FiLiA

 "I don't feel that loneliness anymore. I feel part of something."After attending FiLiA in Portsmouth, one woman returned to her workplace determined to set up a women’s group. Two years later, the group has grown in size and confidence. In this interview, Kiri Tunks discusses with the women how they set up the group, what they do in their meetings, and how it has transformed their relationships and lives. Episode Note: When there is a large group in the room, issues with sound quality are inevitable. We’re sure you’ll agree that it’s far more important to share these women’s voices. Thank you for your understanding.

11/4/24 • 53:16

Does prison work for Women? What alternatives are being tried and how successful are they - what do we even mean by 'success'? "The short answer to How many Women are in prison, is far too many! The biggest challenges are funding and investment"In this episode FiLiA trustee Sally Jackson, Dr April Smith, a criminologist and psychologist, and Rhona Hotchkiss, ex-governor of Cornton Vale Women's prison, discuss the issues for Women caught up in the criminal justice system designed for men.

10/9/24 • 44:14

FiLiA is a member of Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE)In this podcast we find out more about WAVE's work. Sally Jackson interviews, Stephanie Futter Orel Executive Director WAVE, Branislava Aradjan Project and Youth ambassador Coordinator and Beverly Mtui, Communications Coordinator of WAVEWAVE is a network of over 170 European women’s NGOs working towards prevention and protection of women and children from violence. "We build the capacity of our members, advocate for better legislation, conduct research and raise awareness on violence against women and girls. Celebrating 30 years of activism this year." https://wave-network.org/toolkit-for-victim-friendly-judicial-practice-in-child-custody-contact-and-visitation-matters/  

9/30/24 • 54:09

In this episode Luba Fein, FiLiA volunteer, Alyssa Ahrabare, Advocacy Manager for European Network of Migrant Women and Hema Sibi, advocacy coordinator for The Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution discuss a huge legal victory in France.The European Court of Human Rights upholds France's right to ban the purchase of prostitution. France enforces a law that aims to abolish prostitution, while helping its victims exit. A group of individuals, supported by pro-prostitution organisations, appealed against this law to the ECHR. According to the appellants, this legislation radically damaged their right to dignity, private life, personal autonomy and sexual freedom. The court ruled that the problems related to prostitution raise sensitive moral and ethical questions, which gave rise to different, sometimes contradictory opinions. That said, the French authorities were at their legitimate discretion in enacting the ban. Among other things, the judges stated they were aware of the multitude of problems identified with the phenomenon of prostitution (such as the violence of the sex buyers towards the people in prostitution). Still, they were not sure whether this was the result of the law or a phenomenon inherent to prostitution.Sex trade survivors and feminists globally celebrate this vast achievement. 

8/25/24 • 54:31

"It is not our job to question individual choices of women in prostitution. We must examine the system and the context in which women's choices take place" Anna ZobninaIn February 2024, Dunja Mijatović, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, published a statement entitled "Protecting the human rights of sex workers". It was a problematic statement that undermined the efforts of hundreds of feminist organisations and dozens of prostitution survivor organisations to eradicate the sex industry. In this podcast, Luba Fein, a FiLiA volunteer, discusses this statement and its consequences for women in the sex trade and society in general with two prominent feminist activists: Alyssa Ahrabare and Anna Zobnina from the European Network of Migrant Women (ENoMW) https://www.migrantwomennetwork.org/http:/twitter.com/ENoMWhttps://www.facebook.com/migrantwomeneuropehttps://nordicmodelnow.org/

5/17/24 • 73:07

Tragically Chloe felt her only escape from the coercive and controlling behaviour she was subjected to was to end her own life. Her Mum Sharon wants the perpetrator held to account for her death and so is campaigning for a change in the law so that he could be charged with manslaughter by coercive or controlling behaviour. Hear about how they have developed their grassroot campaign and how you can help.Petition please sign and share: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/648948Link to the report mentioned: vkpp.org.uk/publications/publications-and-reports/Social Media:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555467394371https://x.com/shazmataz72

4/17/24 • 40:56

"I just hope that in capturing these stories that we've done something to archive working class, women's experience and that it'll be there if people wanna watch it or read it. We've done our bit and we can use the methods to look at any issue we want" - Paula BoultonThis podcast is about working class women and the theatre women make. It is  a discussion between playwright and theatre director Paula Boulton (67) and three members of her Corby Women's Theatre Group. Betty MacPherson (78) Danijela Bastajic (47) Dannie Smith (39) Questioned by interviewer Jo Campbell they explore the issues raised in their most recent production Corby Women, Then and Now. Reflecting on the need to tell the hidden stories about working class women, how being part of this community project empowered them, and how the method can be used in the future. The plays are available for others to use in the accompanying book, Women's Ways, Women's Plays. Paula's book "Women's Ways, Women's Plays is available at all major bookstores or direct from Paula's bookshop https://www.facebook.com/lunarlinkpublishingcollective/You can view Paula's plays on her YouTube channel  https://www.youtube.com/@paulaboultonsplays3877https://shouttheatre.org/https://www.facebook.com/CorbyWomensTheatreGroup

4/5/24 • 69:12

Raquel Rosario Sanchez and Sarah Ditum discuss the tropes and stereotypes about women in the public eye and how they reflect on the wider struggles women face in society. Ditum's clever analysis dissects how patriarchy operates to ensure that women, including those who are extremely privileged, are used as examples to venerate and later on to destroy in order to appease a misogynist system.Buy Sarah Ditum's Toxic from the FiLiA Book Shop

3/15/24 • 80:57

This interview took place on January 25th 2024 and permission was given to share this week."We don't want to live in this violence, in this conflict anymore. We want to end it. And as Yael always said, we shouldn't, you know, keep managing the conflict. We should resolve it. And this is why we are raising our voice and we want the international support for this [and we are raising] our voices to stop what is going on."Women have always been at the forefront of the peace movement. FiLiA reached out to two remarkable grassroots organisations, Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun, who are operating across Israel and Palestine and advocating for dialogue, understanding, and lasting solutions. Their impactful work has not gone unnoticed; Women of the Sun and Women Wage Peace are nominated to the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize and both organisations were included in the 2024 Time Magazine Women of the Year List.M.H. from Women of the Sun and Yael Braudo-Bahat from Women Wage Peace discuss their aims, how they work together, and their hopes for the future.

3/8/24 • 69:36

In this episode, Margaret Owen OBE founder of Widows for Peace (WPD) highlights the plight of the world’s dark secret of marginalised ‘invisible’ widows: a vast and growing number of women of all ages living in extreme poverty, forgotten, abused and neglected internationally, nationally at grassroots levels.Featuring:Lily Thapa, Founder of WHR/SWg (women for human rights single women's group), NepalJacqueline Musugani, Coordinator IFESIDI (women living in disastrous circumstances), East CongoLyudmyla Porokhnyak, President of the National Council of Women in UkraineAgaw Mabior, Founder, Women's Support Network Organisation in South SudanRoseline Orwa, Founder & Director, Rona Foundation, KenyaYou will hear from widows themselves – representatives of widows living inconflict, in extreme poverty, living with cultures that treat widows as outcasts whoare forced to migrate, forced to take part in abusive and cruel widow rites andmuch more. The plight of half-widows – who are they and why we should care.You will discover that widowhood is the most neglected of all Human rights. Thefailure to address marginalised widows of all ages by the internationalcommunity: by our Governments, Civil Society Organisations, The InternationalCriminal Court and at the UN Security Council.You will learn about the systematic widespread dehumanisation of widows andtheir families who have little or no recourse to justice, social protection,healthcare and education.Listen and learn that your voice makes a difference: you may think it doesn’t, but it does. Pressure your politicians and ensure they are widow-informed. Use your networks and platforms to offer widows the chance to use their voices, to tell their stories, to receive education and training so that they can be included at all peace tables, decision-making tables, consulted when legislation is written or passed – that it is fully widow-aware and widow-sensitive.

12/29/23 • 61:57

"It's not rocket science... you investigate the suspect, not the victim," – Harriet Wistrich.In this episode, Suzy Angus and Emma Bryson, survivors of sexual violence and founders of Speak Out Survivors, meet Dr Oona Brooks-Hay (Reader in Criminology at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Glasgow) and Harriet Wistrich (Director of the Centre for Women's Justice) to discuss the difficulties in Scotland for victims and survivors to access justice. In particular, related to the outdated legal requirement for 'corroboration', which under Scots law means that only very specific types of evidence are admissible for the purposes of a criminal prosecution.Speak Out Survivors was founded in 2018 by survivors of sexual violence who all sought justice through the Scottish criminal justice system but were told it was not possible for a prosecution to go ahead. Although in each of our cases, there was evidence available, that evidence did not meet the very stringent requirements of corroboration. 

11/6/23 • 52:22

"One of the things I love about the feminist movement is that we're each other's catalysts. We are always pushing each other to go for our dreams and to maybe try that project that we're thinking of, make it a reality somehow."Dr Bec Wonders reports from FiLiA 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland. Listen to interviews with an array of attendees and participants at the largest grassroots feminist conference in Europe. Over 1000 women, including 150 speakers from 32 different countries, gathered to talk about women’s rights, to reconnect and laugh with friends, to learn, listen and strategise for a feminist future. Cover illustration by Bec Wonders

10/23/23 • 50:09

Hadley Freeman On Life Beyond Anorexia and Breaking Out of the Good Girl SocialisationIn this episode, Hadley Freeman discusses her latest book 'Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia' with FiLiA spokeswoman Raquel Rosario Sánchez,  in which she shares a harrowing first-person account of her decades-long struggle with mental illness. She addresses the broader, structural issues driving disordered eating among girls and young women and what society can do to improve the situation. Freeman also discusses her writing career and offers advice to young women struggling with anorexia and mental illness in similar situations to those she has lived through.Hadley Freeman was born in New York and read English Literature at the University of Oxford. She is the author of The Meaning of Sunglasses published by Penguin in 2009, Be Awesome: Modern Essays for Modern Ladies, Life Moves Pretty Fast: The Lessons We Learned from 80s Movies, House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family, Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia.She was a columnist and staff writer for The Guardian for over twenty years, and she is now a staff writer at The Sunday Times. Her work has appeared in Vogue US and Vogue UK, New York Magazine, Harper's Bazaar and many other publications. Her bestselling family memoir, House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family, was published in 2020 and the paperback was Waterstone's Book of the Month in 2021.  Her most recent book is Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia, published in 2023.You can find her on Twitter and you can purchase Good Girls at the FiLiA feminist library.

9/28/23 • 56:15

"When they arrested me, I thought it was because I was protesting with other teachers, and students. But later, I realized that they targeted me and other women because I am a lesbian."We are paying tribute to Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, who has passed away, by sharing her talk at FiLiA 2019 on her experiences of pain through torture and imprisonment in Dictatorial Chile. "Very little of feminist scholarship on the body addresses torture of women, and still less, torture of lesbians.  The deafening silence in fiction written about this topic has finally been broken with Susan Hawthorne’s novel Dark Matters but that pioneering work needs to be replicated a thousand times by other writers.I will be retelling my experiences of bodily pain in torture and imprisonment during the 80s in dictatorial Chile and reflect on how these experiences not only transformed my silence under torture  into an act of resistance and stubbornness but also reaffirmed my belief in speaking out and let the world know that Lesbians experience discrimination and torture worldwide every day, yet in feminist conferences and meetings, this is swept under the carpet of women’s issues, and once more Lesbians are invisible."You can also listen again to the full  Violence Against Lesbians Panel recording and our separate discussion with Consuelo.

9/5/23 • 19:01

"Creating this women only space, we're creating a journey for women to be honouring each other, celebrating each other, and that's something that women haven't had much time with."Sally Jackson leads a discussion between Natalie Collins, creator of the Own My Life Course, Catherine Mc Quarrie from Border Women's Aid, and Danielle, survivor and facilitator, explaining the principles of the Own My Life course and why recovery spaces for domestic abuse survivors need to be feminist and women only. They talk about the importance of feminist consciousness-raising as a path to healing - oh and vulva tea towels!

8/14/23 • 48:46

We are delighted to interview Ivorian artist, social commentator and author Laetitia Ky on the FiLiA Podcast. She is a political artist known for her hair sculptures, which she uses to raise awareness about the structural inequality and oppression of women and girls. She is a one-of-a-kind artist, activist and creative voice based in the Ivory Coast. Laetitia taught herself how to use dreads and wire to challenge the way afro hair is portrayed culturally in patriarchy and how it can be used as a tool of feminist solidarity. Her unique sculptures, created using her afro hair and just wires (without specialised products), are mediated through photography and videos, and celebrate the artist's roots around themes that are often delicate and uncomfortable. She is the author of “Love and Justice: A Journey of Empowerment, Activism, and Embracing Black Beauty” and exhibits her work, to critical acclaim, around the world.Laetitia Ky speaks with FiLiA Spokeswoman Raquel Rosario Sánchez about her use of hair as a professional art medium, the political messages behind her art, the oftentimes oppressive way girls and women are treated in patriarchal society and the differences, in her view, between Global North versus Global South feminism.You can follow Laetitia Ky’s groundbreaking work on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. You can purchase her work through her gallery and find her book “Love and Justice: A Journey of Empowerment, Activism, and Embracing Black Beauty” in all excellent libraries.Buy Laetitia's book from the FiLiA Book Shop.

8/6/23 • 98:18

Austrian Parliamentarian Faika El-Nagashi joins FiLiA Spokeswoman Raquel Rosario Sánchez to discuss the intersectional nature of her multi-faceted work as a feminist politician, her defence of lesbian rights and her background as a campaigner for social justice. Faika El-Nagashi is a long-time feminist & lesbian human rights advocate. She is a political scientist by vocation, political activist by passion and politician by profession. Her expertise is on women’s and human rights, women’s migration, development cooperation, integration and diversity politics, intersectionality and LGBT rights. On 24 November 2015, she became a Green Party councillor in Vienna and a member of the Vienna Provincial Parliament. She has served as Member of the National Council of Austria since 2019.Aside from being a Member of Parliament in Austria, Faika El-Nagashi is the Spokeswoman for Integration and Diversity Politics of the Austrian Green Party. She is a political scientist and longstanding human rights advocate who has been active in civil society organisations on the national and transnational level for more than 25. Faika sits on the Advisory Board of the Lesbian Project, which was launched in March 2023. The Lesbian Project: “is a new initiative that highlights and champions the experiences, insights and sensibilities of lesbians in all their diversity. Led by Julie Bindel and Kathleen Stock, The Lesbian Project intends to give voice and influence to women whose stories are too often overlooked. The Lesbian Project works to build a knowledge base about lesbian lives, promote sensible and evidence-based policy, and contribute to building lesbian community in the UK and internationally. A not-for-profit organisation, The Lesbian Project is non-partisan.”Her book (in Austrian) “Für alle, die hier sind” (2022), is titled ‘For Everyone Who is Here’ about a manifesto of solidarity about feminist principles, intersectionality and the politics of belonging can be purchased here. You can follow Faika El-Nagashi on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You can also learn more about her work on her Youtube channel. 

7/5/23 • 95:23

Lisa-Marie Taylor and Yagmur Uygarkizi interview authors Jeanne Sarson and Linda MacDonald about their best-selling book, Women Unsilenced Our Refusal To Let Torturer-Traffickers Win. This episode welcomes Jeanette Westbrook and Elizabeth Gordon, who both survived family and non-family-based non-State torture (NST) crimes, and join authors Jeanne and Linda to explain the vitalness of insisting on having the language of non-State torture (NST) declared as torture crimes and not assault crimes.They insist that women not be pathologized for surviving such atrocities. The interview is published in connection with June 26, the UN International Day to Support Survivors of Torture - which must include the NST of women and girls globally. The episode was recorded in 2022, and, at times in the recording, there were technical challenges as the women chatted from an office in Canada, a cafe in France and a service station in England!  Song credits: We Can Hear Your Voices Now Lyrics, Music and Sung by Jeanette Westbrook. Produced, Engineered and Recorded by Andrew WestbrookUnsilenced (Acoustic), by Ryan & Cribb by Bob Ryan and Peter CribbBuy the book/audio book on amazon.

6/26/23 • 62:02

Feminist author Victoria Smith discusses her first book, ‘Hags’, about the demonisation of middle-aged women with FiLiA Spokeswoman Raquel Rosario Sánchez. Smith discusses the experiences which raised her awareness to the way middle-aged women are invisibilised and dismissed under patriarchy around the world, as well her understanding of the tropes designed to further vilify this cohort of women. A thoughtful thinker and compassionate writer, this book represents an enraging call to action for everyone, to revindicate our past and create a better future for all women, throughout middle-age and beyond.Victoria Smith is a writer and creator of the Glosswitch newsletter. She has been a regular contributor to the New Statesman and the Independent, focussing on women’s issues, parenting and mental health. She has also written for Mumsnet, featured on panels at their Blogfest, and has made appearances on Woman’s Hour to discuss female body image. Her newsletter The OK Karen, focused on midlife women’s experiences of feminism, was launched in 2020, and she is particularly interested in how experiences of power and misogyny change as we age.Originally from Cumbria, she now lives in Cheltenham with her family. She is working towards achieving full venerable crone status before she hits fifty.You can follow Victoria Smith's commentary on Twitter and read her regular insights on women’s rights at The Critic. You can purchase Hags from most bookstores, and you can easily find it at our FiLiA Feminist Library.

5/17/23 • 73:34

"We all understand what unwanted sex is; another word for that is rape. We all understand that, but when there's money involved, people suddenly don't seem to make that connection of what unwanted sex is bad for you. But if you're getting paid for it, then suddenly it's okay."When Mia Doring was in the sex trade, she convinced herself it was just a job. She described her former state of mind in her book: "I was seduced by temporarily feeling valued and further groomed by the culture surrounding it ; the constant messaging that my value lay in my sexual appeal to men. I called the punters ‘clients’ and charged for my time. There was no problem. I needed it to be okay. Why shouldn’t men pay me for sex? Why shouldn’t I sell it? It’ s my body. I can do what I want, as long as I don’ t tell anyone. And I’ m proud of myself for being tough enough to do this". After she exited prostitution, her perspective changed. Many prostitution survivors undergo this change of mind, but it wasn't enough for Mia Doring, as she knew that the sex trade kept harming women. A year ago, she published her book, which tells the truth about the sex industry. Now she is fighting to shut down the largest prostitution site in her home country of Ireland.This petition calls on the Justice Department of the Irish Government, Helen McEntee and Interim Justice Minister Simon Harris, to implement a plan for legislation which would block any website advertising sex for sale, specifically Escort Ireland.#escortwebsite #prostituion #MiaDoring #AnyGirl #EscortIreland

4/2/23 • 48:48

Maryam Namazie is an Iranian-born campaigner and writer living in the UK. Since the Islamic regime of Iran’s killing of Mahsa Amini on 16 September 2022 for ‘improper veiling,’ Maryam has been speaking on and organising protests in solidarity with the women’s revolution in Iran. FiLiA have joined Maryam launching the Hair4Freedom campaign and are continuing this relationship with our next solidarity action #Dance4Freedom on 29 April 2023 which is discussed in this episode.

3/29/23 • 62:34

Jalna Hanmer is a feminist of 70 years. She was responsible for bringing women's studies to UK academia and was a founder of the National Women's Aid Federation. Jalna talks with Julie Bindel about her life's work and the forthcoming exhibition at FiLiA 2023 on the renowned Brighton 1996 ‘International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Women's Citizenship’. The podcast was previously published on Julie Bindel's Substack. .

3/3/23 • 35:33

"When you normalize paid rape in prostitution, it becomes confusing to an entire culture, even for [the] government, to define what consent is and what isn't, what rape is and what isn't. "In this episode, FiLiA Volunteer Luba Fein talks to  Dr Melissa Farley and Dr Inge Kleine about the results of their latest research (also co-authored by Kerstin Neuhaus, Yoanna McDowell, Silas Schulz and Saskia Nitschmann) revealing the most hidden secrets of sex buyers and why the men agreed to disclose their secrets. Their report on 763 sex buyers in six countries investigates the attitudes and behavior of sex buyers/punters/Freier/puteros in Germany, USA, India, UK, Scotland, Cambodia.

1/3/23 • 75:26

Dr Christine Cocchiola talks to FiLiA Trustee Sally Jackson about the impact of coercive control on children and the Mother-Child relationship and how to heal together after abuse.Dr. Christine Marie Cocchiola, DSW, LCSW is a Coercive Control Advocate, Educator, Researcher & Survivor. She is a college professor teaching social work in the CT College System for the last 20 years and is also an adjunct instructor at NYU. Her expertise is in the areas of intimate partner violence, trauma, and child abuse, developing and presenting workshops on these topics both nationally and internationally.  Christine, a Board Member of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, has supported policy codifying coercive control and has a small private practice, primarily serving victims and survivors of coercive control.   She is the creator of the Protective Parenting Program, supporting protective mothers on their journey of healing their children.You can find more about her work on her website or follow her on Instagram.

12/9/22 • 50:10

We are very pleased to share this interview by Raquel Rosario Sanchez with Caitlin Roper, author of “Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating” which has just been published by Spinifex Press.“Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating” exposes the inherent misogyny in the trade in sex dolls and robots modelled on the bodies of women and girls for men’s unlimited sexual use. From doll owners enacting violence and torture on their dolls, men choosing their dolls over their wives, dolls made in the likeness of specific women and the production of child sex abuse dolls, sex dolls and robots pose a serious threat to the status of women and girls.Caitlin Roper is an activist, writer and Campaigns Manager at Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation, a grassroots campaigning movement against the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls in media, advertising and popular culture.Caitlin is an author whose work has been published in a range of mainstream media outlets including The Guardian, ABC, Huffington Post, Sydney Morning Herald and Arena magazine. She contributed a commentary chapter to Prostitution Narratives: Stories of Survival in the Sex Trade (Spinifex Press, 2016). Caitlin Roper is a founding member of Adopt Nordic WA which advocates for implementation of the Nordic model of prostitution legislation in Western Australia. She has been a speaker and organiser for Reclaim the Night Perth. She is also aco-founder of the Feminist Academy of Technology and Ethics (the FATES).“Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating”, is available on the FiLiA Bookshop, Spinifex Press and in all excellent bookstores. You can follow the work of the grassroots campaigning organisation Collective Shout on their website and social media. You can follow Caitlin Roper’s work on her Twitter and Instagram. 

10/11/22 • 83:32

Dr Emma Katz, a leading expert in coercive control and its impact on children is interviewed by FiLiA Trustee Sally Jackson.A must for anyone working in the field or who cares about someone it has affected, Emma describes what coercive control is like for Mothers and their children and importantly how the Mother/child relationship affects its impact and their recovery. Dr Emma Katz is Senior Lecturer in Childhood & Youth at Liverpool Hope University and is the author of the much-anticipated monograph Coercive Control in Children’s and Mothers’ Lives (Oxford University Press, June 2022). She was a member of the Expert Advisory Panel for the HARM Network/Research England’s Domestic Abuse Policy Guidance for UK Universities (2021 Her publications are internationally acclaimed, winning awards including the Wiley Prize for best paper published in Child Abuse Review 2015–18, and the Corinna Seith Prize judged by Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE). Coercive Control in Children's and Mothers' Lives is available to purchase from the FiLiA Book Shop.

9/15/22 • 122:31

"A lot of the messages around domestic abuse is that you just leave, right? So you just walk out that door and everything's fine. Well, that really couldn’t be further from the truth."FiLiA Trustee Sally Jackson talks to Natalie Page, founder of #thecourtsaid, a campaign to challenge the mishandling of domestic abuse within the family courts. Natalie discusses the problems faced by Mothers navigating their way through a process that is not fit for purpose and shares some of the options available and the work that she and other women are doing to provide safety to Mums and their children going through the system.In 2021, Natalie was awarded the Centre for Women’s Justice and Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize for her work preventing violence against women and children. She has founded a not-for-profit called Survivor Family Network, focused on furthering the rights of mothers and children in family court. Besides all her campaigning work, Natalie continues to work behind the scenes to support other mothers going through the family courts after domestic abuse  Web: thecourtsaid.org and survivorfamilynetwork.com

9/8/22 • 47:35

"It was shocking. I felt a great sense of betrayal by the Police. How could they possibly do that to me? What right have they got? I've paid my taxes all my life and they spent that paying a man to come to sleep with me and deceive me. They were playing with our lives because they thought they could get away with anything so they just had a good time while doing it."FiLiA Spokeswoman Raquel Rosario Sánchez speaks with Belinda, Alison and Helen Steel - co-authors of Deep Deception: The story of the Spycops network by the women who uncovered the shocking truth- who share their experiences of being deceived by the State, the process of writing their powerful book and how they found the courage to move forward.These five women were targeted by the UK Police, through men who deceived them into intimate relationships in order to get access to their activist networks. At the time they were targeted, Belinda was a 24-year-old non-activist who worked as an accounts assistant with the Central Electricity Generating Board. Helen Steel was a 22-year-old gardener and environmental and social justice activist with London Greenpeace. She later became one half of ‘the McLibel Two’ in a gargantuan fight against the McDonalds corporation. Alison was 29 years old at the time and was an English and Media Studies teacher and political activist with the Colin Roach Centre.Deep Deception is not a book about men. This is a book about women who found a tremendous source of strength within themselves, and with each other. It is a book about women who are fighting an institutional form of misogyny: the infiltration of policemen in activist groups and what happens when the State decides to deliberately target women. This could have been a book about women whose lives were destroyed and who were left with no trust in each other or in justice. Instead, Deep Deception is an inspirational story of fortitude, truth and dignity.You can purchase Deep Deception: The story of the spycop network, by the women who uncovered the shocking truth from the FiLiA Book Shop. Please learn more about the women’s stories at the Police Out of Our Lives website. You can also read more about the Spycops scandal on the website built by the women who were targeted by the Police. At the moment, there is a public inquiry about the Spycops scandal. You can learn more about the inquiry on its website which started hearing evidence in late 2020.

8/23/22 • 99:06

"I didn't know what personal persecution felt like before. I could imagine, of course. But there is something very physical about those experiences of being hounded or being piled on by a mob that feels very visceral." Rosie Kay talks to FiLiA's Raquel Rosario Sánchez about how she came to be forced out of the dance company that she founded after bullying from inside the organisation and a targeted campaign to ruin her reputation. The controversy arose from opinions, expressed inside her own home, that biological sex is real, material to dance and that these conversations must be had openly and without abuse.    She will not go quietly. On the contrary, she has decided to push back bolder and louder than ever before. Rosie Kay is an experienced choreographer and accomplished dance professional. She graduated from the London Contemporary Dance School in 1998, founded the Rosie Kay Dance Company in Birmingham in 2004. Her productions have been acclaimed for their creativity and their sensitive treatment of topics such as sexual violence, conspiracy theories and military intervention. Since leaving the Rosie Kay Dance Company Rosie has launched a new dance company called K2Co, which is preparing to delve into the sex and gender debate, exploring it through dance. “K2CO will create, produce and tour three new works over three years as a ‘Trilogy of Sex’ exploring themes and ideas around sex, identity, technology, bodies, women’s history and literature,” the company states in its mission statement.You can read her first-person essay ‘My body will not be erased’, which she wrote for UnHerd. And you can donate to her legal fees to help her move forward.Learn more about K2Co Dance Company on their new website. Rosie can also be found on Twitter at @RosieKayK2CO.

8/15/22 • 86:53

FiLiA Spokeswoman Raquel Rosario Sánchez speaks to author and activist Melinda Tankard Reist about pornography’s desensitisation of male sexuality and its traumatic effect on women and girls. Hear also about Melinda's work with children and teenagers in schools, her campaigning work with Collective Shout, and the way forward out of a culture of sexualised violence against women and girls.Melinda Tankard Reist is an author, speaker, campaigner, and advocate for women and girls. She is best known for her work addressing sexualisation, objectification, the harms of pornography, sexual exploitation, trafficking, and violence against women. She has recently been appointed Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Culture and Ethics, Notre Dame University, Sydney. She is the Founder and Movement Director of the campaigning organisation Collective Shout. She is the editor of six books including Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls (Spinifex Press, 2009), Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global pornography industry (Spinifex Press, 2011, co-edited with Dr Abigail Bray), Prostitution Narratives: Stories of survival in the sex trade and Broken Bonds: Surrogate mothers speak out (Spinifex Press, 2019, co-edited with Jennifer Lahl and Renate Klein).Recently, Melinda published He Chose Porn Over Me, a collection of essays written by 25 women who share their stories of broken relationships and enduring abuse by porn-obsessed male partners. He Chose Porn Over Me was launched in early August 2022 during a global event hosted by Collective Shout. The book is available from the FiLiA Bookshop and at bookstores worldwide and via its publisher Spinifex.You can learn more about Melinda’s work against a culture of sexualisation and objectification of women and girls on her website.  You can learn more about the campaigning work of Collective Shout on their website. Melinda can also be found on social media such as Twitter and Instagram.

8/11/22 • 67:27