1. Introduction
The project “FemResist” is about fighting racism, xenophobia and discrimination against Muslim women and in particular refugee women. The main purpose of “FemResist” is to empower, support and protect Muslim women who face intolerance and hatred. This project was developed and implemented in collaboration with three women’s organizations.
The participating organizations are:
- The Research Center of Women’s Affairs (RCWA) from Greece. RCWA is a non-profit and independent organization founded in 1987.
- Women’s Issues Information Center (WIIC) Lithuania, founded in 1996.
- Association of Women from Turkey in Amsterdam (ATKB), the Netherlands, founded in 1974.
2. Reason for this project
We, the three women’s organizations, are concerned about the ever-growing fascist, nationalist, populist and far-right movements and their growing influence in Europe. For the past decade, the far-right parties have used concerns about immigration, globalization and religious terrorism as a power tool. In Austria, the right-wing political parties took power in 2017, in Italy in March 2018, in France in 2018 and in Sweden in 2019.But large nationalist, extreme right-wing parties are also found in Ukraine, Poland and Hungary, as well as in countries like Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia and Estonia. In countries not yet ruled by nationalists, far-right movements are also growing. In short, the hatred of ’the other’, i.e. anyone who looks like or is an immigrant, a gypsy (Roma?), a Muslim, is increasing all the time and we want to join forces to fight this.Legislation is not enough to tackle discrimination, racism There are regulations, guidelines and legal frameworks at European level that aim to combat inequalities and discrimination, including multiple forms of discrimination in a number of areas and to promote equal opportunities for all. These regulations are also intended to empower women and promote gender equality. For example, the European Court of Human Rights has created a ‘handbook on non-discrimination law’ together with the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. The handbook specifically deals with the principle of non-discrimination in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and EU law and focuses in particular on matters related to non-discrimination in practice. The prohibition of discrimination is therefore an important principle in EU law.Despite these regulations and frameworks, women in particular are victims of discrimination and racist movements in several European countries. Therefore, it is necessary to design anti-racism training (anti-Islamophobic training) so that people become aware of racism and discrimination. The ‘anti-racism training’ is aimed at people who are exposed to racism, so that they become aware of their situation. The training should also be aimed at people who have racist thoughts, but often say,”I’m not a racist, I’m against racism.”
3. Goal of the FemResist . project
The main goal of the “FemResist” project is to empower, support and protect Muslim women who face intolerance and hatred. The main ambition behind ‘FemResist’ is to create ‘anti-racism schools’ (anti-racism education) focused on women of ethnic backgrounds, refugees (including people living in camps), indigenous women, NGOs, local and regional authorities, the media, public and private social actors (ook hier weet ik niet wat hiermee bedoeld wordt), etc. In order to achieve the main objective, the following actions are planned:
- Establishing ‘Anti-racism, anti-Islamophobic schools (trainingcenters)’ in 3 countries;
- Documenting racist and Islamophobic incidents;
- Anti-racism festivals that highlight critical issues of racism and Islamophobia by using art.
Actions to achieve our goal
- Monthly publication of the documented racist and Islamophobia incidents on social media
and communication with politicians and other stakeholders. - Organize anti-racism festivals that will showcase critical issues of racism and Islamophobia
through art. - In addition to preparing a festival, a bimonthly bulletin is published, providing information
about discrimination and racism against Muslim and refugee women in various European
countries and how the emerging right-wing extremism has an impact on these issues. - Meeting, networking and consultation between the three organizations;
- Realizing and fighting for an ‘anti-racism education’. This is a long term action.
4. Recommendations
- Establishing a committee, consisting of people with different cultural, educational and professional backgrounds who, when discrimination and racism is observed, alert the Dutch authorities and stress the importance of fundamental rights of the EU, in which non-discrimination and equality between men and women are established.
- That the committee investigates how to realize an ‘anti-racism training’ and that the Dutch government facilitates the committee. The ‘Guide to the establishment of anti-racism schools’ that has already been designed for this purpose should be used as the basis for this.
- The committee monitors and follows the design phase of the ‘anti-racism training’.
- Governments should embed ‘anti-racism training’ in government policy, so that racism and discrimination are combated and gender equality is promoted.