Rafooghar at AWID Forum, Thailand

Rafooghar was invited to conduct stitching workshop and showcase our work at the AWID Forum in Bangkok, Thailand in December 2024. The AWID International Forum is the world’s largest recurring event dedicated to centering feminist and gender justice movements. Organized by the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID), it serves as a transformative space for activists, scholars, and policymakers—predominantly from the Global South—to network, celebrate, and strategize for systemic change.

Sharing space with so many incredible feminists from around the world, each committed to the difficult but essential work of mending this broken world, was both humbling and inspiring

Moni and Gulasha, our community members, overcame many barriers to take their first flights to travel internationally for the very first time.

We carried with us ‘Love Lihaaf’- the quilt of love and friendships and ‘Umeed ka Karavaan’- the traveling quilt of hopes and dreams and ‘Azeez Cheez’-a cloth book of objects and precious memories’ - made by the Rafooghar community women.

The theme for the festival was Rising Together: Connect, Heal, Thrive". and our workshop Stitching Futures used the art of stitching as a methodology for feminists to heal, build solidarity, and collectively envision a shared vision for feminist futures in a post-COVID world.  We had a packed room of 50+ feminists stitching, sharing, laughing and envisioning joyful futures for themselves.

We also carried a limited edition collection of stitched stories to the AWID marketplace and were happy to see these pieces go to their new families all across the globe.

We met some incredible people, ate deliciousThai food, attended some wonderful workshops and mind blowing performances. Post AWID, we flew to Chiang Mai for an exciting week of workshops organized by the wonderful artist-Koi Sakunee.

Our Queens-Moni and Gulafsha and the rest of us flaunting our AWID-glow ✨