"'Your vote is your voice' is the motto of the campaign of the 'Agency: vote with her!' project, coordinated by the European Network of Migrant Women (ENoMW), in collaboration with Femlens and other local organizations and supported by the European Union (EU).

Launched last year, the project aims to increase the political participation of immigrant women in the context of the European Parliament elections and empower a group of women to be agents of change.

Farhana Akter is one of them, among the more than 50, from 14 EU countries, involved in the project, which launched the campaign for the European elections.

The goal is to "bring information" to migrant women about their rights, empowering them and giving them the confidence to vote, explains Farhana Akter, in an interview with the Lusa agency.

"When we know what is happening around us, we are more confident," justifies the intercultural mediator.

Farhana Akter - who arrived in Portugal from Bangladesh in 2020 - chairs the Bandim cooperative and coordinates volunteering at LICA (Lisbon International Association), where she met dozens of migrants from more than 30 countries who were studying Portuguese as a foreign language.

She became interested in the community and, realizing that "many people did not have access to correct information", based on what reached her "by word of mouth, often twisted", she wanted to help the community with "information that they can trust".

With no data on the effective participation in electoral acts of migrants living in Portugal, the activist emphasizes that "many people have European citizenship and will not vote because they are busy with their lives".

She recalls that people who migrate "spend several years in a very complicated situation" and "almost forget their civic rights, their political participation, they forget to go and vote".

In addition, "sometimes it is not easy to find information about voting and how they can vote". And, in the case of women, "it is even more difficult", she notes, believing that "women are more vulnerable" in this context, "often dependent and with children".

On the ground, Farhana has met women who want to vote but do not know how.

However, she dares to say that today's migrant women are "totally different" from those who arrived in Portugal in the past.

Before, women arrived "with their husbands, more dependent and less active in the community" and now "they arrive on their own, more independent and involved, many of them highly educated", she distinguishes.

With the project, Farhana wants to spread the idea that what leaders do "has an impact on everything", recognizing that "there is a huge gap between politicians and the people".

This gap "must be reduced" and, for that, politicians need to know the field, go to the grassroots, she recommends.

"A decision, however simple it may be, has a huge impact," she notes.

"A vote can bring about many changes and knowing this is important," she adds.

Regarding political discourse, Farhana advises leaders to think that migration "cannot be stopped" and, in fact, "is not negative for any country".

In the globalized context in which we live, what matters is that leaders think about what they can "do to improve our relations, to make our lives more peaceful", she emphasizes.

Farhana is aware that the women she has spoken to may not vote in these next elections, but she trusts that they will gain interest. "It is a process," she says.

The elections for the European Parliament, in which voters from the 27 EU Member States choose the 720 deputies, will take place between June 6 and 9.

In Portugal, the vote is scheduled for the 9th, choosing the 21 national representatives in the European hemicycle.

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