Productions
Empower Women for Change
Over the next year, Empower Women for Change and Theatre of the Oppressed Scotland will deliver a creative programme for migrant, refugee and people seeking asylum, using Forum Theatre and Hip Hop Education to amplify lived experience, build confidence and inspire collective action.
Together, participants will co-create a powerful Forum Theatre production and shape recommendations for change, ensuring their voices influence policy, practice and the future of gender equality in Scotland.
Stable, sustainable, empowering development
This project is about strengthening Empower Women for Change in a way that is both strategic and grounded in lived experience.
Over the next year, Empower Women for Change and Theatre of the Oppressed Scotland will deliver a creative programme for migrant, refugee and people seeking asylum, using Forum Theatre and Hip Hop Education to amplify lived experience, build confidence and inspire collective action.
Together, participants will co-create a powerful Forum Theatre production and shape recommendations for change, ensuring their voices influence policy, practice and the future of gender equality in Scotland.
Meet Empower Women for Change
"Too often, migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women are invited to share their stories without being given the power to shape the solutions. This programme changes that. Through Forum Theatre and Hip Hop Education, we are creating a space where lived experience becomes leadership, creativity becomes advocacy, and communities become the driving force for systemic change. Our goal is not simply to tell stories, but to ensure those stories influence policy, practice and a more equal Scotland.”
— Khaleda Noon, Founder & Creative Artistic Director, Theatre of the Oppressed Scotland
Impact of this project so far
Our Words, Our Power: Forum Theatre & Hip Hop Education
Empower Women for Change, in partnership with Theatre of the Oppressed Scotland, is delivering an exciting year-long creative programme for migrant, refugee and people seeking asylum, funded through the Scottish Government's Gender Equality Programme.
Through weekly Forum Theatre and Hip Hop Education sessions, participants will come together in a safe, supportive and empowering space to explore their lived experiences, build confidence, develop leadership skills and use creativity as a tool for change.
Throughout the programme, participants will co-create an original Forum Theatre production based on real-life experiences of gender inequality, discrimination, migration and resilience. The performance will invite audiences to become active participants, exploring practical solutions and challenging the systems and barriers that women face.
The project will culminate in both a public Forum Theatre performance and a recommendations report, bringing together the themes, solutions and lived experiences shared throughout the programme. The report will amplify participants' voices and provide practical recommendations for organisations, policymakers and communities to help advance gender equality and create more inclusive systems.
By placing lived experience at the heart of the work, Our Words, Our Power aims to inspire dialogue, influence change and ensure that migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women are not only heard, but are leading the conversation on the issues that affect their lives.
Across Glasgow, participants engaged courageously with complex and emotionally difficult themes while building trust, confidence and solidarity.
Participants repeatedly articulated the importance of being heard, recognised and connected.
The work has already demonstrated the potential to:
Reduce isolation
Strengthen peer connection
Build confidence
Generate critical insight into systems and services
Create opportunities for collective voice and influence