The Project's purpose

The Women's Project aims to ensure that women seeking asylum in the UK are treated with fairness and with dignity, through a system which is transparent and is respectful to their needs.

The Women's Project at Asylum Aid was established in 2000.  Originally called the Refugee Women's Research Project (RWRP), it was set up in recognition that the UK asylum system too seldom meets the specific needs of women seeking protection from human rights abuses abroad.

The particular challenges facing women seeking asylum in the UK are too often overlooked.  The legal representation, legal analysis and campaigns work provided by the Women's Project over more than a decade aims to fill this gap.

The traditional image of a refugee is that of a lone male political activist, persecuted for his involvement in protests against the state.  Women, too, can be persecuted for such political activism - but political activities can also take different forms, such as refusing to abide by restrictions on dress codes.  In addition, women face forms of persecution that are particular to them, including domestic violence, rape, sexual violence, forced marriage, and female genital mutilation.

In 2006, the Women's Project won the Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize, which is awarded each year for exceptional work to highlight and combat violence against women and children.
In 2010, the Project's work on the Charter of the Rights of Women Seeking Asylum was highly commended by the Charity Awards