International Day of the Girl Child Panel — Cambridge Girls Human Rights Mini Hub
On October 11th, the International Day of the Girl Child, the Cambridge Girls Human Rights Hub Ambassadors hosted their very first event of the year: a panel event with guest speakers Laila Alodaat, Celestine Greenwood and Shamsa Araweelo. Insightful discussions were had on the current state of girls human rights and what could be done to resolve them.
The event started with Laila and Celeste introducing themselves and sharing examples of the advancement of girls’ human rights in their work. Laila shared about her experience in Iraq, where the ownership of small arms in the households increased femicide fivefold. Viewing militarised security from a feminist perspective, Laila’s work involved taking small arms out of the household, helping to reduce femicide. Laila also discussed the difference between activism and saviorism.
Celeste shared about her experience in Tajikistan, where she worked to improve the child protection system for girls by equipping social workers with the necessary skills. She discussed how girls are overlooked in the social system and how the government is not set to challenge oppression.
Although Shamsa was unable to join us in person, she wrote out insightful and powerful responses to questions by email, which we read out loud to the audience. Shamsa discussed her personal experience as an FGM survivor, and how she used TikTok and social media platforms to reach wide audiences and encourage women to use their voice and take control of their narrative.
The discussion took flight, touching on topics such as how the experience of victims are criminalised, furthering the challenges they have to tackle, and the intersectionality of discrimination. The audience was also very engaged, asking questions about reproductive health rights in the US and the portrayal and representation of women in the media, which sparked conversation on the broad brush nature of the UK legal system, and how social media and technology can be a force of good and evil in the advancement of girls’ human rights.
Although the topics we touched upon were quite heavy, Laila, Celeste and Shamsa’s passion shined through, setting a motivating and uplifting atmosphere for the audience to take action and join the fight for girls’ empowerment and the realisation and protection of their human rights. Celeste mentioned the importance of human rights education and opening up conversations starting with small spaces. Laila called for the recognition of different types of knowledge and how everyone can play an important role in human rights work. Shamsa reminded everyone that they are not alone and that they are worthy. Their insights and advice were extremely inspiring!
Thank you so much to Laila, Celeste and Shamsa for their wisdom! Positive feedback was received from both the speakers and the audience and we hope that everyone learnt something valuable from the experience — Happy International Day of the Girl!