United in Feminist Resistance | Hildashaus e.V.

Episode 1: The System Tells One Story. Lived Experience Tells Another.

United in Feminist Resistance is a multilingual podcast series by Hildashaus, hosted by Sijé Fernanda Vargas from the Hildashaus team. It creates space for grassroots feminist voices, lived experiences and community knowledge that are too often excluded from mainstream conversations.

In the first episode, Sijé speaks with Safia ibrahimkhel and Lucy Ng'ang'a about what it really means to live through Germany’s asylum process. Drawing on lived experience, they discuss refugee accommodation, restricted mobility, access to German classes, mental health, economic autonomy, employment and the Bezahlkarte. The conversation also explores how migration status, racism and gender can increase women’s vulnerability to precarious work, exploitation and violence—and the importance of community, solidarity and accessible support when rebuilding a life with dignity.

Lucy Ng’ang’a is an activist, grassroots community organiser and social justice feminist with refugee experience in Germany. She has over ten years of experience supporting refugee women and girls in Kenya and has organised in Germany with International Women* Space, the Break Isolation Group and Pamoja Rhythms; she currently works at Hildashaus as Project Coordinator and Community Mobilizer. Through community organising, workshops and public speaking, Lucy challenges systemic oppression and supports refugee women in amplifying their voices, making their struggles visible and advocating for their rights.

Safia Ibrahimkhel is an Afghan feminist activist, research scholar and peacebuilding advocate who is currently seeking asylum in Germany. With an MPhil in International Relations, she has worked with the Refugee-Led Research Hub at the University of Oxford and as a consultant for GIZ on education and health services, contributing to improved access to education, healthcare, protection and livelihood support for displaced communities. As a member of the Action Network on Forced Displacement and co-founder and former co-chair of UNHCR’s Global Youth Advisory Council, Safia combines professional expertise with lived experience to amplify women’s voices and advance inclusive, community-led approaches to peacebuilding and social justice.

Sijé Fernanda Vargas is a Chicana journalist and digital communication specialist whose experiences across Mexico, the United States and Germany have shaped her commitment to decolonial and antiracist resistance. Based in Berlin, she is the founder and an active member of NiUnxMenosRed and works at Hildashaus as Digital Communication Specialist, where she also develops and hosts the multilingual podcast series United in Feminist Resistance. She approaches communication as a tool for collective agency and social transformation, using online and offline platforms to mobilise communities and create spaces for critical learning, connection and action.