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2025 saw WRN hold our first ever Women’s festival in Derby.  Organised by local WRN members in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, it attracted a large audience from across the UK.  

The Festival theme was Celebrating Grassroots Activism and we welcomed speakers and guests from England, Ireland , Scotland and Wales to give presentations on their local activities and tactics.  

Mary Howden is a former Head of Education and Workforce Development at the Scottish Social Services, Director of WRN, and Coordinator for WRN Scotland   She talked about the journey taken by WRN Scotland to establish a grassroots women's movement. From small beginnings with 14 women working together to get their message out,  to how they grew their membership to cover the whole of Scotland.

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When a relationship breaks down and one parent relocates a child to another country without the ongoing consent of the other parent, the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention can be invoked. 

Anita Gera, co founder of Hague Explained joins the Women’s Rights Network to explain the key principles and little known pitfalls of the Convention that have resulted in an increasing number of mothers and children being ripped apart.

A fascinating, disturbing expose of an international treaty that trumps all UK law and has the power to inflict irreparable damage on mothers and their children.

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Julie Bindel joins WRN on Zoom to discuss defining lesbian culture.

Julie is a feminist campaigner, writer, and investigative journalist. She is the host of The Lesbian Project podcast, with Kathleen Stock.

She writes  for Unherd, Observer, Sunday Times, The Critic, Spectator, Telegraph, Mail on Sunday, Tortoise, Prospect, and more. 

She is  a keen broadcaster and travels far and wide to investigate stories which relate to  misogyny.   

Her latest book is ‘Lesbians: where are we now?’ Part-memoir, part frontline reportage and part cultural commentary, Julie examines what defines lesbian culture, love, friendship and happiness today.  She distinguishes the particular challenges facing lesbians from the very different experiences of gay men, and asks: why do lesbians so often seem to face particular hostility? 

Link to Julie’s UNHERD article on Yehudis Fletcher:

https://unherd.com/2025/05/the-charedi-have-a-woman-problem/

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The Women’s Rights Network Afghanistan group works to connect silenced women with volunteers in the UK to give them a voice - through mentoring, education and friendship. Since the Taliban retook control, women and girls have been forced to live under the most oppressive edicts.

This summer a symbolic mass action in honour of them was held in Parliament Square, led by international yachtswoman and WRN member Tracy Edwards, whose charity Maiden raises funds for girls' educational programmes around the world.  Plus, it gave a voice to some of the women known to WRN in Afghanistan.

You can hear more stories from Afghan women on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@saarstories8146, and on X https://x.com/SaarStories

Download a UK education pack from https://www.themaidenfactor.org

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Jo Phoenix is an academic author and professor of criminology known for her gender critical views, having founded the Gender Critical Research Network at the Open University where she was a professor of criminology. 

In 2024, Jo successfully sued the Open University at an employment tribunal for constructive dismissal, victimisation, harassment and direct discrimination. 

Listen to a short excerpt from that conversation. 

Useful Links: 

Sex Matters’ piece: Learning from the Jo Pheonix case. 
https://sex-matters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Learning-from-the-Jo-Phoenix-case.pdf

Office for students: Regulatory advice 24: Guidance related to freedom of speech 
https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/regulatory-advice-24-guidance-related-to-freedom-of-speech/

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Following the launch of our Step Up Senedd campaign, and despite an explicit assurance from the First Minister of Wales that the Welsh government would comply with the Supreme Court’s clarification of the meaning of the words ‘woman’, ‘man’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010, no action has been taken by the Welsh government to correct scores of flawed government policies and practices that remain in breach of UK equality law. 

As a result, over 100 days on from that apex court’s ruling, every day life for people in Wales continues to be fraught with discriminatory practices that seriously impact women and children. 

The Women’s Rights Network in Wales responded with a clear message from the steps of the Senedd: 

Time is up!

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In the heart of the Derbyshire countryside - in the picturesque market town of Belper - there’s a bizarre story unfolding in the run-up to the annual Pride parade.

First established in 2019, Pride in Belper now boasts that it's the largest Pride celebration n the county, attracting around 11,000 people.  The event committee have a strong community presence - their mantra is inclusivity and diversity - and many local schools and businesses are involved in decking the town in rainbows.

So you’d expect Pride in Belper would be the perfect event to promote a social group for local lesbians, gay and bisexual people. Apparently not - Pride in Belper have banned the local LGB Alliance Friend’s group from having a stall at this year’s Pride celebration. We sat down with Michelle to find out why….

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Stephanie Davies-Arai explains how trans ideology is harming our children in schools
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Women’s Rights Network Jersey organised a series of events with Stephanie Davies-Arai BEM, founder and director of Transgender Trend, in Jersey the first week of March 2025. 

Activists, both within and outside government, attempted to have the events cancelled, tried to stop participants from attending, and even tried to report the event as a potential hate crime.

These cancellation efforts only made us more determined to ensure as many people could hear what Stephanie has to say. Those that did attend were enthralled, shocked and angry about what they heard about gender-identity ideology, and how it’s happening in Jersey, particularly in schools.

For those that were unable or afraid to attend, we recorded Stephanie’s presentation at the public event held on 6 March 2025.

Informative links:

https://www.transgendertrend.com

https://jerseyeveningpost.com/voices/2025/03/03/not-all-men-but-always-a-man-and-predatory-men-will-use-any-opportunity-to-take-advantage/

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In conversation with Magi Gibson, leading voice in Scottish poetry, author, creative writing tutor and literary events organiser. 

A fascinating listen to Magi who is a feminist and a powerful voice against blacklisting and cancellation for gender critical beliefs

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All political parties making up the Senedd in Wales were formally approached by the Women’s Rights Network in Wales to have us come and speak with them about the importance of immediately complying with the Equality Act 2010 further to legal language clarification by the UK Supreme Court on 16th April 2025.

Only the Welsh Conservative party took up the offer, inviting WRN in Wales to speak at their 2025 conference in Llangollen, Denbighshire.

WRN Wales launched its ongoing campaign #StepUpSenedd on Tuesday, 13th May 2025 on the steps of the Welsh Senedd; it marked the beginning of ongoing actions that will ensure all members of the Welsh Senedd will hear 51% of the population.

If you enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to hear more, go to womensrights.network/wrn-podcast to listen, download and subscribe to more of our episodes.

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