NZ Muslim Women Hit The World Stage As Finalists In Global Awards

Fri, Oct 25, 2024

A small New Zealand charity dedicated to uplifting the lives of Muslim women across the nation has been named as a finalist in an international Shorty Awards alongside major global brands and their marketing teams. The Shorty Impact Awards honour the best and most impactful digital and social media campaigns, projects, and initiatives that address pressing global issues.

In June this year, the Islamic Women’s Council New Zealand (ICWNZ) launched the CHILL campaign to empower New Zealand Muslim women, challenge hate and gendered stereotypes, and pass the mic to local women to tell their own stories.

CHILL stands for Challenge Islamophobic Language and Loathing, and the campaign featured eight Muslim women’s personal stories told through their voices as they go about their lives - working, teaching, creating and sharing moments of joy in their communities. All videos end with the participant saying, “Just CHILL, New Zealand, we’ve got this!”-- indicating the country, as a whole, can get in front of the challenges facing Muslim women.

The campaign has been selected as a finalist in the Shorty Impact Awards, an international competition celebrating social impact campaigns. Other finalists include major brands like Amazon, Doritos, L’Oreal and Searchlight Pictures, international marketing agencies and large international NGOs.

“The entire campaign was conceived in-house,” says IWCNZ National Coordinator Aliya Danzeisen adding, “We wanted to create awareness about our community and to encourage New Zealanders to challenge Islamophobic language and stereotypes about Muslim women by empowering women themselves to share their joys, triumphs and challenges in their own words. The response was far more positive than we could have ever expected.”

The campaign was produced by local production company Eyes and Ears and had a shoestring advertising budget exclusively targeting a New Zealand audience. CHILL content reached over 300,000 New Zealanders, with videos going viral locally for a small country, as well as reaching global audiences.

All awards finalists are eligible for an Audience Honor award, so IWCNZ is asking their community and all New Zealanders to get behind the CHILL campaign and vote for it as their people’s choice in both categories. Voting is open to anyone internationally.

“Watching the CHILL campaign grow from an idea into something that has touched people’s hearts has been amazing. It started as a dream, and now it’s creating real change, both in our community and internationally. Seeing this impact has been a powerful reminder of what we can achieve when we come together. For me, we’re winners already.” says ICWNZ Project Manager Shabina Shamsudeen.

© Scoop Media