Talk: What Would A Feminist City Look Like?

Whose City? Feminist Struggles for Space and Justice

How do cities become gendered, and what would a feminist city look like? This two-part series with Pakistani scholar Zainab Marvi explores questions of justice, care, and everyday life in urban spaces from an intersectional perspective. We will be looking at examples from Berlin and Karachi and combine theory and real-world practice.

From Karachi to Berlin: Feminist Cities in Practice

Cities are never neutral. They reflect and reproduce power. This talk explores how gender shapes the way we move through urban environments, and how women and marginalized communities resist these constraints in everyday life. Drawing on a decade of research, I will share insights into mobility, safety, and resistance strategies, whether through rickshaws, self-defense, superstition, or collective practices of care. Using feminist methodologies and visual storytelling, we will consider how design can center marginalised perspectives, challenge dominant narratives of space, and highlight how pockets of feminist cities are already being enacted in the here and now.

[Die folgenden Informationen beziehen sich auf die nächste Veranstaltung mit Zainab Mervi am 2. Oktober]

Mapping Solidarity: Imagining the Feminist City

This participatory workshop invites participants to imagine and map their own visions of a feminist city. Using counter-mapping as an activist tool, we will explore questions of spatial justice, care, and solidarity in the urban everyday. Participants will be introduced to Indigenous feminist practices such as yarning circles and layered conversations, creating space for reflection, storytelling, and collective imagination.Together, we will experiment with mapping as a way of sharing knowledge, sparking dialogue, and envisioning cities shaped by care and justice. The workshop offers space for meaningful exchange and collective speculation on how feminist cities can be practiced in everyday life.

The workshop is limited to 15 participants.

Zainab Marvi is a Pakistani communication designer, researcher, illustrator and educator based in Berlin. Her work focuses on feminist and decolonial approaches to cities, with particular attention to how marginalised communities experience and shape urban space. She works through counter-mapping, storytelling, and sensory practices to reimagine public space as sites of resistance, solidarity, and belonging.

Admission: Donation of 2€ or more