Celebrating the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls 2022, KMEWO hosted a public event on the 24th of November inspired by the movement ‘Women Life Freedom’ in Iran.
Amid the crisis in Iran followed by the death of Mahsa Amini on the 16th of September 2022, the purpose of our event was to raise awareness on the thorny issue of religion and faith as tools of oppression against vulnerable Black and Minoritised women. Even though, we are in favour of any kind of Freedom and everybody’s right to choose their religion and to believe (or not) to anything they want, we condemn it, when faith and religion become tools of states, communities and individuals for the violation of fundamental human rights in the name of religion, culture and tradition.
This event was also a great opportunity for us to support the struggles of Kurdish and Iranian women for Equality and Freedom. KMEWO, as an organisation ‘Led by and for’ women, stands in solidarity with Iranian and Kurdish Women and salutes their fights against an oppressive regime.
It was an honour for us to have dearest friends and colleagues- activists and professionals- to speak on that day.
- Sawsan Salim, Director KMEWO
- Councillor Kaya Comer-Schwartz, Leader of Islington Council
- Halaleh Taheri, Founder and ED, MEWSO
- Sonia Mohamadi, Political and Workers’ Activist
- Zlakha Ahmed MBE, CEO APNA HAQ
- Gona Saed, Deputy Director KMEWO
Their talks inspired both us and the audience and gave us different dimensions of how abuse based on religion has affected the life of Black and Minoritised Women in Iran and Middle East as well as all over the world. We are also grateful to our two survivors who kindly accepted the invitation we extended to them, and they shared their journey from faith-based abuse to freedom in their powerful video testimonies.
Our engaging audience contributed to the dialogue and posed questions making a substantial dialogue and delving deeper into those issues.
Last but not least, a heartfelt thanks to our dedicated staff for making sure that everything would run smoothly on the day.
As part of the 16 Days of Activism and further building on our successful event, KMEWO is leading a social media campaign with the hashtag #happening_there_mattering_here to continue raising awareness on Faith based Abuse and its devastating consequences towards vulnerable women and girls.
At the end of the event, we also handed a statement called UK Government to pressure on Islamic Republic of Iran to implement the following demands:
- Immediate release of political prisoners
- End shooting and violence against demonstrators as well as militarisation and siege of cities and towns
- Punish all those who killed the demonstrators
- Abolish the Guidance Police and the compulsory hijab.
Thank you all for your contribution and we are looking forward to our next empowering events!