Global Feminist Pitch 2022: Call For Application

About the project

The shrinking spaces for action, an increase in nationalism and authoritarianism, as well as anti-feminist and right-wing populist rhetoric are affecting the work of organizations and individuals active in the feminist and gender-political field. Black women, Indigenous women, women with disabilities, women with non-conforming sexual orientation and gender identity, and other marginalized groups are further disadvantaged and/or criminalized by society and by the laws of their respective countries. Discrimination usually has a lasting effect on all areas of life - education, work, family life, health - and can lead to various challenges. Feminists around the world have responded to these challenges through mobilisation and solidarity.

The Global Feminist Pitch wants to give feminists from the Global South and (South) Eastern Europe the chance to accentuate these movements as well as their intersectional and intergenerational nature. In the Global Feminist Pitch 2022, ten feminists will get the opportunity to map and write about the feminist movements in their respective regions in a format of their choice (essays, features, papers, reports, articles, or case studies). In this process, they will be supported by the Global Unit for Feminism and Gender Democracy through workshops and consultations. The finished pieces will be published in a publication on feminist mobilisation in the Global South and (South) Eastern Europe by the end of 2022. This publication will contribute to the global debate, complement the existing discourse, and provide feminists, activists, other organisations, and donors with crucial information about successful feminist movements that are significant for the feminist narrative.

Find the full Call for Application here.

Read all about the Global Feminist Pitch 2021 here.

Stories of Feminist Mobilisation: How to Advance Feminist Movement Worldwide

Under the banner “For Feminist Mobilisation”, the Global Feminist Pitch 2022 wanted to give attention to feminist movements that do not get the deserved space in the public discourse. Twelve feminists from Brazil, Syria, Jamaica, Belarus, Venezuela, Kenya, Romania, the Philippines, Nigeria, Nepal, and Hungary had the opportunity write about the feminist mobilisation in their respective regions in a format of their choice. The result is “Stories of Feminist Mobilisation”. » PDF download

 

Meet our Selected Feminists:

Emitomo Tobi Nimisire, Nigeria

Emitomo Tobi Nimisire is a writer, sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) consultant, feminist researcher, and a communications strategist. She is a Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), Common Purpose and Margaret Ekpo Youth Fellow, and ONE Champion. Nimisire applies an intersectional approach to analysing and proposing solutions to developmental issues and implementing sustainable solutions to them. She is committed to working on and creating programmes and projects that improve the quality of human lives, especially for women and girls. She currently works as a communications analyst at SCIDaR, a management consulting firm, on a project that improves programming and research that address social norms in Nigeria.

For the Global Feminist Pitch she will write about queer rights movement in Nigeria between 2020 and 2022, by documenting queer rights organizing at three levels: Organizational, Group, and Individual. Her article will highlight ways in which queer advocacies, movements, and activists are employing feminist principles in the agitation for queer liberation and rights in Nigeria, as well, as the creativity of their approaches and tools leveraged.

Clarice Schreiner, Brazil

Clarice Schreiner is a decolonial feminist from Brazil whose main interests are migration and feminist resistances. She is part of the World March of Women, an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist feminist movement, as well as the Middle East Coordinator of the Brazilian Feminist Observatory of International Relations (OFRI), and a collaborator of GAIRE, an advisory group for immigrants and refugees from Porto Alegre, her hometown. During the election campaign of 2022, she is involved in two local antiracist and feminist committees. In 2021, she went backpacking through the Caucasus, Middle East, and South Asia for six months and engaged with women and social movements on the way, hoping to strengthen solidarity networks across borders. Clarice also has a podcast called Plurais, which now streams weekly on a community radio in a neighborhood in Porto Alegre.

For the Global Feminist Pitch, she will write a report with women community leaders from different regions of Brazil during the election campaign, listening to how the pandemic was handled by their communities, as well as how the four years of the extreme right in power affected their day-to-day lives. The report will also tackle urgent public policies around the country and local resistance strategies. You can follow her work on Spotify, Twitter and Instagram.

Edna Asesa, Kenya

Edna Asesa is a feminist and human rights lawyer from Kenya. She is passionate about research and writing on social justice issues, as she believes in the power of writing as a tool for activism. She hopes that her work will not only create awareness of critical social justice issues affecting minority groups, but also contribute to policy changes in Kenya and Africa at large.

For the Global Feminist Pitch, Edna will write an article that highlights the violence women with non-conforming sexual orientation and gender non-conforming persons in Kenya face. Edna’s hope is that this article will not only demonstrate the key role feminist movements play in the Kenyan context, but also the dire need for policy and societal change in Kenya if women with non-conforming sexual orientation and gender non-conforming persons are to enjoy their fundamental human rights.

Gabriela Mesones Rojo, Venezuela

Gabriela Mesones Rojo is a writer, journalist, and visual artist from Venezuela, based in Madrid. She writes about gender, race, migration, human rights and why (and how) people organize. In her newsletter, Malas, she explores how women and gender-diverse individuals are organizing to change Latin-American society, culture and politics. She is the author of Paisaje Ulterior, a book that combines poetry and contemporary art; and the founder of a small independent fanzine editorial.

Her Global Feminist Pitch article will focus on femicides in Venezuela, and how feminist organizations and collectives are organizing to document, monitor and prevent extreme cases of violence across the country, even though there is no gender-sensitive data in Venezuela since 2016.

Iulia Hau, Romania

Iulia Hau is a Romanian journalist and translator who writes and speaks about feminism, racism, social and gender inequalities, migration, and travel. She is a frequent contributor for news outlets and magazines, and she has published both in Romania and abroad, for publications in Europe and the Americas. She covers topics such as the double standard of aging by gender, the pressure society places on women to look and behave in a certain way, sexual consent, and domestic violence. During a long journey in Latin America, she documented the life of a group of Venezuelan migrants in Cartagena (Colombia) after living under the same roof with them for several weeks. Furthermore, in 2018, she was hosted by a family in the outskirts of Caracas and went on to publish a testimonial about life, society and women's situation in Venezuela during that time. Her work appeared in National Geographic, Vice Romania, Lazy Women (Hungary), and Cultura Nexos (Mexico), among others.

For Global Feminist Pitch, Iulia will document the key moments in the Romanian feminist movement against one of the most pressing problem women face in this country: gender-based violence.

Júlia Bakó, Hungary

Júlia Bakó is a feminist activist based is Budapest, Hungary. Currently she is working on a project for Patent Association, a women's rights organization that aims to provide sexual and reproductive health and rights services for women fleeing the war in Ukraine. She is also part of Nők Egymásért Mozgalom (Women for Each Other Movement), a grassroots, leftist feminist organization. She regularly publishes articles on national and international issues concerning gender equality, with a recent focus on the unequal division of reproductive labour between the sexes.

For the Global Feminism Pitch she will work on an article that explores the anti-abortion movements within Eastern European countries, especially in Croatia, Poland, Romania, and Hungary with a special attention to the current situation of Ukrainian refugee women regarding reproductive rights. Her article will introduce organizations and individuals that fight for women’s reproductive rights in the region, the feminists that organize protests, give lectures, conduct communication campaigns, and advocate policies that emphasize the importance of women accessing safe abortion and provide access to safe abortion and medical services.

Kristeena Monteith, Jamaica

Kristeena Monteith is an award-winning Jamaican journalist, multimedia producer, civic participation specialist and writer. She designs and leads powerful communications-based social projects and organizes grounded community-based movements locally, regionally and internationally. Currently Kristeena is the Community and Outreach officer at WE-Change Jamaica, a feminist organization focused on advocating for and with LBTQ women and non-binary Jamaicans. She also mentors young eco-feminists with GirlsCARE.

For the Global Feminist Pitch, Kristeena will explore community building and community care practices across intergenerational Caribbean feminists movements, focusing on innovative models for sustainable activism.

Renata Saavedra, Brazil

Renata is a Brazilian researcher and journalist focused on human rights, feminist philanthropy and social justice. She is an intersectional feminist interested in building trust relations and generous connections to shift the power. She has a transdisciplinary educational background – Gender Studies, Communication and Culture, History, Sociology – and experience with grantmaking and social justice philanthropy. You can find some of her writing and ideas here. 

For the Global Feminist Pitch, Renata will contribute with an article on "Amefrican" (as Lélia Gonzalez wrote) alliances for transforming powers. It will address movements, strategies, and exchanges of Black feminists in Latin America for more Black and indigenous women and LBTQIA+ people in politics.

Rula Asad, Syria

Rula Asad is a Syrian feminist researcher, journalist, mentor and trainer in the field of feminist media, events moderator, content creator, environmental activist, former football player, singer in a Queer choir, and recently a dog-sitter. She based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands since 2012. Rula is the Co-Founder of Stichting Syrian Female Journalists' Network (SFJN) and the Executive Director. She holds MA in Gender Studies in Media, Culture, and Arts from Utrecht University in The Netherlands and a BA in Journalism from the University of Damascus. She started her career in journalism as a sports reporter back in Syria in 2002. She researches various topics, including culture, society, politics, revolutions and social movements, social justice, feminism, digital rights, and women human rights defenders' safety and security.

For the Global Feminist Pitch, Rula will be working on an article about the current reality of Syrian feminist movements. Rula will use this article as a space for Syrian women activists to share their opinions and thoughts about Syrian feminism from the local perspective, and how transnational solidarity looks from within this movements.

Shiphrah Belonguel, The Philippines

Shiphrah Belonguel is a feminist activist and writer-researcher from the Philippines. She is currently the Global Advocacy Officer at Fòs Feminista. She has previously worked in local and international organizations focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), where she helped lead campaigns and develop advocacy strategies on SRHR. She has written on the intersections of gender and SRHR with climate, agriculture, infrastructure, and technology. She is a fellow for Girls’ Globe and Young Progressives Hub, where she writes on various issues using a feminist lens.

For the Global Feminist Pitch, Shiphrah will write about movements and activists that continue to resist amid the shrinking spaces for action in the Philippines.

Shuvangi Khadka, Nepal

Shuvangi Khadka is an independent writer and researcher based in Kathmandu, Nepal. She is also one of the editors of The Pomelo, an e-magazine which explores Himalayan voices. She is interested in reading and writing about society, culture, gender and arts. She also likes to play with visual mediums and is interested in learning everything about film-making. Currently, she is working on her first short documentary film. You can follow her work on Instagram.

For the Global Feminist Pitch, Shuvangi will write a reportage tracing the success of abortion history in Nepal and also point out differences in feminist mobilization through two decades in Nepal.

Tony Lashden, Belarus

Tony Lashden (they/them) is Belarusian queer feminist and writer working with issues of sexuality, systematic oppression related to SOGIE, mental and physical well-being, and economic status. Tony is a co-founder of a grass-root collective "tender na gender" (Minsk) that unites young feminists and queer activists to protect and promote women's and LGBTQI+ rights. As a journalist, they have been covering issues of gender-based violence and written several crucial articles on queerness and gender variety in Eastern Europe. Tony is a keen scholar who gained their experience in researching issues of digital queer mobilization and feminist activist well-being in structures of philanthropic aid. They have MSc in Media and Communication (Stockholm University) and MA in Gender Studies, Law, and Social Justice (Umeå University).

For the Global Feminist Pitch, Tony will investigate how issues of decolonialism are considered and practiced by feminists in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia after the full-scale invasion in Ukraine happened in February 2022. Focusing on solidarity with Ukraine, Tony will examine what feminist anti-imperialists strategies are used by activists to end the war.