Lanja Khawe (born 1993) is a Kurdish lawyer, writer and feminist. She is the founder of the Sofia Association and the social media campaign #KurdistanWomenPower, also founder of Pana community to prevent and reduce suffering of homelessness without any gender based discrimination.
Lanja Khawe | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | January 1993 Sulaymaniah |
| Nationality | Kurdish |
| Occupation(s) | Lawyer, writer, activist |
Biography
editKhawe was born in January 1993 in Sulaymaniah, South Kurdistan within the political borders of Iraq.[1] A lawyer and human rights activist, Khawe has worked with Kurdish women who are survivors of sex trafficking and domestic violence.[2] She founded the Sofia Association in 2016 to provide a book delivery service by bicycle for women and girls who are unable to buy them.[3][4] According to Khawe, the project encourages literacy and access to knowledge, so that women can understand the rights they have more fully.[5][1] It is not just the supply of books that is a feminist act for the organisation - even using bicycles as transport makes a feminist statement, since women riding them is still seen as shameful.[5] Since its beginnings in Sulaymaniah, the project has spread to other cities, including Erbil, Kirkuk and Halabja.[1]
In 2017 Khawe founded the social media campaign #KurdishWomenPower which encouraged women to share photos of themselves on social media, challenging the idea that photographs online of women are inherently shameful.[6][2] In 2019 Khawe and the Sofia Association organised a conference on sexual violence in Sulaymaniah, which was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani.[7] She is a contributor to the anthology, Kurdish Women's Stories, edited by Houzan Mahmoud.[8]
References
edit- ^ a b c Kurdish women's stories. Houzan Mahmoud. Edmonton, Alberta. 2021. pp. 190–6. ISBN 978-0-7453-4114-9. OCLC 1119996903.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ a b "Young Kurdish feminists make me hopeful for the future of the region". the Guardian. 2019-11-07. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
- ^ "Kurdish women voluntarily deliver books on bikes". www.kurdistan24.net. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
- ^ "The Tigris Ran Black: Trials and Triumphs of Literary Culture in Iraq". Navanti. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
- ^ a b "An interview with Lanja Khawe one of the cofounders of Sofia Girls group". Culture Project for Art, Feminism and Gender. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
- ^ "The Kurdistan Social Forum supports the #Kurdistanwomenpower campaign". pfo-ku.org. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
- ^ Bindel, Julie. "'As if she had never existed': The graveyards for murdered women". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
- ^ "Kurdish Women's Stories". www.uap.ualberta.ca. Retrieved 2021-04-07.