Europe Must Act Newsletter
Gender & Migration: How to Support Women and Girls On the Move with Habibi.Works and MAM Beyond Borders
29.03.2024
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Dear EMA members and friends,
To celebrate Women’s History Month, for this month’s newsletter we would like to focus on the topic of Gender & Migration. According to UNHCR, women make up roughly 50% of any refugee, internally displaced or stateless population globally, and if we believe the Joint Data Center, women are more likely to experience internal displacement than men.
When we look at the most recent figures for the number of female asylum applicants in the European Union in 2022, there were 253,485 first-time female applicants, which is roughly 29% of all applications.
Additionally, women and girls face various hurdles when migrating, with serious education and labour market disadvantages, and disproportionately experience sexual and gender-based violence.
However, not all data collected about people on the move records people’s sex and/or gender. This creates a problem, as it makes it difficult to understand how an individual’s gender or sex affects their migration process. As a consequence, it becomes difficult to plan or cater for a variety of needs, to create policy or migration programmes that benefit everyone and to mitigate against sex or gender-based vulnerabilities.
Simply put, by failing to collect sex and gender information we struggle to ask the right questions, produce impactful solutions and issues of gender inequality are made invisible or misunderstood. So how can the NGOs working on the ground overcome these difficulties and support women and girls on the move by providing adapted resources for them, responding to their specific needs, while being inclusive of all - regardless of their gender? It’s a complex issue with many different answers that can’t be developed in one newsletter.
To help us understand and approach this topic, two NGOs working on the ground in Greece and Cyprus have kindly agreed to share their experience and interrogations on how to support migrant women and girls.
First, Mimi Hapig, co-founder of Habibi.Works, tells us about the process and questions related to the creation of a women-only space in Katsikas. Then the Italian NGO MAM Beyond Borders shares with us their initiative called "Artemide project" created to provide midwifery support and reproductive and sexual health education for women and girls in Lesvos.
By recounting their work on the ground, Habibi.Works and MAM Beyond Borders allow us to gain perspective that can help us find new approaches to gender and migration and, hopefully, advocate better for women and girls on the move.
- EMA Newsletter Team
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Habibi.Works, located in Northern Greece, right across the Katsikas refugee camp, is an NGO dedicated to fostering long-lasting community and solidarity with people on the move. They do this by organising different workshops and working areas, with the goal of supporting participants in improving their current living situations, accessing non-formal education, and enhancing their overall well-being and mental health.
You can support them by following them on Facebook, Instagram and have a look at their website.
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On the merits and drawbacks of establishing a women’s space in a project committed to treating everybody equally |
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By Mimi Hapig |
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In 2023, the team of our intercultural makerspace Habibi.Works in Katsikas, Northern Greece, explored the idea to set up a women’s space within the project’s premises. This idea might not seem overly controversial, yet the team carefully assessed potential unintended, negative consequences, weighing the pros and cons of establishing a gender-specific space in a project that wants to treat everybody equally.
Habibi.Works, with its many community spaces and working areas (from wood work over bike repair and sewing, up to 3D printing) was among the first introducing the makerspace approach within the so-called humanitarian context surrounding the European asylum system. This approach, together with a firm set of values, aims to inspire a shift: away from consolidating dependencies, towards co-creating agency (and thus dignity) in the lives of refugees and asylum seekers. The values at the project's core, next to a strong sense of solidarity and the deep belief that every person is the expert of their own life, include equality and respect.
Before the pandemic, Habibi.Works accommodated a "Beauty Salon" – a shared space functioning as a men's Barber Shop in the mornings, and as a women's Beauty Salon in the afternoons. We enjoyed this solution of a co-owned self-care space, as it expressed shared responsibility, understanding and mutual respect. During the pandemic however, due to distancing requirements and hosting capacity, the space was needed to accommodate our Bike Repair Station. The unfortunate consequence of moving the Barber&Beauty into a new, smaller space was the loss of most participants identifying as women. When their involvement didn’t increase again for many months, our team raised the question whether in fact a separated women’s space was needed in Habibi.Works
While the option of setting up a women’s space in a mostly male-dominated surrounding seems like a logical step, it raised concerns, too. As mentioned in the introduction, in Habibi.Works, we deeply believe in the idea of treating people “at eye-level”, regardless of aspects like gender or nationality. We never consciously enhance gender-segregation, neither in daily life tasks (e.g. cooking or cleaning) nor in working areas traditionally associated with “male” or “female” expertise (e.g. sewing or wood work) - even in cases in which participants explicitly ask for such segregations. We believe men and women (and everybody identifying outside this traditional binary) are equal in abilities and rights. We want to work towards a society where all of us can be present in the same space in a safe, comfortable and self-efficacious way. What to do though until we will have reached this state?
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The developments around our Beauty Salon sparked a bigger discussion. Should we offer an exclusive space for women as long as they were underrepresented in the common spaces? Or could this hinder their participation and representation in the shared spaces, by making the exclusive space the new default? Wouldn't the slow encouragement and support of women in the use of shared spaces be the more fruitful approach in the long run? Wouldn’t it be important to create awareness among our male-identifying participants for the matter? Wasn’t creating a women’s space an easy solution that could be used as an alibi, instead of pursuing these approaches?
In the case of our Barber&Beauty space, we felt we needed to acknowledge the reality that men and women do not always feel equally safe and comfortable in a space (yet), including in Habibi.Works. The new women’s space wants to do justice to this reality.
At the same time, we defined clear guidelines regarding the use of the new space in order to avoid it becoming the new default for female-identifying participants in Habibi.Works - especially for those who have already confidently used the entire space up to now. We want to prevent the scenario in which slowly but surely, a small assemblage of Habibi.Works’ working equipment migrates into the women’s space and thus reinforces segregation. Therefore, all activities that don’t focus on body/hair will continue to take place in spaces used by all. Ensuring that these spaces are safe and comfortable for everybody is our shared responsibility.
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MAM Beyond Borders is a small italian NGO which focuses on women’s well-being by providing health support and information to women and girls on the move, helping those with obstetrics needs and/or newborn babies. They regularly visit different camps and community spaces in Greece and Cyprus.
For more information, have a look at their website (in Italian) and follow them on Instagram and Facebook.
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The "Artemide project" by MAM Beyond Borders aims to safeguard the reproductive and sexual health (SRH) rights of women residing in refugee camps across Europe, notably in Greece and Cyprus. Originating from the "Lesvos project" active from 2020 to 2022, the initiative focused on providing midwifery support in Lesvos, including antenatal, postnatal group and individual sessions, with a specific emphasis on breastfeeding, SRH education for girls and women.
Women on the move face heightened health and psychosocial risks throughout their migration journey, influenced by various factors such as family composition and traveling circumstances. Many encounter sexual violence or are forced to transactional sex for protection, increasing their health vulnerabilities. Limited access to medical care and medications affects their wellbeing.
In collaboration with local associations like Lifting Hands International (Serres), Habibi.works (Ioannina) and others, volunteer midwives from MAM deliver SRH sessions, private consultations and breastfeeding support within or near the refugee camps. These interactions, facilitated by cultural mediators, allow for the discussion of crucial health issues that are often forgotten, while respecting cultural practices.
Common health issues observed by our team in those years include a high number of urinary infections and menstrual irregularities. Fear of violence or insecurity often leads to behaviours like reducing fluid intake to avoid nighttime trips to the bathroom. Women and girls often find themselves with no one with whom to share health concerns and conditions related to their reproductive health that can become chronic.
Living in a refugee camp presents significant challenges for menstruating girls and women, particularly due to the scarcity of hygiene products. As MAM, we partner with Pads4Refugees to distribute menstrual pads and hot water bottles in the areas where we operate, aiming to alleviate pain and ensure access to essential products.
In the absence of a supportive network, a safe and inclusive space provided by our “Artemide project" becomes invaluable for women to discuss their health, their roles within the family, share experiences and their overall well-being with other girls and women.
Through Artemide, MAM strives to provide a sanctuary where women can find solace, support, and guidance amidst the adversity of their circumstances.
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Book Recommendation: Silence is a Sense |
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A novel written by Layla AlAmmar and published in 2021.
A Syrian refugee, who, through her brutal journey across Europe to the UK, has become silent. We follow this unnamed woman in an unnamed city in England, observing her neighbours and trying to live her life. Reading a lot of books as a way to understand the world around her but also to evade, the female narrator reminisces her past life in Syria and tries to overcome her trauma. After an attack at the local mosque, she realises she’s the only witness. Will she speak of what she's seen?
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What Can You Do to Help Us?
Too busy to volunteer? Donate
Contribute to Europe Must Act's advocacy efforts by donating today!
Your donation will help us:
- Fund coordinators for our campaign projects;
- Train activists across Europe on effective advocacy techniques;
- Cover digital equipment and campaign-related expenses.
You can donate to our latest campaign here.
Our Routes to Relocation campaign aims to raise public awareness on the benefits of moving refugees from border areas to welcoming cities and communities where they can more easily integrate. Additionally, we are committed to providing education to local governments and authorities on the opportunities that migration presents and the available resources for supporting welcoming cities.
Do you have some time on your hands? Volunteer with us!
We continue to look for reliable, engaged volunteers who are passionate about protecting the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, and centering the voices of people on the move and/or with lived experience. We need people to support and develop our movement in various ways. In our central teams, we need people for:
- Social media platform maintaining and development (Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn);
- Researching alternatives to closed camps, and sustainable solutions to the current crisis;
- Advocacy work with our partners across Europe;
- Creating and editing audiovisual content for Raising Voices;
- Advising on diversity & inclusion;
- Developing our Press & Comms strategy and outreach;
- Advising and creating funding applications;
- Working with our Cities Must Act team to support our network of Chapters with planning their national and local campaigns, developing their social media presence, and researching local movements and political developments to ensure they are as effective as possible;
- Developing ideas and resources for Action Ideas/events with our Chapters, and working on creative ideas for raising awareness (eg art/music).
If any of the above or below sounds like something you want to do, contact us at onboardme@europemustact.org
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