10,000 Women versus The UN
Every journalist should attend the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York.
A few years ago, a colleague posted a tweet talking about it and I thought ‘I will be there next year.’
In 2019 I made it.
It’s huge, exhausting, overwhelming, packed with talks and bustling with amazing women from all over the world. It’s also very tragic. Women have come so far and yet the stories and atrocities they share are utterly depressing. There’s still a long way to go.
10,000 women (and some men) converge at the United Nations to lobby, campaign, discuss and network - all with the common aim of making the world a better place for women and girls.
It’s a place flowing with so many stories you’re not sure where to go, who to speak to, where to start or when to stop.
I wanted to document the experience, capture the intense spirit, joy and determination these women have to bring about change.
So I managed to secure a working visa in the US, make the right contacts, network network network and prayed that someone would take this story on my return.
When and if Covid passes, I’ll be back there. I can’t wait.
Broadcast: BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour.
Zarin is the Director of NAWO. It’s her 25th year at CSW. Her mum once chartered her flight full of delegates when their plane was cancelled at the last minute.
Summer (lady with red hair) was trafficked and tortured.
Scarlett told me a story from the 1900. Hundreds of working class women died jumping from a burning building. “That’s when the middle class in New York started taking notice of working conditions for poor women.”
