WRDA Launches Guide to Challenge Far-Right Co-option of EVAWG Narrative
02 October 2025 - The Women’s Resource and Development Agency (WRDA) is proud to announce the launch of a timely new resource: “Challenging the Far Right Weaponisation of Ending Violence Against Women and Girls”. This guide is designed to support politicians, public bodies, and third sector organisations in recognising and resisting the far-right’s manipulation of EVAWG campaigns to promote xenophobic, racist, and Islamophobic agendas.
Why This Guide Matters
Across Northern Ireland and beyond, far-right groups have increasingly sought to hijack the language of campaigns to tackle violence against women and girls to target Black and minority communities, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and Muslim communities. These efforts hinder EVAWG advocacy, and spread racist and Islamophobic misinformation and hate.
The guide was developed by WRDA in consultation with professional and lived experience experts and offers a clear and principled refutation of this dangerous co-option. The guide aims to equip political and civic leaders and organisations with the tools to push back against these narratives and to reaffirm a feminist, inclusive, and anti-racist approach to ending violence against women and girls.
“This guide is a vital tool in safeguarding the integrity of EVAWG advocacy. We cannot allow the language of justice to be twisted into a vehicle for hate. Our elected representatives and community leaders have the power, and the responsibility, to ensure that efforts to end violence against women and girls are rooted in justice, not prejudice. This guide is intended to support them in this mission and as a reminder that racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia have no place in our policies or rhetoric. WRDA stands firmly for a feminist, inclusive, and anti-racist approach, one that centres the voices and safety of all women and gender-diverse people.”
Megan McClure Botha, Public Relations and Membership Coordinator, Women's Resource and Development Agency
What’s Inside
A framework for consistent and values-based messaging
Practical advice for engaging on social media, issuing press releases, and speaking to the media
Key facts that counter misinformation linking migration to VAWG
Recommendations for further reading and advocacy
The guide does not address sectarianism or antisemitism, as the co-option of ending VAWG by the far right is not a feature of these forms of hate in the Northern Irish context.
WRDA’s Commitment
Founded in 1983, WRDA been a stalwart champion for women’s equality and participation in society. Operating from a feminist perspective and informed by lived experiences, WRDA continues to tackle structural inequalities through advocacy, campaigning, health promotion, and training. This new resource is a continuation of WRDA’s work to ensure that EVAWG efforts remain focused on justice, safety, and equality for all women and gender-diverse people—free from hate and manipulation.
“They use the language of ‘violence against women and girls’ as a smokescreen to cover for the racism. It's an effort to turn all these conversations about violence into conversations about migration, It's very much punching down and using women and girls as the boxing gloves to do the punching. And we don't appreciate that in the slightest.”
Women’s Sector Lobbyist Elaine Crory (quoted in The Detail)
Get Involved
Membership of WRDA is free and open to all women and gender-diverse individuals and groups. Join us in standing against the weaponisation of EVAWG and in building a more inclusive and equitable society.
-ENDS-
For further information please contact:
Megan McClure Botha - info@wrda.net