|The speakers|

// Panel discussions

Women & economics
> Herlinda came to the UK in 2005 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo fleeing persecution for her political activities. Her application for asylum was refused because the home office did not believe her story and  on two occasions she has been destitute, with no support for housing, food, clothing etc. In many of these instances Herlinda had to sleep at friends house, bus stops or churches. Herlinda has now received indefinite to leave.

> Reineira Arguello has worked on women’s rights and international development for 16 years, including in Columbia and in indigenous communities in the Amazon basin for 6 years. She is a feminist and currently the Head of Programmes at Womankind Worldwide.

> Shannon Harvey is a member of the Go Feminist organising committee. She works for violence against women organisation, AVA, coordinating a project improving responses for women who use drugs and alcohol and fleeing domestic and sexual violence.

> Christel Querton is the Legal Policy Officer for the Women’s Project at Asylum Aid, the editor of Women’s Asylum News, and the author of the new research report “I feel like as a woman I’m not welcome”: A gender analysis of UK asylum law, policy and practice.

> Mary-Ann Stephenson is a freelance consultant who has worked on women’s equality and human rights in the UK and around the world. She is a former director of the Fawcett Society and former Commissioner on the Women’s National Commission.

Connecting movements
> Mary is a disability activist who fled to the UK from Kenya. She has been an asylum seeker here for 11 years and is fighting her case. She has volunteered with disability organisations in the UK during this time.

> Mary Bonett had her feminist awakening after a round the world trip where she witnessed women treated as second class citizens in many places and realised this movement must start closer to home. She volunteers with the young people’s service at Solace Women’s Aid, working with victims and witnesses of domestic violence. In her spare time, she is organising Go Feminist.  

> Sofia Kahlu is an asylum seeker who was born in South Africa, lived in Zimbabwe and has been in the UK now for 6 years. She is a member of the management committee of Women Asylum Seekers Together Manchester, a self help group for asylum seeking women. She is involved with many organisations, including Medical Justice, Manchester Refugee Support Network, Salford Forum and Revive. She is a passionate activist and campaigner fighting for the rights of all women. She married in the UK and found love.

> Rahila Gupta is a freelance journalist, writer and activist. She is also a longstanding member of the management committee of Southall Black Sisters (SBS), a trustee of Clean Break theatre company which works with women ex-offenders and chair of the Nihal Armstrong Trust, a grantmaking body to families of disabled children. She wrote Provoked, the story of a battered woman who killed her violent husband with Kiranjit Ahluwalia and co-wrote the screenplay based on the book, which was released as a film in 2007. Her last book, Enslaved, on immigration controls was published in 2007. She is currently writing, The Ballad of Nihal Armstrong, a dramatic monologue in verse.

> Breish Rowe is a psychology graduate from Durham University. She is an Independent Domestic Violence Advocate for DeafHope, a new service for deaf women experiencing domestic abuse and the founder of Triangle, a deaf feminist group. This group aims to improve access to feminism and information about women’s issues for deaf people, by boosting deaf awareness.

Sexism & Popular Culture
> Joana Burigo is a marketing & branding consultant and a MSc student in Gender, Media and Culture  (MSc) at the London School of Economics. She is doing her research on how feminism has been historically “branded”. Joanna awoke to feminism at the age of 25, saying the world has made a lot more sense since then. She is also part of the ‘Guerreiras Project’, which uses football and art as a platform to discuss gender issues.

> Kealy Hastick has been involved in Platform 51 since early 2008, and “never looked back”. She is now volunteering as a peer educator and a member of Platform 51 centre steering group. She takes part in the organisation’s campaigns and represents Platform 51 at other events. She is also involved with UK Youth and recently become the Vice Chair of the TFL Youth Panel. Her ambition, other than being a successful musician, is to become Chief Executive of Platform 51. Kealy is 22 and a mother of two young children.

Women’s rights activism
> Catherine Redfern founded The F Word website in 2001 and was its editor for 7 years. She is co-author with Kristin Aune of “Reclaiming The F Word: The New Feminist Movement”.

Orna Ross is a bestselling Irish author, now living in London. She writes novels, poems and nonfiction.  Her ‘Go Creative’ blog teaches methods of applying the creative process to all aspects of life, including feminism and personal politics. Orna is a veteran of the abortion wars in Ireland, from 1983 to 1995. She is a member of the Irishwomen’s Abortion Network and Director of The Alliance of Independent Authors.

Hannana Siddiqui has over 30 years experience of working around violence against women and girls, particularly for minority women. She is now the policy, research and fundraiser for Southall Black Sisters, a black feminist organisation working on rights and justice for black and ethnic minority women which has been at the forefront of activism and campaigning since the 1970s. Hannana was heavily involved in the Free Kiranjit Ahluwahlia case and campaign which helped reform the law on provocation. She has written numberous articles and publications and is co-editing a book on violence against minority women.

// Workshops

Black feminism: multiple resistance
> Adunni Adams is a member of the Blackfeminists group in London, an MA student and construction industry professional.  She is a keen supporter of the feminist cause and seeks to further the discussion of intersectionality within the movement.

> Charmaine Elliott is a tireless champion of women’s empowerment and is actively involved in the voluntary sector. She works with organisations such as the Women and Girls’ Network and helps to establish the Black Feminists group in London and beyond.

> zohra moosa is currently women’s rights advisor at ActionAid, an international anti-poverty NGO. Prior to this role she was senior policy and campaigns officer at the Fawcett Society where she led a programme on ethnic minority women’s rights in the UK called Seeing Double. She blogs at The F-Word.

Faith & feminism
> Hannah Mudge is a blogger, writer and activist based in East Anglia. She is both a Christian and a feminist and has been considering the intersection between these two identities for some years now. By day she works in communications and marketing for an international development organisation.

> Chitra Nagarajan has worked on the rights of women in China, the UK, the USA and Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. She is lucky enough to be paid to do feminist work but also engages in UK focused activism. She is one of the founding members of Go Feminist and Black Feminists.

> Femi Ottioju is a feminist, activist, black lesbian, campaigner, coalition builder, trainer, facilitator, mediator, counsellor, supporter, entrepreneur, techno geek, stand-up comic, cook, foodie, butchy-femme, writer, totally woman identified lover of all things pink.

> Sandhya Sharma started working within the women’s movement in the early 1990s focusing on minority women’s rights and domestic violence. She has been actively  involved in many campaigns around violence against women and girls including no recourse to public funds,  better rights for asylum seekers, anti-racist campaigns and more recently issues relating to poverty and ethnicity.

Justice is blind: what does that mean for women?
> Nazmin Atkhar is a County Court Advocate and was called to the Bar in 2010. She has a Masters in Law, was a BME Student Representative for Northumbria Student Union (2010-2011) and recently become the Co-opted Board Member for Muslim Women’s Network UK.  She is also a Guest Writer and Editor for Cultural Affairs for StretLaw.

Assessing the impact of the cuts on women at a local level
> Mary-Ann Stephenson is the co-ordinator of Coventry Women’s Voices and a freelance consultant who has worked on women’s equality and human rights in the UK and around the world. She is a former director of the Fawcett Society and former Commissioner on the Women’s National Commission.

Ensuring feminism is a movement for all women: the way forward
> Chitra Nagarajan has worked on the rights of women in China, the UK, the USA and Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. She is lucky enough to be paid to do feminist work but also engages in UK focused activism. She is one of the founding members of Go Feminist and Black Feminists.

> Lee Webster is a women’s rights activist, active in asylum campaigning, disability rights and local politics in Croydon. She works in policy and advocacy for a women’s rights and development organisation, where she aims to ensure that the UK government has a gender sensitive approach to all its peacebuilding policy. She believes passionately in the participation of women in politics and peace negotiations.

> Lola Okolosie is a English teacher, blogger and writer.   She is passionate about engaging teenage boys and girls with some of feminisms most fundamental debates and believes it necessary that the movement embrace the concepts around anti-oppressive practice.

Art Workshop

> Olivia Bishop is an artist and Art teacher.  She creates original prints using the traditional methods of etching and aquatint. The images are hand-printed on high quality paper, signed, editioned and dated.