WOMEN (AND MEN) OF THE WORLD !!!

Feminism is a foreign concept to many teenagers in today’s society. In many cases the movement fails to actually move a younger audience as it is only seen as relevant to grown women, if it's lucky enough considered to be relevant at all. I mean, borderline misandrist, middle-aged women with razor sharp tongues and not-so razored (you get what I mean) armpits are hardly welcoming invites to your local pussy power party?

Which is why our school's Feminist Project Committee,  led by Queenie Djan (school president) decided to take matters into our own hands and hold our very own ‘W.O.W'  (Women of the World)  Festival. The girls, aged 14-16. planned last Friday's event in order to try and challenge misconceptions about feminism through education, empowerment and highlighting the importance of equality. We had noticed that many of our peers are completely unaware of a lot of the difficulties faced by men and women everyday or that they have simply got the wrong end of the feminism stick.

Queenie opened the evening with a passionate talk about feminism and the importance of self-love, reminding us that we should "stop trying to be 'perfect' because 'perfect' has it's own life". Several heads gave small but significant nods throughout the speech, as every word she said triggered a new thought. But the highlight of the night, without a doubt, was the performance by Sabrina Mahfouz, spoken word poet. After watching a video of hers on YouTube a few years ago, the committee were certain that she had the perfect (sorry Queenie) vibe for a night like ours. From FGM to women in sports and domestic violence, her heart stopping poems moved every person in the room, bringing us to our feet at the last word of every one. Beteil Baraki from Object also gave a speech on the sexualisation of women in the media and a band from our school (all girl, all cool) got everybody dancing to a Lauryn Hill medley before we moved on to the second part of the night. Education through the arts proved to be effective, only an hour into the evening and the audience were already feminists in the making.

Melissa and I were given the role of overseeing the event, and although some could (correctly) argue that we didn't do much but hand out cakes; we did take some time out to visit a variety of the workshops taking place - Solace Women’s Aid, Body Gossip, Object, to name a few. Whether discussing body image or domestic abuse, they all fulfilled the aims of  the evening, encouraging everybody present to really think about the society we live in. The plenary consisted of Melissa's (very short and sweet) speech before the audience were called to their feet to recite a feminist pledge (below) written by Diana Watkins. It truly special watching everybody in the room, male and female alike, standing with their hand on their hearts as one community. We watched proudly as people who may not have known very much about feminism only hours before stood before us, minds buzzing with the foundation to secure their own independent beliefs.

What did I learn from the night? I learnt we can find out more about feminism from every single person we meet if we just listen. I learnt that I am surrounded by people who need feminism just as much as I do, that this sort of teaching doesn't need a classroom or a degree. I learnt that I still have so much to learn and, like yourselves, have the rest of my life to do so.

With a new-found insight provided by all the inspiring charity work promoting the feminist movement in London, I can confidently say that our school is now a beacon of feminism for all teenagers of the nation (or just locally). So watch out world, we watched over a hundred people take a pledge to educate and empower through feminism, and we're pretty certain that that's what they're going to do.

Posted by Bea