FiLiA

In this podcast, Susan Hawthorne speaks to FiLiA about her work in researching violence against lesbians. Susan joined the Women's Liberation Movement in 1973, the Collective of Melbourne's Rape Crisis Centre in 1974 and has been involved in many different areas including as an aerialist in the Performing Older Women's Circus, organising writers festivals and feminist conferences. She is the author of fifteen books: three fiction, nine poetry and three non-fiction. In Uganda in 2002, a woman said to her, "Be careful, in Uganda lesbians are tortured." This set her on the path to researching why she had not heard this before.  From 2003 onwards she has written numerous research papers, spoken on the subject of the torture of lesbians at conferences in India, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, South Korea, USA and Australia to almost no effect. In 2017, her novel Dark Matters was published. She hopes one day to reach a wider audience. Her poetry collections The Butterfly Effect (2005), Cow (2011) Lupa and Lamb (2014) and The Sacking of the Muses (2019) also deal with violence against lesbians and the importance of lesbian culture.

She spoke at the FiLiA conference in 2019 on two panels: violence against lesbians and feminist publishing.

Susan on Twitter @susanha

Read Dark Matters 

Find out more about Susan and her work

Spinifex Press:  Website, Facebook and Twitter

Came Women and Girls Development Organisation (CAWOGIDO) is a community based diaspora organisation dedicated to improving the health and well-being of a variety of people from disadvantaged communities, Black and Minority Ethnic groups, develop their potential and mobilise them to engage effectively in community development and regeneration activities and build their capacities. For this podcast, Margaret, Bernadette and Geraldine join FiLiA in a discussion on breast ironing. 

From the CAME Website: “Breast ironing is a traditional practice that many Cameroonians do not talk about and nobody wants to work on it but it is secretly taking place. According to a recent study conducted in Cameroon it involves massaging or pressing the breasts of adolescent girls in order to suppress and reverse their development. The rationale is to prevent girls from developing breasts between 11 and 15 years old in the belief that a flat childlike chest will discourage unwanted male attention, rape and premarital pregnancy. Breast ironing is a well-kept secret between the young girl and her mother. Often the father remains completely unaware. The girl believes that what her mother is doing is for her own good and she keeps silent. This silence perpetuates the phenomenon and all of its consequences. Breast ‘ironing’ involves massaging the growing breasts of young girls in order to disappear the breasts, usually by using a stone, a hammer or a spatula that has been heated over coals. Breast ironing is terribly painful and violates a young girl’s physical integrity. Breast ironing exposes girls to numerous health problems such as cancer, abscesses, itching, and discharge of milk, infection, dissymmetry of the breasts, cysts, breast infections, severe fever, tissue damage and even the complete disappearance of one or both breasts. This painful form of mutilation could not only have negative health consequences for the girls, but often proves futile when it comes to deterring teenage sexual activity. Saying that breasts are destroyed is an understatement. Adolescents are traumatised, mutilated. This is a serious damage not only on their physical integrity, but also on their social and psychological well-being. And we must stop it.”

CAME Women and Girls Website

CAME on Facebook

Read more about Breast Ironing

Mandy Sanghera is an award winning philanthropist, a community consultant and global campaigner often referred to as a global catalyst. 

As well as being an international human rights activist & motivational TEDx speaker from the UK,  Mandy has travelled all over the world, empowering & motivating others. With over three decades of experience, Mandy is an expert in various development-related fields. She has been driving innovation, building strategic partnerships, and promoting advocacy and programming in the areas of human rights, gender equality, accountability and social justice globally.

Mandy has helped hundreds of individuals and now reaches thousands through social media and her generous amount of worldwide TV appearances and public speaking engagements.

Find Mandy on Twitter and LinkedIn

(Apologies for the issues in sound quality - this was an online discussion and our fabulous volunteer editor did the best that she could with the recording!)

FiLiA has covered the case of a young British woman who reported being gang raped while staying at a resort in Cyprus. FiLiA called on the UK Government to take action: read our piece Cyprus: trial by porn culture

In this podcast, FiLiA speaks with feminist activist Bracha Barad, who flew from Israel to Cyprus to show support for the victim. Bracha Barad is a Co-founder and Executive Director of Kulan, an Israeli feminist NGO. She began producing the Tel Aviv Slut Walk in 2016, administration that is part of an international movement against sexual violence and victim blaming. Under her leadership the TLV Slut Walk has become the biggest feminist annual protest in Israel. She is also part of the managing team of the biggest feminist virtual community, Feminist Discourse, and together they founded Kulan, an organization that builds a community of women struggling for social change, and helps sound the voices of women in the field, in the media, and on social networks.  Julian Norman joins her in a discussion about the case in Cyprus.

Kulan Website

Follow Bracha on Twitter and Facebook

Sign the petition for the Cypriot government to drop all charges

Find out updates about the case on BBC News

Mary-Ann Stephenson is the Director of the Women’s Budget Group, an independent network of academic researchers, policy experts and campaigners working for a caring economy that promotes women’s equality. She has worked for women’s equality and human rights for over twenty years as a campaigner, researcher and trainer. She was previously Director of the Fawcett Society and a Commissioner on the Women’s National Commission. She is a founder member of Coventry Women’s Voices and a board member at Coventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre. She has a PhD in Law from the University of Warwick.

Women’s Budget Group Website

@WomensBudgetGrp Twitter

Women’s Budget Group on Facebook