In recent years, with the rise of the extreme right and increased migration, discrimination against the groups and minorities that make up European societies has grown. In Spain, the social inclusion of diversity is far from a reality and, therefore, several youth associations have been forced to take the initiative to slowly address the needs of the community given the inadequate measures provided by the institutions. In this context, G-CHIME was created by and for Muslim women, and since 2018 has performed an essential task for inclusion and creation of spaces to fight against gendered Islamophobia. G-CHIME works with a cross-cutting and empathetic approach to meet the needs of Muslim women in several fields of society and endeavours to palliate the lack of institutional resources to make this country a more inclusive place that recognises its own diversities.

Standing Up Against Islamophobia

Every day we receive a great deal of news through the different mainstream and/or social media outlets romanticising the work carried out by youths standing up against diverse social problems. Through our activities, we not only seek to fight against the poor tolerance shown by the political spheres of ethnic and cultural diversity in our countries but also to eventually create the spaces necessary to identify young people’s most pressing needs.

The effects of the rise of the extreme right all over Europe are very predictable: there is

a remarkable growth of active discrimination against the groups and minorities that make up our societies along with the legitimisation of hate speech. This is quite clear because, if a politician can ensure that a given community is regarded as criminal within Parliament, is it not inevitable that ordinary men and women will do the same? We are not only referring to visible aggressions but to how the normalisation of these types of hate crimes under the label of “freedom of expression” directly affects our access to academic and employment opportunities and/or training.

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