Check out A Mermaid's Tale Podcast and their episode featuring our very own Women4Oceans founder Farah Obaidullah.

Farah Obaidullah, Ocean Advocate and Founder Women4Oceans shares her passion for the ocean and her motivation to set up the Women4Oceans platform with the group "Girls Gone Water".

“The ocean is my life, my career, my passion.” Farah Obaidullah has always been an ocean advocate, and as a child she spent endless hours exploring the beach, rescuing marine life, and learning as much as she could about the world underwater. She followed her passion by focusing her studies in biology and environmental technology on the ocean, and has since gained extensive expertise along her career path. Farah’s journey is especially notable for her drive to fill gaps she has identified along the way, whether personal or career-related. For example, after four years as an environmental consultant, she realized she wasn’t following her passion and redirected her career towards the ocean. She then worked for Seas At Risk, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, and Greenpeace, campaigning about global marine issues.

“We don’t all have to be marine biologists working for a big campaigning organisation to make a difference. All of us can be change-makers in the everyday actions that we take.” - Farah
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While you are here: Farah runs Women4Oceans without any pay. With your help Farah can continue to spread the word on the importance of lifting women's voices in the blue space. In 2019, W4O focus will be to upgrade our platform making it easier for women to connect and be made visible. We will also be focussed on capturing the incredible work women do for our oceans through video. The Ocean needs you! - Thank You.

To healthy #oceans in 2019 & beyond!

To less CO2 emissions, (#plastic) pollution & overfishing. To more marine protected areas, marine animal welfare, respect for life & #sustainable #ocean use!

How will you get involved with the #ocean this year?

#women4oceans #together4oceans. 

If there is ever a time to take action for our oceans, it is now! 

​A big thank you to Eve Isambourg and Immersion Surf Magazine for this interview. I hope you feel inspired to support #W4O and mobilise for the #ocean!

"My advice is always to follow your dreams. If you are not sure what that is, which is totally normal, then listen carefully to both your heart and mind. Make sure your dream has a purpose – whatever that purpose may be, it will set you on a path. Once you are on that path then the view ahead becomes clearer. Is it risky, perhaps. But without taking risk you are not pushing yourself to be the best of who you can be". - Farah

#together4oceans

Delighted to have contributed to the launch of The Sisters online magazine. Thank you Rozzie Savage  & team for creating such an inspiring resource!

To continue my work of educating and spreading awareness through all possible channels (connecting and amplifying ocean projects, speaking & writing) I need you!

Buy a Women4Oceans t-shirt or support W4O by donating.

To read my article click on the following link: Ocean Hope

#Getinspired for the #Ocean!

​- Farah Obaidullah
Ocean Advocate & Founder Women4Oceans 

I am happy to share my latest guest blog - An Open Ocean - this time featured by the World Ocean Initiative of the Economist Group. If you want to sponsor one of our projects please get in touch.

Happy Reading and Happy World Ocean day tomorrow!  

For the Ocean,
Farah Obaidullah
Ocean Advocate & Founder Women4Oceans

Check out Nicole Helgason's incredible passion for #corals! It’s true, once you start to recognize how incredibly diverse corals are, a whole new and heightened appreciation for our #blueplanet unfolds! Thanks for sharing Nicole! Find out more at reefdivers.io
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For the Ocean, - Farah

#Getinspired #Followyourdreams #Women4Oceans
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Love the Ocean? Want healthy Oceans? Want gender equality so we can achieve healthy oceans faster? Support Women4Oceans!
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Farah Obaidullah spoke at the ADEX2018 annual dive expo in Singapore about how Women4Oceans accelerates global ocean conservation by recognising our human diversity. 

W4O is about ensuring all our voices are heard! 

Farah: "By uniting women we accelerate our efforts to curb the global ocean crisis. As individuals we will not save our oceans, together we can."

Farah: "Among others, I presented the #W4OBingo app - an app that calls for gender balance and inclusion at conferences everywhere. Download the app for free today and see how well your next conference fares. 

I also spoke about a new project that W4O is supporting. Ruth Leeney, a world expert on sawfish, has been protecting the African sawfish and its habitat for years. She is looking to expand her work to new regions using community-led conservation tools. Women4Oceans is finding ways to support Ruth's important work. Find out more here. If you too want to see Ruth's work reach new grounds support us today!"

​"A glimpse of some of the amazing ocean women I met at ADEX. Follow Women4Oceans on Instagram to find out their stories: @Women4Oceans."

If you want to book Farah Obaidullah - Founder & Director as a speaker for your next event, or want to find out how you can support W4O, please get in touch.
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​Love the Ocean? Want healthy Oceans? Want gender equality so we can achieve healthy oceans faster? Support Women4Oceans!
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Speaking at these events also sends a message to others in your demographic, that this is their space too. In a world without bias, at events that seek to address and find solutions to global issues, the diversity of global views should be heard and the global audience should be reflected by the diversity of the speakers.
 
Women and people of colour have repeatedly been excluded from these forums. And I know this goes beyond gender to class, sexual orientation, ability, age, religion and further.
 
Once it has been seen, it cannot be unseen.
 
I was shocked to learn that at one high profile international ocean-focused conference, taking place this year, the ratio of being a white male speaker is more than 2:1 than being any other demographic. The figure for being white versus any other demographic is much higher. And this is just one example, of which there are more.
 
It feels like we´re not making the progress we should be in 2018.
 
This is not the fault of the people on the speakers list. Systemic bias (whether through ignorance or otherwise) promotes men over women and white people over other demographics, in these situations, in perpetuity.
 
Unless we stop it.
 
We have an opportunity here to push back through W4O. I know Farah continues to raise the importance of diversity with her contacts, including conference organisers, film makers, journalists, and award panels. I encourage you to sign yourself up to the W4O map and database, now. I will proactively contact conference organisers and point them in the direction of that database. Let´s bury the excuse that it´s hard to find women or diverse speakers. Conference organisers, if you´re listening, we want to help you!
 
You can share the W4O map & database widely too. You can also approach conference organisers and call for change. If you know of a colleague seeking partners for a project, a journalist looking for an expert view, a person looking to donate to a worthy ocean cause, point them to the W4O map and database.
 
Don´t forget W4O has created a gender balance and inclusion bingo app to encourage better representation at conferences. If you experience or observe dismissive or inappropriate behaviour at a conference, use #W4OBingo to raise awareness on social media and to call for change. We know conference organisers can and want to do better, let´s help them. Also use the app to celebrate and applaud your positive experiences and observations. 
 
Let´s open up the space for everyone.
 
It would be good to know your reasons for why you haven’t attended a conference, haven’t raised your hand to ask a question, haven’t applied to speak, have turned down an opportunity to speak. It’s likely that, if it’s happened to you, it’s happened to countless others and held them back too. If patterns emerge, we can work to overcome those barriers.
 
Let’s take a moment to give this movement a good push!
 
We don’t have time to wait for a broken system to fix itself.
 
Angela

Angela Martin is a Research Fellow at the Universitet i Agder in Norway, studying the role of fish in the carbon cycle, and has been an ambassador for Women4Oceans since its inception.
 
Note - As well as my personal experience and observations, I have been reading the work and experiences of many others, and learning through conversations and links shared between members of the Women in Academia Support Network (WIASN). Some links are below if you would like to learn more. - Angela
 
https://www.stuffmomnevertoldyou.com/podcasts/intersectional-feminism-101.htm
 
https://www.thesociologicalreview.com/blog/i-m-a-disabled-academic-get-me-in-there-1.html
 
https://hbr.org/2018/03/how-black-women-describe-navigating-race-and-gender-in-the-workplace
 
http://tigerbeatdown.com/2011/10/10/my-feminism-will-be-intersectional-or-it-will-be-bullshit/
 
https://amp.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2017/nov/16/black-female-academics-ive-been-mistaken-for-the-coffee-lady

https://wsi-asso.org/2018/02/28/the-vicious-circle-of-women-invisibility/

Farah Obaidullah attended the World Ocean Summit in Mexico on behalf of Women4Oceans. Summits like this are important since they bring together industry leaders, governments and ocean experts, allowing for a focussed cross disciplinary dialogue about what is happening in our oceans. Farah explains briefly why such summits can truly have an impact if they reach the people that matter - coastal and island communities, and those taking action on the ground.  

In 2017, Farah attended the World Ocean Summit in Bali and called for a pledge from the Economist Group to increase female representation on their panels. Women4Oceans was pleased to see that at this year's summit women were better represented. For next year's summit, Women4Oceans calls on the Economist Group to increase their diversity. 

​Love the Ocean? Want healthy Oceans? Want gender equality so we can achieve healthy oceans faster? Support Women4Oceans!