Just in case any teachers were in any doubt of the impact they have on all the little ones they steer... Gone. I'm gone... #Adele30
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onjali rauf
@OnjaliRauf
Founder of & . Children's author rep'd by . Feminist. VMO. Always.
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Just read the impact statement from Sarah's mother...And I can't... Just know EVERYONE needs to read it. Most especially every man, every agency, every politician who has demeaned, mocked, belittled & failed us. Signing off to go pray my heart out for #saraheverard once more...🌠
HE got to change in those changing rooms as a man.
HE got to take the crown without conforming to the excruciating standards of physique women have to.
HE got to take a woman's scholarship prize too.
The message to men is loud & clear: TAKE. IT. ALL.
This #VEDay & every VE day, I remember the millions of Sikh, Muslim & Hindu men & women who died for our freedoms too. The ones whose faces are still rarely in our history books. The ones who are rarely thanked or mourned. The ones whose names never even made it. #LestWeForget
This photo of , & is IT. Because this is what women the world over DO.
They take every pain & hate & injustice thrown at them, & turn it into laughter & joy & hugs in the company of other women.
There's no other space quite like it. ⚡
Me:Mum, what would you like to do today?
Mum:Go for a walk.
Me:How come?
Mum:For Sarah. I want to go & walk for her & your aunt Ruma & just all of them.
Me:Shall we go to the park?
Mum:No. Let's just walk the streets.
#MothersDay2021 #MothersRemembered
#ReclaimTheseStreets
NO MUSLIM, JEWISH, SIKH, BUDDHIST, CHRISTIAN et al woman or child could use this facility.
NO FEMALE SURVIVOR OF RAPE, SEXUAL VIOLENCE, OR DA could use this facility.
NO WOMAN OR CHILD should be EXPECTED to use this facility.
This is not inclusion.
It's eradication.
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What woman wants to walk past a bloke taking a pee to get to a toilet cubicle?
Just got a call from my niece telling me she is dropping as an option.
She knows that when a university denies its students a safe space for free thought, debate (& basic biological facts), it is no longer worthy of its own existence.
#AdultHumanFemale
Had to run by yesterday & stopped in my tracks for the BEST reason!I think it's the first time I've EVER seen a girl in hijab be included like this. If you don't know what that means, you don't (yet) get it. Change:it's not just coming. It's here. #RepresentationMatters ⚡
Unbearable. This drawing is in honour of a 14 year-old boy from #Mali who drowned in the #Mediterranean fleeing to #Italy. He had stitched his school report inside his clothes to show Italians what a good student he was...When will this madness end? 😢 #RefugeesWelcome
Just finished drop offs & on my drive home, broke a little at seeing how long my local food bank queues are getting.
Had one man come with shoes so ripped his feet were turning blue.
:how dare you?
How dare you shrink lives to this & make it a norm!
Picked up Mum from work. We're not Royalists but...
Mum:Quick,the radio! The #queen is sick...Am so sad I won't get to tell her.
Me:Tell her what Mum?
Mum:That your nani only sent me here because of her. She said a country ruled by a Queen would be stronger than the others😯💘
Empathy isn't a one way gift.
You can't ask one group of people to empathise to the point of self erasure, whilst you refuse to listen or empathise in return.
Empathy is a two way gift. A two-way kindness.
That's what makes it beautiful.
And debate possible.
#JustSaying
The march has started.
And we cry her name.
#MahsaAmini
One name to cry for the hundreds, thousands, millions who will go, and have gone, unnamed.
#WomensRights are not for the taking.
By ANYONE.
Replying to
A woman is killed by a man every 2-3 days. But you're not even aware of that because their lives meant so little to the world their murders won't even have been reported. Men need to step up & help stop femicides. That's all that was being said. From the niece of a murdered aunt.
Just your average run-of-the-mill Wednesday...
And yes, indeed I did.
#Snowy. (If you know, you know.)
#TheBoyAtTheBackOfTheClass
#WomensRightsAreHumanRights
NO-ONE who was involved in/allowed the strip-searching of #ChildQ should still have their jobs.
And no, : racism wasn't just a "likelihood". It was THE ONLY FACTOR. Our girls...Our beautiful girls! How hell-bent you are on destroying them.
Dear ,
I'm still here. On the side of the road. Because I've scared myself with my own sobbing.
Just letting this moment sink in. And wanted you to see one of the many millions of smiles you'll have sparked today.
Thank you for us all.
#sexmatters
#ISmileForMaya
Think you should know , this is being talked about now in many a Muslim household.
And we don't shop where we don't feel respected OR "included".
As you were.
Psssst...You have the capacity to CREATE third spaces. EXPAND choices. Instead of restricting women's.
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Replying to @b_biffa
While they are mainly used by customers of that gender, as an inclusive retailer and in line with most other retailers, we allow customers the choice of fitting room. Thanks 2/2
"Were I a Muslim or a Jew, would you deny me service?"
THANK YOU for penning this brilliant letter.
#PrincessGraceHospital: You brought this fight against women to your own door.
Now it's time to get answering.
#women #WomensRightsAreHumanRights
In transit today and wish it was towards the brilliant women of #Scotland gathering to say #NoToSelfID! Don't have a banner, but do have my badge. Wishing every Brave Heart success in a mission to safeguard & respect us ALL.
#nomeninwomensspaces
#RespectMySex
So ...
I take it that by cancelling a sexual assault survivor's operation because she dared to ask for a female-only care team & toilet, my stance as a Muslim woman who'd need the same, would mean you don't respect my "values" either?
1/2
On the first day of #AntiBullyingWeek we have one legend standing up for another ⚡️
Are all those who have used multiple bullying/cancelling tactics (especially in book worlds) to shut Women up, seeing it yet?
#chimamanda
archive.ph/2022.11.12-195
Today I asked mum if she felt safe going to #Jummah prayers today after #christchurch. Her answer: 'Don't be stupid. We need to pray for the souls that were robbed harder than ever. Why would I let some sad people with guns stop me from doing that?'Respect to all #muslim mums🤜🏽🤛🏼
I can't do it. I can't share that picture or open that story.
Those babies will grow up one day.
And when they realise what was done to them, I hope they sue every single journalist currently pretending men can breastfeed, & every handmaiden defending this form of child abuse.
Trying to get through #Ramadan without having to read more threats in my inboxes.
But have woken up to 5 new ones.
For those spouting "Happy Ramadan" messages whilst abusing women who need single sex spaces,please look up the word "hypocrisy"in the dictionary. 1/2
#RespectMySex
Meanwhile, in #Afghanistan, some of the bravest girls on this planet go on battling for their human, God-given right to an education.
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"I won't stop fighting for women's safe spaces...Our EVERY instinct as a woman & girl knows when we encounter a man, no matter their dress. We should not be teaching women & girls to IGNORE their instincts!"
Shero getting a standing ovation ⚡️ #FiLiA2022
The message is loud & clear.
To men: YOUR needs, YOUR reputation, YOUR future prospects & tears Matter Enough for you to evade justice, even if you rape a child.
To girls & women: the violation & breaking of your bodies & lives Doesn't Matter Enough.
Women and girls from all walks of life and faiths are THE most vulnerable group in the world. It disappoints ME that so many are willing to erase the very words, experiences, safeties & CHOICES they need. May I ask how the erasure/abuses we receive isn't deemed damaging by you?
The next time I open the Oxford English Dictionary to look up the word MAGNIFICENCE, I expect to see two photos.
One of Kate Harris.
The other of .
Followed by the 25 pages it'll take to list every brave woman who refused to be silenced.
#IStandWithLGBAlliance
My inbox, for the first time in 2.5 years, does not contain a single "you deserve to die" message!🙃
Must thank for that.
With every denial, every lie, every attempt to gaslight #women, more people are waking up.
Including it seems, bullies.
#WomenWontWeesht
"Minor attracted persons." (Aka paedophiles)
We're here then.
At the place where the fine line between violent men taking over women's bodies, spaces & words, to taking over children's, is being broken.
Women guard that line.
This was always set to happen after our erasure.
All ye women.
Every single one of you: you are each of you deeply magnificent⚡️
Thank you for being so.
Didn't expect to come back on here & smile at all today. Not even though it's a publication day (sod's law).
But wow...
Your roars - & my love for you - run bone-deep💕
Somewhere, there's a very powerful group of people enjoying all this...
This being just a taster of the hate women on the frontline now receive EVERY. SINGLE. DAY both in person & online.
And a perfect example of why we will NEVER not need single sex spaces.
#LetWomenSpeak
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Mum couldn't bear to come to the vigil for #SabinaNessa with me today. But she lit up our doorstep, in her words, "For all the mums who didn't deserve to have their daughters remembered like this..." #SayHerName
This picture of world leaders discussing *our* future was taken yesterday at #COP27.
There's a reason why we Women go on fighting for our voices, needs & realities to be heard.
It's 2022.
We're STILL here.
We go on until these scales of power change. #SHEchangesclimate
Again.
She was on her way home.
Again.
A violent man deemed her life & body his for the taking.
Again.
For how many more women are we going to have to write out these words, before everyone Gets It?
She was taken 7 minutes away from me.
#ZaraAleena
Just off a call with a #women's aid frontliner in #Scotland too scared to speak publicly. Her words:"We know this isn't the end, it's a beginning. Seeing us building our own things in less than 100 years has been too much for them. It's reclaiming us - & then some." #WomensRights
It's the saddest, most tragic of ironies that after shutting down all my platforms for a week following death threats made directly to my phone, this is the news I'm coming back to.
My thoughts & prayers are with #SalmanRushdi & all his loved ones as he battles for his life.
1/2
Some day, there will be a Netflix series on what happened in court today.
I hope when it lands, the final episode will end with a list of every organisation & group who bullied, slandered & cancelled anyone who dared to critically think about what was happening & why.
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Replying to @tribunaltweets
PR - I'm not an expert, I don't know if men are stronger or the statistics on male violence.
AR - as a society we have set aside some spaces for women so that they can have privacy dignity and safety from men. Those rights have nothing to do with gender.
Replying to
Many women of MANY faiths need single sex spaces (take note ). Yes, incl. public toilets. If you don't know why, you have clearly NEVER spent time with a Muslim woman needing to do her ablutions.
Racism masking itself as misogyny? We can see it a mile off.
#RespectMySex
Wondering just how many male football players have been asked by a journalist what their sexual orientation & experiences have been.
You have to be wilfully blind to not see the absolute rubbish #women have to tolerate daily.
#WomensWorldCup
"Do you think she's having tea with Paddington now?" (My 6 year old Godson)
Thank you for the fact that I get to hear such a sweet question today Ma'am...
#QueenElizabeth
NO WAAAAAAY!!!⚡️
After a tough 48 hours trying to help a survivor access the aid she actually needs, have just heard has launched a new service for survivors of sexual violence in #Scotland!
Off to hug...Everything!
Welcome 💕
theguardian.com/books/2022/dec
5th JULY 2011.
Mumtahina Ruma Jannat's life was ended.
By a man who believed he had the right to take what he could not break.
And a system which believes a man's lies over a woman's truths.
My aunt, like every woman and girl on this planet, deserved better.
1/2
It's not only the brave women of #Ukraine️️ who need to be saluted this #InternationalWomensDay. It's also the women of #Afghanistan. #Syria. #Yemen. #Iran. #Eritrea. Of all wars not generously covered by our media. Don't act as if their plights were not the same. #BreakTheBias
OK ...
So if I were to get up on stage, and tell the audience to harm anyone who refused to believe what I believe, would that be OK by you?
And has your definition of incitement to hate/extremism changed?
Just checking.
#WomensRightsAreHumanRights
Vigils are being held country-wide today for women murdered on our streets by violent men.
Each of those murders began with an idea/feeling of self-entitled, misogynistic Hate.
If you're condoning threats against /any Woman,our vigils are about you too.
#JustSaying
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My family’s address (covered), a pipe bomb and a picture of a bomb-making handbook. The account remains active, naturally. #BeKind
Dear &ALL women ,
Women fought to their deaths so YOU could sit in the seats of power you now do. Live as you do. Earn as you do.
It is not the #Suffragette colours that are in breach here.
The apology is not enough. #NoToSelfID
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla
It's #HumanRights Day.
And Women are STILL fighting to remind the world that #WomensRightsAreHumanRights.
That we aren't a dress, a colour scheme, a feeling.
That our bodies, needs & spaces aren't for the taking.
From Iran to USA, Afghanistan to Scotland, #HandsOFFOurRights.
Inbox summary:
✔Hate for being brown
✔Hate for being female
✔Hate for being Muslim
✔Hate for working with women survivors of male violence AND women of all faiths (incl. Christian) who need single sex spaces
✔Hate for refugee works
✅Still here.
✅Not going anywhere 🤗💕
Having to keep the location of a talk on women's rights & experiences in the field of healthcare a Top Secret is where we are right now.
Wonder what the MILLIONS of women denied the right to even walk into these libraries over the centuries would think of that. #AmplifyingWomen
Just answered my 113th message from women wanting to know how to "fight back against The Hate."
And that's just in the last 12 hours.
If men think they scared us into silence this weekend, they are oh so wrong⚡️
#WomensRightsAreHumanRights #WomenWontWeesht
#LetWomenSpeak
Replying to
PS. Am seeing this👇🏾increasingly in theatres, cafes, stores & the world's sporting arenas (as flagged by awesome & co).
The result?
Women & girls of faiths being alienated/erased from public life even further.
Because we're not even a thought, are we? #RespectMySex
She has gone.
And with her, all the stories she held deep within her, her crinkly smile, and a hand that would place itself on the top of our heads, filled with inestimable blessings.
And just like that, this year and a part of me and all mine, has ended.
🌠
Am currently overseas meeting awesome women changing lives, so wasn't online except for #UkraineWar news. But thank you fierce hearts & all champions. Love trumps hate. We go on⚡
Some kids were just born to blow minds...Leo, who has barely reached double digits age wise, has drawn this version of #TheNightBusHero cover, & all I want to do is spend my whole Sunday staring at it. Future book illustrator in the house!His insta @ draw_vengers is just genius⚡
To every #MSP & esp championing the safeguarding NIGHTMARE (& deeply racist motion) that is #selfID, every mother, daughter, sister, survivor of rape, DVA & sexual assault will be watching. We all say NO.
#NoToSelfID
#WomenWontWeesht
#WomensRightsAreHumanRights
In coming years, when the girls of today become the female champions of tomorrow, they'll have a very small group of brave Women to thank for the chance to become so.
heads that list.
That's all.
#SaveWomensSports
#WomensRightsAreHumanRights
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Thank you @sebcoe & @WorldAthletics for standing up for female athletes across the world who are worthy of fair sport 
TEACHERS! Wonderful, gorgeous teachers! Just reiterating that yes! You are DEFINITELY permitted to read/use any of my book babies for our little ones. guidelines are below to help you do it without losing any more precious sleep... 🤗💕
hachetteschools.co.uk/hachette-schoo
NO MAN who murders a woman should be allowed to maintain "responsibility" over a child.
Any system which allows men to use children as pawns whilst refusing to recognise children as victims & witnesses of #DomesticViolence too, needs to change.
Enough.
mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/f
What a day...To all the beautiful women contacting me privately, just want to say 3 things.
1. You are NOT a coward. That word has no place with you.
2. You do NOT need to apologise for feeling too scared to speak publicly. It breaks my heart you feel you can't.
3. We got you ⚡
GIF
read image description
ALT
Here we are then.
At the place #women forewarned: #TikTokGirls protesting against unisex toilets in schools.
How tragic.
That girls are realising at so young an age, that they have to fight for their every need.
#sexmatters
#WomensRightsAreHumanRights
Replying to
Are you doing the same with mxn? Or is it only women that need to have identities we've taken a lifetime growing into to be altered at the say so of others? Sorry . I love you. But there's a point where 'inclusion' masks outright eradication. And this is it.
I may never stop laugh-crying...I told my lovely postman Abi (who regularly converses with me about the state of the world & dreams for his wife & son) that the only #ValentinesDay card I ever received was from a boy at school who wanted to copy my homework. And now this! 🤣😍🥰
"Lying has become so much the accepted norm that people lie even when it would be simpler to tell the truth."
-Bell Hooks
et al.
Your job is to serve the public.
You owe that public enough respect to tell the Truth.
You are failing.
Mum: Why have you lit a candle?
Me: For #AshlingMurphy
Mum: Oh no... Who's she? What happened?
Me: She was "taken" on Wednesday. Whilst out for a run. In Ireland...
Mum (sits down): The world is going to run out of candles one day. But let's light up all we've got for her.
Replying to
Always find it amusing when bullies try to detract by taking on a patronising 'sit down and be quiet' tone. Keep on holding up the mirror Jess, and thank you for finding the strength to constantly do so. 🤜🏽⚡🤛🏾
ELEVEN YEARS AGO today, my beautiful aunt #MumtahinaRumaJannat was murdered.
By a man who thrived on hurting her. And a system which supported him in doing so.
Her legacy lives on & #TheStarOutsideMyWindow.
Am giving away 5 signed copies... 1/2👇🏾
This...
For #Iran.
This.
For the bodies and rights of women and girls everywhere.
#MahsaAmini
Genius artist: Marco Melgrati
Sometimes I think my heart is going to explode from the sheer rage of it all!Women abused & eternally harmed by MALES, receiving a telling-off for needing single sex spaces by a rape crisis service CEO is where we are right now. In 2021! WTH did women do to deserve any of this???
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The CEO of Edinburgh Rape Crisis has said "Sexual violence happens to bigoted people too. But if you bring beliefs that are discriminatory, expect to be challenged on your prejudice. Reframe your trauma"
Apparently, survivors are to be "educated" in this service. twitter.com/MaryHowden/sta…
This is deeply unbearable... To think that a woman who sought refuge from male violence was attacked in a place of safety like this...
Female only spaces needs to mean just that for a REASON.
And no. Not All men. But enough of them.
Thank you
Oh my holy... My family hid this from me until I could open it (quote): "without ants in my pants"...Am just FLOORED🥺 Thank you to every single reader of #theboyatthebackoftheclass...& ALL the booksellers, teachers & librarians who have made this so. ...speechless🌱
As you can tell by the look on my face, I will hence forward and forevermore be asking myself if this Actually Happened...
Legends
& - just sheroes casually sitting at #FiLiA2022 & being... Well, legends. ⚡️
"You're taller than me!" Gotta love this man. charming #LittleAmal & highlighting what refugees past and present have always had to flee: war, before sharing his own family history. The world is incredibly lucky to have you Michael. Thank you 💕 #RefugeesWelcome
So excited I can barely contain myself...
One of the greatest Women on Earth, speaking about one of the most important topics on Earth.
with ⚡️
Replying to
A decade ago, in 2011, my beautiful aunt, Mumtahina Jannat was one of the names & had to release. For anyone daring to ask why this day is needed, thousands of families have had to join mine in a mourning a that never ends. Don't insult us. #IDEVAW
Replying to
What mask is that Jo (and hello: you're still here! Bravo.)? My feminist one? The one who has always refused to have mine or any other female survivor's single sex spaces, needs or realities being taken away/gaslit? My Islamic, female face? As in my actual face...?
Interesting.
Violent men paraded two naked women in #Manipur before proceeding to rape them.
Women's bodies remains a battleground for control, humiliation & silencing.
Everywhere.
Yet on the world goes.
Telling women to shut up, sit down, & pretend otherwise.
Replying to
Yet further proof that 's supposed army of active hate-speech/death threat annihilators do not actually exist. Kind of think "Very nice pipebomb" warrants the person behind it to be investigated by and the account to be closed. Don't you @TwitterSupport?????
PE for girls at my secondary school meant playing netball & rounders.
For FIVE whole years😑
Whilst the boys played:
✅️Football
✅️Cricket
✅️Rugby
✅️Tennis
✅️Badminton
✅️Javelin
✅️Volleyball
✅️Gymnastics
in theirs.
Access. Or lack of. Is everything.
#Lionesses
Replying to
Signed.
And being shared & talked about EVERYWHERE.
THIS IS WHY I WILL NEVER SHUT UP.
Thank you (& who are seeds of it all) for bringing together families who have had ENOUGH.
ENOUGH of being told our Women are not worth saving.
#16DaysOfActivism
So & Scottish courts believe the brain of an under 25-year-old is not "fully developed" enough to know raping someone - including children, is wrong.
But IS developed enough to undergo life-altering medical "sex change" procedures.
See the end goal yet?
Heart burns for #ZaraAleena.
The details are unbearable.
He had form.
The police et al knew EXACTLY what he was.
Their failings go on failing Women everywhere.
And yet on the world goes.
Shushing us.
And whispering "Sit down. You're hysterical."
Something happened this week that I won't go into.
But FYI: you are NOT a bastion of "free speech", "diversity" or thought if you're busy cancelling people who won't bow down to YOUR views, & whose worlds/experiences/faiths you have NEVER been a part of.
#justsaying
When Women scream NO, Men not only get to be deaf, they get to come up with new ways to punish Women for daring to refuse men access to their spaces.
Are you waking up yet world?
#WomensRightsAreHumanRights
#RightToSayNo
#LetWomenSpeak
Quote Tweet
Norwegian actress Tonje Gjevjon faces up to 3 years in prison for saying men cannot be lesbians trib.al/myGdsWW
Replying to
We've been inundated with questions and fears about what to do if a loved one is approached by a lone male officer. This has been created to help, hopefully, navigate an answer...
Have come back to an influx of people telling me to "free" myself from my headscarf (sweethearts:they're silk & gorgeous to wear).
And that I should be ashamed to be "of the faith" that killed my aunt.
Faith didn't murder her.
It was a man without any who did.
So off you pop.
Ah...Straight from the playbook.
The age-old tactic of silencing women to eradicate the existence of a problem, & then blame them for not speaking up.
As old as the Scottish highlands, eh ?
#EndViolenceAgainstWomenandGirls
#16DaysOfActivism
#WomenWontWeesht
Replying to
PS. Thank you to all the awesome souls reading, buying, borrowing & sharing #TheBoyAtTheBackOfTheClass - especially at this time when so many lives are being upended so swiftly. (Or any of my book babies.) You make every second of what I do, an utter honour. #RefugeesWelcome
Just had a 76-year-old neighbour knock on the door asking for "any candles" we could spare.
Why?
Because he can't afford to switch on the lights after dark & the grandchild he cares for until 9pm has homework to do.
Life shouldn't cost humiliation.
So sorry Rachel💔I'm on my 223rd version of this since this March alone. Police/supposed security don't seem capable of stopping any of it. All I can say is, you are not alone. Every woman I know in this field is surviving the same. Sending you all the love in the world. 🤜🏽⚡🤛🏾
- will you act? Or wait until someone physically harms her?
The death & rape threats are numbing enough without those behind them knowing where you live. And the threats are always amplified when targeted at a woman of colour & visible faith
Do. Your. Job!!!