Quaker exhibition in Brussels on migrant women
The Quaker Council for European Affairs worked with Action for Women in preparing an exhibition
Quakers and Action for Women are holding an exhibition of photographic portraits of, and taken by, migrant women inside the European institutions. The SEEN exhibition is being exhibited for a month at the Jacques Delors building, where the Committee of the Regions meets, following a week on display in Quaker House Brussels.
Kate McNally, forced migration project coordinator for the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA), who worked with Action for Women to bring the exhibition to Brussels, said: ‘Whilst many migration policies are made in Brussels, their stories are rarely told here. We’ve been proud to work with Action for Women and the Committee of the Regions to share the images of migrating women as they wanted to be seen: beautiful, accomplished, powerful. Migrants and refugees are stereotyped and misrepresented in public discourse. This exhibition is an opportunity for them to have their say.’
This month the exhibition was visited by the family of Paweł Adamowicz (the mayor of Gdansk, murdered on stage earlier this year), a delegation of Polish MEPs and local government politicians from around Europe.
Magdalena Adamowicz (surviving her husband Paweł) said: ‘His murder would not have happened if it were not for the prevalence of hate speech.’ The president of the Committee of the Regions said: ‘We must all be united in diversity.’
The SEEN exhibition is the result of a workshop led by Zürich-based photographer Mardiana Sani at Action for Women’s Athena Centre for Women on the Aegean island of Chios.
