Connecting Anti-Racist Struggles

In the UK, US and France, Black and brown communities face the ongoing hostilities of state violence, precarious citizenship, surveillance, racism and Islamophobia. We bring together Paris-based journalist and activist Rokhaya Diallo, with MP Zarah Sultana and Chicago-based writer and organiser Hoda Katebi to discuss what we can learn and exchange from different national contexts and historical campaigns and movements, and how we can work towards less harmful and more nourishing societies. Chaired by Aamna Mohdin of The Guardian.

Accessibility

This event will have BSL interpretation. Please contact us with any additional accessibility needs - we are committed to making our events as accessible as possible.

Speakers: 

Hoda Katebi is a Chicago-based Iranian-American writer, abolitionist organizer, and creative educator. Her political fashion work has been hailed from the BBC to the New York Times to the pages of VOGUE and featured and cited in books, journals, and museums around the world. Hoda is the host of #BecauseWeveRead, a radical digital book club and discussion series with 25+ chapters globally; founding member of Blue Tin Production, an apparel manufacturing workers co-operative run by working class women of color setting global standards in labor & sustainability; a national lead with Believers Bail Out, a bail fund using Zakat to bail Muslims from pretrial & immigration incarceration; and organizer with the No War Campaign. She frequently gives talks and trainings around the world and is the author of Tehran Streetstyle (2016), contributor to book I Refuse to Condemn: Resisting Racism in Times of National Security (Manchester Press 2020), and her writing has appeared in publications including Newsweek, Washington Post, and the Columbia Journalism Review. Her work focuses on the intersections of labor, capitalism, gender, surveillance, the carceral state, anti-Muslim violence, and global militarism, for which she has been awarded the 40 under 40 by the National Iranian American Council, Leaders for a New Chicago by Field Foundation, the Pioneer Award from the Chicago Foundation for Women, and listed as Crain’s Chicago Business 20 in their 20s.

Zarah Sultana is the Labour Member of Parliament for Coventry South. Elected in 2019, Zarah grew up in the West Midlands, where her grandfather had moved to from Kashmir in the 1960s. During her time studying at the University of Birmingham, Zarah became active in campaigns against racism, tuition fees and government cuts. Prior to being elected, Zarah had worked in retail and was a community organising in the West Midlands.  In Coventry South and Parliament, Zarah campaigns for justice and equality for all.

Rokhaya Diallo is a French-Sengalese journalist, writer and activist who takes action against racism. She has been honored with the Struggle against Racism and Discrimination award and considered as one of the 100 most influential French women by Slate Magazine in 2013, while Britain’s Powerful Media list ranked her among the 30 most influential blacks in Europe. Diallo also created Indivisibles, an organization that fights against racial discrimination. She has co-authored a number of publications on racism and hosted a variety of TV shows, but is most known for directing France O TV channel as well as producing Networks of Hate, covering hate speech and freedom of speech online.