The Asian Circle celebrated International Women’s Day at the European Premiere screening of ‘Chalk N Duster’ starring Shabana Azmi. The film was screened to a full-house and the audience were delighted to meet and listen to the legendary actor and social and women’s rights activist who made a special guest appearance. The premiere was attended by Varsha Sood, Partner at Harold Benjamin who sponsored the screening.

The event was held on 11th March 2017 at Regent Street Cinema, London and was organised as part of The London Asian Film Festival and partnered by The Asian Circle.

The Asian Circle launched in 2013 at the Houses of Parliament and is a collective of the charity The Circle NGO founded by the musician, songwriter and philanthropist, Annie Lennox.

The Asian Circle (webpage) are a network of British women from diverse backgrounds, volunteering their time and skills to support disadvantaged women in South Asia by building awareness of their plight and raising vital funds to transform their lives. The Asian Circle has been working in partnership with Oxfam for the last three years. This exciting partnership is supporting an innovative Oxfam programme in India working with poor and marginalised Tribal women to fight gender based violence in two of the poorest states in India, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Working with local grassroots partners, the project has helped women survivors of violence access counselling, legal and other support services, made the wider communities aware about violence against women and motivate them to take action to prevent and end violence against girls and women. The work has also helped influence governments policies and ensure women’s rights are met through active campaigning.

So far, the project has helped 18,000 women and girls and a further 9000 men and boys in the two states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha.