Her Story Matters: Feminism in the 21st Century #FORAHER

The word feminism has caused a lot of controversy within society. This dynamic event will celebrate women’s resilience and explore what feminism really means in the 21st century – how it’s shaping women’s perspectives on themselves, how they relate to men, and how this influences their stance at work.

This discussion will highlight the importance of creating social awareness to help women reach the heights they desire in their career and the workplace. We hope to remove the stigmas and taboos that have kept women on the fringes. Chaired by Her Story Matters founder Harriet Khataba, panellists include Markella Papadouli, Andy Edwards, Feranak Amidi, Louise Burfitt-Dons.

Louise Burfitt-Dons

Author of political thriller The Missing Activist

Louise Burfitt-Dons is a writer, social commentator and founder of the UK charity Act Against Bullying. Her latest novel The Missing Activist is a political thriller which covers a range of hot potato feminist issues including female radicalisation, acid attacks, domestic abuse and sexual intimidation. She authored Moderating Feminism, The Past Present and What Comes Next in which questioned the future direction the woman’s movement should take. Louise lives in London and is married with two daughters.

Angela Muruli

Africa Programmes Assistant at FORWARD UK

Angela Muruli is a women’s rights activist. Under FORWARD’s Young People Speak Out program, she initiated the FGM: A Cut from Tradition youth forum and commission the highly acclaimed spoken word piece, ‘Elephant in The Room’ by Emmanuel Speaks. She holds an MSc in Global Health and Development from UCL, completing a final thesis on the experiences of Black female survivors of intimate partner violence living in the UK. As a FORWARD advocate, she continues to challenge stigmatisation and taboo culture around Female Genital Mutilation and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence in the UK and across East Africa.”

Markella Papadouli

Europe Litigation Coordinator, Registered European Lawyer

Markella is a UK Registered, Greek qualified, European lawyer and AIRE Centre’s Europe Litigation Coordinator. In this capacity she coordinates the AIRE Centre strategic litigation team, specialising on taking asylum, and trafficking cases before the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the EU. She leads the AIRE Centre’s asylum, law of the sea, and trafficking work, providing free legal advice and representation to victims of trafficking.

Andy Edwards

Senior Executive: music, entertainment, talent management, impacTalent

Andy Edwards is music business executive whose career encompasses artist management, tech start-ups, rights acquisition, touring and major record labels (BMG Records and Sony Music). He has conducted business globally with artists, executives and entrepreneurs across all genres of music and with everyone from global superstars to cutting edge names. This includes Genesis, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Chase and Status, Pendulum, James Morrison, Dido, Cher Lloyd, Katherine Jenkins, Feeder, Andreya Triana and many others.

Feranak Amidi

Women’s Affairs Journalist, BBC

Feranak Amidi is a London based journalist, she is the women’s affairs journalist for the Near East Region of the BBC World Service, focusing on women’s issues in countries such as Iran, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Feranak comes from a TV background but now focuses mainly on digital platforms; producing material for the language services of the BBC World Service with women in mind and to increase female audience engagement on social media platforms of the BBC language services.

Harriet Khataba

Founder of Her Story Matters

Harriet Khataba is a Global change agent, Media influencer, an Avid writer and Editor of Her Story magazine that features powerful women in their field and business coach to amazing young leaders in areas of business start-ups and leadership. Harriet’s background is in business and finance management, project planning and implementing, budget management, proposals, creative story writing and public speaking. She specialises in International project management, girl child welfare and women’s rights as well as business and finance management namely start-ups and TV programme production.