FEMYSO calls for international action to secure sustainable peace in Bosnia & Herzegovina

As the voice of Muslim Youth in Europe we call for immediate action to avoid grave consequences in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH).

As an organisation we find it a complete dereliction of duty that numerous governments and multilateral institutions have remained silent in response to recent actions taken by Republika Srpska to cause division and escalate tensions in BiH.

The Dayton agreement signed in December 1995 provided a basis for all actors in Bosnia & Herzegovina to operate in a manner which prioritised peace. However, Republika Srpska officials are actively undermining the agreement, stoking tensions in order to meet their ambitions for a mono-ethnic state.

FEMYSO President Hande Taner said “FEMYSO is mandated by our Member Organisations to commemorate Srebrenica every single year, having spoken to local voices in BiH, we are deeply concerned that Europe is sleepwalking into another situation which could see a repeat of this devastating event which saw 100.000 perish and 1.1 million displaced only a few decades ago.”

FEMYSO echoes demands from Bosnian civil society and calls for the following actions from European leaders:

– Punish Milorad Dodik and his partners for violating the Dayton Agreement;
– Actively support actors who work on a multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina;
– Avoid language that equates the actions of aggressors to the victims of said aggression;
– Take all necessary actions to prevent a conflict that would inevitably spill over to other countries in the Balkans and in the wider region.

FEMYSO remains committed and stands with all who call for peace in our region, and denounce all those that seek to divide and destroy our societies with their poisonous language and actions.

END

Notes:   

  1. FEMYSO (est. 1996) is a network organisation for 33 Muslim youth and student organisations across 20 European countries, and is the leading voice for European Muslim youth, developing and empowering them, and working to build a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe.    
  2. For more media-related information or requests please email media@femyso.org.

FEMYSO Statement on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women 

Today, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we at FEMYSO, a majority female-led pan-European Muslim youth organisation, commemorate victims and survivors of all forms of violence against women and girls, and recognise the voices of all courageous women and girls who tirelessly continue to fight for human rights.

Violence against women is a human rights violation and must be eliminated in all its forms. Indeed, it is “one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations in our world today [and] remains largely unreported due to the impunity, silence, stigma and shame surrounding it” (UN Women). 

Within a context of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, the eyes of many have opened more to the reality of gendered violence. According to the UN, even before the pandemic hit us, 243 million women and girls were abused by their intimate partners in the 12 months prior to the pandemic – globally. This violence only intensified, and instances only increased during the pandemic, as a result of sheltering at home from the global pandemic and of the limitation of support services. Furthermore, intersectional forms of discrimination, such as gendered Islamophobia, remained further under-reported and not spotted.

This devastating reality gives us at FEMYSO a deeper motivation to continue to develop and deliver human rights education programmes and campaigns, as well as to improve the safeguarding and implementation of robust safety and support services within our organisational structure. Indeed, since abuse is not always physical, we are currently preparing a dedicated training programme on mental health at the European Youth Centre in Budapest early next year. 

A flagship example is our current partnership with civil society organisations for Project MEET – an EU-funded comprehensive programme aimed at tackling gendered Islamophobia. This is intersectional discrimination that Muslim women and girls suffer based mainly on grounds of ethnicity, religion and gender. Indeed, the majority of the ways in which Islamophobia is produced, is targeted towards women: due to their dress and the idea that Muslim women are oppressed and must be liberated. These attacks are highly personalised, because they depend on individuals identifying Muslim women and punishing them for their identity. 

At FEMYSO, it is our mission to strive for a diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe, and the commitment to end all forms of violence against women and girls is part of this. 

[END]  

  

Notes:  

  1. FEMYSO (est. 1996) is a network organisation for 33 Muslim youth and student organisations across 20 European countries, and is the leading voice for European Muslim youth, developing and empowering them, and working to build a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe.  
  1. For more media-related information or requests please email media@femyso.org. 

FEMYSO Statement on Attack of Muslim Youth by French Government Officials 

FEMYSO is deeply disappointed to observe that French government officials have spent their political capital and platforms to attack and delegitimise our fully volunteer-led pan-European youth and students organisation, instead of trying to pass effective policies to support local communities in the recovery from this devastating pandemic.

FEMYSO President Hande Taner said: “This must not be seen in a vacuum. With upcoming elections in France, we view this unjustified attack as nothing more than a method to legitimise the right-wing credentials of these individuals in order to appease racist far right idealogues who intend to divide our societies.”

This directed targeting of FEMYSO is nothing less than an active contribution to the shrinking of civic space as well as an attack on human rights defenders. A free civic space means that criticism can be directed at public figures and institutions without fearing repercussions, as happens under autocratic regimes.

One of the many accusations our organisation was slandered with was that our rhetoric was not befitting of European values. This is laughable. Over the last 25 years our organisation has manifested European values of tolerance and investing in youth, through trainings and campaigns on various topics such as climate justice, human rights education, advocacy and policymaking, meaningful youth participation and mental health awareness. Our campaign in 2019 to encourage minority youth to vote in the European elections in a context where democratic turnout was low, as well as our campaign in 2020 Outbreak of Generosity to instil solidarity amongst youth to support those in need are only examples of our values and fully volunteer-led efforts.

A recent example of can also be seen through the two workshops our volunteers contributed with during the European Youth Event, as well as our moderation of an anti-discrimination panel by our President at the European Youth Event,  this panel focused on the importance of inclusivity, the full recording of this moderation can be watched here.

Our detractors cite Lorenzo Vidino as the main source of the “research” that supposedly exposes our “real intentions”. Mr Vidino is treated by no one as a credible source and has allowed his personal grievances to transform into a multi-year vendetta that isn’t far from blaming FEMYSO for bad weather at this point. Mr Vidino is nothing but a prejudiced man masquerading as an intellectual. It is quite shameful that he spends his time trying to justify his political positions through his biased research with the sole aim of conducting a witch-hunt against Muslims

He must be seen as an unreliable source, whose research focuses on spreading Islamophobic conspiracy theories. Mr Vidino is affiliated with numerous far-right think tanks in the US and is part of a worldwide network of Islamophobic organizations and bloggers (source).

We would like to offer the ability for dialogue for our detractors in the form of a private or public meeting to discuss specific accusations. Furthermore, our easily available FAQ page can provide a clarification on matters that are currently being discussed online amidst a mass disinformation campaign.

At FEMYSO we will continue to participate proactively in the public debate by protecting human and fundamental rights, by organising trainings and campaigns, and by standing in solidarity with our civil society partners as well as human rights defenders against all forms of oppression.

Notes:

  1. FEMYSO (est. 1996) is a network organisation for 33 Muslim youth and student organisations across 20 European countries, and is the leading voice for European Muslim youth, developing and empowering them, and working to build a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe.
  2. For more media-related information or requests please email media@femyso.org.
  3. More information on Lorezo Vidino can be found here: https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/factsheet-lorenzo-vidino/

 

First ever digital European Muslim Career’s Fair

On the 22nd of May of this year, we concluded our very first Digital European Muslim Career’s Fair. 

We hosted 12 professionals from all over Europe and from different industries sharing their experiences and stories. The professionals represented some top firms that included P&G, Amazon, Nespresso, Oliver Wyman and more. The participants had the chance to learn more about the fields they are interested in, ask questions, and connect.  

In addition to getting insights into the different industries, we also had some focused panels discussing some important topics such as diversity in the workplace, working abroad and Muslim women in workplace.   

Our aims for this event were to: 

  • To provide Young Muslims across Europe with better understanding of some of the most competitive fields out there. 
  • To show that FEMYSO can provide more to our members than just activism and politics. 
  • To reach out to corporations and build fruitful relationships. 

Although this was our first career’s fair, we were able to achieve the aims and received very positive feedback from the guest speakers and participants. We were able to arrange talks by many wonderful professionals in many fields who provided great benefit to the attendees with insights in their respective industries. 

We learned much during the planning and execution of this event. We hope that we can use these lessons to expand the scope and reach of our future career’s fairs. 

 

 

The attack on the Council of Europe’s Hijab campaign is an attack on human rights

A recent online campaign promoted and led by the Council of Europe’s Anti-Discrimination department, following a workshop in cooperation with FEMYSO, has been attacked by hypocritical French public and political figures who continue to exercise their double standards when it comes to the topic of human rights by promoting liberty only for some and especially not Muslim communities.  

The campaign for the celebration of diversity, including the headscarf, follows on from our collaboration with the Council of Europe’s Anti-Discrimination Department. This specific partnership was in the form of two online workshops aimed at creating human rights-based narratives to counter anti-Muslim hate speech, taking place from the 27-28 September, in a framework of a deep history and continuous forms of cooperation with other parts of the Council of Europe, such as the European Youth Centres and through our representation at the Council of Europe’s Advisory Council on Youth.

As experts on this we facilitated three groups to guide the participants through a process that aimed to analyse hate speech, develop our own human rights narrative as a response. The participants, who belonged to diverse cultural and religious backgrounds, proactively debated the challenges posed by Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate speech, crafting campaigns aimed at raising awareness on the aforementioned issues. The visual campaign showcasing diversity and portraying young Muslim women wearing the hijab, was a result of this workshop.  

As FEMYSO we are extremely sad to see efforts by Muslim youth once again attacked and undermined by individuals and governments alike. We are deeply concerned and saddened that our collaboration on building human-rights based narratives to tackle anti-Muslim hate speech was attacked. This is yet another example of how young progressive voices are sidelined and Muslim women’s rights are non-existent to those who abuse notions such as liberty, secularism, equality and freedom. 

These attacks on this vital campaign take place in a wider environment of a shrinking of civic space, where government actors routinely censor and limit the freedom of speech when not fitting their political agenda. Such backlash and attacks supported by unfounded arguments, ostracise the work that we do as a civil society and hinders our attempt to represent the voices of those whose voice is not always heard.  

FEMYSO President Hande Taner said “In the face of such heavy racist and anti-Muslim attacks, institutions should stand firm in their messaging in support of human rights, condemning the violation of the freedom of speech and freedom of religion. We firmly believe that everyone has the right and freedom to wear (and not to wear) what they want. Those two are not extremes and do not exclude each other, rather they go together. This is a basic fundamental right.” 

At FEMYSO we will continue to participate proactively in the public debate by protecting human and fundamental rights, by organising trainings and campaigns, and by standing in solidarity with our civil society partners against all forms of oppression. 

Notes:   

  1. FEMYSO (est. 1996) is a network organisation for 33 Muslim youth and student organisations across 20 European countries, and is the leading voice for European Muslim youth, developing and empowering them, and working to build a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe.    
  2. For more media-related information or requests please email media@femyso.org.