International Women’s Day 2021

Teachers from the Sharing Prosperity Primary school situated in New Kuchingoro IDP camp in Abuja, Nigeria, sing a song taught to the children to help manage the coronavirus pandemic.

Corona Virus has entered everywhere in the world

‘Let us wash our hands
Let us keep social distancing,
We teach children hand washing,
No matter the condition,
Teachers continue to teach the children in the school’

This video has been posted to mark International Women’s Day 2021 #IWD2021. We #ChooseToChallenge the barriers to education that so many displaced and refugee children face.

** Trigger warning

Please note, this video references sexual violence.

In this film, Syrian Human Rights activist, Majeda Khory, recounts her personal journey and her fight against human rights abuses, torture and rape of Syrian refugee women on their journeys to safety and in detention centres. “The fight”, she says, “must go on because abuses of women inside and outside Syria and all over the world continue. We stand together.”

This video has been posted to mark International Women’s Day 2021 #IWD2021. We #ChooseToChallenge the cruel and unfair detention of refugees or asylum seekers in the UK.

** Trigger warning

Please note this video contains content relating to suicidal thoughts.

In this heartrending testimony, a female asylum-seeker “shadow girl” describes her health issues and the enduring problems she has experienced in accessing services. “I am my own psychologist”, she says, because government policies fail lone women asylum seekers with mental health problems.

This video has been posted to mark International Women’s Day 2021 #IWD2021. We #ChooseToChallenge the lack of access to health services available to refugee and asylum-seeking women in the UK.

This video is narrated by Swansea artist Mary Hayman who works on Community Arts projects with the Glynn Vivien Art Gallery. Mary describes how this wonderful project came about and brought together people across social and ethnic boundaries to co-create banners to celebrate the many people in Swansea who work together to promote refugee rights, solidarity and care.

We pay tribute to Mary’s community arts work on #IWD as she continues to #ChooseToChallenge racism and forge solidarity through art.

In this video, Dr Jeni Williams from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David interviews Sweeta Durrani, an artist, feminist and activist refugee from Afghanistan.

This video has been posted to mark International Women’s Day 2021 #IWD2021. We #ChooseToChallenge the separation of families, a forced decision as a result of the UK Government’s hostile environment.

Sweeta describes herself in this way.

I am from Afghanistan. I came to the Uk 2018, now I live in Swansea. I have two children (Mehran and Soha) and I am waiting for them to come to safety from where they are now in Pakistan. Although I was married at 13 I worked to educate myself and achieved a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics. I am a feminist and a jewellery designer. I love reading and writing, sometimes when I feel down I just write and write, like short stories or poems.

Dr Jeni Williams from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David interviews Dr Nilufar Ahmed, a Lecturer in Social Sciences at Bristol University. Nilufar is also a Psychologist, Psychotherapist, and Diversity and Inclusion consultant and trainer. She was born in Swansea and spends her time between Bristol and Swansea. She has a multidisciplinary background in psychology, sociology, and geography and her work and activism focus on the relationship between people and place. Her expertise is frequently called upon to contribute to television, radio, and print media, and she is committed to increase the voice and wellbeing of minority communities.

This video has been posted to mark International Women’s Day 2021 #IWD2021. We #ChooseToChallenge the silencing of minority communities in the UK, especially refugees and asylum seekers.

This digital story was written, recorded and produced by Thanuja Hettiarachchi, a researcher on the Covid Chronicles project.

Here, Thanu interviews a nurse who has been working in the UK for 18 years. In this testimony, she speaks about her experiences of workplace bullying and racism. However, as she explains, it is not just majority-on-minority-group-racism which bothers her, even though it is still a problem. She reports how among minority ethnic groups, rivalries, animosities and racisms can be just as intense within the same ward and organisation. She explains how there are no other nurses in her ward or work who speak the same language as her and so she is marginalised by those who share a language, national or ethnic background. She argues that people get very depressed or leave the job due to inter-ethnic bullying and prejudice but this is not seen as a problem by management. She also believes that there is no easy solution to this problem because people are afraid to speak up for fear of making matters worse. So the message here is that while everyone may in principle support international womens day, from the perspective of some NHS staff, there isn’t much to celebrate.

This video has been posted to mark International Women’s Day 2021 #IWD2021. We #ChooseToChallenge racism in the workplace.

Fashion is a common language. It’s a personal signature and also reflects our culture. This collection of beautiful international fashion photographs shows the richness of everyone’s culture and how beautiful we are. Last year just before Covid19 hit Swansea, Swansea Women’s Asylum and Refugee Group organised a Fashion Show to reflect the beautiful, diverse, fashion cultures from women around the world. This project was supported by University of Wales, Trinity St. David. The importance of the project was that it was lead by women for women.