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Selma Taha

@selmataha8.bsky.social

Fighting for racial justice, sex-based rights, and migrant women’s rights| Centering Black women’s voices against oppression | Feminist, anti-racist, and unapologetic | All views my own. 🇸🇩🇵🇸

18 Posts346 Follower51 Folgt
Selma Taha@selmataha8.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Domestic abuse reached crisis levels during the pandemic. Migrant victim-survivors with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) were trapped in a triple bind of Covid-19, domestic abuse, and the threat of deportation and destitution. 1/5

Southall Black Sisters (SBS)@sbsisters.bsky.social · 9mo ago

“Too little, too late” – SBS & @solacewomensaid.bsky.social are disappointed by the Covid Inquiry's report on govt decision-making during the pandemic. It fails to make vital recommendations on DA, especially for migrant women with NRPF. 1/2 southallblacksisters.org.uk/news/too-lit...

Southall Black Sisters (SBS)@sbsisters.bsky.social · last yr.

Today, we remember Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered in a racist attack in 1993. We honour his legacy by highlighting institutional racism and the urgent need for change. The Met police's acceptance of the findings of the Casey Review is a key first step. Rest in power, Stephen.

Image depicting Stephen Lawrence in a B&W striped t-shirt against a background with leaves. Image credited to The Guardian.
Southall Black Sisters (SBS)@sbsisters.bsky.social · 2y ago

The inquest into Michelle's death is open. Michelle died by suicide in 2021. Her family has raised concerns of coercive control from Michelle's ex-partner. Noting these, MyLondon reports on Michelle's ex-partner's admission about the 'flood' of texts. 1/3 www.mylondon.news/news/south-l...

Mum who took her own life 'bombarded with texts and bullied into relationship'

Michelle Sparman's former partner Roger Stephens agreed he sent too many texts but insists his behaviour was borne out of the grief of losing his relationship and that he 'absolutely' loved her

mylondon.news

Southall Black Sisters (SBS)@sbsisters.bsky.social · 2y ago

Harshita’s life was tragically cut short by abuse. Her murder underscores the scourge of VAWG and highlights statutory services’ repeated failures to safeguard Black, minoritised and migrant women. Join us on Friday, 24th January to commemorate Harshita and to demand justice for her murder. 1/2

Join us for a vigil in memory of Harshita Brella to honour her life and demand justice for her murder. Friday, 24th January 2025. Location and time to be confirmed. Details to follow.
Southall Black Sisters (SBS)@sbsisters.bsky.social · 2y ago

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, please call our helpline on 020 8571 0800 or email info@southallblacksisters.co.uk. We provide free and confidential advice to support women and girls to live free of violence and fear. southallblacksisters.org.uk

Home - Southall Black Sisters

Originally set up in 1979, Southall Black Sisters (SBS) has established itself as an iconic organisation based in West London, but with a national reach and reputation for its landmark legal intervent...

southallblacksisters.org.uk

Selma Taha@selmataha8.bsky.social · 2y ago

We, the signatories, stand with Kongra Star in demanding that women's rights be upheld and that DAANES be protected. To do their part, the UK govt must ensure that the Rojava model is allowed to flourish, including through suspension of the arms trade with Turkey. See our statement below 👇🏾👇🏾

Southall Black Sisters (SBS)@sbsisters.bsky.social · 2y ago

Joint statement from SBS, @filiacharity.bsky.social, One Law For All, Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, Bread & Roses TV, SIAWI, and Freedom From Religion Foundation, in solidarity with Kongra Star in defence of the women’s revolution in NE Syria - 1/🧵 southallblacksisters.org.uk/news/joint-s...

Defend the Women’s Revolution in NE Syria Coverage of recent events in Syria – the rout of President Bashar al-Assad by the Islamist group, HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) – makes little mention of the women’s revolution that is taking place in DAANES (also known as Rojava) in NE Syria since 2012, a grassroots democracy committed to multi-ethnic inclusivity and an economic model based on ecological sustainability and cooperatives. As Western media rushes to legitimise HTS and its leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, and Western governments are considering the removal of HTS from the list of proscribed terrorist organisations, we need to bear in mind their governance of Idlib which was authoritarian, anti-woman and based on sharia laws. At the same time, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) led by Abdullah Öcalan who developed the blueprint for the Rojava model of democratic confederalism is proscribed by Western governments at the behest of Turkey, a NATO ally. HTS is an informal ally of Turkey which is intent on crushing the Kurdish women’s revolution in a bid to prevent its own Kurdish population, along the border with Syria, from implementing a similar
Maryam Aldossari@maryamaldossari.bsky.social · 2y ago

Israeli forces arrest Gaza hospital chief after ‘burning doctors and patients alive’. Troops beat Hussam Abu Safiya and kidnapped him alongside other doctors, leaving northern Gaza without any health services. www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli...

Israeli forces arrest Gaza hospital chief after ‘burning doctors and patients alive’

Troops beat Hussam Abu Safiya and kidnapped him alongside other doctors, leaving northern Gaza without any health services

middleeasteye.net

Maryam Aldossari@maryamaldossari.bsky.social · 2y ago

Israeli forces ‘sexually assaulted, beat and insulted women’ during Gaza hospital raid. The violence against women included stripping off their clothes, touching them under the threat of violence, beating them and hurling sexual insults at them. www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli...

Israeli forces ‘sexually assaulted, beat and insulted women’ during Gaza hospital raid

Eyewitnesses describe violence against women, girls and patients in new report

middleeasteye.net

Maryam Aldossari@maryamaldossari.bsky.social · 2y ago

UN committee condemns Israel’s disregard for international orders. Nearly 44,500 Palestinians killed, 105,000 injured, and essential infrastructure—homes, hospitals, schools—devastated in Gaza, fueling an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

Gaza: UN committee alarmed by Israel’s blatant disregard for binding international orders

GENEVA – The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) today expressed its alarm about Israel’s flagrant disregard for its international legal obligations and International Court...

ohchr.org

Selma Taha@selmataha8.bsky.social · 2y ago

📢Tune in to Newsnight tonight! Our Campaign & Policy Manager will discuss Harshita Brella's case, the crisis of VAWG, and how Black, minoritised, and migrant women are repeatedly failed by the system. Join the call for justice and change. #Newsnight #EndVAWG

Sisters Salon Brighton #CreatingWomensSpaces@sisterssalon.bsky.social · 2y ago

UPDATE: A man has handed himself in to the police & been arrested. Our thoughts are with his victim. #StopRape #16Days #Hastings

Sisters Salon Brighton #CreatingWomensSpaces@sisterssalon.bsky.social · 2y ago

Do you know this man? New CCTV footage has been released in an appeal to find a man who forced his way into a woman’s Hastings home and raped her. #Hastings #SistersSalon #StopRape www.theargus.co.uk/news/2477884...

Sisters Salon Brighton #CreatingWomensSpaces@sisterssalon.bsky.social · 2y ago

A 1561 charter granted powers to imprison young working-class women found walking with undergraduates after dark. More than 5,000 were arrested in the 19th century alone. Cambridge did not grant degrees to women until 1940- the last Uni to do so. www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

Cambridge University urged to apologise over jailing of thousands of ‘evil’ women without evidence or trial

A 1561 charter granted powers to imprison young working-class women found walking with undergraduates after dark

theguardian.com

Selma Taha@selmataha8.bsky.social · 2y ago

Enduring the horrific racist attack followed by the sustained threat of criminal sanction perpetrated by an institutionally racist justice system has left us with scars for life. However, we refuse to simply accept these disparate outcomes. 1/2

Southall Black Sisters (SBS)@sbsisters.bsky.social · 2y ago

This #16DaysOfActivism, join us in our #FightForChange by supporting the #KingsCross3 in calling for a public apology and answers from the Met police, BTP, and the CPS in relation to the racist charges imposed on them for resisting and calling out racist abuse. 1/3

In September 2023, Selma Taha, Executive Director of Southall Black Sisters (SBS), and her two friends Divina Riggon and Danae Thomas, were subjected to a horrific verbal and physical racist assault while travelling on the London Underground. The assailant, a white woman, made monkey sounds, and hurled vile racist slurs, including “Black bitches” and “slaves”, at them. The verbal abuse escalated into physical abuse, with the assailant pulling out clumps of Selma and Danae’s hair, and biting Selma so viciously it necessitated tetanus and hepatitis shots and a bout of antibiotics. An off-duty Met police officer was present in the tube carriage the entire time, but failed to intervene to de-escalate the incident. Even after the train arrived at King’s Cross station, Selma, Divina, and Danae – the #KingsCross3 – had to challenge the inactivity and apathy of the off-duty officer to treat the matter seriously and arrest the assailant. A few months on, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) made the shocking decision to charge the #KingsCross3. All three were charged with common assault by beating. Divina and Danae were additionally charged with public order offences, including one for racial aggravation, in relation to alleged conduct towards a white British Transport Police (BTP) officer on the platform at King’s Cross after disembarking from the tube. In contrast, the white assailant merely received and has accepted a caution for one instance of racially aggravated conduct. No action is to be taken against her for the assault or the other instances of racist abuse.
Selma Taha@selmataha8.bsky.social · 2y ago

As Harshita is laid to rest, we hold her family, friends, and loved ones in our thoughts during this immense time of loss. Her life, full of promise and light, was taken far too soon-a devastating reminder of the state’s ongoing failures to protect migrant women and deliver justice.

Southall Black Sisters (SBS)@sbsisters.bsky.social · 2y ago

As Harshita Brella is laid to rest in New Delhi today, we stand with her family in honouring her life and grieving the lost possibilities of the years ahead. Our commemoration -

Today, as Harshita Brella is laid to rest by her family in New Delhi, we join them in mourning her untimely loss and in celebrating the remarkable person her loved ones knew her to be. Through conversations with her family, we have learnt Harshita to be a kind and thoughtful soul with big dreams for the full and happy life she had hoped to lead. This is the life Harshita was unduly cheated out of by her husband, who subjected her to domestic abuse, and who is believed to have allegedly killed her before subsequently fleeing the UK. Harshita, a migrant woman with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) and recognised by statutory authorities as a victim of domestic abuse, tragically lost her life. Her case is a devastating reminder of the structural barriers to support, and the recurrent state failures faced by Black, minoritised and migrant victims, often with fatal consequences. We stand with Harshita’s family in this deeply painful time to mark the day in Harshita’s memory. We remember her not just as a victim of violence against women and girls, but as the vibrant individual her loved ones knew her to be. We remember her for the indelible mark she left on the countless lives she touched. We honour the life she lived, and grieve the lost possibilities of the years ahead. In the days to come, we will continue to support Harshita’s family as they strive for answers and pursue justice and truth. The burden of responsibility rests on statutory authorities in the UK, to ensure perpetrator and state accountability for Harshita’s loss and to prevent similarly calamitous outcomes for other Black, minoritised and migrant victim-survivors.
Sisters Salon Brighton #CreatingWomensSpaces@sisterssalon.bsky.social · 2y ago

#16Days #16Actions #RespectWomen Chilling on the sofa? Scrolling? STOP! Easy actions you can take from your phone to challenge & end male violence against women & girls. Actions on a range of issue... get involved! #Action7 Make gender apartheid a crime against humanity

Action Seven #RespectWomen

Action One #Respect Women Join the Global action to end gender apartheid in Iran and Afghanistan today Make gender apartheid a crime against humanity Sign the letter Narges Mohammadi letter&nb…

brightonsisters.wordpress.com

Purna@purnasen.bsky.social · 2y ago

#16DaysOfAction joins us together globally, asks as to think of and support each other and reminds us that the struggle is shared In #Turkey #women were detained on #IDEVAW while calling for greater protections against #VAW 411 #Femicides in 2024 so far #solidarity apnews.com/article/turk...

Police in Turkey detain demonstrators seeking more protection for women against violence

Police have detained dozens of people in Istanbul who tried to join a rally calling for greater protection for women in Turkey, where more than 400 women have been murdered this year.

apnews.com