The panel is moderated by Wana Udobang, who introduces the activist Mona Eltahawy, Elizabeth Uviebinene and Yomi Adegoke, the duo who wrote the celebrated Slay in Your Lane.
The conversation centres around feminism, especially among black women in the UK. Yomi feels that in the UK, conversations about what women want are basically what white women want and this doesn’t just silence black women, it ensures that the vicious circle of abuse continues because white women want the corrupted power white men have.
Mona adds that there isn’t one way to be a woman, more specifically, a Muslim woman. She urges everyone to complicate women, to stop denying them their full range of humanity. She observes that while Abrahamic religions may have imposed monolithic ideas on what being a woman can be, it isn’t necessarily true, women have as much urges as men do.
And as for Black Excellence, Elizabeth prefers being more authentic to self than pinning for a generalized trendy hashtag. Yomi wonders why she must be pressured to work harder than her peers in other genders and races for same if not less level of success. She quotes a thinker who once said, “my aspiration is for the black woman to be as mediocre as the white man.”