Lorna Vassiliades, a PhD student investigating displaced heritage in solo performance at Queen Mary University of London speaks to Magda Zenon on kaleidHERscope about transitioning to academia from a career in journalism, about childhood memories of Varosha and the events of ‘74, about the many identities we carry and about her upcoming events. For details about her performances in London in August 2024, please check out https://camdenfringe.com/events/the-suitcase/

Researcher and consultant on military and security affairs, Natasa Loizou, speaks to Magda Zenon on kaleidHERscope about migrating to Argentina in 2006, constructing all her identities including her Cypriot one, whilst simultaneously integrating into the local community, her journey in her traditionally ‘masculine-centred’ career and her life goal to empower young women to get involved in these and other sectors with ‘masculine-centred’ agendas.

Xenia Economidou, a Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT) practitioner, speaks on kaleidHERscope about her transition from the corporate world to becoming certified as a Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT) practitioner, about ‘Being Enough’, and about the profound connection between our past experiences and current self-perceptions and how with the right tools we can transform the stories that dictate our lives.

Editor and translator Maia Tabet speaks to Magda Zenon on kaleidHERscope about being a global nomad and how it helped her recognize her true identity, about her love of languages and words, about Cyprus and about the horror of the situation in Palestine now

Within the context of the ‘RESPECT – Toward a culture of Respectful Maternity Care (RMC): Enhancing Provider-Client Shared Decision Making and Informed Choice’ project, Ioli Orphanides Spokesperson on RMC & Nicos Middleton, Principal Investigator & Scientific Coordinator of the project, speak to Magda Zenon on kaleidHERscope podcast about the overall objective of this project, what Respectful Maternity Care actually means, the methodology used and expected deliverables. This project was co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and […]

Susana Malcorra, president and cofounder of GWL Voices for Change and Inclusion, former Argentinian foreign minister, Chief of Staff for UN SG Ban ki Moon and Co-Chair of the Crisis Group speaks on kaleidHERscope about how and why GWL Voices is gathering support from countries and leaders and committed to achieving equality and working towards ensuring that UN member states appoint the first-ever Madam Secretary-General and having women in the Presidency of the UN General Assembly. For more information about the ‘Madam Secretary-General’ and other campaigns, click here https://gwlvoices.com/

Israeli peace activist Yael Treidel, who has worked with both Women Waging Peace (https://www.womenwagepeace.org.il/en/) and The Road to Recovery (https://www.allmep.org/allmep_member/road-to-recovery/) speaks to Magda Zenon on kaleidHERscope about the political climate in Israel and the occupied territories now, about how being a peace activist is not a choice but a way of life for her and about how despite the conflict in Israel, she tries to build peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians one person at a time.

Huda Abu Arqoob, a strategic advisor for women participation in conflict zones & an independent consultant on Palestine/Israel Conflict speaks to Magda Zenon on kaleidHERscope from her home in the West Bank about the situation in Gaza and the West Bank today, the mistakes made by both the Israelis and the Palestinians over the years, what the case brought before the ICJ by South Africa against Israel means for the Palestinians & where she feels the international community should be focusing.

Nedie Antoniades, actress, producer, and writer with over twenty years of experience performing on stage and screen in Cyprus, UK, US, and Greece, speaks on kaleidHERscope about the Cyprus-based theatre company ‘Project Season Women’ that she co-founded to give a platform to stories and artistic projects from a female perspective, about the experience of appearing on the big screen in ‘Smyrna My Love’, a Greek production and about the hit verbatim play she co-wrote and produced, ‘Women Walk Home’.

Elisabeth Nauclér, a member of the Nordic Women Mediators Network from the autonomous region of Åland speaks to kaleidHERscope about the unique status of the region of Åland, about minority-majority relations from a legal and political point of view, about the meaning of the word autonomy in different contexts and about her experience having served as a legal officer with the UN in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990’s and being included in the consultations in the period leading up to Cyprus’s accession to the EU.

Events/ festival organiser in Greece and Cyprus, Petra Terzi, speaks on kaleidHERscope about how in 2016 she had a career change, how she views the arts as a key communication channel for promoting culture, about the award-winning documentaries she has directed including ‘She Should Run –Cyprus’, scripts that are under development and the documentary she hopes to do about inspirational women within the Turkish Cypriot community. Follow Petra Terzi at https://www.petraterzi.org/en/

Within the context of the 16 days of Activism against Gender Based Violence, kaleidHERscope speaks with Susana Pavlou, Director of MIGS and Mine Atli, Project Coordinator at KAYAD about the link between custody cases, violence against women and violence against children and about raising awareness about the red flags of abusive relationships – kindly sponsored by the EU through the WAVE Regranting 2023 programme.

Η Σουζάνα Παύλου, γενική διευθύντρια του Μεσογειακό Ινστιτούτο Μελετών Κοινωνικού Φύλου και η Άντρη Ανδρόνικου, η επιστημονική διευθύντρια του ΣΠΑΒΟ συζητούν στο kaleidHERscope για την τάση των οικογενειακών δικαστηρίων να απορρίπτουν το ιστορικό ενδοοικογενειακής βίας και κακοποίησης σε υποθέσεις επιμέλειας, και γιατί πρέπει και πως μπορεί να αλλάξει, ειδικά όταν μητέρες και/ή παιδιά έχουν διατυπώσει αξιόπιστους ισχυρισμούς για ενδοοικογενειακή κακοποίηση – με την ευγενική χορηγία της ΕΕ μέσω του προγράμματος WAVE Regranting 2023.

Lebogang Botlhoko, a women’s rights advocate, author and head of the gender issues committee of VOIS Cyprus (Voices of International Students in Cyprus) speaks to Magda Zenon on kaleidHERscope about VOIS and the challenges faced by international students studying at the universities in northern Cyprus, especially the women, about the ever rising gender based violence, about gender equality versus gender equity and about her mental health issues and how she deals with them.

Elisabeth Villiger Toufexis, a fellow podcast host, tour guide, interpreter, mother, and much much more speaks to Magda Zenon on kaleidHERscope about her formative years, her passion for traveling, her book, her podcast, about kindness and her love for her family. KaleidHERscope – a podcast with women from around the global talking openly and authentically about a kaleidoscope of topics, including politics, gender-based violence, peacebuilding, migration and theatre, hosted by peace and women’s rights activist Magda Zenon.

Seagull Shahbazi, women’s rights activist and founder of the ‘Women of Cyprus’ initiative speaks to Magda Zenon on kaleidHERscope after the first anniversary of the #WomenLifeFreedom revolution following the murder of Mahsa Amini, about why this fight is so important and that it is about more than just the hijab, what’s happening in Iran now and what she hopes will happen going forward.

Chiara Rosselli, co-founder & executive director of the APROPOS Group and a speaker at the Cyprus Forum on the 29th September 2023 speaks to kaleidHERscope about how redesigning or tweaking processes can help fix politics, whether at political party level or non-profit organization level. As a process designer and a political dialogue curator since 2015, she talks about being a firm believer that a better way for the political sector to communicate and collaborate is possible, about the big challenges, her dream clients and about using conferences more effectively. For more information about : Apropos Group: https://www.aproposgroup.org/ Cyprus Forum 2023: […]

African mystic, author, healer, and midwife Mmatshilo Motsei speaks to Magda Zenon on KaleidHERscope about uncovering the old truth that Africa is great and powerful and that, because of the poisoning of our mind, our soul is afflicted, about multi-generational healing and community development and of the role of indigenous midwifery in countering obstetric violence.

Educator, actor, director and playwright Renos Spanoudes, a South African Greek Cypriot Diasporan speaks on kaleidHERscope about playing the role of Dimitri Tsafendas, the assassin of the architect of apartheid, and, advocate George Bizos in the landmark Rivonia Trials, about how the scenarios of these plays developed as archives were opened over time and the original narrative was no longer valid. He also speaks about Nelson Mandela, diversity and inclusion and how storytelling in all its forms – acting, narration, writing, drawing, etc – may ultimately be a more effective peacebuilding tool.

Argyro Nicolaou, a Cypriot writer and filmmaker who calls both Cyprus and NYC home, speaks on kaleidHERScope about memory, conflict, and displacement, the role that Varoshi has played in her life and her work, how story-telling can be a healing process, how her work links historical research to create 3-dimensional, character-driven narratives for the page and the screen, and about leaving Cyprus and finding her place in metropolitan NY.