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In North-East Syria, also known as ‘Rojava’ (the Kurdish name for Western Kurdistan), the Syrian state largely withdrew after the people's uprising in 2012. The majority Kurdish population in the region took the initiative and began to establish self-administration on the basis of communes and councils and empowerment of women. From the beginning of the revolution, women organised themselves independently, set up their own communes and councils, participated in all political decisions, and implemented a co-chair-system and gender quotas in all institutions as well as women's and family laws. A women's revolution began in Rojava.
Women have been key to the success of the trade union, and they have reaped huge benefits from the collective successes of the wider labour movement. However, too often, the movement has let women down.
We want to change that.
Join the FiLiA Trade Union Women's Network and help us make unions work for women.
This is not all of us ‒ the killed ones are missing.
This was the chanting of thousands of mostly Women that marched along the Gran Via in Madrid yesterday, accompanied by the drumming of a group of Women dressed in black that seemed to replicate the heartbeat of those of us there and echo the ones of those who are no longer with us.
Here at FiLiA in the Women First team, we firmly challenge the notion of prostitution as being in any way empowering. We consider it another form of male violence. As part of the Women First project, we have interviewed sex trade survivors who collectively have over 100 years’ experience of being in the sex trade. This has included street, escort, sugar daddy and brothel work. Their experiences were all different but many of the themes were similar, namely that trauma and abuse served as a gateway into the sex trade and that it takes time and specialist support to exit and recover from the sex trade.
‘Stunning and brave!’ That is how society likes to present transition to us. For example, the media was quick to put Bruce Jenner on magazine covers after his transition, with photographs taken by the likes of Annie Leibovitz and taglines including ‘Call Me Caitlin’, before naming him as woman of the year in 2015. What the media is less interested in is how these new identities depend on others upholding them by becoming ‘props’ in the charade. Behind The Looking Glass invites the viewer to listen to the women and children whose lives are impacted by men transitioning.
Kiri Tunks is a veteran trade union and women's rights activist @kiritunks
This blog is based on a speech made by Kiri Tunks on behalf of the FiLiA Trade Union Project at a Labour Women’s Declaration fringe at the 2024 Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. In it, Kiri argues that women need to be at the head and the heart of the labour and trade union movement.
Naomi Cunningham, Barrister, Outer Temple Chambers said:
‘Plaid Cymru’s tight-lipped and grudging concession implies that it thinks “the law as it stands” is unsatisfactory, and it is hoping for a change of law that will enable it to discriminate on grounds of “gender-critical” belief in future. Activists are free to work towards that change if they choose, but meanwhile political parties along with public authorities, service-providers and employers must all comply with the law as it is.’
One wonders how the world’s largest human rights organisation, whose main claim is to ‘work to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied’ has found itself in opposition to women - some of whom have been victim to the most egregious suppression of their rights and dignity - discussing what has happened to them and why.
Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness involving psychosis (loss of contact with reality), with many myths associated. Women experience it differently to men, and face specific difficulties associated with their experiences.
It's vital that the needs of Women with schizophrenia are considered, particularly around MVAWG. Sisterhood with Women affected by serious mental illnesses, although sometimes difficult, is desperately important.
Women are rightly critical of trade unions. Sexism and misogyny abounds and Women raising concerns about their sex-based rights have been, at best, ignored and at worst vilified and attacked. Many Women now feel that unions are working in opposition to our rights. But trade unions remain a powerful force within UK society and Women make up the majority of the membership. Can we make the union movement work for us?
Porn and Porn-influenced culture is shaping the way children construct sexual behaviour and relationships. In this blog I outline a number of the harms of pornography and how teachers - as well as parents/carers and other professionals who work with children - can have clear and factual conversations with children about the harms of porn-influenced sexual abuse.
This piece combines the reflections of FiLiA’s Anti-Prostitution Lead Luba Fein and FiLiA’s Spokeswoman Raquel Rosario Sánchez after participating in the 4 th World Congress to Abolish Prostitution. The Congress was organised by CAP International, Canadian-based organisation La Cles, Breaking Free, the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter and the EVA Centre. At the end of the Congress, the organisations launched the Montreal’s Call for the Abolition of Prostitution, which is signed by more than 60 organisations.
Mexican women and men went to their polling stations, the overwhelming majority to vote for a woman to be the next President of Mexico. A woman in charge of a State, which has miserably failed, so far, to guarantee a dignified life for women. Despite national laws, and international treaties, in Mexico women are not free from violence. Every day, the lives of over 64.5 million women in this country are plagued by femicide, and all kinds of violence: sexual, political, economic, reproductive, institutional, symbolic and structural.
Women and nature are both exploited under capitalist patriarchy - both legally and illegally. In addition, the climate crisis already disproportionately impacts women, who comprise 70% of the world's poor and face barriers to migration. Ecofeminism looks to women and nature for solutions to a man-made problem.
Gemma Aitchison is founder of YES Matters UK that supports children and young people who have suffered sexual abuse and exploitation. She also campaigns and works to prevent VAWG and improve victim rehabilitation including the compulsory PSHE curriculum and CSE Prevention Policy. She says ‘My mother died on Wednesday. As a survivor of CSEA and given that over 80% of perpetrators of CSEA are family members and family friends I figured my complex struggles around this are not unique. One that women who are survivors will relate to. It's a poem about that.’
Yasmin Morais is the founder of Vulva Negra, the first materialist feminist project ‘born from the desire to unite the materialist perspective of radical feminism with the narratives of black theorists and the lived experience of black Brazilian and Afro-Latin women.’ Yasmin travels around Brazil and the world with her itinerant lectures at the ‘Encontro Feminista Vulva Negra’ (Vulva Negra Feminist Meeting).
In this interview, Andreia Nobre talks to Yasmin Morais about the many pressing issues currently affecting Brazilian women, including femicide, domestic violence and the plight of black and brown women in a Latin American country, despite the country having been under a leftist government since Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected for office in 2022 for the third time.
Lisa-Marie (FiLiA CEO) was introduced to the issue of the Kurdish struggle by Rahila Gupta. FiLiA recognised the potential of the Kurdish women's struggle to inform our understanding of the potential for liberation and has platformed Kurdish women's voices at conference, and in our blogs and podcasts, as well as attending in-person solidarity meetings. For this contribution, Rahila Gupta, author and activist, was invited to shape an interview with Kongra Star, the women's umbrella group leading the women's revolution in Rojava, North and East Syria. Kongra Star did what they do so well ‒ they used a collaborative approach and invited contributions from many women's groups in the region. The result is an extraordinary piece and one that we are very pleased to share with you on International Women's Day.
