FiLiA

"We all understand what unwanted sex is; another word for that is rape. We all understand that, but when there's money involved, people suddenly don't seem to make that connection of what unwanted sex is bad for you. But if you're getting paid for it, then suddenly it's okay." When Mia Doring was in the sex trade, she convinced herself it was just a job. She described...

Maryam Namazie is an Iranian-born campaigner and writer living in the UK. Since the Islamic regime of Iran’s killing of Mahsa Amini on 16 September 2022 for ‘improper veiling,’ Maryam has been speaking on and organising protests in solidarity with the women’s revolution in Iran. FiLiA have joined Maryam launching the Hair4Freedom campaign and are continuing this relationship with our next solidari...

Jalna Hanmer is a feminist of 70 years. She was responsible for bringing women's studies to UK academia and was a founder of the National Women's Aid Federation. Jalna talks with Julie Bindel about her life's work and the forthcoming exhibition at FiLiA 2023 on the renowned Brighton 1996 ‘International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Women's Citizenship’. The podcast was prev...

"When you normalize paid rape in prostitution, it becomes confusing to an entire culture, even for [the] government, to define what consent is and what isn't, what rape is and what isn't. " In this episode, FiLiA Volunteer Luba Fein talks to  Dr Melissa Farley and Dr Inge Kleine about the results of their latest research (also co-authored by Kerstin Neuhaus, Yoanna McDowell, Si...

Dr Christine Cocchiola talks to FiLiA Trustee Sally Jackson about the impact of coercive control on children and the Mother-Child relationship and how to heal together after abuse. Dr. Christine Marie Cocchiola, DSW, LCSW is a Coercive Control Advocate, Educator, Researcher & Survivor. She is a college professor teaching social work in the CT College System for the last 20 years and is also an...

We are very pleased to share this interview by Raquel Rosario Sanchez with Caitlin Roper, author of “ Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating” which has just been published by Spinifex Press. “Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating” exposes the inherent misogyny in the trade in sex dolls and robots modelled on the bodies of women and girls for men’s unlimited sexual use. From doll owners enacting violence...

Dr Emma Katz, a leading expert in coercive control and its impact on children is interviewed by FiLiA Trustee Sally Jackson. A must for anyone working in the field or who cares about someone it has affected, Emma describes what coercive control is like for Mothers and their children and importantly how the Mother/child relationship affects its impact and their recovery. Dr Emma Katz is Senior Lect...

"A lot of the messages around domestic abuse is that you just leave, right? So you just walk out that door and everything's fine. Well, that really couldn’t be further from the truth." FiLiA Trustee Sally Jackson talks to Natalie Page, founder of #thecourtsaid, a campaign to challenge the mishandling of domestic abuse within the family courts.  Natalie discusses the problems faced b...

"It was shocking. I felt a great sense of betrayal by the Police. How could they possibly do that to me? What right have they got? I've paid my taxes all my life and they spent that paying a man to come to sleep with me and deceive me. They were playing with our lives because they thought they could get away with anything so they just had a good time while doing it." FiLiA Spokeswom...

"I didn't know what personal persecution felt like before. I could imagine, of course. But there is something very physical about those experiences of being hounded or being piled on by a mob that feels very visceral." Rosie Kay talks to FiLiA's Raquel Rosario Sánchez about how she came to be forced out of the dance company that she founded after bullying from inside the organi...

FiLiA Spokeswoman Raquel Rosario Sánchez speaks to author and activist Melinda Tankard Reist about pornography’s desensitisation of male sexuality and its traumatic effect on women and girls. Hear also about Melinda's work with children and teenagers in schools, her campaigning work with Collective Shout, and the way forward out of a culture of sexualised violence against women and girls. Mel...

"It's a double taboo - as a society, we don't talk about money and we don't talk about abuse. So when we are talking about economic abuse, there are quite a few barriers." FiLiA Trustee Sally Jackson chats to Nicola Sharp-Jeffs  OBE about Economic Abuse and why it has been recognised in the Domestic Abuse Act (2021) for the first time. Nicola has led the way in understandi...

In this episode of the FiLiA Podcast, FiLiA spokeswoman, Raquel Rosario Sánchez, talks to Stephanie Davies-Arai, the Founder and Director of Transgender Trend about her campaigning work to protect children from unnecessary medicalisation and sexist stereotypes. She created the organisation after speaking with a group of parents based in the UK, who were concerned about the current trend to diagnos...

In the latest episode of the FiLiA Podcast, Raquel Rosario Sanchez chats with the feminist philosopher and activist Jane Clare Jones who published her book ‘The Annals of the TERF war’ this month. They discuss feminism, sex-based rights, and the evolution of “gender identity” theory. Dr. Jones studied Social and Political Science at the University of Cambridge, where she got a first-class degree a...

Lawyer and academic Gina Masterton became an activist when her sister had a Hague case brought against her. That story has a (rare) happy ending but Gina continues to campaign to get the Convention amended. In this episode, she talks about the harshness of the Australian courts and the extent to which the law is failing both mothers and their children.

In this episode of the FiLiA podcast, lawyer and activist Sudha Shetty talks to us about the often desperate consequences of The Hague Convention for mothers and their children who are fleeing domestic violence. Her response to this injustice has been inspirational: the Hague Domestic Violence Project which she founded is a beacon of hope which we hope to build on through our international Hague M...

We are delighted to speak with Dr Alyson McGregor, a women’s health pioneer who has brought the concept of sex differences in the delivery of acute medical care to the national and international stage. She is also the author of: Sex Matters: How Male-Centric Medicine Endangers Women's Health and What We Can Do About It. Sex Matters represents a landmark moment in acknowledging the importance...

Documentary producer Alison Wilson joins FiLiA Volunteer Luba Fein to discuss her latest project ‘Exit’, a film about women who have been trafficked for sexual exploitation in Spain. Alison discusses the recruitment process, how any woman can fall victim to the sex traffickers, how hard the recovery is for survivors of human trafficking, and the devastating reality that many don’t make it to the e...

Cathy Devine, a researcher in the field of sports policy and equality, talks to FiLiA about how policies enabling male competitors to enter women's categories negatively impact female athletes and are detrimental to women's rights to fairness and inclusion in sport. She argues that "the human rights of females in sport depend on fair eligibility criteria which acknowledge human sexu...

In this pilot episode of FiLiA’s new women’s history podcast series, we bring together four feminists from around the world to have an international and intergenerational conversation about the importance of women’s archives. We speak to American historian Max Dashu, Indian artist and activist Aqui Thami, and Algerian archivists Lydia Saïdi and Awal Haouati. Facilitated by Bec Wonders and translat...

The 'Newlove Amendment' in the Governments Police Crime, Courts and Sentencing Bill is hailed as making misogyny a hate crime, but is that really the case? Joan Smith discusses what the real consequences of this becoming law are, and how in fact, it could harmful to women and used against them.

This is a recording of the #FiLiA2021 panel discussion led by Julie Bindel. She discusses her book Feminism for Women, invites women from the audience to join the conversation about feminist issues across generational divides, and Zemzem Mohamed speaks about the unfolding crisis in Tigray. (Transcription available on filia.org.uk)

So-called 'Parental alienation' is spreading across the globe. We share one woman’s experience of the courts in Spain. It’s difficult to hear. Once again Mothers are not being believed when they are trying to protect their children from abusive parents.

Vaishnavi Sundar reminisces with Sally Jackson about her trip to #FiLiA2021 this year. They discuss what she thought about her first FiLiA, some of the memorable moments and who she met. They discuss the rest of her trip to the UK and also look forward to her newest film project on the horizon.

Margaret Owen, 89, began a hunger strike on November 16, 2021 to raise awareness to the imprisonment of Iranian-British charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. In early April 2016, Nazanin visited Iran to introduce her one-year-old daughter to her parents. She was accused by the Iranian government of being spy and “plotting to topple the government.” On November 2017, then British Foreign Secret...