What Would You Say to Her? is a community-based digital campaign that invites you to participate by posting your messages of unity, collaboration and solidarity with women and gender-diverse communities who have shared their experiences of displacement and gender-based violence. We invite you to respond to their stories and connect as agents of change-–because we believe compassion and connection are as essential to sustainable development as food and water.
Trigger warning: this page contains sensitive content which some individuals may find distressing.
Our campaign
What Would You Say to Her? is a Footage Foundation advocacy campaign that invites you to connect in a safe, compassionate space with women’s, in all their diversity, stories of displacement, prejudice and gender-based violence (GBV). We invite you to ask yourself, when you reflect on these stories: What would you say to her, if she were with you now?
At Footage we believe that everyone deserves to feel seen, heard and worthy. We use narrative and expressive approaches to connect women, gender-diverse people and marginalized groups as agents of social change. What Would You Say to Her? encourages multilateral, intersectional, compassionate responses to the deeply affecting human stories that demonstrate the experiences and realities of our time.
Our feminist research interventions show how sharing stories in a supportive space nurtures self-compassion, diminishes shame, and fosters belonging. For us, storytelling is more than just sharing experiences—it’s a tool for healing, learning, and serves as a mechanism for compassion, connection, and transformation.
Who is “Her”?
Footage participants are some of the most marginalized girls, women, vulnerable and gender-diverse communities in the world. They have fled persecution from dangerous hostile governments and conflict zones, experienced displacement, abuse and exploitation. They tell their stories to make us see and hear the truth, asking us to not turn away.
Our research with those who have been forcibly displaced and experienced gender-based violence powerfully shows us that while feelings of rejection and dislocation can inhibit connection, feelings of equitable “human” treatment are paramount for building belonging and fostering connection. Time and again, we unknowingly—and sometimes to avoid the pain of reality—dehumanize those in crises and conflict. Moreover, we know that dehumanizing people is how fear and separation are perpetuated. Yet, participants in our programs consistently express their desire to be seen, treated, and valued the same as those who are not displaced — as “human.”
The narratives shared are from our courageous participants across the globe, including those forcibly displaced from countries such as Afghanistan and Ukraine, as well as from survivors of violence from places such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Syria, and Cameroon. We invite you to reflect and respond compassionately to those who have shared their wisdom, humanity, and stories of survival and resilience. By participating in this campaign and sharing your compassionate messages, “seeing” those whose stories you respond to, you not only intensify your own compassion, you strengthen our ability to raise awareness and advocate with leaders and policymakers to adopt and implement laws and policies to prevent and address gender-based violence.
New stories will be uploaded each week to this page. Using the form below, you can respond to any of the stories. We welcome text, art, poetry, voice recordings, videos or any other creative format as responses.
Important Information
Most of the narrative accounts generated over the years by Footage navigate sensitive topics, please take care of yourself when engaging with the campaign.
When responding to the question: What would you say to her? Footage recommends focusing your response on one story at a time.
Please remember to include the name of the participant whose story you are responding to in your written response or file name. All names have been changed to protect participants identities.
We may share your responses on social media and in our communications to promote the campaign. If you would prefer not to have your response shared, please check “no” in the consent option below.
Through What Would You Say to Her? we aim to expand our community, and create a global gender-diverse network, listening and engaging from a space of empathy and love.
Please follow the journey on our social media accounts and share it with your friends, family and networks. Now is the time to hold together. #WhatWouldYouSayToHer?
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“She said, ‘You won't go out for the time being because you are sick. Because of the torture you have, you can't go anywhere. No, you are not attractive, so you will be staying there. This is an example. Next time, you do whatever I ask you to do.’
“I was there. I don't eat, I don't sleep. From morning until night I will be crying, staying there, raped with the security people because they're heavy, those security people they are heavy. So, afterwards when she threatened me and said, ‘The next time, if you didn't do what I ask you to do, I will go to your family. I will kill all your family. You will never meet your family in your life.’
“When I think about it I said, ‘No, I need to save my family no matter, whatever it be. Even if they let me die instead of my family to die.’
“[…] That was the time I said, ‘I don't have a choice. Really, I don't have a choice. I have to do whatever they ask me to do.’
“So, after the torture, no tooth, bleeding, everything, they said they don't care even if they remove one of my eyes I will still complete her money because she paid and bring me in.
“Then I promise her, ‘Whatever you want me to do, I will do it. Instead of dying just like that or killing my family, let me keep doing whatever you ask me to do.’
“I started sleeping with different men... Sometimes I will have infection because of sleeping with men. Sometimes I will be pregnant and she will do abortion. Like to me, she did it two times.”
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“The first thing I want to say is that when I left my country it was the worst thing that I did. I felt like I lost all my family and friends. When I started to walk with others I felt tired and exhausted. When I came to Greece I passed through many difficulties. The most important thing when I came to Greece was that my brother wasn’t with me. But I will not lose hope and I will keep going on because life is beautiful and everyone needs a second chance.
“I will do everything I can to make my dreams come true and reach my goal. I hope the days are coming to be more beautiful and after all the bad things a human being can go through, they don’t have to lose hope.”
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“I am Syrian. Syria, which is bleeding blood from its kids and youth, but unfortunately with all this blood which flows in the streets like a river, nobody understands and nobody knows what happened to us.
“Nobody can feel us. And nobody can know what it means seeing people and kids dying. Nobody can see everything crumbling, but with all of that we will try always to show them that we are human like them and we are not bad or stupid and we are smarter than them.
“All we want is to live a safe life far away from war, shooting and bombing. We need to continue our studies and live our lives, like a real life, and a life like everybody else from Europe or America or anywhere in this world who has a natural life.
“This is our dream but nobody can understand why we left our country-Syria. We passed all these dangerous ways because we have a little hope to live a normal life. Why can’t we have this life? Why?”
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Whatever it is, the way you share can make a difference. Consider supporting and sharing our work as we continue to raising voices to elevate lives.