Deconstructing power and authority has long been a central goal of feminist thinking – but what do those principles look like when applied to our leadership models?

Join us for the first session of IWDA’s newest webinar series, Troublemakers: Courageous Conversations with Fiery Feminists, as we explore the joy, challenges and potential for transformation that a collaborative model of leadership offers.

In Double Trouble – Feminist Co-Leadership and Power Sharing, Virisila Buadromo, Co-Director of Urgent Action Fund, Asia Pacific, and Zharin Zhafrael, Co-Director of Musawah, will share how they challenge traditional ideas of what leadership should look like through a feminist, co-leadership model. By discussing how their organisations have embraced power-sharing, they will offer a vision of leadership rooted in collective power, diversity, relationship-building and self-care – and present a compelling argument for why traditional notions of leadership should be left in the past.

The free webinar will consist of a 45 minute conversation between our two speakers before we open up the floor to our audience members, offering attendees the opportunity to network, ask our speakers and each other questions and share their own experience of leadership within feminist organisations.

Speakers

Virisila Buadromo is a Fijian feminist and co-leads the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights Asia and the Pacific. Her role is focused on strategic partnerships and resource mobilisation. Prior to this, Virisila freelanced as a feminist facilitator, trainer and gender advisor in the Pacific and Asia focusing on organisational strengthening and supporting feminist coalitions and movements in the two regions. Virisila’s feminist beginnings were nurtured at the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, a cutting-edge feminist organisation that she led for more than 13 years.

Zharin Zhafrael is a Malaysian feminist and one of two Co-Directors of Musawah, a global movement that advances rights for Muslim women in both their public and private lives. She joined the inspiring and awesome team at Musawah’s Secretariat Office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2020 after serving 20 years in the corporate sector. Both Zharin and her co-lead, Huda Jawad are focused on delivering Musawah's vision of equality and justice in the Muslim family globally.

About the webinar series

Troublemakers: Courageous Conversations with Fiery Feminists is brought to you by the International Women’s Development Agency. Over four monthly webinars, you’ll hear two feminist trailblazers from the Asia Pacific in candid, no-holds-barred conversations that will unpack the ideas that get them out of bed in the morning and keep them up at night.

This webinar series will help you see beyond the horizon to explore the next big ideas in international intersectional feminism, challenge your ideas of what feminist movements can look like and introduce you to the feminist thought leaders that are currently changing the game.