Glasgow Women’s Library and Glasgow Colleges Launch New Performance to Raise Awareness of Women’s Experiences of Hate Crime
Watch the subtitled audio here.
We launched our groundbreaking new performance to challenge hate crime against women on 8th March at City of Glasgow College, and will have our second performance at Glasgow Kelvin College on the 17th March.
To coincide with International Women’s Day, the performances, titled No-one who harms me will go unpunished. I am a woman are choreographed protests and will be a brand new resource to raise awareness of women’s experiences of hate crime in Scotland.
Glasgow Kelvin College is delighted to be involved in this thought-provoking performance event from Glasgow Women’s Library. The In Her Shoes production and workshops will engage our students in both a practical and conscious sense, raising awareness of the incidence and impact of hate crime and exploring their own perceptions and experience.
Our students will be able to support the performance and contribute to the debate, honing their citizenship and community engagement skills at the same time. We are extremely grateful to Glasgow Women’s Library for supporting our learners through their International Women’s Day celebrations.
Alan Sherry, Principal of Glasgow Kelvin College.
Our In Her Shoes project has worked in partnership with City of Glasgow College and Glasgow Kelvin College to give 200 students the opportunity to attend the performance and a workshop to explore their awareness, perceptions and experiences of hate crime and to discuss safe methods of bystander intervention and third party reporting of hate crime and behaviours.
Women tell us that hate crime against them is different because the abuse is paired with misogyny. A disabled woman, for example, may experience hostility against both her gender and disability at the same time during an incident.
This performance is an innovative example of engaging women in making art that advocates for social justice. The groups have participated in the project since May 2016. The work is important because it speaks about both their experiences of hate crime and their agency in challenging prejudice by demanding change.
The piece was named by one of our participants and is based on Scotland’s national motto, Nemo me impune lacessit which translates as No-one who harms me will go unpunished. This was apt given women’s experiences of hate crime and the legal duty on Scotland’s criminal justice system to protect them.
The performance will raise awareness and act as a starting point for future discussion and action.
We are delighted that City of Glasgow College is launching Glasgow Women’s Library awareness campaign with this performance at our new City campus. Our College is committed to creating an inclusive culture that advances equality of opportunity, process and outcome to all students, staff and stakeholders. This event is an excellent opportunity for our students to learn about hate crime against women and demonstrates our continued commitment – based on fairness, opportunity and respect – to proactively meeting the diverse needs of our students and staff.
Graeme Brewster, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager, City of Glasgow College
In Her Shoes is one of the 22 projects funded by the Scottish Government’s Tackling Sectarianism and Hate Behaviours Programme. The project has worked in partnership with Amina, Scottish Refugee Council, Glasgow Disability Alliance and LGBT groups to ensure that those experiencing prejudice, discrimination and hatred are at the centre of interventions to prevent such behaviour.
A film of the live performances will also be available soon.
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