CENTERING YOUTH VOICES: RETHINKING THE GENDER-BASED DISCOURSE
In South Asia, laws frame young people as incapable of making decisions about their bodies and rights. They are often labelled as vulnerable and in need of control, protection, or surveillance. Exploration of diverse gender and sexuality by young people often attracts protectionist responses from the law that limits the agency of young people. Young […]
GOING DEEPER TO CONFRONT EXTRACTIVISM IN INDONESIA
In the coastal Indonesian city of Makassar, the government has embarked on a harmful project to create five artificial islands in the sea. For this project, the government plans to extract around 22 million cubic metres of sand and gravel from nearby areas, causing devastating damage to local fishing communities. Towering walls, built to hold […]
VOICES FOR VISIBILITY: PIONEERING INTERSEX RIGHTS IN ASIA
Intersex individuals around the world face immense discrimination and stigma. As targets of misunderstanding and mistrust, many are forced into medical interventions or pumped with hormones to “normalise” their bodies, risking serious physical and psychological harm. In adulthood, they struggle with legal recognition and obtaining accurate identity documents, in addition to the social stigma and […]
ELEVATING SEX WORKERS’ RIGHTS ON THE FEMINIST AGENDA
Sex workers worldwide face pervasive stigma, discrimination, criminalisation, economic vulnerability, and constant threats to their safety. Despite being a crucial part of the broader struggle for gender equality, they are often side-lined in mainstream feminist and human rights movements, leaving them without the solidarity and support they need. In 2023, during the Women Deliver Conference […]
JUSTICE FOR STRUCTURALLY EXCLUDED WOMEN IN POST-CRISIS MALAWI
In 2023, Cyclone Freddy inflicted great devastation in Malawi, displacing over 500,000 people and destroying shelters and livelihoods. It was one of the strongest and longest-lasting tropical cyclones on record. Humanitarian actors quickly responded by setting up camps and providing basic needs. However, the distribution of aid revealed a critical flaw: the support offered to […]
RHYTHMS OF RESILIENCE: HOW MUSIC HELPED REVITALISE A COMMUNITY
When crises strike, they often expose and deepen the vulnerabilities of structurally excluded communities. The Zayzafoun Network in Lebanon understood this instinctively and sprang into action when the Migrant Community Centre (MCC) in Beirut, a crucial space for migrant workers to connect, build skills, and share resources, was forced to shut down in 2022. This […]
COMBINING FUN, FOOD AND FEMINISM TO ADVANCE GENDER JUSTICE
What better way to engage in shared learning and inspiration on how to achieve gender equality than by bringing together activists from all over the world for an evening of fun, food and feminism? Results don’t always come from serious panel discussions and keynote addresses. Sometimes, great outcomes arise when you try something different, like […]
Feminist Economic Realities: economies of support, well-being and care
Feminist economic realities (FERs) are models, approaches, imaginings, and actions that critique and directly challenge unjust economic orthodoxies, most notably global neo-liberal capitalism, and provide solutions to dismantle the unequal power relations that are rooted in systems of economic oppression. They are an attempt at showing a better way of living, working with nature and […]
CREATING A CASCADE OF FEMINIST ACTIVISM ACROSS WEST ASIA AND NORTH AFRICA
In a region where free feminist expression is often tightly controlled, NO2TA The Feminist Lab has launched a virtual space that not only connects feminist activists but is cultivating feminist discussions and creating a cascade of ideas and much-needed solidarity across the countries of West Asia and North Africa. The online platform, which produces feminist […]
PUTTING A STOP TO FEMICIDE IN WEST ASIA AND NORTH AFRICA
The systematic targeting of women in West Asia and North Africa was made brutally clear last year by the broad daylight campus murders of two female students in Egypt and Jordan. Their deaths, which sparked widespread outrage and fear across the region, spurred feminist activists to call for a regionwide strike to condemn the violence […]
