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Stabbing Or Shooting Someone Is Not the Only Way to Kill Them
Stabbing Or Shooting Someone Is Not the Only Way to Kill Them

But then, everything stopped.

Two years into my studies, the Taliban returned to power. With a few cruel words, they closed the doors of every university to women. My faculty, once a symbol of hope and purpose, became a silent place where girls were no longer welcome.

They did not shoot me. They did not stab me, but they killed something inside me.

Because when someone takes your education, your purpose, your future, they are not just stealing your rights.

They are erasing your existence. But I am not the only one. I am just one example of more than 20 million girls and women in Afghanistan who are now banned from going to university, entering a park, sitting in a restaurant, or even walking freely in an open space to breathe.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINGlobal, Sex-Based Rights, Violence Against Women
New Government RSE and PSHE guidance – Report Card: Progress Made but Can Do Better!
New Government RSE and PSHE guidance – Report Card: Progress Made but Can Do Better!

In 2016, gender still meant the socially constructed gender stereotypes and gender roles. They are the root cause of misogyny and male violence against women and girls. They impact access to justice, safety, health care and citizenship. It is because of this that building critical analysis skills around gender was key to education as a way to prevent practices such as (but not limited to) child sexual abuse and exploitation, sexual violence, domestic abuse and female genital mutilation (FGM). My campaign was in memory of a girl who via gender stereotypes of sexual objectification was raped and murdered. The whole point was to make sure girls were safer.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINViolence Against Women
Letter in support of Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson
Letter in support of Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson

FiLiA warmly welcomes the Government’s choice of preferred candidate for the next Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson. As part of the process, she appeared in front of two Parliamentary committees and her performance was assured, knowledgeable, and principled. It is clear the Government made the right choice. We are extremely disappointed, therefore, to learn that the Committees are not endorsing Dr Stephenson. We have written to the Minister for Women and Equalities to express our support for Mary-Ann.

StatementsMICHELLE KERWINGovernment Policy, Sex-Based Rights
Women Deserve Better: FiLiA Responds to the Equality Law Call for Evidence
Women Deserve Better: FiLiA Responds to the Equality Law Call for Evidence

Critical protections for women are too often unconsidered and failing in their purpose.
We have responded to the Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO)’s equality law call for evidence to raise the alarm that the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) is failing women. The OEO is examining whether non-public bodies exercising public functions are meeting their obligations under the PSED. However, this narrow focus misses a more fundamental opportunity.

StatementsMICHELLE KERWINSex-Based Rights
Women speak out against the welfare reforms
Women speak out against the welfare reforms

FiLiA has spoken to women across the UK with disabilities or caring responsibilities about the Government’s welfare reform proposals.  It is clear from what they have told us that the reforms could lead to significant harm – as we set out in our response to the Department for Work and Pensions’ consultation, Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper. Further detail, as well as our response and Parliamentary briefing can be found here.

StatementsMICHELLE KERWINDisability
Concerns Regarding Ofcom's 'Manosphere' Study
Concerns Regarding Ofcom's 'Manosphere' Study

FiLiA have written to Ofcom and the Guardian after the Guardian reported on Ofcom's so-called research into the ‘manosphere’ and misogyny. FiLiA have significant concerns about the impact this research could have on women and girls, and are asking Ofcom to recall it.

‘If only women’s experiences were taken as seriously as the unquestioned statements of 38 men.’


StatementsMICHELLE KERWINViolence Against Women
Florence Canning: The Forgotten Suffragette
Florence Canning: The Forgotten Suffragette

It is remarkable that a women such as Florence Canning could disappear without a trace after devoting nearly ten years of her life campaigning for the vote.

There is no memorial to Florence in Brighton, indeed, there is nothing to remember Florence anywhere, apart from her grave in the churchyard of St Paul’s Church, Tupsley, Hereford, and even that was in need of restoration prior to a successful Crowdfunder in spring 2023.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINFeminist History
Used, Silenced, Branded: How Saudi Arabia Recycles Its Women
Used, Silenced, Branded: How Saudi Arabia Recycles Its Women

To Saudi Arabia’s allies in London and Washington: stop treating our lives like a line item on a trade deal. From Trump’s Riyadh photo-ops to his latest pledge of ‘no more lectures on how to live,’ the message is clear: authoritarianism is culture, and repression is tradition—as long as the oil keeps flowing. And from Keir Starmer’s silence, it seems Britain agrees. The economy comes first, human rights second. We’re not asking for heroism. We’re asking you to stop hiding behind diplomacy while our rights are crushed. If you can put human rights on the table when it's Russia or Iran, you can do the same with Saudi Arabia. If you can leverage deals for weapons, oil, and football, you can do it for freedom.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINGlobal, Violence Against Women, Sex-Based Rights
Women respond to the Government's disability benefits reform consultation
Women respond to the Government's disability benefits reform consultation

The FiLiA Campaigns and Policy team have been working to support women to contribute to the Government’s consultation on disability benefits reform. We wrote to Parliamentarians who are also working to support disabled people to share our work and some of the responses we've had, and invite them to support and work with us to stand up for disabled women and carers who could be devastated by the proposed reforms.

StatementsMICHELLE KERWINDisability, Government Policy
Women First at Westminster
Women First at Westminster

When we spoke to survivors as part of our Women First interviews, they told us how important it is that women are asked about moving on from prostitution. We recognise that supporting a woman to move on is complex; there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and it is important that there is support across a range of needs: health, financial, housing, trauma. However, a fundamental starting point is actually asking a woman about moving on

StatementsMICHELLE KERWINViolence Against Women, Sexual Exploitation Industries
For Women Scotland Supreme Court Victory
For Women Scotland Supreme Court Victory

On Wednesday morning, in a packed courtroom at the Supreme Court in London, the judgment in the For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers (FWS2) case was handed down. The Supreme Court unanimously agreed that the terms ‘man’, ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex. Holding a GRC does not change sex for the purposes of the EA2010. The court ruling makes clear to all what ordinary women across the UK have been saying for years: the law protects single-sex spaces and services.

StatementsMiz JakubovicSex-Based Rights, Lesbian Rights, Justice and the Law, Feminist History
Equality Impact Assessment: An Underrated Tool for Lasting Feminist Change!
Equality Impact Assessment: An Underrated Tool for Lasting Feminist Change!

Many of the women we have spoken to feel frustrated with decision makers who seem blind to the female perspective or the impact their work has on women.

Behind our laws, practice and provision, workplace policies or budget cuts, there’s often an invisible bias ‒ one that disproportionately adversely affects women.

And the impact is felt even harder by those at the intersections of race, disability, class and migration status. Too often the needs of women with disabilities, ethnic minority and migrant women, lesbians and women living in poverty are ignored, their voices sidelined, and their struggles compounded by policies that never considered them in the first place.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINSex-Based Rights, Disability, Class Politics
Kakuma Update
Kakuma Update

When we started work in Kakuma in 2020, refugees were provided with rice, soya beans, maize and oil; now they are given sogrum, a product most often used as animal feed in the UK.

After a sleepless night, and with the local UNHCR clinic refusing to help lesbian families, she sadly died the next morning.

StatementsMICHELLE KERWINLesbian Rights, Violence Against Women
FiLiA’s view on the planned cuts to disability benefits
FiLiA’s view on the planned cuts to disability benefits

Then once they've grown into women, the medical model dismisses women as exaggerating pain ‒ simply walking hysterical hormone sacks fainting at the slightest breeze. 

Maybe they grow up and find someone to love and support them? But abuse and exploitation of disabled women figures show they are more vulnerable and have fewer services available for them. There are less shelters; they are less able to just quickly jump on a free train and escape and risk losing the services and medication they need. 

BlogMICHELLE KERWINClass Politics, Disability, EcoFeminism
Marching for Our Sisters - Million Women Rise
Marching for Our Sisters - Million Women Rise

As FiLiA volunteers, our group consisted of women from different parts of the world. Some of us grew up believing that sex-based violence was mainly an African issue, shaped by the struggles in our home countries. The UK, after all, prides itself on human rights and women’s rights. But as we stood among thousands of women, each carrying their own stories of pain and survival, we realised a harsh truth: violence against women knows no borders.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINSex-Based Rights, Class Politics, Anti-racism, Global
Fighting for the Forgotten Women in the UK's Asylum System: Accelerate Action Because They Cannot Wait Any Longer
Fighting for the Forgotten Women in the UK's Asylum System: Accelerate Action Because They Cannot Wait Any Longer

One of the most terrifying experiences women face is the Home Office Reporting System. For years, I had to report in person every single week, knowing that, at any moment, I could be detained.

The impact on mental health is devastating. The days before reporting are filled with anxiety, not knowing if you will come back, not knowing if that would be your day to disappear into detention.

The fear is relentless. Reporting is framed as a welfare check, but we must call it what it truly is: state-sanctioned psychological warfare. These women already live under strict controls, in National Asylum Support Service accommodation, barely surviving on limited financial support. The Home Office knows exactly where they are. So why force them to report? To keep them in fear.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINGlobal, Anti-racism, Sex-Based Rights, Lesbian Rights
FiLiA’s statement on the Bertin Review and the Government response to it
FiLiA’s statement on the Bertin Review and the Government response to it

FiLiA's detailed response to the Bertin Review published last week, in which we drew on the experiences shared by Women with direct experience of the industry, and we continue to push for them to be consulted in any further reviews. We welcome the Review and its recommendations and are reassured to see the Government recognise the urgent need to tackle the harms of pornography. However, we are clear there is no such thing as ‘safe’ pornography and more needs to be done to protect and support women and girls who are harmed by pornography.

StatementsMICHELLE KERWINViolence Against Women, Sexual Exploitation Industries
International Women's Day 2025 House of Commons Debate Briefing
International Women's Day 2025 House of Commons Debate Briefing

The House of Commons held a general debate for International Women's Day on Thursday 6th March 2025. This briefing, sent to MPs to participate in the debate, introduces FiLiA’s new campaign to urge the Government to better recognise and consider women in their policy making, including by consulting with a variety of women's organisations for all policy affecting the public, and consistently producing thorough Equality Impact Assessments.

BriefingMICHELLE KERWINSex-Based Rights
Letter to Chief Constable Gavin Stephens Chair, National Police Chiefs’ Council 
Letter to Chief Constable Gavin Stephens Chair, National Police Chiefs’ Council 

As a national organisation working for women’s sex-based rights, we are writing to express our considerable anger and distress at the news that the National Police Chiefs’ Council is reviving the discredited guidance allowing male staff identifying as women to perform intimate searches on women. The fact that this would bring all police forces into line with the recently-declared policy of British Transport Police increases the fury among women concerned about women’s rights.

StatementsMICHELLE KERWINSex-Based Rights, Violence Against Women
U.S. Mother Sentenced to Over Three Years in Spanish Prison After Escaping Domestic Violence
U.S. Mother Sentenced to Over Three Years in Spanish Prison After Escaping Domestic Violence

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

U.S. Mother Sentenced to Over Three Years in Spanish Prison After Escaping Domestic Violence

A U.S. mother of two has been sentenced to three years and three months in a Spanish prison after fleeing to the United States with her eldest daughter to escape domestic violence in Spain. Despite returning under the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction, she now faces an unjust conviction that violates fundamental human rights and international legal agreements.

StatementsMICHELLE KERWINGlobal
Sex and Gender in Trump’s America
Sex and Gender in Trump’s America

We all know how we got here. The failure of the left to address the gender identity activism gave this extraordinary open goal to the right. It was all predictable; we predicted it. Now we’re here.

This does not absolve us from thinking critically about the harmful consequences of working with Christian Right groups, including the ADF and the Heritage Foundation, which are coalition partners in Project 2025.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINGlobal, Sex-Based Rights, Reproductive Rights, Class Politics, Violence Against Women
Kakuma Update
Kakuma Update

On 20th January, Donald Trump took office as President of the USA. Almost immediately he suspended the US refugee resettlement program as part of a series of executive orders cracking down on immigration. Many of the refugees, who had been cleared to resettle in the U.S. after fleeing war or persecution in their home countries, already had plane tickets in hand when the suspension was announced.

StatementsMICHELLE KERWINViolence Against Women, Lesbian Rights, Global
Cricket and Women's Liberation Afghanistan
Cricket and Women's Liberation Afghanistan

We urge the England Cricket Board to withdraw the England team from the forthcoming match against Afghanistan on 26th February, which is scheduled as part of the International Cricket Council Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 tournament. To go ahead with this match, while the Afghanistan government further restricts women’s rights and the ability to have any social existence, implies that the Board and the team are unconcerned about the denial of the most basic human rights for female people.

StatementsMICHELLE KERWINSex-Based Rights, Global
Ten Years of Canadian Prostitution Law: Critique and Challenges in Achieving Equality
Ten Years of Canadian Prostitution Law: Critique and Challenges in Achieving Equality

The English version is followed by the French version.

La version anglaise est suivie de la version française.

This article marks the ten-year anniversary of Canada’s prostitution law reform, Bill C-36, also known as the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act. This landmark legislation was a critical step in acknowledging the harms of the prostitution system, aiming to protect women and children from sexual exploitation while reducing demand and incidence. Over the past decade, feminist groups have actively evaluated and critiqued the law’s application, identifying both its successes and areas in need of improvement. This article provides a vital opportunity to understand the ongoing efforts to combat sexual exploitation, the challenges faced in implementing laws that prioritise equality, and the importance of relentless advocacy in the fight for a society free from exploitation.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINGlobal, Sexual Exploitation Industries, Violence Against Women