International Women* Space (IWS) is a feminist and anti-racist group bringing refugee, migrant and non-migrant women* together to wrestle against the deeply ingrained racism and patriarchy that they experience everyday in Germany, whether in their everyday life or in institutional spaces. Formed in December 2012 during the Refugee Movement’s occupation – a major civil disobedience campaign by asylum seekers demanding the abolition of restrictive housing camps and a stop to deportations -, this space was crucial to uplift the voices of those who live at the intersection of oppression and who have little political rights. After the occupation was ceased, the group was evicted from the school in 2014, but the need, desire and energy was there to continue working together, so they registered their association in 2017.
In their own words: “We are fed up with people speaking about us and not with us. Women*’s resistance is often oppressed, and women*’s history hidden or ignored. We take on the responsibility to counteract this by documenting, making visible, and publicising our stories in our own words”. For them, critical education and community building are at the bedrock of their struggle for freedom and emancipation. That is why they do a mixture of mutual aid and educational work as a base-building strategy, and public campaigns in response to the biggest forms of state violence their community experiences. To achieve greater impact and grow as a movement, they not only work on reaching people where they are most isolated, like refugee camps or accommodation centers, but also collaborate with and learn from other feminist and anti-racist groups in Berlin, Germany and internationally. Much of their work is about making their struggles visible, that’s why they focus a lot on channeling their learnings and community building into direct actions: protests, workshops, and public actions in places where asylum seekers and migrants are to catalyse engagement in their fight and drive change.
The Guerrilla Redistribution
For the past two years, funding from Guerrilla has played a key role in sustaining the core work of their organisation, like securing their office space, as well as continuing their project ‘Break Isolation’. The latter is an initiative involving visits to the members of IWS who currently stay in the refugee camps and the accommodation centres outside of Berlin. As the name suggests, breaking isolation among women in the asylum system is crucial, especially because of the conditions they face in the camps. Women live in overcrowded spaces with little privacy, limited access to basic services, constant surveillance, and very restricted mobility. Many experience fear, uncertainty and prolonged waiting periods that intensify stress, trauma and isolation. The camps are structured in ways that separate people from the wider community, making it difficult for women to build support networks or access independent information about their rights.
Continued funding from Guerrilla means they can keep showing up in these spaces, offering solidarity, information, legal and emotional support. For IWS, strengthening leadership among refugee and migrant women is a key priority: their perspectives must shape the advocacy, campaigns and future policy that IWS rallies for. This is particularly important in the current political moment where anti-migration narratives and racialised control mechanisms are intensifying.
Another important aspect of their work is the soup kitchen. This is not simply about food provision, but a space where women in the asylum system can come and cook together while processing and hearing about the different challenges they’re facing. Food is not only nourishment here, but a way of building relationships, creating moments of dignity, and opening forays into experience sharing, hopes and dreams. Guerrilla’s support makes that vital work possible, capacitating their collective resilience and giving power to the women IWS works with.
