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For each AWID Forum we call for contributions from a wide range of feminist and social justice movements to propose activities and create the Forum program.

For the 14th AWID international Forum, we want to make the program truly representative of the diversity of the movements.

That is why we put in place a new and engaging way to choose the proposals that will generate the final Forum program: the Participatory Selection Process (PSP).

What is the Participatory Selection Process (PSP)?

The Participatory Selection Process is the final step in reviewing the activity proposals and selecting those that will be part of the official Forum program. 

This is how it works: 

1. Activity proposals have originally been submitted via our Call for Forum Activities, open to everyone - groups and individuals - interested in presenting their feminist reality at the Forum.
2. Out of all the activities submitted, AWID staff pre-selects the ones best reflecting the Forum theme and presenting a creative approach for audience engagement.
3. Activities are then reviewed and short-listed by different Forum Committees to ensure a good diversity of regions, movements and ideas.
4. The selected proposals are then reviewed and rated by individuals and groups whose proposals have also been short-listed. The proposals which receive the most votes from fellow candidates will become part of the final Forum program.

The whole activity selection process at a glance:

Why did AWID decide to organize a PSP for the 14th AWID Forum activities?

We think a PSP is relevant for the AWID Forum because:

• It places at the centre of the decision making process the communities who live the feminist realities that will be showcased and discussed at the Forum 

• It is consistent with our identity and our role as a movement support/ accompaniment organization. 

• It is in line with our vision of the Forum as co-created with different feminist and social justice movements, who shape the Forum through their participation in committees (content and methodology, access, artivist and host country), creating and facilitating activities as partners with AWID and also making decisions about the Program through the PSP.

• It allows for greater diversity in the textures that will make up the Forum fabric (or in the voices that will compose the Forum song). It ensures we go beyond AWID itself and the movement partners that we already know and work with. It opens the door to the unexpected.

How did AWID come up with this PSP idea?

This is the first time AWID is considering such a process.

The initial idea came from AWID’s Co-EDs and staff. Before committing to a decision, we consulted some of the community funds that have been implementing participatory selection processes for years. These included FRIDA: The Young Feminists Fund, the International Trans Fund, UHAI - East Africa’s fund for sexual minorities and sex workers - and the Central American Women’s Fund. We consulted them to learn from their extensive experiences and get their feedback.

Pre-selected activities

• Financial autonomy, breaker of silence
  ORGANISATION DES FEMMES AFRICAINES DE LA DIASPORA (OFAD) ASSOCIATION LES PETITES MERES PRODADPHE ASSOCIATION AMBE KUNKO (AAK)

• Contribution of feminist organisations to the fight against violent extremism in Niger
  Femmes Actions et Développement (FAD)

• Self-financing: home banking for women 
  Rassemblement des Femmes pour le développement endogène et solidaire RAFDES

• Food and food sovereignty for rural women
  Association Song-taaba des Femmes Unies pour le Développement (ASFUD)

• Feminist leaders, investing in positive masculinity, creating a new balanced social order: how to change mentalities? 
  Une societe cooperative, la chefferie traditionnelle des localites, les autorites administratives et les autres associations feminines ONG Centre Solidarite "Investir dans les Filles et les Femmes

• Co-creating the sponsorship methodology.
  NEGES MAWON

• Millennium of opportunities to save the earth (MOST) by supporting climate justice for local and Indigenous communities in Congo Basin. 
  Jeunesse Congolaise pour les Nations Unies (JCNU), Association Genre et Environnement pour le Développement (AGED)

• Envisioning an Asian Queer Feminist Politics
  ASEAN Feminist LBQ Womxn Network Sayoni

• Supporting the Self-Managed: Abortion Doulas, Acompanantes, and Radical Networks of support
  inroads

• Online Feminisms: How Women Are Taking Back The Tech
  Feminism In India

• Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Sex Workers
  Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW), The International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW AP)

• Sustainable Feminist Leadership and Organizing - Personal and Collective Experiences
  HER Fund, Institute for Women's Empowerment (IWE) ,Kalyanamita, AAF

• Caribbean Realities: Black Sauna Radio
  WE-Change Jamaica

• Telephone Helplines Care and Women Experience
  Generation Initiative for Women and Youth Network (GIWYN),Youth Network for Community and Sustainable Development (YNCSD), Community Health Rights Network (CORENET)

• Sensuality as resistance; body movement workshop
  UHAI EASHRI

• Lesbian Disco Eastern European Style
  Sapfo Collective

• FitcliqueAfrica Feminist Utopia Installation, Trauma Healing and Self Defense Camp
  FitcliqueAfrica (Fitclique256 Uganda Limited)

• Queering Communications for an Open Internet
  Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice

• Is the Way you Think about Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRHR) Ableist? Good Practices for Disability Inclusive SRHR Programmes and Advocacy.
  Asia Pacific Network of Women with Disabilities and Allies

• Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication
  API Equality-LA, Sayoni, ASEAN Feminist LBQ Womxn Network

• Feminist centred approaches to prosecuting sexual harassment in the world of work
  Women's Legal Centre

• Women in Conflict in Myanmar
  Women's League of Burma, Rainfall

• Caribbean Feminist Spaces, Creative Expressions & Spiritual Practices for Community Transformation
  CAISO: Sex and Gender Justice

• POP-UPS: Just Power: Popular Education Tools for a Feminist Future
  JASS/Just Associates

• UnAnonYmous: Queering Black African Diaspora Feminist Practices Sobriety

• Digital Witchcraft: Magical Thinking for Cyberfeminist Futures
  The Digital Witchcraft Institute

• Building Womanifestos: Grassroot Women's Agenda for Change in Asia Pacific
  Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development

• Designing your astral travels
  EuroNPUD, narcofeminists as a loose group

• Collective Care
  RENFA Rede Nacional de Feministas Antiproibicionistas

• Music of our movements
  Radical imagination

• From waste to Ecofriendly coal
  KEMIT ECOLOGY SARL

• Collective care and insurgency of feminist antiracist movements under authoritarian and violent contexts
  CFEMEA - Feminist Center of Studies and Advisory Services, CRIOLA - black women`s organization, Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras

• Breaking Patriarchal Religion's Stranglehold on Family Laws that Affect Our Lives #FreeOurFamilyLaws
  Musawah

• Feminist approach to claim and control over lands within investment
  Badabon Sangho, APWLD

• Women's Global Strike: Our resistance, our future
  Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law & Development, ESCR-Net, Women's March Global

• Towards an Inclusive ‘Mother Earth’
  Disability Rights Fund, Open Society Foundation

• From Inclusion to Infiltration: Strategies for Building Intersectional Feminist Movements
  Mobility International USA (MIUSA)

• The hidden stories of women with invisible disabilities: Art in action
  The Red Door, Merchants of Madness, Improving Mental Wellbeing through Art

• Public-Private Partnership and Women´s Human Rights: learnings from case studies in the Global South
  Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)

• The Interconnected Journey: Our Bodies, Our Sci-Fi! <3
  The Interconnected Journey Project, Laboratorio de Interconectividades

• Compiling and Building: Alternative feminist vision to challenge the dominant world economic order
  IWRAW Asia Pacific

• Self-publication as a feminist act
  International Women* Space

• Good Practices of legal protection for gender & sexual minorities in Pakistan and their Intersectionality
  Activists Alliance Foundation, Khawja Sirah Society, Wajood Society, Wasaib Sanwaro

• Feminist Approaches to Counter Trafficking
  IWRAW Asia Pacific, Business & Human Rights Resource Center

• Critiquing individualism and state policies: transnational organizing against targeted violence
  Masaha: Accessible Feminist Knowledge

• Decolonizing Intimacy: How Queer Identities Challenge Heteronormative Family Structures
  WOMANTRA

• Yeki Hambe - Sex worker theatre
  Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Task Force

• Creating the Indigenous feminist reality: honoring the sacred feminine and building new paths for Indigenous women
  Cultural Survival, International Funders in Indigenous Peoples

• Eyes on Anti-prohibitionism by Brazillian Women
  Mulheres Cannabicas, Tulipas do Cerrado

• Black Feminist Truth Commission: Addressing Injustices to Revolutionize Intersectional Feminism as the New Reality
  Black Women in Development

• Community care is self care: true stories are told in safer spaces
  Eurasian Harm Reduction Association, Metzineres, Urban Survivor’s Union, Salvage women and children from drug abuse

• NO MOVES BARRED:Dancing connections between Disability,trans & sexual rights against violence
  National Forum of Women with Disabilities, Autonomy foundation, Nazyk kyz

• The Impact of Corporate Capture on Feminist Realities: Developing Tools for Action
  ESCR-Net | Economic, Social, Cultural Rights Network

• Reimagining AIDS: building a feminist HIV response
  Frontline AIDS, Aidsfonds, IPPI (Indonesian Network of Women Living with HIV), UHAI-EASHRI (East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative)

• Advancing Economic Justice towards Realizing Our Vision of a Feminist Planet
  International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ESCR-Net

• Sex Workers Cafe
  Hydra e.V.

• Adopting an ecofeminist approach in dealing with climate change and food security
  Umphakatsi Peace Ecovillage, Human Rights Educational Centre

• Connecting the grassroots with the international: experience from creative sex worker mobilisation in Europe
  International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe, STRASS - French Sex Worker Union, APROSEX, Red Edition

• Experiment with how innovative tech can help us feel safer when navigating our cities
  Soul City Institute for Social Justice, Safetipin, Womanity Foundation

• question “Are hierarchies within organisations UNfeminist?”
  Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya National, Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

• We all are different, but we do have joint shared values
  UNWUD (Ukrainian network of women who use drugs), JurFem Association, Women's Prospects

• A World Without Class
  Bunge La Wamama Mashinani (Grassroots Women's Parliament)

• Women Empower the Community
  Institute for Women's Empowerment (IWE), Solidaritas Perempuan, ASEC Indonesia, Komunitas Swabina Pedesaan Salassae (KSPS)

• Feminist Organizing: Transformational Leadership - Women Workers in Latin America Creating a Feminist Labor Movement and a Feminist World of Work
  Solidarity Center

• Acting Out, Acting Up : Disability-Feminism decolonising narratives of Stigma thro' Participatory theatre
  Rising Flame, National Indigenous Disabled Women Association, Nepal, The Spectrum & Union of Abilities, The Red Door

• Valuing and centering rest, pleasure and play
  ATHENA Network

• The African feminist judgment project
  The Initiative for strategic Ligation in Africa (ISLA)

• Voices from the frontlines: Bolstering collective power to end the incarceration of women worldwide
  International Drug Policy Consortium, Equis Justicia para las Mujeres, National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, Women and Harm Reduction International Network

• Queer Youth Organising: imagining in an era of human rights and sustainable development
  African Queer Youth Initiative, Success Capital Organisation

• Our Struggles Our Stories Our Strengths
  Oriang Lumalaban, Pambansang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan

• Breaking barriers for collective Indigenous climate action in Southeast Asia
  Cuso International, Asia Indigenous Peoples' Pact

• Love Positive Women: Going beyond romantic love to deep community love and social justice
  Eurasian Women's Network on AIDS

• Intersex and Feminism
  Intersex Russia

• Understanding the reproductive health experiences and needs of transgender and gender diverse people
  Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN)

• Because She Cares: Critical conversations on HIV activism as (un)caring work
  Because We Care Collaborative

• The Mississippi Food Systems Manifesto
  Center for Ideas, Equity & Transformative Change, National Council of Appropriate Technology - Gulf South, MS Food Justice Collaborative, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

• Kurdish Women's Movement co-presidency experience as an example of a radical feminist realization: Co-presidency is our PURPLE line!
  The Free Women’s Movement (TJA)

• WOES -"Walking on Egg Shells"
  Eldoret Women For Development (ELWOFOD), Mama Cash, Young women against Women Custodial Injustices Network

• FREEDOM

• Prison Isn’t Feminist: Exploring the impact and alternatives to reliance on police and incarceration
  Migrant Sex Workers Project, Showing Up For Racial Justice

• Bondo without Blood: A Feminist Reimagining of Sierra Leonean Rites of Passage
  Purposeful

• Liberated Land & Territories: A Pan-African Conversation
  Thousand Currents (USA), Abahlali baseMjondolo (South Africa), Nous Sommes la Solution (west Africa/regional), Movilización de Mujeres Negras por el Cuidado de la Vida y los Territorios Ancestrales (Colombia), and Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (Brazil)

• Popular Education and Organizing for a Feminist Economy
  Jamaica Household Workers Union (JHWU), United for a Fair Economy, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL)

• So You Wish To Mobilise With An Empty Wallet? Let’s Make It Happen!
  Breakthrough India

• Experience sharing establishing a network for women human rights defenders in East Africa: Ugandan perspective
  Women Human Rights Defenders Network Uganda

• Tech clinic
  Stichting Syrian Female Journalists Netowrk

• Building Inclusive Movements: Going Beyond Tokenism
  Rising Flame

• Justice & Healing for Survivors of GBV: an interactive debate on restorative justice and the anatomy of an apology
  One Future Collective

• Collective actions to ending transphobia through a feminist lens
  Asia Pacific Transgender Network, Iranti, Transgender Europe

• LBQ women & Asylum
  Sehaq

• Abortion and Disability: Towards an Intersectional Human Rights-Based Approach
  Women Enabled International

• Learn how to support the self-organizing of undocumented, migrant, and criminalized and sex workers communities
  Buttrerfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network)

• Self Care: A Fundamental Tool for Sustaining LGBTQI & Feminist Organizing
  United and Strong Inc., S.H.E Barbados, Lez Connect

• Reclaiming Young African Feminist VOICES-REALITIES-POWER for climate justice
  Young Feminist organization Gasy Youth Up, Young African Feminist Dialogues

• Women in action & solidarity: performing our realities (Asia & Africa)
  Young Feminist organization Gasy Youth Up ( co-founder) , Young African Feminist Dialogues ( member)

• Women in action & solidarity: performing our realities (Asia & Africa)
  Women Performing the World (Asia/Africa)

• Challenging patriarchy: Workers in entertainment sector
  Women Forum for Women in Nepal (WOFOWON)

• The non-citizens: issues of women's citizenship in the context of migrant, vulnerable communities in South Asia
  NEthing

• Visioning for voice in migration and climate crises
  Women's Refugee Commission, The Feminist Humanitarian Network, ActionAid

• In It Together: Women's Funds and Feminist Movements Co-Creating Feminist Realities
  Mama Cash, Global Fund for Women, Urgent Action Fund - Africa

• Co-creating magic with young feminist movements - participatory practices that spark joy
  Feminist organizing, FRIDA The Young Feminist Fund (Community), Teia

• Protection right of woman’s in difficult realities 3 organizations of women from marginally communities
  NGO Asteria, Ermolaeva Irena and Bayazitova Renata. NGO Ganesha Musagalieva Tatiana. NGO Ravniy Ravnomu Kucheryavyh Tanya

• Feminnale - traditions against art and expression
  Bishkek Feminist Initiatives

• Resistance through knowledge, arts and activism: creation of a feminist library in Armenia
  FemHouse, Armenia

• Conquering the UN System with Feminist Strategies (You Don’t Need to be a Lawyer to Have Fun)
  Kazakhstan Feminist Initiative "Feminita", IWRAW Asia Pacific, ILGA World

• Data. Huh. What is it good for? Feminist data and organizing for feminist outcomes
  International Women's Development Agency, Women's Rights Action Movement, Fiji Women's Rights Movement

• Criminalized Women’s voice, leadership and influence on laws, policies and practices in Kenya
  Keeping Alive Societies Hope-KASH, Katindi Lawyers and Advocates, Vocal Kenya

• From Colombia to the world, African women's changing force
  Proceso de Comunidades Negras en Colombia -PCN, Solidarité Féminine por la Paix el le Develppment Integral -SOFEPADI,

• Afro Queer Listening Lounge and Story-Telling Booth
  AQ Studios, None on Record, AfroQueer Podcast

• Reclaiming Bodily Integrity
  GBV Prevention Network : Coordinated by Raising Voices

• Learning from diversity
  Circulo de Mujeres con Discapacidad -CIMUDIS, Alianza Discapacidad por nuestros Derechos -ADIDE, Fundación Dominicana de Ciegos -FUDCI, Filial Puerto Rico de Mujeres con Discapacidad

• Football as a feminist tool
  Fundación GOLEES (Género, Orgullo, Libertad y Empoderamiento de Ellas en la Sociedad)

• Migratory constellations
  LasVanders

• Ecofeminist dialogues to defend territories
  CIEDUR (Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios sobre el Desarrollo), Equit, Foro permanente de Manaos y Amazonia

• La Frida BikesMoviment
  La Frida Bike

• Witchcraft, shamanism and other insurgent knowledge against patriarchy.
  Colectiva Feminista MAPAS-Mujeres Andando Proceso por Autonomías Sororales

• Experiences, learnings and challenges in managing holistic security of horizontal feminist organisations and of gender-dissidence in times of social and political crisis. The experience of the popular uprising in Chile of 18 October.
  Fudación Comunidades en Interfaz

• Food that we all know about
  Las Nietas de Nonó, Parceleras Afrocaribeñas por la Transformación barrial (PATBA)

• Practices of resistance against climate change of Indigenous women in Peru and Guatemala
  Thousand Currents, Red de Mujeres Productoras de la Agricultura Familiar, Asociación de Mujeres Ixpiyakok (ADEMI, Ixpiyakok Women's Association)

• Building Feminist Cities
  CISCSA, Articulacion Feminista Marcosur

• Stand in my place
  Alianza Discapacidad por nuestros Derechos - ADIDE, Circulo de Mujeres con Discapacidad -CIMUDIS

• Clearing the way for women's fullness of life, healing collective and historical traumas
  Grupo de Mujeres Mayas Kaqla

• Zapoteca Indigenous women challenged by nature

• Houses of Care and Healing for Women Human Rights Defenders as part of Integral Feminist Protection: A Feminist Reality
  Iniciativa Mesoamericana De Defensoras de Derechos Humanos, Consorcio Oaxaca para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la Equidad A.C, Red Nacional De Defensoras De Derechos Humanos en Honduras, Coletivo Feminista de Autocuidado

• Healing your unicornix voice: Weaving ancient and digital technologies to sharpen the tongue

• Feminist trajectories for an assisted motherhood protocol for women with disabilities
  Circulo emancipador de mujeres y niñas con discapacidad de Chile, CIMUNIDIS, WEI

• School for trans feminist children
  Fundación Selena

• REDTRASEX: Experience of Organization and Struggle for the Rights of Women Sex Workers in Latin America and the Caribbean
  RedTraSex Red de mujeres trabajadoras sexuales LAC

• Gender based violence and the world of sex work in Mexico
  Brigada Callejera de Apoyo a la Mujer, "Elisa Martínez", A.C., Red Mexicana de Organizaciones Contra la Criminalización del VIH. Red Mexicana de Trabajo Sexual

• Migration forces us to draw the path as we walk
  Asociación de Trabajadoras del Hogar a Domicilio y de Maquila. ATRAHDOM

• New narratives for Black women: body, healing and pleasure

• Weaving memories and networks - Black Feminists strengthening Black feminisms in LAC
  Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diáspora, Articulação de Organizações de Mulheres Negras Brasileiras (AMNB), Voces Caribeñas

Los objetivos de nuestra investigación ¿Dónde está el dinero? :

Trouvez et créez des connexions. L’AWID compte plus de 6 000 membres, qui s’efforcent tou·te·s de résoudre des questions complémentaires et interconnectées. Cette diversité favorise la pérennité des mouvements et acteures féministes.

Le 14e Forum international de l'AWID aura lieu du 20 au 23 septembre 2021 à Taipei, Taiwan.

En savoir plus

Maryum Saifee (@msaifee), New York, USA    

When you do a search for “Female Genital Mutilation” or “FGM” online, an image of four line-drawings of the female anatomy pop up next to its Wikipedia entry. It illustrates four types of violence. The first being a partial cut to the clitoris. The second, a more invasive cut with the entire clitoris removed. The third is progressively worse with the removal of the clitoris, labia majora and minora. And the fourth box illustrates a series of hash marks to symbolize stitches over the vaginal opening to allow only for urination and menstruation.

As a survivor of FGM, most questions about my story fixate on the physical. The first question I usually get asked is what type of FGM I underwent. When I told a journalist once that I went through Type 1, she said “oh, that’s not so bad. It’s not like type three which is far worse.” She was technically right. I had the least invasive form. And for many years, I gaslighted myself into feeling a sense of relief that I was one of the lucky ones. I comforted myself noting that I could have been less fortunate with all of my genitalia gouged out, not just the clitoral tip. Or worse I could have been one of the ones who didn’t survive at all. Like Nada Hassan Abdel-Maqsoud, a twelve year old, who bled to death on a doctor’s operating table earlier this year in Upper Egypt. Nada is a  reminder to me that for every data point -- 200 million women and girls who live with the consequences of FGM globally -- there is a story. Nada will never be able to tell hers.

As much as I find the label “survivor” suffocating at times -- I also realize there is privilege embedded in the word. By surviving, you are alive. You have the ability to tell your story, process the trauma, activate others in your community and gain insights and a new language and lens to see yourself through.

The act of storytelling can be cathartic and liberating, but it can also shatter the storyteller in the process.

Without integrating the psychosocial support of trained clinicians into storytelling and healing retreats, well-intentioned interventions can result in more trauma. This is all the more important as FGM survivors navigate the double pandemic of their own PTSD from childhood trauma, and the indefinite COVID-19 global shutdown.

In many anti-FGM advocacy spaces, I have seen this insatiable hunger to unearth stories -- whatever the cost to the storyteller. The stories help activate funding and serve as a data point
for measuring impact. 

Survivor stories then become commodities fueling a storytelling industrial complex. Storytellers, if not provided proper mental health support in the process, can become collateral damage.

My motivation in writing this piece is to flip the script on how we view FGM survivors, prioritizing the storyteller over the story itself.

FGM survivors are more than the four boxes describing how the pieces of our anatomy were cut, pricked, carved, or gouged out. In this essay, I’ll break down the anatomy of an FGM survivor’s story into four parts: stories that break, stories that remake, stories that heal, and stories that reveal.

Type 1: Stories that break

I was sitting in the heart of Appalachia with a group of FGM survivors, meeting many for the first time. As they shared their traumas, I realized we all belonged in some way or another to the same unenviable club. A white Christian survivor from Kentucky - who I don’t think I would have ever met if we didn’t have FGM survivorship connecting us - told the contours of her story. 

There were so many parallels. We were both cut at seven. She was bribed with cake after her cut. I was bribed with a jumbo-sized Toblerone chocolate bar when mine was over. Absorbing her trauma overwhelmed me. And I imagine when I shared my story, others in the circle may also have been silently unraveling. We didn’t have a clinician or mental health professional in a facilitation role and that absence was felt. The first night, I was sharing a room with six other survivors and tried hard to keep the sounds of my own tears muffled. By the last day, I reached breaking point. Before leaving for the airport, my stomach contracted and I convulsively vomited. I felt like I was purging not only my pain, but the pain of the others I’d absorbed that week. We all dutifully produced our stories into 90 second social media friendly soundbites with narration and photos. But at what cost?

Type 2: Stories that remake

On February 6, 2016, the Guardian published my story as a survivor. The second it was released, I was remade. My identity transformed from nondescript, relatively invisible mid-level Foreign Service Officer to FGM survivor under a public microscope. That same day, then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power tweeted my story with the introduction: “I was seven years old” before linking to the article. The tweet symbolized a moment for me where my personal and professional worlds collided. Since then, they have been forever intertwined. 

Even though I spent ten years of my career as a diplomat focused on other issues -- I lived in Cairo during the early days of the Arab Spring in 2011 and served in Baghdad and Erbil when the Syrian revolution turned from an uprising to civil war -- all of those past experiences that began to make mefeel erased. When I spoke on panels, my identity would be reduced to “survivor.” Like other survivors, I have worked hard to rewrite the script on how others see me.

I reinsert pieces of my other identities when speaking to underscore to the broader public that while yes, I am a survivor of childhood trauma and while my FGM story may have remade a part of my identity, it doesn’t define me.

Type 3: Stories that heal

With the guidance of a mental health expert, I have spent the last few months doing a deep dive into my FGM survivor story. I have told and retold my story over dozens of times in public venues. My goal is to break the culture of silence and inspire action. At this point, the telling of my story has almost become mechanized, as though I am reciting a verse from the Quran I memorized as a kid. I would always start with: “I was sitting an anthropology class when a fellow student described her research project on Female Genital Mutilation. And that’s when I had the memory jolt. A memory I had suppressed since childhood came flooding to the foreground.” I go into the details of what happened in granular detail -- the color of the floor, the feelings of confusion and betrayal in the hazy aftermath. And then I go on to talk about the afternoon I confronted my mother about the summer she and my father shipped my brother and off to India to stay with my aunt. The summer it happened. I later found out my aunt cut me without my parents’ consent. In my years of telling and retelling this story, I would have moments I felt nothing, moments I would break down, and moments of relief. It was a mixed bag, often contradictory emotions happening all at once. 

When I began to take apart the story, I discovered the core moment where I felt most gutted. It wasn’t the cut itself. It was the aftermath. I remember sitting in a corner alone, feeling confused and ashamed. When I looked at my aunt on the other side of the room, she was whispering to my cousin and they both pointed and laughed at me. Unearthing the moment of shame - the laughter - has haunted me since childhood. The piece that was carved out of me is called “haram ki boti” which translates into sinful flesh. Over time, the physical scar healed. But for many FGM survivors, the psychological wounds remain 

Type 4: Stories that reveal

Last year, I decided to take a sabbatical from the Foreign Service. I was burning out on both ends -- I had just completed a really tough assignment in Pakistan and was also doing anti-FGM
advocacy in my personal capacity. When I came home, an acquaintance from graduate school approached me to capture my story on film. As part of the process, she would send a camera
crew to shadow me. Sometimes while giving speeches, other times filming mundane interactions with friends and family. On a visit to my home in Texas, I’ll never forget the moment where my mom told me her story of survival. As part of the film, we went on a roadtrip to Austin to visit the university where I first had the memory jolt. My mom is patiently waiting for the cameraman to set up his tripod.  My father is standing next to her. 

In the end, we eventually had the conversation I never had the courage to have with either of my parents face to face. Looking them both in the eye, retelling my story with a camera as witness, we discussed how FGM ripped our family apart (specifically my dad’s relationship with his sister). For the first time, I heard my mom talking about her own experience and the feeling of betrayal when she discovered my aunt cut me without her consent. When I later told her that FGM was actually indigenous to the U.S. and Europe and that it was a cure for hysteria (prescribed by doctors) up until the 19th century, my mother exclaimed “that’s crazy to me, this was a cure for hysteria. I’m going to educate other doctors to speak out.” And in that moment, my mother, a survivor who had never shared her story before, became an activist. 

My story, intertwined with her story, revealed a tightly woven fabric of resistance. With our voices, we were able to break the cycle of intergenerational structural violence. We were able to rewrite the stories of future generations of girls in our own family and hopefully one day, the world.

 “Dreams”

by Neesa Sunar (@neesasunar), Queens, USA

This is a woman breaking free from her mundane reality, devoid of color. She dreams in a colorful, "nonsensical" way that people in her life would not understand. She could be considered insane, yet her dreams are more vivid and imaginative than actual life. This is frequently how schizophrenia occurs to me, more engaging and exciting than real life.

< United against the violence, by Karina Ocampo 

Freeing the Church, Decolonizing the Bible for West Papuan Women, by Rode Wanimbo >

El objetivo fundamental de la encuesta ¿Dónde está el dinero? es arrojar luz sobre la situación financiera de la diversidad de movimientos feministas, por los derechos de las mujeres, la justicia social, las personas LBTQI+ y demás movimientos aliados de todo el mundo y, sobre la base de dicha información, reforzar las razones fundadas para movilizar más y mejores fondos y transferir el poder a los movimientos feministas.

Solidarity 

We take a position in solidarity with each other and diverse struggles for justice and freedoms. We strive to mobilize and strengthen collective action and practice meaningful ways of working with each other.

Welcome to Crear | Résister | Transform: a festival for feminist movements!

Principles of Engagement

AWID is committed to creating an online space that invites and challenges us all to operate from a place of courage, curiosity, generosity and shared responsibility.

We invite you to co-create spaces with us that are free of harassment and violence, where everyone is respected in their gender identity and expression, race, ability, class, religion, language, ethnicity, age, occupation, type of education, sexuality, body size, and physical appearance. Spaces where we recognize inequalities in our world and strive to transform them in our own interactions with each other.

We want to create a space where ...

• we can all be present

This means that we are able to listen, understand and relate to each other. To feel close, in spite of it all being virtual.  For this, we will make interpretation available and open channels (like chat and other tools) for you to react and share. To hear each other better, we invite you to wear headphones during the conversation. If it is possible for you , we suggest  that you close your email and any other likely source of distraction while you are in the conversation. 

• all forms of knowledge are valued

Let us celebrate the multiple ways in which knowledge shows up in our lives. We invite you to approach the conversation with curiosity and openness to learn from others, allowing ourselves to unlearn and relearn through the exchange, as a way to start collectively building knowledge.  

• all of us feel welcome

We are committed to holistically approaching accessibility by being mindful of different physical, language, mental and safety needs. We want a space that is welcoming of folks from various  backgrounds, beliefs, abilities and experiences. We will be proactive but we also ask that you communicate your needs with us, and we will do our best within our capacity to address these needs.

• all of us feel safe and respected:

We all commit individually and collectively to respect each other’s privacy and to seek people’s consent before sharing any images or content generated during the conversation that involves them.

Creating a safer, respectful and enjoyable environment for the conversations, is everybody's responsibility.

Reporting

If you notice that someone is behaving in a discriminatory or offensive manner, please contact the reference person who will be indicated at the beginning of the session.

Any participants that express oppressive language or images, will be removed from the call and will not be readmitted. We will not engage with them in any way.

Non, nous souhaitons recevoir une seule participation par groupe.

Justicia y cambio sistémico

Trabajamos por un mundo basado en la justicia social, ambiental y económica; y por la interdependencia, la solidaridad y el respeto. Trabajamos para desmantelar los sistemas de poder opresivo y contra todas sus manifestaciones, incluidos el patriarcado, los fundamentalismos, los militarismos, los fascismos y el poder corporativo que amenazan nuestras vidas y nuestro mundo. Queremos un mundo justo en el que los recursos y el poder sean compartidos en formas que permitan que todas las personas prosperen.