Marai Larasi

“It felt profoundly meaningful to attend the Golden Globes alongside other inspirational activists and organisers fighting for equality for all women. So often in this work, women who have been marginalised in our societies are spoken ‘for’ and ‘about’, but we are rarely handed the microphone and invited to share our own narratives. Standing with women like Emma Watson, who work in Hollywood, and who have chosen to use platforms such as the Golden Globes to connect, to resist and to amplify, was uplifting.

“At Imkaan, we hold two decades of experience of working around issues such as domestic violence, forced marriage and ‘honour-based’ violence. We know that the struggle to end violence against women and girls must be rooted in an environment that attends to the impact of issues such as racism, economic inequality and immigration controls. We are mindful that this is a critical moment, where a clear message is being sent to survivors of violence: we see and hear you, we believe you, we support you. We are you. We say: time’s up!”

Larasi is the executive director of Imkaan, a UK-based, black feminist organisation that works to respond to and prevent violence against marginalised women and girls. She is also co-chair of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, and a partner in the EU/UN Women programme “Implementing Norms, Changing Minds”, which aims to end violence against women in the Western Balkans and Turkey.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/08/golden-globes-activists-times-up-awards