This International Women’s Day, take the time to celebrate the women in your life, those you admire, those with whom you have met, and those you haven’t met yet. Let’s find sense and resilience in our collective voices.
Image credit: @artlantiss
We invited members of our community to name a woman that inspires them and tell us why.
This is MPW way to celebrate International Women’s Day together, remembering the women that give us a sense of life. It also reminds us of women’s challenges and their resilience in fighting against all forms of oppression.
I love attending her classes because she always teaches us something new.
I have been training with Aya Mohsen for more than 3 years now. Even during the pandemic, when we started training online, it was wonderful and spirit-lifting.
Aya is always on time for the classes, and she’s a fantastic trainer who makes everything fun. I have seen a lot of progress in my body due to her training.
I love attending her classes because she always teaches us something new. Her instructions are clear to understand with her online or in person. We usually work out as a large group, but she still manages to pay attention to everyone.
Aya puts a lot of effort into her work, and she deserves the best to be recognised.
Nagia Fawzi is a real estate agent and a mother of three kids. She enjoys cycling and working out.
She stood strong even after being abandoned by her Nigerian father and became one of the best writers in Scotland.
Jacqueline Margaret Kay, or Jackie Kay (born 9 November 1961), is a Scottish poet, playwright, and novelist of African & Scottish descent. She is known for her works Other Lovers (1993), Trumpet (1998) and Red Dust Road (2011). Kay won many awards, including the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1998 and the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year Award in 2011. From 2016 to 2021, Jackie Kay was the Makar, the poet laureate of Scotland. She was Chancellor of the University of Salford between 2015 and 2022.
She stood strong even after being abandoned by her Nigerian father and became one of the best writers in Scotland.
Josephine Oboh-Macleod is an art consultant, and founder of JOM charity, an organisation created to promote well-being, advance education, citizenship and community development in Scotland.
I’m inspired by Preet because she embodies the drive to do something new, something hard, whatever it takes.
For more than 70 days before and over Christmas, Preet Chandi was alone in Antarctica. Her goal was to break records – in her words ‘I don’t want to just break the glass ceiling, I want to smash it into a million pieces.’
Assuming the nickname ‘Polar Preet’, the British Army Captain whose role is as a physiotherapist, became the first woman of colour to do a solo expedition to the South Pole on her first trip in 2022, but this recording-breaking adventure wasn’t her first steps into the unknown. She was the first in her family to get a degree, she organised and completed a 30-hour endurance event whilst posted by the Army in South Sudan and dragged an enormous tyre around the London Marathon for charity.
I’m inspired by Preet because she embodies the drive to do something new, something hard, whatever it takes. That requires self-belief, positive thinking, problem-solving and a good dose of stubbornness – something I definitely share. It takes grit to bounce back from disappointment and resourcefulness to make plans become reality. I’m inspired to push myself physically and to question the norms that hold people back.
Hannah Parry is a freelance journalist and blogger writing about travel, vegan living, adventure and humanitarian issues.
A strong woman, a warrior who worked and still works a lot.
Maria Célia Malaquias is my inspiration because of the brilliant career she has built. She is my sister, the first one to come into our family Oliveira Malaquias. She became my first teacher when we were still children and taught me to read and write in our farmhouse. She later became a teacher, psychologist, psycho-dramatist and Master in social psychology. She is also an author and researcher on psychodrama and race relations. Maria Célia is my sister and my inspiration. A strong woman, a warrior who worked and still works a lot. She built a brilliant career with courage, work and affection. Many sleepless nights were dedicated to her studies. Many weekends leaning over the books. I know, and we know how hard you worked to get where you are now. Thank you for being in my life!
Terezinha Malaquias is a visual artist, writer and performer from Brazil based in Germany.
I am inspired by all the anonymous heroines from the favelas and outskirts of Brazil
I am inspired by all the anonymous heroines from the favelas and outskirts of Brazil and the feminists and witches who were killed so that today I have the freedom to manifest myself through my art. I dedicate my legacy to them.
Claudia Canto is a Brazilian writer and public speaker with 24 books published and translated into English and German.
She is selfless and makes you feel appreciated.
I have many superheroes who show their dedication and resilience by empowering women to become the best versions of themselves. Today I would like to raise a glass to Aggela. She is a role model for me, and I know she is an inspiration to others through her work in the community. Aggela runs Zoom club and spends her Fridays moving around in the community to distribute books. She has a long list of drops and always makes sure to check in on you within three minutes of the book swap. It is not just her giving you a book; this comes with her building relationships with families and helping one build their vocabulary. She makes sure to provide you with books that suit your English level and even build it up with time. I am so proud to see her getting help from young kids during school holidays, and you can see how confident they become with time and make it easy for migrants to integrate by bringing families together. She is selfless and makes you feel appreciated. Every Thursday evening, she confirms the time and place for the book swap and has never come without a smile. Aggela is a true champion.
Laura Ndanuko is from Kenya. She is a trainee journalist at Migrant Women Press
Every day I am full of gratitude towards her and appreciate the values she instilled in me.
Today I am celebrating my grandmother, my heroine: Mary. I am named after her, and I am so proud to be her grandchild. Granny raised me and is now raising my daughter. She inspires me with how strong she is, despite her old age. Every day I am full of gratitude towards her and appreciate the values she instilled in me. Nothing makes my granny happier than a happy kitchen. She says, “You’d rather better leave my kitchen spotless clean than do my laundry.”
Mary is a Kenyan mother living in Glasgow.
She was a kind, generous and strong woman with much faith and a huge heart.
Many women inspire me, but my grandmother is the most fascinating woman I have ever met. I will never forget her love, lovely voice, character and attitude. She was a single mother, raising her children with the support of her parents, but she demonstrated the strength of a woman. She changed her story, coming from a rural area to work in a big city as a cleaner in a school. Her parents, my great-grandparents, were uneducated but always valued the importance of education, especially my great-grandmother. Although she could not read or write, she always encouraged everyone in our family to study. She knew that for a Black person, especially a woman, education was the only way to liberation.
So, my grandmother started to study in the same school she was working as a cleaner. She became a teacher in the same school when she concluded her studies. She changed our family story as she became the first woman to get an education and become independent. She travelled to many places and enjoyed the best of her life with her friends. As a child, I always loved visiting her house, which was full of women laughing and having fun. She lived the best of her life but always cared for her parents, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and friends. She is my great inspiration because she was a kind, generous and strong woman with much faith and a huge heart.
Juliana da Penha is the Migrant Women Press founder and editor.