SOAR with us | February 2023 Recap
his Women’s History Month, we honor the feminists whose bold activism in the 1980s led to the robust South Asian gender-based violence movement we are all a part of today. There was no better way to kick this celebration off than with SOAR’s Inaugural National Summit on February 27th.
Together, we commemorated 40 years of the South Asian gender-based violence movement. Our keynote speakers Deepa Iyer, Aparna Bhattacharyya, and Haleema Bharoocha inspired us to carry forward with these powerful questions:
What will the next 40 years look like?
What are our BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goals) for 10 years from now in 2033, and beyond?
In evaluating where we are, where we’ve been, and where we need to go, we covered a lot of ground. Perhaps more importantly, we showed up: almost 130 leaders, across 34 organizations, from 14 states, and with more than 50 survivors among us.
Our feelings are reflected in these words from our summit participants:
“Attending the SOAR National Summit provided me with the opportunity to feel a part of a collective of activists and change makers in the space of South Asian-specific GBV prevention and education.”
"I was honored to be a part of this wonderful Summit surrounded by South Asian leaders, advocates, other queer-identifying people, change-makers, in an inclusive, loving, and safe space.”
“The essence of effective and healthy movement-building lies within being in community… because of SOAR, we feel like we have a strong foundation and healthy network to grow with ♡.”
Our work together last Monday was an important step towards our collective weaving and visioning for a future free from violence. Over the next month, we’ll be sharing visual notes, recordings, and key takeaways from the summit—stay tuned!
As always, we’d love to connect with you if you want to learn more. Find a time for us to meet here!
Thank you for your unwavering support for our work and this movement.
This women’s history month, we’ve been going down memory lane—check out our timeline of a four-decades-long history of the South Asian anti-gender-based violence movement in the US.
Some key facts:
Over 40 years since then, nearly 40 organizations have formed to provide South Asian survivors of all forms of gender-based violence.
In 2002, the organizations, formerly known as the SAWOs, or South Asian Women’s Organizations, came together for their first national convening: Aarohan. Aarohan means “to rise up” <3
In 2013, the final Aarohan was held, convening 27 South Asian gender-based violence organizations for a 3-day conference about topics ranging from child sexual abuse, to transnational abandonment, and engaging men and boys in the movement.
This history is also not without its challenges, shortcomings, and harms, and at SOAR, we aim to continue to unearth and unpack those as we move forward building an intersectional, anti-oppressive movement.
SOAR Receives Funding from the Kolibri Foundation
SOAR is honored to be a grantee of the Kolibri Foundation, as part of their 2022 inaugural grant cycle titled the “Reimagining Safety Fund.” This grant cycle sought to exclusively fund organizations working to transform the root causes of systems and cultures of violence that perpetuate interpersonal, communal and state harm, and abuse. Learn more about Kolibri and the fund here.
An Excerpt from the Michigan Daily on SOAR’s Talk at the UM SAAN Conference
“Our first workshop was with Amrita Doshi and Nashi Gunasekara from SOAR…Their workshop began with a clip from “Bend it Like Beckham,” a movie that was one of the first South Asian representations we saw in Western media….A mother in the audience who had identified divorce stigma as a topic from the clip said, ‘I can’t imagine carrying the pressure of being a divorcee for myself, so how could I want that for my daughter?’” Read the full recap on our talk here.
Our Former Intern featured in the Washington Post
Our former intern, Najiha, spoke with the Washington Post about new and alarming statistics on girl teens from the CDC: “At the Bronx High School of Science in New York, 17-year-old Najiha Uddin talks about a White beauty standard perpetuated in mainstream and social media, which she says girls of color can’t possibly meet. She and others describe status-oriented peers and media messages about shoes, clothes, styles and experiences that outstrip their families’ means.” Read the full article here.