Lanja Khawe

Khawe was born in January 1993 in Sulaymaniah, South Kurdistan within the political borders of Iraq.[1] A lawyer and human rights activist, Khawe has worked with Kurdish women who are survivors of sex trafficking and domestic violence.[2] She founded the Sofia Association in 2016 to provide a book delivery service by bicycle for women and girls who are unable to buy them.[3][4] According to Khawe, the project encourages literacy and access to knowledge, so that women can understand the rights they have more fully.[5][1] It is not just the supply of books that is a feminist act for the organisation - even using bicycles as transport makes a feminist statement, since women riding them is still seen as shameful.[5] Since its beginnings in Sulaymaniah, the project has spread to other cities, including Erbil, Kirkuk and Halabja.[1]

In 2017 Khawe founded the social media campaign #KurdishWomenPower which encouraged women to share photos of themselves on social media, challenging the idea that photographs online of women are inherently shameful.[6][2] In 2019 Khawe and the Sofia Association organised a conference on sexual violence in Sulaymaniah, which was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani.[7] She is a contributor to the anthology, Kurdish Women's Stories, edited by Houzan Mahmoud.[8]