Supporting feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements to thrive, to be a driving force in challenging systems of oppression, and to co-create feminist realities.
While we dream of a feminist world, there are those who are already building and living it. These are our Feminist Realities!
What are Feminist Realities?
Feminist Realities are the living, breathing examples of the just world we are co-creating. They exist now, in the many ways we live, struggle and build our lives.
Feminist Realities go beyond resisting oppressive systems to show us what a world without domination, exploitation and supremacy look like.
These are the narratives we want to unearth, share and amplify throughout this Feminist Realities journey.
Transforming Visions into Lived Experiences
Through this initiative, we:
Create and amplify alternatives: We co-create art and creative expressions that center and celebrate the hope, optimism, healing and radical imagination that feminist realities inspire.
Build knowledge: We document, demonstrate & disseminate methodologies that will help identify the feminist realities in our diverse communities.
Advance feminist agendas: We expand and deepen our collective thinking and organizing to advance just solutions and systems that embody feminist values and visions.
Mobilize solidarity actions: We engage feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements and allies in sharing, exchanging and jointly creating feminist realities, narratives and proposals at the 14th AWID International Forum.
The AWID International Forum
As much as we emphasize the process leading up to, and beyond, the four-day Forum, the event itself is an important part of where the magic happens, thanks to the unique energy and opportunity that comes with bringing people together.
We expect the next Forum to:
Build the power of Feminist Realities, by naming, celebrating, amplifying and contributing to build momentum around experiences and propositions that shine light on what is possible and feed our collective imaginations
Replenish wells of hope and energy as much needed fuel for rights and justice activism and resilience
Strengthen connectivity, reciprocity and solidarity across the diversity of feminist movements and with other rights and justice-oriented movements
Yamile Guerra was a well-known lawyer, community leader and political activist in the Santander region of Colombia.
She was actively working to resolve disputes between local communities and developers, advocating against illegal land appropriation. Yamile had occupied various political posts, including as the Secretary General for the Santander government in Bogota and also aspired for the Mayor’s Office of Bucaramanga. In the last few years of her life, Yamile became increasingly active in environmental causes, particularly in the defense of the biodiverse wetlands of Santurbán against development, a region which supplies nearly 2 million people with freshwater.
According to her family and friends, Yamile received daily threats against her life and had asked the authorities for protection.
“She was very very aware of this issue [land litigation] and she said many times that she felt insecure.” - Alixon Navarro Munoz, journalist and friend of Guerra family
On July 20, 2019 Yamile was shot to death by two men in Floridablanca, Santander. She had just finished discussing a land dispute with them. A suspect was later arrested for her murder and admitted to being paid to carry out her assassination. According to reports, Yamile was the third member of her family to have been killed in relation to land disputes. Her father, Hernando Guerra was murdered several years previously.
Yamile’s assassination is part of a wave of violence and systematic killing of hundreds of social activists and human rights defenders in Colombia. According to the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (INDEPAZ), at the time of Yamile’s death, over 700 community leaders and human rights activists had been killed since the country signed a peace agreement in August 2016. Most were murdered for confronting illegal drug trafficking and mining operations, with indigenous people, Afro-Colombians and women human rights defenders being most at risk.
Less than a week after Yamile’s death, thousands of Colombians marched all over towns and cities, holding up black and white photos of activists who had been killed, with signs that read: "Without leaders there can be no peace" and "No more bloodshed”.
Yamile Guerra was only 42 years old at the time of her assassination.
Roxana Reyes Rivas, philosopher, feminist, lesbian, poet, politician and LGBT and women’s rights activist from Costa Rica. Owner of a sharp pen and incisive humour, a laugh a minute. She was born in 1960 and raised in San Ramón of Alajuela, when it was a rural town, and her whole life she would break away from the mandates of what it meant to be a woman.
With El Reguero (Costa Rican lesbian group) she organized lesbian festivals for over a decade, fun-filled formative spaces to come together at a time when the Costa Rican government and society persecuted and criminalized the lesbian existence. For hundreds of women the lesbian festivals where the only place they could be themselves and come together with others like them.
Roxana would often say founding political parties was one of her hobbies. “It’s important for people to understand there are other ways to do politics, that many issues need to be solved collectively”. She was one of the founders of the New Feminist League and VAMOS, a human rights focused political party.
“The philosophical trade is meant to jab, to help people ask themselves questions. A philosopher who doesn’t irritate anyone is not doing her job”. For 30 years Roxana taught philosophy at several Costa Rican public universities. Through her guidance, generations of students reflected about the ethical dilemmas in science and technology.
Roxana’s favourite tool was humour, she created the Glowing Pumpkin award, an acknowledgement to ignorance that she would bestow upon public figures, through her social media channels, mocking their anti-rights expressions and statements.
An aggressive cancer took Roxana at the end of 2019, before she could publish a compilation of her poems, a departing gift from the creative mind of a feminist who always raised her voice against injustice.
Sara Hegazy, a bold Egyptian LGBTQI+ rights activist, lived in a society where the members of her community, their bodies and lives often face lethal prejudice. The roots of Sara’s resistance were in the deconstruction of a dominant, oppressive and patriarchal system, and its anti-rights actors.
"[In Egypt], every person who is not male, Muslim, Sunni, straight, and a supporter of the system, is rejected, repressed, stigmatized, arrested, exiled, or killed. This matter is related to the patriarchal system as a whole, since the state cannot practice its repression against citizens without a pre-existing oppression since childhood." - Sara Hegazy wrote on March 6, 2020
The suppression of Sara’s voice by the Egyptian government reached its violent peak in 2017, when she was arrested for raising a rainbow flag at the Mashrou’ Leila (Lebanese band whose lead vocalist is openly gay) concert in Cairo. What followed were charges of joining an illegal group along with “promoting sexual deviancy and debauchery”.
"It was an act of support and solidarity — not only with the [Mashrou' Leila] vocalist but for everyone who is oppressed...We were proud to hold the flag. We wouldn't have imagined the reaction of society and the Egyptian state. For them, I was a criminal — someone who was seeking to destroy the moral structure of society." - Sara Hegazy
Sara was jailed for three months, where she was tortured and sexually assaulted. In January 2018, after being released on bail, she sought asylum in Canada where she was safe but imprisoned by the memories of the abuse and violence her body and soul had gone through.
"I left this experience after three months with a very intense, serious case of PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]. Prison killed me. It destroyed me." - Sara Hegazy told NPR
Sara took her own life on 14 June 2020, leaving a handwritten note in Arabic:
“To my siblings – I tried to find redemption and failed, forgive me.”
“To my friends – the experience [journey] was harsh and I am too weak to resist it, forgive me.
“To the world – you were cruel to a great extent, but I forgive.”
Her legacy and courage will be carried forward by those who love her and believe in what she fought for.
Tributes:
“To Sarah: Rest, just rest, spared from this relentless violence, this state-powered lethal patriarchy. In rage, in grief, in exhaustion, we resist.” - Rasha Younes, an LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. Read the complete text
The AWID International Forum is a truly global space that gives participants an opportunity to network, build alliances, celebrate, and learn in a stimulating, emotive and safe atmosphere.
AWID International Forum in Costa de Sauipe, Brazil, 2016
More and more, we are trying to bring the Forum process outside of the convening’s borders. Engaging with partners and deepening relationships all year round, connecting with local movements to better understand problems and co-create solutions. The Forum event itself, held every three to four years in a different region of the world, is just a crystallization of all these alliances that we are building as part of our work.
The AWID Forum dissolves our inner and external boundaries, fosters deep discussion, personal and professional growth, and strengthens our movements for gender justice and women’s rights.
As a convening, it is a response to the urgency to promote stronger and more coordinated engagement and action by feminists, women’s rights and other social justice advocates, organizations and movements. We also believe that the Forum is more than just an event – it can facilitate a process to influence thinking and set agendas for feminist movements and other related actors.
Evolving from a national conference of around 800 people, the event now brings together around 2000 feminists, community leaders, social justice activists, and donor agencies from around the world.
The 14th AWID International Forum will take place 11-14 January 2021 in Taipei, Taiwan.
2016 - Feminist Futures: Building Collective Power for Rights and Justice (Costa de Sauipe, Brazil)
Participants at the Black Feminisms Forum in Brazil, 2016
Given the complex world that we face today, the 2016 AWID Forum did not focus on a particular “issue”, but rather on creating more effective ways of working together!
Despite the challenging contexts in which the 2016 Forum took place (the Zika epidemic, a strike by Brazilian foreign-service workers, the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and subsequent turmoil), it succeeded in bringing together over 1800 participants from 120 countries and territories across all regions of the world.
What happened at the 13th AWID international Forum:
For 96% of participantswho responded to the post Forum evaluation survey, the Forum was a major source of inspiration and energy.
98% of participants considered it an important convening space for feminist movements and expressed hope that AWID continues to organize forums.
59% of Forum evaluation survey respondents declared to be very satisfied with the Forum and 34% somewhat satisfied.
Over 150 sessions were delivered in different formats on a variety of topics ranging from bodily integrity and freedoms, to gender-based violence in the workplace, to strategies for building collective power.
The first-time Black Feminisms Forum (BFF), held just before the main AWID Forum, brought together 250 Black feminists from all over the world to co-create a powerful space to build and strengthen ongoing, intergenerational, transnational connections
Read more about what the 2016 AWID Forum achieved:
2012 - Transforming Economic Power to Advance Women's Rights and Justice (Istambul, Turkey)
AWID International Forum, in Cape Town, South Africa, 2008
The 12th AWID Forum was the largest and most diverse AWID Forum to date, bringing together 2239 women’s rights activists from 141 countries. Of these participants, around 65% were from the Global South and close to 15% were young women under 30, and 75% attended an AWID Forum for their first time.
The Forum program focused on transforming economic power to advance women’s rights and justice and featured over 170 different kinds of sessions including feminist economics toolbox skills-building sessions, breakout sessions representing all 10 Forum themes, in-depth sessions, and solidarity roundtables.
Building on the momentum of the 2012 Forum, we transformed the website into a resource and learning Hub, which builds on the content generated by participants by featuring multi-media resources on all Forum components.
The data from our tribute indicate that Mexico is a particularly dangerous country for defenders. Out of the 12 Mexican Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) we commemorate in this years’ Tribute, 11 were murdered. They were journalists, women’s rights advocates, trans* rights and social activists. Join us in remembering and honoring these WHRDs, their work and legacy by sharing the memes below and tweeting by using the hashtags #WHRDTribute and #16Days.
Please click on each image below to see a larger version and download as a file
To share your lived experience with mobilizing funding for your organizing
7. Synthesize your research findings
Now that you have analyzed all your data – from your survey, interviews, desk research and potentially other sources – you can create your final product.
Your final product will be the document that will summarize, analyze and criticize your data. That will be the piece that you will share with your community to present and explain your research to your audience.
At AWID, we often write a comprehensive written report that analyzes each set of data and synthesizes all of our findings, then later create smaller products, such as infographics and summaries (explained in the subsequent section “Finalize and format”).
1. Write clearly
Organize your data as you would like to tell a story. You can follow the order of your survey. Or you can regroup some questions to lead to your conclusion in a smooth and progressive way.
Adapt your language to your audience. Use universal language and avoid jargon or too technical terms.
Importance of the editor
An editor will proofread, ensure concise writing, conduct fact-checking, point out inconsistencies that need to be resolved, arrange the flow of the document and possibly suggest titles.
Your editor should preferably be someone who understands and knows your WITM work but who was not directly involved in the research. This will bring in a fresh perspective.
2. Make it pretty
Use the data collected to create graphs and tables. These type of visuals are a compelling way to highlight the main findings of your research and validate your analysis.
Source relevant images that can illustrate your report.
At this point, you have collected all your data, analyzed it and transformed it into your final product, likely in a long report.
1. Polish your results
Before moving on to the next steps – you should share your final research product with your advisor organizations, activists, and donors.
This is a great moment to check the following points:
Are there any key points missing in your analysis of the present funding landscape and trends?
Are there any key points missing in your conclusions?
Are there any inaccuracies in the data that need to be corrected?
General suggestions on strengthening the report to achieve your goals as listed in your research framing.
Once you have inputted all feedback from your advisors, be sure to run it by your editor once more.
This will now be the final, completed version of your report. If you intend to publish the final report in other languages, now is the time to send it for translation.
2. Facilitate the feedback
Your advisors are likely busy with their regular responsibilities. Be sure to request feedback within a reasonable deadline.
Keep your request for feedback brief and specific, so it is easy for them to respond. If you like, you can simply copy and paste the bullet points we have provided.
If you are publishing in multiple languages, ensure you have advisors who can also review the final translated versions of your product(s).
This is a significant contribution from your advisors. Consider offering them some form of recognition.
• 1 or more research person(s)
• 1 Editor (or web-editor if you create an online product)
• Translator(s), if done in more than one language
Resource needed:
• List of advisor organizations, activists, and donors.
• Concept note (from “Frame your research” section)
• Survey topline results
• Prepared interview questions
• Interview results
• Desk research data
• All other data used in report
AWID gratefully acknowledges the many people whose ideas, analysis and contributions have shaped the “Where is the Money for Feminist Organizing?” research and advocacy over the years.
First and foremost, our deepest thanks goes to the AWID members and activists who engaged in WITM consultations and piloted this survey with us, sharing so generously of their time, analysis and hearts.
My language is not one of the official survey languages and I am struggling to complete it, what can I do?
AWID is committed to language justice and we regret that, at this point, having the WITM survey available in more languages is not feasible. However, if you need support with translations or want to fill the survey in any other language, please reach out to us at witm@awid.org.
