Celebrating International Women’s Day

New Vision For Women founder Nighat Khan began the meeting by discussing the work her organisation had done over lockdown. She emphasised the pandemic had been particularly “challenging for our ladies with children”.

In response to the challenges faced over the year, she explained how New Vision For Women went online. Online classes connected women in the community through exercise and mindfulness workshops, collective cooking via Zoom, and creative classes all taking precendence in the community calendar.

As the UK moved in and out of lockdown, there were also opportunities to do socially distanced community work in South London such as planting. Mrs Khan said although the pandemic had been hard, she was focusing on the positive.

“The community came together,” she said.

As the Women’s Day meeting continued, members of the community spoke about their own experiences during the lockdown, with many talking of the struggles they faced having young children at home during the pandemic.

 Elizabeth Fewkes from Near Neighbours asked everyone which women they most admired and what qualities they admired in a woman.

 Among the answers was Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg, and Kamala Harris.

The community’s mothers were also recognised for the amazing work they do, with local councillor Ed Davie mentioning his own Mum who he remembered fondly as playing the piano to “destress”.

The community also got creative – poetry was read and music was played.

Sharifa Turawa said she loved being a woman and celebrating women.

 “Every woman should have the right to define what they are and who they are as a woman and what that means for them,” she said.

 She read Maya Angelou’s poem, Phenomenal Women.

“It’s the fire in my eyes,   

And the flash of my teeth,   

The swing in my waist,   

And the joy in my feet.   

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.”

Former journalist turned poet and writer Julie Salt read her own poem entitled The Time Of My Life, which she described as a “housewife’s lament”.

She encouraged the other women to throw their anger and frustration onto the page and described writing as an empowering experience. 

Empowerment was a hot topic throughout the meeting, with each speaker talking of the different ways they have found to uplift themselves and their communities over the last year.