Report on our Activities  2005

Acknowledgment

Middle East Centre for Women’s staff, volunteers and management committee have worked hand in hand during the last year to progress our work to advocate for women’s rights in Middle Eastern communities. We have only been able carry out our vital work with the valuable support from our volunteers, funders, peer organisations and local authorities with whom we have worked.

Who are we?

MECWR is a women rights charity, established in July 1999 (reg no:1100748). We are a user-led organisation and have worked to ensure a broad mix of members from different Middle Eastern communities on the Management Committee. The project is open to people of all ages, men as well as women. We publicize widely for people to join our committee and help manage our work. We recruit volunteers for our organisation who come from a wide mix of Middle Eastern countries.

What are our aims?

We came together in recognition that there are widespread violations of women’s rights within Middle Eastern communities across the UK and Europe. These violations include honour killing, forced marriage, compulsory veiling, violence and beatings, women being sent back to their country of origin.  These kinds of violations have to come to an end. We came together to make a contribution to end these kind of practices.

So what are our aims ? We aim to create a better situation for Middle Eastern women to live equal and full lives where they can enjoy their rights as equal citizens. Women should be free from violence and able to exercise their freedoms. We focus on 3 aims;

·        To expose all forms of violation of women’s rights within Middle Eastern communities in the UK and Middle Eastern countries.

·        To raise awareness about women’s rights within Middle Eastern communities.

·        To enable the voices and experiences of women to be heard by policy makers and the wider community.

What we have done over the last year?

 

1. Violence against Women- Women against Violence Programme

Within this programme we were able to focus on raising awareness and outreach and advice work;

• We produced and distributed detailed information highlighting the various kinds of violations against women, which has been included within Arabic and English magazines.

• Organised a festival to celebrate the International women’s day.

•  Provided a forum for women to speak about their daily struggles against violence against women. 

• Used media as a way to advocate for women’s rights. Many interviews have taken place in London with Arabic TV Satellites such as Al- Jazera, ANN and Al- Mostaqila.

• Published a poster drawing attention to violence against women, which is written in Arabic, Kurdish and English and has been distributed widely among community centers.

• Organised and attended workshops on the issues of honour killing. We have also taken part in a conference held by the Metropolitan Police on this issue.

• We have organized a workshop on the conference  that organised by London Black Forum on 6^th April 2004 ( Breaking the silence Conference)

• Participated in discussion on the Domestic Violence Bill ‘Justice and Safety’ making constructive proposals based on our experiences.

• Developed a website to raise awareness on violence against women (http://www.womenagainstviolence.org.uk).

•  Our partner, Kurdistan Refugee Women’s Organisation has done great work on providing women with valuable advice and support. The project helps women to be re-accommodated and to start new lives.

2. Al-Nisa Magazine

MECWR has published a further three issues of the popular bilingual women’s rights magazine (Al-Nisa). Through Al-Nisa we have been able to reach a wide audience across Middle Eastern communites and have received contributions from women in Turkey, Bharain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran. It has brought women and men together to raise their voices in support of human’s rights for women.

3. Middle Eastern Women’s Festival

We organized our first festival on 8th March 2005, International women’s Day. The Festival was held under the banner of  ‘celebrating the struggle of women for Freedom and Equality!’. Women from a variety of organisations gave speeches and presentations and the event attracted many women and men within both Middle Eastern and other communities and helped to raise the debate and issues concerning women’s rights.

4. Networking

Through excellent work done by our development worker and information worker, we were able to link up with many peer organisations in London. We have attended and taken part in meetings organized by peer organizations on the issue of the anniversary of the Beijing  conference, participated in the  Islington domestic violence subcommittee; facilitated a workshop with the London Black forum; attended a meeting on the coalition of community organisations on the visit of Al Qardawi; organised our Women’s Day celebrations with a number of organisations such as Kurdsitan Refugee women’s organisation, Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation, Southhall Back Sisters.

5. Lobbying

MECWR staff and volunteers have found time to lobby on 2 vital issues in the UK: veiling of children and the promotion of Islamic groups. Understanding that children have no political or religious commitment, we have lobbied for ending the the veiling of female children. We published a press release on the issue of a 16 years old girl who was forced to be veiled.

We have cooperated with other community’s organisations on the issue of promoting Islamic figures in UK which will disempower women’s struggle for equal rights. We have sent letters to the Mayor of London explaining our concern and produced a press release outlining our concerns at the proposed visit of Al- Qaradwi to London.

6. Work in Progress

MECWR has other work that is ongoing;

• Development of a women’s rights advocacy training course for 14 volunteers

• Organising a conference on honour killing in October 2005 to end this horrific crime in the UK.

• Organising our second Women’s Rights Festival on 8^th March.

• Ongoing information and policy work as part of the Violence against women- Women against Violence Programme.

• Producing further editions of the popular Al-Nisa magazine

What have we achieved?

The past year has been a very productive year for the Middle East Centre for Women’s Rights. We have continued and developed existing activities and set up new projects. We know from feedback from women and men within our communities as well as other organisations that our work is having an effect but it is gradual and we must continue to keep raising the issues of women’s equal rights to pushing for change at all opportunities.

Thank You

We wish to say a big thank  to you all, our funders and supporters without them we would not have been able to achieve what we have. These are as follows:

The Staples Trust

City Parochial Foundation

Comic Relief

Bridge House Estates Trust Fund

Alan Lane Foundation

Community Chest Islington

Millennium Awards for All

SELF

Kurdistan Refugee Women’s Organisation

Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation

Community Catalyst

London Black Forum

Women’s Resource Centre
Refugee Women’s Association
Southhall Black Sisters
 

Middle East Centre for Women’s Rights

Middle East Centre for Women's Rights

Caxton House, 129 St. John’s Way, London N19 3RQ

Tel: 0207 263 1027

Fax: 0207 561 9594)

Email: mecwr2003@yahoo.com
http://mecws.cjb.net, http://www.womenagainstviolence.org.uk