Focus „Safe Spaces“
Feminist activism needs safe spaces
Having safe spaces is an important issue for feminist organizations. For example, when organizations work with and for victims of gender-based or racist violence, they require a particularly safe environment. Suvivors must feel protected so that help and counseling can be offered well and sustainably.
Often it is the feminist organizations and activists themselves who need safe spaces. Feminist organizations are often exposed to hostility and violent threats. In addition, there are often insecure and problematic tenancies, especially when organizations belong to a highly marginalized group, such as the Rom*nja. More and more partners of filia are looking for their own and safe spaces.
Enabling safe get-togethers
But we understand “safe spaces” not only in the literal sense. A safe space can also be a workshop for young women in which they are encouraged to formulate their own opinions and question stereotypical gender roles. Or it may be a computer class or a craft group where people from marginalized groups come together. In addition to the skills acquired, it is primarily the community that gives strength to those affected by discrimination. Experiencing the majority in a safe space, knowing that they are not alone with their problems and experiences, is an empowering moment for many marginalized women and girls.
It is part of filia’s grantmaking principles to focus on the needs of her partners. Thus, the focus on safe spaces has developed organically in recent years. filia supports her partners in acquiring their own spaces or, where possible, in renovating rented spaces. It is critical that the spaces fit the needs of the organization and, more importantly, the people the organization serves.
Disclaimer: We know that there are no absolutely safe spaces for feminist activism. There is a growing trend to use the term “safer spaces” instead of “safe spaces”. In this way, it is expressed that threat and hostility can never be completely excluded. We decided to continue using “safe spaces” for now. When talking about “safe spaces” we do so assuming that the activists are striving to create a place free of discrimination and threat.
Projects in the focus “Safe Spaces”
FemLibrary – Armenia
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A.casa – Romania
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Sex Workers’ Rights Lietuva – Lithuania
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CUTRA – Romania
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bULT – Kazakhstan
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Kralyova Workshop – Ukraine
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Jazve Talks – Armenia
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Empowerment Through Self-Defense for Young Women and Girls in Armenia – Armenia
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Tell me Sister – Tajikistan
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Unite Girls – Uzbekistan
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Naambobi – Georgia
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Projects in the Focus “Safe Spaces”
FemLibrary – Armenia
Queer-Feminist Library
FemLibrary is a queer feminist collective that has created a safe space with minimal resources but with endless communal devotion for queer feminist organising, resistance and knowledge building. Their initiative brings together and intertwines feminist and queer activism, art and academia in the spirit of solidarity and sisterhood.
FemLibrary is an uninstitutionalised queer feminist imagination that aims at uniting Armenian feminists across different intersecting movements, initiatives, groups and organizations. It strives to fight against patriarchy, heteronormativity, neuronormativity, militarism, colonialism and other intersecting layers of oppression by producing intersectional feminist knowledge and fostering creative ac(r)tivism.
FemLibrary includes hundreds of books on gender, sexuality, feminist and queer studies, political philosophy, political science, human rights and related fields. It is open to the general public. The collective also organises lectures, discussions, exhibitions, reading clubs, book presentations and other happenings, undertakes translations and writing of own decolonial texts in Armenian.
Sex Workers’ Rights Lietuva – Lithuania
Support for Sex Workers
Sex Workers’ Rights Lietuva (SWRL) was founded in February 2023. Due to personal security concerns and extensive stigma the group has been organising gradually and carefully, involving new members slowly into the collective. Their shared long-term goals are creating a supportive environment for sex workers in Lithuania; educating Lithuanian society about the wide spectrum of sex work activities, and advocating for the development of policies and practices that protect the human, health and labour rights of sex workers in Lithuania. To do so, SWRL is holding monthly sex workers’ lunches, are organising workshops and slowly starting to do public advocacy. The lunches act as harm reduction and peer support groups. The group has recently established an Instagram account where anonymous personal stories of sex workers in Lithuania are shared. Recently SWRL became a member of SWAN (Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network), which focuses on supporting sex workers rights in Eastern and Central Europe. The group is actively networking with groups in other countries to learn about their advocacy experiences and plan their future actions in Lithuania.
bULT – Kazakhstan
Inclusiv Space for Self-Expression
bULt is a queer-, lesbian-, trans- led community-driven experimental rave space, research, and arts environment aiming to be safe for all forms of life. Established in 2019, the bULt team has hosted over 300 offline events, fostering a safe space through decolonial optics and local knowledge for self-expression and artistic experimentation. With a base in Almaty, their residence supports a range of activities—from parties to exhibitions, film screenings, lectures, and discussions—providing a creative home for around 30 permanent residents and a platform for over 100 artists annually.
bULt creates a place for self-expression based on the principles of equality, solidarity and mutual respect. They support the desire for experimentation, promote the development of the local artistic environment; trying to understand their place and role in the modern conditions of, as Central Asia and the world, maintain horizontal connections within related communities and thereby strengthen solidarity networks.
Their impact extends beyond artistic creation; bULt influences legislative initiatives by advocating for harm reduction and other progressive policies. Their collaborative approach, particularly through residency programs, builds a sense of co-creation and has garnered international recognition, supporting research and cross-cultural dialogue. By incorporating educational components into their artist lab and expanding into concert and gallery spaces, bULt seeks to strengthen cultural exchange and cooperation between different communities and regions.
Empowerment Through Self-Defense for Young Women and Girls in Armenia – Armenia
Practice-Oriented and Holistic Self-Defense Training
The project „Empowerment Through Self-Defense for Young Women and Girls in Armenia“ offers empowerment-based self-defense (ESD) training to young women* in Armenia. Designed to be practical, hands-on, and comprehensive, the training aims to equip participants with the tools they need to take control of their safety.
ESD gives participants the power to choose how to respond to any form of violence—whether it’s verbal harassment or physical assault—without judgment or victim-blaming. It helps them recognize and stop harmful behavior before it escalates by teaching them how to set boundaries, use de-escalation strategies, and, if necessary, defend themselves or others.
More than just learning skills, the training fosters confidence, assertiveness, and resilience, empowering participants to navigate risks and challenges in their everyday lives with greater self-assurance.
Unite Girls – Uzbekistan
STEM Education for Girls
Unite Girls is a system-based initiative designed and run by girls. The initiative empowers girls in Uzbekistan to access education and social opportunities, with the main focus in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), regardless of their social background. The initiative functions in Uzbek and English languages, and as there is limited access to resources in the Uzbek language, their mentorship sessions are primarily conducted in the Uzbek language. They address the needs of Uzbek-speaking girls across Uzbekistan and Central Asia, and those who may not have had access to institutional education, which is often centralized in Russian-speaking, urban contexts like Tashkent. Their program has received over 500 applications, accepting 110 girls from various regions for a month-long course covering subjects such as chemistry, biology, physics, programming, and mathematics in their first cohort. They also hold guest speaker sessions to inspire girls with role models in STEM fields and run clubs where girls can prepare for standardized exams in college preparations, with 300+ girls actively benefiting from these opportunities. The program actively challenges traditional gender norms and negative stereotypes in STEM, where these fields are traditionally male-dominated. By providing girls with female role models and mentors, Unite Girls aims to make STEM education and social opportunities accessible and appealing to girls aged 13 to 18 across all regions of Uzbekistan and Central Asia.
A.casa – Romania
Feminist Community Space for Workshops and Events
A.casa is an anti-hierarchical, queerfeminist trans inclusive self-organised and collectively run community space in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Its values are based in anti-capitalism, feminism and anti-speciesism, offering respect for humans regardeless of gender, race, class, abilities, religion, or sexuality. The space includes an open-to-all anarchist library that contains radical queerfeminist and decolonial literature and hosts a variety of events and discussions including talks on abortion access, fundraising events for the transition of trans and non-binary people, screenings, community dinners, banner making workshops, activist meetings, autonomous zine and book fairs, fundraisers and mutual aid efforts, musical, educational and many other events. A.casa also has a community van that can be used by those who need it for collective actions.
CUTRA – Romania
Magazine Creates Space for Queer and Feminist Perspectives
CUTRA is a queer-feminist magazine and online platform for cultural production. CUTRA collective is based in Bucharest, Romania. In their own words ‘CUTRA is antifascist and ancticapitalist, well-documented, intuitive and sensitive. It is imperfect and unsteady’. As a platform, it brings necessary space for expression to queer-feminist, trans, non-binary people and it approaches intimacy, pleasure and sexual explorations from a liberatory perspective. It is both a printed magazine and a permanent online platform that include various contributions: essays, poetry, prose, theory, as well as illustration and visual art, opening up to the creative cultural community opportunities for exposure, expression and support of a creative and supportive environment for their practice. ‘For all feminist souls who flourish by exploring solidarity, poetry, intimacy, and are not afraid of sexual freedom.‘
Kralyova Workshop – Ukraine
Experience Self-Efficacy through Art
The work of the Kralyova Workshop provides a community-based approach to trauma healing and recovery for those affected by war. The workshop started in 2022, as a response to the inflow of internally displaced people to Shepetivka . The town is also home to several ethnic communities – Armenian, Polish, Jewish, and Roma. There is also a large number of women, whose partners are missing, dead or injured as a result of the war. Therefore, the needs for therapeutic, psycho-social and community-building work in the area are very high. Rather than focusing on individual approach, Kralyova Workshop creates a space for women to share their stories in a safe space, and to create something in an act of empowerment. The project aims at being as accessible and inclusive as possible. By relying on local cultural traditions, crafts, and songs, the project aims to build connections to the local culture, rather than integrate western methods of therapy that may not be relevant or applicable to the context.
Jazve Talks – Armenia
Video-Podcast for Community and Empowerment
Jazve talks is a video-podcast series where Armenian women, trans and non-binary queer creatives discuss their work over a cup of coffee in an “amot” (shame)-free zone.
Their motto is “spill the coffee, not the tea” pokes at gossiping or “spilling the tea” and, instead, calls to strengthen and uplift their communities.
They are amplifying and building visibility of “taboo” topics in Armenia, where there is no formal sex education. They launched their first introductory episode on May 22, 2024 and have since recorded video podcast episodes about their personal journeys as queer non-binary Armenians, about shame surrounding menstruation and women body, about empowering women from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), about rape culture and repressions of patriarchal conservative society.
Through this platform, they aim to shed light and celebrate the works of independent queer creators in Armenia and archive otherwise underrepresented experiences.
Tell me sister – Tajikistan
Raising Awareness on Gender-Based Violence
Tell Me Sister is dedicated to raising awareness about the social issues faced by women in Tajikistan, with a particular emphasis on gender-based violence and discrimination. Operating within a challenging environment marked by censorship, limited internet access, and threats to freedom of expression, the team utilizes both online platforms and offline events to spotlight these issues. Through social media monitoring, anonymous story sharing, and the creation of educational content, they address stigmatized topics that are often ignored in Tajikistan’s media. Additionally, they organize events with community members to foster a sense of solidarity, education, and open dialogue on current issues affecting women in Tajikistan and Central Asia. Their primary goals are to foster public discourse on gender equality and women’s rights, create an informed and safe space for women, where they feel empowered to share their experiences and seek help, increase public awareness of gender-based violence and discrimination and encourage reporting, and educate society on recognizing hidden forms of violence, aiding victims, and accessing support resources.
Naambobi – Georgia
Sharing Stories of Resilience
Naambobi is a multimedia web platform dedicated to sharing powerful and essential stories, primarily focusing on survivors of domestic violence (DV) and gender-based violence (GBV), as well as successful women whose journeys can inspire others. The Goal of Naambobi is to empower women and DV/GBV survivors by sharing stories of resilience and to create an authentic, trustworthy narrative space where verified personal experiences are honoured and valued. By offering portraits of previously unknown individuals, the platform seeks to highlight voices that would otherwise remain unheard, sharing tales of resilience, achievements, and the fight for justice. Naambobi creates a collective social narrative space to amplify these personal experiences, connect people, and promote a greater understanding of the challenges faced by marginalized voices.
