Central Asia and the Caucuses urgently require strong feminist networks as women and girls continue to experience harassment and violence.

Why we care: Women activists in Central Asia, Caucasus, and Eastern Europe face violence, harassment, and marginalization when they stand up for their rights.

How we’re solving this: Developing a regional network to strengthen feminist advocacy and campaigns, while providing protection and refuge for women’s rights activists.

“Working together as a regional feminist group will make us more effective… We will become stronger multipliers of change, and share opportunities and resources… We will be united, but represent diversity of voices and experiences…for women’s human rights.” – activist from the Regional Feminist Network

According to a Global Study on Violence Against Women, conducted in 70 countries across four decades, “the mobilization of feminist movements is more important for change than the wealth of nations, left-wing political parties, or the number of women politicians.” Central Asia and the Caucuses urgently require strong feminist networks as women and girls continue to experience harassment and violence at home, on the streets, at work, and at school. If they bravely demand respect for their social, political, and economic rights, they face discrimination and ostracism from families and communities. Women who speak out against these injustices face death threats, imprisonment, societal violence, and harassment.

The Bishkek Feminist Collective SQ refuses to accept a society in which women and girls live in fear. The group has worked since 2009 to address the root causes of gender oppression. The Collective has mobilized and organized awareness campaigns that reach thousands of people on combating gender-based violence; ending the criminalization of sex work; and resisting homophobia, transphobia, and bride-kidnapping.

This year, Bishkek Feminist Collective SQ will mobilize a regional network of young feminists throughout Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus, Chechnya, and other locations in the region. The group will unite close to 100 feminist activists to collectively organize and run advocacy campaigns aiming at ending all forms of gender-based violence and oppression.

The Collective will ensure that feminist activists come from diverse civil society organizations and represent underserved and politically underrepresented communities within the network. A core component of the network will be to support feminist activists through sharing knowledge and best practices on issues such as: effective activism strategies (including protests, art, spoken word, and social media campaigns), practices of self-care and nutrition on a low budget for activists, wellness and security and strategies for coping with trauma, and effective engagement with the police.

Bishkek Feminist Collective SQ will officially launch the network by bringing together for a conference 50 renowned feminists from Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Russia and other post-Soviet countries. These core leaders will declare the network’s mission, principles, and vision; create a strategic plan for 2015 – 2018; develop an urgent alert system that will ensure ongoing updates on situation in activists’ respective countries and communities; and establish a peer support and refuge system to protect women human rights defenders and feminist activists under threat and at risk of burnt-out.