A Feminist Perspective on Europe

Our work on Europe

Cooperation with the Queer European Asylum Network

The Gunda-Werner-Institut partners with the Queer European Asylum Network. We support the network financially and help them to organize events.

Queer asylum seekers are more often affected by violenc than the average, The violence emanates from other homophobic refugees, from family members, employees in the accomodation or right-wing extremist groups. The EU admission guideline 2013/33 states, taht the EU member states are obliged to take appropriate measures to identify and support this particularly vulnerable group of people. But neither in the EU, nor in Germany, is this directive sufficiently implemented.

The procedures to determine whether someone is homosexual, trans or inter, for example at BamF, are, as current incidents show, in the majority degrading and insulting for those affected. Even before the pandemic, collective accommodation for queer refugees sometimes resembled a kind of prison. The situation worsened with Covid.

In 2017, the GWI began to build a network together with the student of cultural studies and later employee of the Federal Foundation Magnus Hirschfeld Mohammad Dalla, which has set itself the goal of making the special situation of queer asylum seekers more visible to the wider public. The network also aims to create a dialogue between academics and political decision-makers, with the intention of significantly improving the living conditions of queer refugees. In 2019, the Queer European Asylum Network was founded under the leadership of the two scientists Mengia Tschäeler and Nina Held.

I Am Who I Say I Am - Welcome to Germany

This impressive film tells the story of QUEAN member Anbid. As an LGBTIQA+ activist, he came close to death in his home country of Bangladesh and had to flee to Germany. The film was shown at the QUEAN's CIVID-19 and Queer Asylum Symposium.

I Am Who I Say I Am – Welcome to Germany - University of Sussex

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The Recognition of Violence Against LGBIT* People within the Common European Asylum System

This panel of the online symposium "Recognition and Prevention of Violence against LGBTQI+ Persons on the Move" discusses the particular experiences of lesbian, intersex and transgender asylum claimants, who are often victims of gender-based violence in their country of origin, as well as upon arrival, which goes against the Istanbul Convention from 2011.

The Recognition of Violence Against LBIT* People within the Common European Asylum System - Queer European Asylum

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Cofounders of the "European Feminist Platform"

The European Feminist Platform conects activists, scholars and politicsn decision makers, to collect, show and contextualize knowledge and feministi best practices and make them availabele for feminist struggles and politics. The networks mission is to create a feminist future. Our head of intitute, Ines Kappert, is a member of the network.

Videos and Articles by the Network

A feminist exploration #5: Visibility & symbolic politics - Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union

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A feminist exploration #5: Visibility & symbolic politics

A feminist exploration #4: Intersectionality - Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union

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A feminist exploration #4: Intersectionality

Our Dossier on the Anti-Gender-Movement in Europe

Gender and equality policies of the European Union have been a success story for several decades. The gender mainstreaming strategy and many anti-discrimination directives set the framework for human rights-based and participatory policies. In recent years, however, right-wing populist movements have developed throughout Europe and mobilize against gender politics and sexual self-determination. The obtained rights and practices of open democratic societies, for example in the area of sexual and reproductive self-determination, are challenged and antifeminists want to reduce them. Right-wing populist parties in the European Parliament are more present and are increasingly influencing the debates. Well-connected transnational parliamentary groups abuse the parliament as a stage to erode the base of EU gender politics and thus a piece of feminist success story. The articles in this dossier describe which ideological sources current anti-feminism is based on, which actors mobilize in mostly international networks, which strategies they use and how this affects European countries and the EU politics in total.

Attack on democracy? Anti-Gender-Movements in Europe

More Content on Europe

Dossier: Europe – a Gender Equality Project?

Lecture with Prof. Andrea Petö, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

Attack on Democracy: Anti-Gender-Movements in Europe - Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung

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