Leave No Woman Behind: A Case Study of Voice of All Women

In her article ‘Under Western Eyes Revisited’, Mohanty (2003) states that ‘’Privilege nurtures blindness to those without the same privileges’’ (p. 510). The issue that Mohanty addresses here is part of what motivates the foundation Voice of All Women(hereinafter: VOAW) to develop projects targeting women from marginalized communities that are often times overlooked by other organisations.

VOAW can be characterised as a grassroots organisation. The foundation is ran by refugee women and is based in the Netherlands. Its foundations can be found in the feminist activist work done by Jamila Talla. Talla, has done feminist activist work for 25 years, of which ten years in Afghanistan and 15 years in the Netherlands. The trajectory of Talla and consequently of VOAW is an interesting and unique one. Where Talla had once been a project financer, working for and developing feminist projects for Unicef in her native country, Afghanistan, she found herself on the other side of the coin, when she had to flee Afghanistan in 1998. Arriving in the Netherlands as a refugee she had now found herself facing a different reality. Her role had shifted from independent to being dependent. In this regard Talla notes: ‘Now I have become the target-group.’