The opinions expressed here represent the views of each woman. FiLiA does not necessarily endorse or support every woman's opinion, but we uphold women's rights to freedom of belief, thought and expression.
When we started work in Kakuma in 2020, refugees were provided with rice, soya beans, maize and oil; now they are given sogrum, a product most often used as animal feed in the UK.
After a sleepless night, and with the local UNHCR clinic refusing to help lesbian families, she sadly died the next morning.
FiLiA's detailed response to the Bertin Review published last week, in which we drew on the experiences shared by Women with direct experience of the industry, and we continue to push for them to be consulted in any further reviews. We welcome the Review and its recommendations and are reassured to see the Government recognise the urgent need to tackle the harms of pornography. However, we are clear there is no such thing as ‘safe’ pornography and more needs to be done to protect and support women and girls who are harmed by pornography.
As a national organisation working for women’s sex-based rights, we are writing to express our considerable anger and distress at the news that the National Police Chiefs’ Council is reviving the discredited guidance allowing male staff identifying as women to perform intimate searches on women. The fact that this would bring all police forces into line with the recently-declared policy of British Transport Police increases the fury among women concerned about women’s rights.
We all know how we got here. The failure of the left to address the gender identity activism gave this extraordinary open goal to the right. It was all predictable; we predicted it. Now we’re here.
This does not absolve us from thinking critically about the harmful consequences of working with Christian Right groups, including the ADF and the Heritage Foundation, which are coalition partners in Project 2025.
On 20th January, Donald Trump took office as President of the USA. Almost immediately he suspended the US refugee resettlement program as part of a series of executive orders cracking down on immigration. Many of the refugees, who had been cleared to resettle in the U.S. after fleeing war or persecution in their home countries, already had plane tickets in hand when the suspension was announced.
The English version is followed by the French version.
La version anglaise est suivie de la version française.
This article marks the ten-year anniversary of Canada’s prostitution law reform, Bill C-36, also known as the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act. This landmark legislation was a critical step in acknowledging the harms of the prostitution system, aiming to protect women and children from sexual exploitation while reducing demand and incidence. Over the past decade, feminist groups have actively evaluated and critiqued the law’s application, identifying both its successes and areas in need of improvement. This article provides a vital opportunity to understand the ongoing efforts to combat sexual exploitation, the challenges faced in implementing laws that prioritise equality, and the importance of relentless advocacy in the fight for a society free from exploitation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
On 29th January 2024 Lisa-Marie Taylor, CEO of FiLiA, attended an event organised by the local council and billed as one of a series, with the aim of ‘hearing your ideas’ to ‘create the positive change you would like to see’ in Brighton & Hove. What she witnessed during the course of the two-hour workshop left her shocked; silencing, intimidation and a lack of willingness to engage on what is one of the key topics within the VAWG sector currently.
This article by Hannana Siddiqui and Selma Taha, members of Southall Black Sisters, brings into focus the stark reality of the plight of migrant and asylum seeking women escaping gender-based violence; and how the state traps them in abusive relationships or gender related persecution. It also highlights and celebrates the fight back by black feminists to these sexist and racist immigration laws and the wider hostile environment.
