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Urgent Concern: L’Oréal’s Collaboration with Pornography Industry
Urgent Concern: L’Oréal’s Collaboration with Pornography Industry

L’Oréal’s Urban Decay brand has appointed Ari Kytsya, an adult content creator on OnlyFans, as a brand ambassador, in a campaign heavily promoted to teenage audiences. We are deeply concerned that this partnership glamorises the pornography industry, an industry proven to fuel violence against women, normalise sexual exploitation, and harm young people’s perceptions of healthy relationships.

Along with sister organisations KairosWWT, nia, Women at the Well, and CEASE, we have written to L’Oréal calling on it to distance itself from an industry that profits from the degradation of women and to uphold its own stated ethical principles.

StatementsMICHELLE KERWINSexual Exploitation Industries, Violence Against Women
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
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
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 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
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 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
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
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
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
Women First…Prostitution as Male Violence
Women First…Prostitution as Male Violence

Here at FiLiA in the Women First team, we firmly challenge the notion of prostitution as being in any way empowering. We consider it another form of male violence. As part of the Women First project, we have interviewed sex trade survivors who collectively have over 100 years’ experience of being in the sex trade. This has included street, escort, sugar daddy and brothel work. Their experiences were all different but many of the themes were similar, namely that trauma and abuse served as a gateway into the sex trade and that it takes time and specialist support to exit and recover from the sex trade.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINSexual Exploitation Industries, Violence Against Women
Unions and the Labour Party for Women - Kiri Tunks
Unions and the Labour Party for Women - Kiri Tunks

Kiri Tunks is a veteran trade union and women's rights activist @‌kiritunks

This blog is based on a speech made by Kiri Tunks on behalf of the FiLiA Trade Union Project at a Labour Women’s Declaration fringe at the 2024 Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. In it, Kiri argues that women need to be at the head and the heart of the labour and trade union movement.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINSexual Exploitation Industries, Violence Against Women, Class Politics, Reproductive Rights
Amnesty: denying women justice, freedom, truth and dignity
Amnesty: denying women justice, freedom, truth and dignity

One wonders how the world’s largest human rights organisation, whose main claim is to ‘work to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied’ has found itself in opposition to women - some of whom have been victim to the most egregious suppression of their rights and dignity - discussing what has happened to them and why.

BlogMICHELLE KERWINSexual Exploitation Industries, Violence Against Women, Sex-Based Rights
Psychosis and Sisterhood - National Schizophrenia Awareness Day
Psychosis and Sisterhood - National Schizophrenia Awareness Day

Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness involving psychosis (loss of contact with reality), with many myths associated. Women experience it differently to men, and face specific difficulties associated with their experiences.

It's vital that the needs of Women with schizophrenia are considered, particularly around MVAWG. Sisterhood with Women affected by serious mental illnesses, although sometimes difficult, is desperately important.

MICHELLE KERWINViolence Against Women, Disability
Supporting Children to Understand Porn-Influenced Sexual Abuse
Supporting Children to Understand Porn-Influenced Sexual Abuse

Porn and Porn-influenced culture is shaping the way children construct sexual behaviour and relationships. In this blog I outline a number of the harms of pornography and how teachers - as well as parents/carers and other professionals who work with children - can have clear and factual conversations with children about the harms of porn-influenced sexual abuse.

BlogDittany RoseSexual Exploitation Industries, Violence Against Women
Reflections on the 4th World Congress for the Abolition of Prostitution
Reflections on the 4th World Congress for the Abolition of Prostitution

This piece combines the reflections of FiLiA’s Anti-Prostitution Lead Luba Fein and FiLiA’s Spokeswoman Raquel Rosario Sánchez after participating in the 4 th World Congress to Abolish Prostitution. The Congress was organised by CAP International, Canadian-based organisation La Cles, Breaking Free, the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter and the EVA Centre. At the end of the Congress, the organisations launched the Montreal’s Call for the Abolition of Prostitution, which is signed by more than 60 organisations.

BlogDittany RoseClass Politics, Global, Sexual Exploitation Industries, Violence Against Women