Accent of Women

Since its initial establishment in 1956, the MCT has supported women from migrant, refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds around key settlement issues – housing, English classes, community capacity building, employment and training, family counselling and mediation, leadership programs, as well as financial literacy to name a few.To celebrate these 60 years of service, the MCT has put together a book called Opening Doors, which document some of the path breaking work to support women from migrant and refugee backgrounds.Joining me on today's program are Halima Mohamed, a leader in the Somali community and one of the MCT's program participants. Sarina Greco, former team leader from 1997 to 2005, and current team leader, Hutch Hussein.

Alok Vaid-Menon is a trans femme South Asian writer, performance artist, and community organizer based in NYC. For the past seven years they have organized in solidarity with racial-, economic-, and gender-justice movements worldwide.

Alok Vaid-Menon is a trans femme South Asian writer, performance artist, and community organizer based in NYC. For the past seven years they have organized in solidarity with racial-, economic-, and gender-justice movements worldwide.

Alok Vaid-Menon is a trans femme South Asian writer, performance artist, and community organizer based in NYC. For the past seven years they have organized in solidarity with racial-, economic-, and gender-justice movements worldwide.

Coco Solid describes herself as a musician, writer, artist and philosoflygirl hailing from Auckland Aotearoa/New Zealand. She delivered the keynote address at the Listen Conference, a feminist music space, held in Melbourne over the weekend of October 14, 15 and 16.

Coco Solid describes herself as a musician, writer, artist and philosoflygirl hailing from Auckland Aotearoa/New Zealand. She delivered the keynote address at the Listen Conference, a feminist music space, held in Melbourne over the weekend of October 14, 15 and 16.

After more than 50 years of ongoing armed conflict, Peace negotiations began in Colombia. The agreement, signed by the government and the oldest insurgency in the world, FARC, was stalled by the Pyrrhic victory of the NO campaign, where people voted against the agreements on a plebiscite. We talk about the role of the media, the need of social justice and the hopes of millions of Colombians to put an end to more than five decades of armed conflict.#PazParaColombia

On today's program we look at organising workers in the garment industry in two different Asian countries – Indonesia and Cambodia. Although these workers are effectively doing the same job, their local issues are very different, and bring about different methods of organising.

This week on Accent of Women, we take a creative look, at the art of spoken word as political expression.My guest today is Sista Zai – or Zai Zunda. She's a poet, she acts, writes, draws, DJs, sings, plays, laughs and travels. Find her on Facebook – Sista Zai Story Teller and Thought Leader.

Qandeel Baloch was a young Pakistani girl who sky-rocketed into the public domain through her use of social media. She's like the Kim Kardashian of Pakistan. A young aspiring model, flaunting herself on the internet and attracting a mass following. She was murdered by her brother. He said it was to protect his honour and that of his family. But this honour killing attracted public outrage – unlike thousands of other honour killings in that country.Why did Qandeela's death cause outrage? What affect has it had on feminism and left-wing politics in Pakistan?To discuss these issues and more, I am joined this week by feminist and socialist activist Aima Khosa. Aima is a journalist for the Express Tribune, which is an affiliate of the New York Times in Pakistan. Aima is also a member of the Awami Workers Party Lahore, the only Leftist political party in Pakistan that came together in 2014 through a coalition of 3 left groups.