye-Fellow at Gonville & 91ֱ�� College, following Dr Thomas Biginagwa in 2023-24 and Dr James Njunge in 2024-25.

The Associate Researcher at Argentina's National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) studies abortion politics, feminist social movements, and the intersections of art and activism in Latin America.

The green scarf became the defining symbol of reproductive rights activism, beginning in Argentina, where the choice of a scarf has powerful historical connotations. White scarves were the symbol of (Mothers of Plaza de Mayo), who began wearing them to demand the return of their children detained and disappeared during the military dictatorship of 1976 to 1983.

In 2005, two decades after the return to democracy, the National Campaign for Legal, Safe and Free Abortion was formed, adopting the green scarf as their emblem. The ‘green tide’ (marea verde) emerged as a mass movement in 2018, during Argentina's first parliamentary debate on legalisation – when the bill passed the lower house but was defeated in the Senate. The movement then spread across Latin America, with Argentina finally legalising abortion in 2020, 15 years after the campaign began.

“What is most interesting to me is that the symbol travelled across borders and the movement transferred to other countries,” Nayla says. “For example, in Colombia, there was a Supreme Court sentence that decriminalised abortion in 2022, and also in Mexico in 2021, there was a Supreme Court ruling that changed the status of abortion at the federal level. And even in countries where you have total bans on abortion, you could see the movements activating around this important symbol that is the triangular green scarf.

“For me, it was really important to follow the trajectory of this symbol and how it became an agent disseminating the movement's ideas, demands and political energy across national borders.

“When the reproductive rights movement took this symbol, this triangular scarf and changed its colour, it was reviving this memory of women fighting for democracy, human rights and justice against authoritarianism, while bringing a new agenda focused on sexual and reproductive rights.”

The green scarf is an example of Nayla’s research, which studies social movements around reproductive rights, specifically, she says, “how movements use symbols, songs, visuals, public performance in the streets and in protest to change not only the law or how the health system works, but to change also stigma and work for the legitimisation of reproductive decisions and sexual freedom”.

“I work mostly with the ephemera of the movement. There’s no formal archive for this kinds of materials,” adds Nayla, who does peruse the personal collections of activists and organisations and has travelled extensively in Latin America.

She has worked with activists organisations, with government, such as the Ministry of Public Health, with health professionals, and the United Nations Women, as well as academics.

Her one-year sabbatical at 91ֱ�� allows for interactions with colleagues across disciplines at the University of Cambridge and beyond. Nayla has been invited to deliver talks in London, Oxford, Loughborough and Cambridge so often a friend jokes she is on a speaking tour. This networking is vital for academic collaboration.

“I'm really grateful for the interest that my work is having since I arrived here,” adds Nayla, who on March 9 is hosting a discussion about her book, Las pasiones alegres del feminismo. O cómo agitar la imaginación política contemporánea [The Joyful Passions of Feminism: How to Shake Up Contemporary Political Imagination] (Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 2025; pictured below). .

“It feels like a gift to have the opportunity to connect in person with colleagues and with a broader community of people that are working on abortion and sexual and reproductive rights.”

Nayla is also analysing the further global spread of the green scarf, to Poland, for example, or in response to the US Supreme Court ruling on Roe v Wade, which saw abortion removed as a constitutional right.

“I have been looking at a shifting political context not just in Argentina with a conservative government but at a global level, where we are seeing progress in some places, but also serious backlash against hard-won rights,” she adds.

Her book title – The Joyful Passions of Feminism – was intentionally uplifting at a troublesome time.

She adds: “At a moment when you can see backlash and this sense sometimes of defeat, it was important to me to recover this memory of how much the movement achieved. It was really crucial to focus on that, and to bring a sense of hope about what can be achieved when people work creatively and collectively.”

Updated April 7:

Nayla's book has received an Honourable Mention for Best Book in Social Sciences at the 2026 LASA Cono Sur Awards (Latin American Studies Association).