Glasgow Girls (activists)

Glasgow Girls
Founded 2005[1]
Founder Euan Girvan[1]
Type Human rights group
Focus Human rights
Women's liberation
Location
Key people
 Amal Azzudin
Roza Salih
Agnesa Murselaj
Ewelina Siwak
Toni-Lee Henderson
Jennifer McCarron
Emma Clifford[2][1]

The Glasgow Girls are a group of seven young women in Glasgow, Scotland, who highlighted the poor treatment of failed asylum seekers. Named by two of its members Amal Azzudin and Roza Salih the group, who are all members of Drumchapel High School in Glasgow, was established in 2005 in response to the detention of one of their friends, Agnesa Murselaj. Publicity grew as the girls challenged the then First Minister Jack McConnell on the matter and publicly voiced their concerns as more children at their school were being dawn raided, detained and deported.[1]

After visiting the Scottish Parliament twice, The Glasgow Girls obtained cross-party support on the issue.

The group won the Scottish Campaign of the Year Award in 2005 at the annual Scottish politician of the year ceremony for their hard work. However, it did not stop them from demanding to know just what had happened to the "protocol" that Jack McConnell had promised to obtain from the Home Office that social services, education services, and the Immigration police would be consulted before any decision was made on the removal of a family.

Two documentaries have been made by the BBC about their campaign, one of which won the Nations and Regions Award in the Amnesty International UK Media Awards.

In 2013 the National Theatre for Scotland presented a modern musical at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow depicting the life of the Glasgow Girls. The musical then had a run at Stratford East Theatre in London. More recently, the musical 'Glasgow Girls' has been adapted for TV and aired on BBC Three on 15 July 2014.[3][4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "MAN BEHIND THE GLASGOW GIRLS". www.eveningtimes.co.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  2. ↑ "Now it's Glasgow Girls: The Musical". www.heraldscotland.com. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Glasgow Girls, review: 'more like a teaching aid than a gritty drama'". www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
  4. ↑ "Glasgow Girl helps secure asylum seeker student funding". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2015.

External links