Tag: self-defence

Virtual conference – “No Means No – Women with disabilities resist violence”, 3 December, the Day of Persons with Disabilities

Living at the intersection of sexism and ableism, women with disabilities are more often confronted with violence and discrimination and their access to support and protection is often filled with barriers. Yet despite this, they are not powerless and often successfully resist such violence!

This conference seeks to set violence against women with disabilities and feminist self-defence on the European agenda, to inform European decision makers about policy gaps and good practices, as well as to provide a space to women with disabilities for self-advocacy.

The conference will take place online on 3 December, the Day of Persons with Disabilities, between 10:30 and 16:30 (Brussels’ time). To improve accessibility, it will include simultaneous translation into International Sign language, simultaneous transcription, and Easy-to-Read presentations. 

You can register by clicking on this link.

Conference programme:

10:30-11:00 Registration, welcome and accessibility introduction, Liz Chornenki, Moderator
11:00-11:15 Introduction, Helena Dalli, European Commissioner
11:15-11:30 The NO MEANS NO project and feminist self-defense for women
with disabilities, Irene Zeilinger, Garance
11:30-11:45 Presentation of results in France, Diane Kachour, Faire Face
11:45-12:00 Q/A

12:00 -13:00 Lunch break

13:00-13:15 Presentation of results in Germany, Doris Kroll, Bundesfachverband Feministische Selbstbehauptung und Selbstverteidigung
13:15-13:30 Presentation of results in Poland, Ewa Rutkowska & Agata Teutsch, Autonomia
13:30-13:45 Presentation of results in Belgium, Dorothée Van Avermaet, Garance
13:45-14:00 Q/A

14h00-14h10 Break

14:10 – 14:30 Violence against women with disabilities, Dr. Monika Schröttle,
University of Applied Sciences of Ravensburg-Weingarten & Institute for Empirical Sociology at Nürnberg University
14:30 – 14:50 Feminist self-defence as primary prevention, Liz Kelly, London
Metropolitan University
14:50 – 15:10 Feminist self-defence for women with disabilities, Lydia La Riviere Zijdel, Stichting Lydia Zijdel Foundation
15:10-15:30 Q/A

15:30 – 15:40 Break

15:40 – 16:00 Women with disabilities’ active role in combating violence
through feminist self-defence, Carina Tränkner, frauen.stärken.frauen
16:00 – 16:20 Conclusions, Evelyn Regner, Chair of the Women’s Rights and
Gender Equality Committee of the European Parliament

The NO MEANS NO project is funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020). This conference was made possible thanks to the generous support of: Brussels Capital Region, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the French Community Commission (COCOF) and the Walloon Region.

The content of this conference represents only the views of the speakers and is their sole responsibility. The European Commission assumes no responsibility for the use that may be made of the information contained therein. 

Training of trainers

At the beginning of 2021, the project partners decided to continue the training of trainers online only to avoid any further pandemic-related delays. Our feminist self-defence trainers continued learning how to better include women with disabilities in their workshops and to accommodate their needs. 

In March, the Lydia Zijdel Foundation provided us with a very interesting online module on working with hearing impaired women. Not only did we learn a lot about the history of Deaf and hearing impaired women and the specific forms of discrimination and violence they encounter. We also received a lot of practical tips for teaching from Maloush Köhler, a sign language interpreter who pioneered feminist self-defence for Deaf women in the Netherlands. A Q/A session on 23 March concluded this module. Two more modules will take place in May (working with women with visual impairments) and June (working with women with learning disabilities).

While the online training is informative, many of the participants regret that there are no possibilities to physically meet and get to know each other. There are differences in how feminist self-defence is organised in our four countries, how we become trainers and which groups we are working with. To be able to exchange our experiences and build connections across borders, we organised an online meeting on 13 February. 25 trainers participated, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. We are looking into possibilities to organise more such opportunities to meet and work together.

Speech by Kasja Żedlycka

Katarzyna Żedlycka (Autonomia) gave the following speech at the webinar “Ending violence against women with disabilities in the European Union” organised by the European Disability Forum on 24 November 2020.

II am a woman with a disability. I am also a Wendo trainer – Wendo is a feminist self-defence and assertiveness training for women and girls. I teach women with disabilities how to recognize violence and react to it. From my meetings with women with disabilities I can tell that we have a collective experience of physical, psychological, economical and sexual violence. We are touched without our consent. We are treated as children. It is assumed we do not have sexual desire, but we experience sexual harassment and violence. Most of our offenders are not punished.

Society teaches us to be silent. When we are in danger we are afraid to yell. In a meeting with women with intellectual disabilities we were talking about what to do when someone touches us without consent on a bus. One option is to yell. This will bring attention of the passengers. After the meeting one carer came to me. She said: do not teach them to yell, because people will think they are mentally ill.

In Poland we do not get sex education. We are not taught body awareness. Often we do not know, when and how to set boundaries. And when behaviour is violence or harassment.

Women with disabilities complain that others touch their wheelchairs and their white sticks without permission. Therefore, they learn how to use these devices for self-defence. The crutches or the wheelchair become their defence tools.

From January 2020, Autonomia Foundation, Garance and organisations from Belgium, France and Germany have been carrying out a project for women with disabilities with the name “No means no”. We organise empowerment workshops. We also collect their success stories. Women with disabilities tell us how they reacted to violence. The success stories will be included in a safety guide. The aim of the guide is to help other women learn how to react and recall their own stories.

In my experience, it is very important for trainers and women with disabilities to share their experiences, support each other and learn to recognise and respond to violence.

Finally, I would like to stress that we must remember that most of the work must be done by men. They are 95% of the offenders. There are also men with disabilities among them. Violence prevention means educating men, and men should take resposibility for changing harmful assumptions around sexual violence.