Muslim Girls Fence WOW the Audience at Women of the World Festival

Muslim Girls Fence (MGF) had the great pleasure of attending the ‘Women of the World’ festival at the South Bank on Friday 11^th March.

Each year, to mark International Women’s Day on 8 March, world-class speakers, activists and performers from around the world, come together for the WOW festival.

The three-day celebration featured an extensive line up of famous artists and performers including MGF, who took to the stage in a multi discipline piece that blended fencing with the powerful poetry of poet Rakaya Fetuga.

MGF fencers Robina Begum and her fellow fencer from Birmingham, Sara Anifowose, who regularly fence at the Ladywood Leisure centre, impressed the audience on the opening day of the festival with such a graceful and sensational piece of art, the applause at the end boasted the loudest of the day.

Reha Ullah, Projects and Programmes Manager for MGF said, “Rakaya Fetuga’s poetry spoke of the marginalisation of women and women from a particular faith, and always being judged by those as a way of life from those around us. We were honoured to leave the MGF mark at such a prestigious event which has further raised the profile for community fencing and we look forward to bringing MGF to a space near you.”

The event took place in the middle of Women’s History Month, as BF focuses on women in fencing for the month of March. The performance was also attended by BF’s CEO Georgina Usher, BF’s Head of Participation Virginia Bailey and Raheel Mohammed, the Director of Maslaha, our partner with MGF.

Muslim Girls Fence is a collaboration between BF and Maslaha, that aims to facilitate spaces at a grassroots level, centering the needs of Muslim women and girls and open to all women, challenging assumptions and narratives relating to their gender, racial, religious and other identities through fencing and creative expression.

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