"Our Struggles are Interconnected"

"Stories matter. They have been instrumentalised to dispossess people and to malign them – but they may also help people to regain power and to restore their dignity." Thus the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Accordingly, I would like to tell you my own stories – stories that were shaped by struggles and resistance, stories borne by moments of joy but also by doubts.

I am Awa Fall-Diop, a feminist, an African, a woman from Senegal. I was born and grew up in Grand Dakar Niary Tally. In my youth I was called "mother of arrows" because I took my aim at everything that was deemed socially acceptable.

As a consequence of my attitude I joined leftist underground organisations during the period of one-party rule in our country, and it was then that my non-conformism became politically aware. Also, I learned that even within revolutionary movements women are still oppressed.

This was the decisive turning point of my feminist life's journey.

Back then I was often called a "bigmouth". I used this as a political tool: "Speaking up to express repudiation and resistance – to use language subversively and effectively." (Awa Thiam: La parole aux Négresses)

My road towards feminism was marked by formative encounters. I met women and groups that were discriminated against because of their disability, their identity, their sexuality. To fight alongside with them revealed to me an important and very often marginalised dimension of our humanity.

On this ongoing journey I encountered, and was moved by the life of Anne Klein, the decisions she made and her dedication to dignity and justice. To me it is a great honour and also a great responsibility to be presented by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung with the award that was named after her. I accept it humbly and with gratitude. The great importance of this award is underlined by the fact that I'm only the second woman from sub-Saharan Africa to receive this prestigious honour.

With humility and thankfulness I would like to acknowledge all those who have made this moment possible and who tirelessly worked towards it – starting with the application process and up to my arrival in Germany, a country marked by centuries of social struggles and resistance.

We are living in a world that is characterised by wars, structural inequalities, and a climate crisis without precedent.

It is a world in which people are retreating into identities; where religious, cultural, racist, and economic fundamentalisms are gaining in strength; and where, instead of bridges, walls are being built.

In Gaza, Israeli bombs kill multitudes and the great democracies are passive observers; Cuba is being strangled by the American embargo; in Ukraine, women, children and older people are threatened by violence, exploitation, and precarious living conditions; in Iran the authorities are crushing an unprecedented uprising; and in the US, the country that like no other embodies liberties, the rule of law and civil rights have come under pressure. These conflicts and crises that dominate the headlines are taking all our attention.

Let's look at Africa: In Sudan, a civil war is fuelled by the greedy exploitation of gum arabic; in the Democratic Republic of Congo the source of the conflict is the mining of coltan, a mineral that provides between 60 and 80 percent of the global supply required for smartphones, computers, and cars; in the Sahel, persistent insecurity and repeated political turmoil such as coups and the withdrawal from ECOWAS and the International Criminal Court (ICC) are putting the lives of millions at risk.

All these crises have a common cause – the unfettered, predatory exploitation of natural resources that exacerbate existing inequalities, thus affecting women and marginalised groups the most. Consequently, peace, human and environmental rights can not be considered in isolation, meaning by country, continent, or topic.

Particularly in such troubled times, withdrawal would be a mistake.

The sensible approach is to link up struggles from different areas with the aim to achieve real change. All those struggles are interrelated.

This is the more important as, today, Europe is increasingly concerned about being too dependent on the US – and, with regard to Africa, Europe knows how fatal such dependencies can turn out be. The division of Africa, as agreed upon by the colonial powers in Berlin in 1885, has lingering effects until the present day, and it is a heavy burden on Africa's efforts to achieve development and sovereignty. Migration, too, which is so often the focus of criticism, is caused by such structural inequalities.

In Europe and the US, the political right rages against migration and is passing draconian laws in order to stem it – all that despite the fact that many who champion extreme security policies may have had ancestors that were migrants themselves and, at the same time, they will also ignore the facts of colonial exploitation and the expropriation of indigenous groups.

Europe, historically an arena for human rights and also for women's rights, has to do more towards social justice and sustainability.

Once more I would like to talk about conflicts, climate change, the exploitation of natural resources and the fallout they are having for women and marginalised people in particular. In doing this, I would like to focus on Africa and Senegal.

In many African countries patriarchal oppression is legitimised via political, economic, and social institutions. In Africa, 64 percent of people are experiencing food insecurity, with 11.4 million more women than men affected – and all of this unfolds while wealthy countries let go a third of all foodstuffs to waste.

Women and girls eat last and less

– and especially during crises they are at danger of going hungry. In sub-Saharan Africa almost 40 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 are anaemic, and while they produce around 80 percent of foodstuffs they own just about 15 percent of land and have little access to resources and credit.

In conflict zones, which often overlap with resource-rich areas, a disproportionally high number is affected by gender-specific violence, namely by sexual violence that, according to the UN, has risen by 87 percent since 2022, and by forced and child marriages, which are up by 14 percent. At the same time, access to basic services and participation in peace processes has declined.

The exploitation of resources destroys agricultural land, pollutes water and will thus destroy subsistence economies that are dominated by women. As a consequence, women will have to cover ever greater distances to gain access to water and fuel and domestic workloads have increased by between two and ten times. The result is that women will lose income and access to education.

At a time when knowledge increases exponentially and artificial intelligence has become part of everyday life, millions of African women are unable to spell their name. This is why African women are campaigning for their rights, their land, food sovereignty, and climate as well as gender justice.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo they are resisting the grab of resources, the use of their bodies as theatres of war, their political disenfranchisement, and socio-economic inequalities. In Mali they are fighting to exert control over their bodies, fighting against gender-specific violence, child marriage, and genital mutilation – all perpetrated by governments, traditionalists, and jihadists. In Burkina Faso and in Senegal, queer people are threatened by draconian laws against same-sex relationships. To fight this, individuals as well as organisations are trying to create safe spaces for those persecuted by law.

And we will fight on!

– by combining theory with hands-on experience. We are decolonising feminist outlooks by analysing patriarchy not just as an intersectional type of male dominance but also in the context of imperialism.

We are emphasising the role played by women in pre-colonial Africa and we are looking into our own home-grown spirituality. We are creating new intergenerational spaces.

Young radical feminists are employing African feminism as a political resource to reconceptualise power relationships on their continent from scratch. They are criticising marriage as a social norm and motherhood as a role that has been assigned. They are discussing gender diversity, menopause, sexual and obstetric violence. Their demands are based on precepts of justice, on learning how to resist, on collective struggles, and on setting up movements that are autonomous.

In those struggles feminists in Senegal are pointing to an issue that is of great urgency – femicides, the most extreme form of patriarchal violence. In 2025, 18 femicides came to light and this year there have already been three more. And those are just the known cases; the real figures are likely much higher.

How many femicides remain invisible? How many women are killed, first by their partner and, second, by their families who collude to keep everything under wraps? In a speech, the President of Senegal has mentioned femicides, yet there still is no legislation tackling this issue.

Such struggles of African and Senegalese women do not happen in isolation. They are connected with struggles in Europe where the right is trying to reverse some hard-won achievements.

European countries give geopolitical and security issues precedence over women's rights. Thus we need to link up our struggles, that is, in Germany, the campaign to decriminalise abortion and abolish § 218 with our demands for safe abortions especially in cases of rape and incest.

All our struggles against gender-specific violence and sexist cyber-mobbing need to be interlinked.

Connecting women's daily struggles, connecting women who, under the most difficult conditions, will fight for their rights and defend their liberties, reminds us of some basic truths:

• Without women's participation there will be no peace;
• Without social justice there will be no just climate change mitigation;
• Without true equality there will be no complete democracy.

Plus, all sustainable solutions require that human diversity is fully recognised and respected. Receiving the Anne Klein Women's Award symbolises a fervent commitment to these exact values.

This award is more than just an accolade. It is an injunction to never accept that violence and injustice are made invisible and normalised.
This award strengthens my conviction that it is our shared responsibility to continue believing that justice, a sound environment, and peace are more than just noble aims – they may become realities.

I pledge to continue on this path – with resolve, solidarity, sisterhood, with joy and hope.
Thank you very much for your kind attention.

Translated by Bernd Herrmann