#IWD2025 Creative Women - Meet the Speakers
18 February 2025 by Michelle
Meet the speakers who will be joining us for Creative Lancashire's special edition Conversations in Creativity event and accompanying Creative Women Networking Lunch on 7th March 2025, to celebrate International Women's Day.
To coincide with International Women's Day Creative Lancashire are once again celebrating women working in creative and cultural sectors with a Creative Women Networking Lunch, followed by a Conversations in Creativity panel discussion exploring inclusivity in the cultural and creative industries.
For 2025, International Women's Day coincides with Ramadan. In response to this year's theme, we have curated a panel entirely comprised of exceptional British Asian and Muslim women working in the arts and wider creative industries.
This year's Conversations in Creativity features trailblazing and dynamic Asian women including Dawinder Bansal, Fatima Vepari, Nehal Aamir, and Zara Saghir, who will be sharing personal perspectives on inclusivity in the cultural and creative industries, and the arts.
Find out more about our speakers below. Full line-up to be announced.
Join us on Friday 7th March 2025
Blackburn Cathedral
12.30pm to 3pm
This event is free to attend but booking is essential. Find out more about the event and BOOK VIA EVENTBRITE.
Dawinder Bansal
Dawinder Bansal is an award-winning British producer and artist. She has a track record of producing brand new stage shows and creating immersive art installations by weaving South Asian cultural heritage and contemporary stories into her work. As a consultant, she uses her expertise to help mid-large scale arts organisations and festivals to achieve diverse and non-arts attending audience engagement.
Throughout the past two decades she has produced site-specific shows, exhibitions, art installations and festivals to spark curiosity of new audiences and international press. Dawinder’s commission ‘Making of a South Asian Wedding’ (National Festival of Making) is currently cited by the Arts Council England - Creative People & Places programme as a leading example and best practice for creating work with and for diverse communities.
Website: dawinderbansal.com
Fatima Vepari
Over the course of her career, Fatima has led the development, design, and delivery of culture change, learning and organisational development and change across the wider public sector. This work has included complex change and transformation programmes, strategic people strategies, leadership and management development programmes, and talent and workforce development initiatives.
In 2008, Fatima moved into working independently as a consultant, executive coach and in interim roles within local and central government both in the UK and Malaysia, national charities and in the last five years has worked with small and midsize charities, on board development. Fatima is a Non-Executive Director with British Textile Biennial, a Board Member of FRC Group and Interim Chair of the Board at Rosetta Arts.
Nehal Aamir
Nehal Aamir is an artist & designer with a passion for ceramics.
Born in Pakistan and now living in Manchester, Nehal Aamir’s work represents her multicultural background and experiences as a Muslim woman. Holding a fascination for craft and its traditional techniques, Aamir’s interests lie in storytelling. Showcased through her tiles, her work illustrates the rituals and realities of contemporary urban life.
With a fascination with craft and its traditional techniques, her work is a fusion of my roots with an attraction for rich British culture through colour and hand-painted surfaces. Nehal has always been interested in storytelling which she showcases through tiles, a medium that has been used throughout history. Her work illustrates the rituals and realities of contemporary urban life. She recently participated in Festival of Making's Art in Manufacturing programme, working with Darwen Terracotta
Website: nehalaamir.com
Zara Saghir
Zara Saghir is an artist and cultural programme producer.
She works with British Textile Biennial (BTB) and The Super Slow Way (SSW), which are place-based cultural programmes working with people across East Lancashire. As an Assistant Producer, she has worked flexibly across a wide variety of cultural projects, supporting artists and the wider team with administration, planning, installation, workshops, and community engagement.
Through her personal art practice, Zara investigates taboo societal problems within her British South Asian culture, interrogating values, power, and hierarchies. She uses her personal experience through her own creative practice, to make space for people who have been overlooked and silenced, to find their voice and become advocates of social change. Zara also recently won first prize for her submission to Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery's Art Open 2025.
Instagram: @zara_s94
About International Women's Day
International Women's Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.
The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality.
IWD has occurred for well over a century, with the first gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. IWD is not country, group or organisation specific.
According to data from the World Economic Forum, at the current rate of progress, it will take until 2158, (roughly five generations), to reach full gender parity.
This year's theme for #IWD2025 is #AccelerateAction.
Focusing on the need to Accelerate Action emphasises the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres.
So, together, let's Accelerate Action and speed up the rate of progress worldwide.
Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that's diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women's equality and accelerate Action for gender equality.
