The Yara WHRD Center is a space for WHRDs from the MENA and Asia regions, to come together and learn about the importance of self-care, wellness and holistic security. It’s a space where WHRDs can share their own experiences and strategies for ensuring resilience and sustained activism despite pressures and challenges. We strive to provide WHRDs with critical and up to date information from the region and other contexts, from a feminist perspective, about the need for a culture of care, the importance of practicing self-care, and ensuring wellness and security at the personal, organizational and movement levels.
The name Yara, is derived from the Persian word Yar, meaning companion, friend, supporter. We hope the Yara Center will be a support to WHRDs at critical times in their activism.
Physical and Organizational Security
In this article, we share tips for interrogation regardless of whether the summons is official or informal. These tips are intended for those activists who have no or little interrogation experience, or those who have just recently begun…
Wellness and Self care
Femena speaks with In Ginger Norwood, about how the lack of a wellbeing culture and a holistic security approach in so many movements results in high levels of burnout and intense exhaustion and why WHRDs need to integrate self-care and wellbeing into their lives as feminists. Ginger believes…
Online Security
It is necessary for human rights defenders to insist on the right to protection from abuse and the right to freedom of expression in virtual space and make companies like twitter accountable. Speaking out about sexist digital abuse, and its harsh consequences for mental health…
