Giving Women the Stage
Displaced women from all over the world shared a stage with award-winning actor Sinead Cusack and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Waad al Kateab, in ‘Film for Freedom’, an evening of film, theatre and conversation in the stunning surroundings of west London’s Leighton House.
February 2023
The evening opened with a personal welcome from Makani’s co-founder Itab Azzam:
“We have an exciting evening ahead of us, an evening to celebrate women and their stories. But I wanted to start by saying a few words of introduction.
My name is Itab. I grew up in a village in southern Syria. One day when I was 13, my best friend told me that she wouldn’t be able to play with me anymore, because she had just got engaged. She was married at 14, had a baby at 15, was divorced and deprived from seeing her child at 19. It made me so sad not to have a friend to play with, but years later it made even sadder to realise that what happened to her was deeply unjust and inhumane.
Many years after that day, I co-founded Makani. It is my small contribution, in my position of privilege being here in the UK, to support women and girls.
Makani means ‘my place’ in Arabic. Makani was founded to give women the safe space, the confidence, and the support to thrive, to be happy and to be free the way they want to be free. Our approach to supporting women is holistic. We help them to earn their own living so they are relying on nobody but themselves. And we run arts projects that give women the chance to build confidence and heal trauma by expressing themselves and telling their stories.
One such project was ‘Film for Freedom’. Over three months last year, we taught filmmaking skills to ten Syrian refugee women in Lebanon, who had never professionally picked up a camera before. They had absolute freedom to make films about whatever they wanted. I’m not going to say any more now, because I think these films speak for themselves. Let’s watch them.”
Film for Freedom screening, with Waad al Kateab
The evening progressed with the screening of four films made as part of our ‘Film for Freedom’ project with refugee women in Lebanon, followed by a Q&A between Itab (herself a producer of BAFTA-winning documentary Exodus), and Waad al Kateab, BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated maker of ‘For Sama’.
Waad and Itab discussed the themes of the films for freedom - violence and displacement of course, but also beauty, joy, friendship, independence, and most of all, resilience. They talked about the multiple and intersectional issues facing Syrian and refugee women, and the importance of films that raise women’s voices.
‘The Women’s Strike: A Refugee Lysistrata’, with Sinéad Cusack
Next Itab introduced our new project ‘The Women’s Strike’ - a reimagining of Aristophanes’ 2500-year-old comedy Lysistrata about women coming together to stop a war, workshopped with a group of ten refugee women from all over the world who now live in London.
We were honoured to have the project’s patron with us, star of stage and screen Sinéad Cusack: "As someone who deeply loves the theatre, and who cares passionately about refugee rights, this project is close to my heart. It is wonderful to see the transformative power of drama being channelled to help give refugee women confidence, to lift their voices, and to highlight their talents. I cannot wait to see the final performance."
Sinéad performed a monologue from the original Lysistrata, then our modern-day Lysistratas took to the stage.
Julianah from Nigeria said, “This project is bringing us up into the limelight. It is giving us a voice. It is amazing to meet other women from different cultures, different backgrounds. We are all equal. I enjoy this so much. I am so excited and I love coming to the workshop space everyday. This is the place where we can fly.”
While Anastasiia from Ukraine explained, “I believe that this project will help women in different parts of the world, where life is becoming more and more difficult. I believe that this project will change women's lives for the better, reveal their strength and potential. Will make them believe in themselves. After all, every woman has extraordinary strength in herself, and this strength should be given the opportunity to show itself!”
Thank you and goodbye.. for now
The evening closed with thanks and the invitation to explore the stunning Leighton House, former home and studio of Victorian painter Frederic Lord Leighton, which houses his collection of ceramics and statues from Syria and the Levant, and to gather together in the bar for Arabic canapés from The Syrian Sunflower, wine and mingling.
This is just the beginning for ‘The Women’s Strike’ and the wonderful women we are lucky enough to work with. There are so many stories to share, voices to raise, wrongs to right. We hope that you will join us for the journey. In the words of Lysistrata, all those thousands of years ago, ‘We women, together. No reason to wait any longer.’ Let’s get started.
Our thanks to Leighton House for hosting this wonderful event.
