I'm a social development consultant and writer on issues of race and gender and a member of the trustee board of Imkaan, a UK-wide organisation dedicated to addressing violence against Black and minoritised women. I've spent over a decade working in countries affected by conflict and others in the Middle East and North Africa, supporting women and their organisations in their struggles for gender equality and social justice, the most memorable of which were with women in Afghanistan and Kurdish women in Iraq and Syria. Their zeal for overcoming the obstacles on their paths and their resilience in the face of brutality from repressive states, political and religious elites have never failed to inspire me.